Alora Fane

Here's a look at how well I achieved what I set out to in 2020, and what I hope to achieve in 2021!

I meant to write this yesterday, on the 1st, but... well, whatever, I'm writing it now!

I wrote ∞ a post looking back at stuff I made during 2020 ∞ a couple of days ago. This one will be looking at ∞ a post I wrote at the start of that year ∞ with things I wanted to achieve during it.

The whole minor issue of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC was a snag in a lot of people's plans, most likely, and it did get in the way of what I had in mind at least a bit. I've mostly just stuck with the games dev thing though, and I feel I'm getting more into and familiar with it, despite waning motivation at times due to depression.

2020 Goals

Looking at the specific goals I set for myself for the year that's now over:

Make Money

I wanted to earn at least £12,000, which isn't a lot at all - quick googling suggests the average income in the UK in 2020 was £31,461 - but since it's tough to earn anything from solo creative work rather than a salaried job, I didn't want to set my target too high. Especially considering that I (probably?) earned under £2000 in 2019.

It's difficult to gauge exactly how much I've made; I need to get into the habit of tracking it more thoroughly. I'll have a look at my main revenue streams though.

MARDEK - including the extras DLC - is currently at 2,125 sales, for a 'Lifetime Steam revenue' of $19,146. I think I get 70% of that, which converted to my currency is around £9800.

Memody: Sindrel Song - including the OST - is at 191 sales, for a total revenue of $1755. Cut and converted, that's about £900.

I technically still get a little bit from adverts on my websites, mostly a four temperaments page I set up years ago, though it's just a trickle of pennies. Apparently I got £693 from that over the course of the year. Pathetic, but I suppose it comes in with no effort on my part, so it's something.

I have ∞ a Patreon! ∞ Apparently Patreon's income page is obnoxiously vague; there's too little information, and no summary of total earned for a period (compared with Steam's sales data, which has so much information that's confusing too!). Looks like I'll have to manually add up the 'earnings before tax' values, though I don't know where any tax would be applied and whether these would be the final values I actually got. The final value for 2020 looks to be $2672, which translates to £1955.

Occasionally I get sales on Bandcamp. The ∞ new account ∞ I set up only has a single sale so far ($12); thanks to that one person for buying Cambrian Explosion! The ∞ old account ∞ has more over 2020... though the provided sales data is confusing and I wasn't able to glean anything meaningful from it. I had to look at my PayPal account and check for incoming Bandcamp transactions over the current year, which apparently add up to $283, so £207? Something like that. Sounds about right.

I think that's everything? I can't think of any other ways that money trickles in...

So adding that all up, that means I've earned about £12862 this year.

My goal was 12k, so that was actually a surprisingly good estimate/goal which I have indeed surpassed slightly!

Finish and release at least one new game

I hoped to release Divine Dreams in 2020, though the process became more convoluted and spawned Atonal Dreams, which is currently in progress.

I did release the MARDEK port, though, so maybe that counts for something? Let's say I half achieved this.

Run my first Kickstarter

I didn't do this! I'm unsure from researching whether or not it'd be a good option for me.

Networking

I hoped to at least get to know a few more indie devs, which I haven't really done, though I have at least followed a bunch on Twitter and got a better feel for the community. So I might not have perfectly achieved this, but I have made at least some baby steps.

See a therapist

The lockdown got in the way!

Play more indie games

Not as many as I'd like, though I did push through psychological barriers and played a few, most notably Undertale, which I'd been putting off for years due to weird professional envy. I feel far less aversion about looking into other indie games (mostly depression, distractions, and a lack of money prevent me from doing so).

Don't die of brain cancer

I'm still going!!

2021 Goals

So that was 2020. This year, I'll set similar goals:

Make at least £20k

I really don't know how likely this is. Maybe I only did as 'well' as 12k because of the MARDEK port, and nothing else I release will ever match that because it's so much harder finding players now than it was in the Flash days. But I suppose if I earn significantly less than this, it's time to start looking at what else I could do with my life...

Release Atonal Dreams

Specific! This should be feasible...

Port at least another old game

Likely Clarence's Big Chance; I may also remake it, I'm currently thinking about that.

Release some old music albums

There are a few albums that I composed over the years, including one in 2020, that I'm planning to put up on my Bandcamp page. Ideally I'd like to have all the old ones up by the end of the year, but we'll see.

Compose a new album

I'll aim to make something that's 10 tracks long, about an hour total; I'm unsure how achievable that is. I don't know if it'd be appealing to anyone but me, but it would be a huge achievement for me.

Play at least 10 indie games

More specific. I'll need to make a list of them!

Get into yoga (again)

This is something I'd like to do again which could benefit me, even if I'm just doing it every so often in this cramped bedroom.

Get into lucid dreaming (again)

This is something I devoted myself to last year, but once I succeeded I just stopped, and haven't had another since. It'd be nice to get into it as a regular habit.

Move out for a bit

I have plans to move out at least for a few months to somewhere near my friend so I can actually have someone to meet up with in person. Hopefully I won't be looking back on this in early 2022 and cringing!

I'd love to move out permanently, but that really depends on how much money I can make.

Do some volunteering?

This really depends on how the pandemic continues. If it's an option, I'll look into getting some real-world experiences around other people, though based on experiences I've already had I can't imagine it'll feel like anything new or special or pleasant (all the opportunities around here are things like giving old people sponge baths anyway). I'm very aware of how much an impediment my social anxiety is though, so it'd be valuable, maybe, to do something like this. If it's volunteering, I can probably just give it up without committing to anything if I can't stand it.

GROW 10 EXTRA ARMS

DO YOU THINK I CAN DO IT?? I'LL SHOW YOU!! Also this is probably as realistically achievable as a lot of what people set as New Year's Resolutions! I'll use the arms to climb Mt Everest and skydive off the summit!!

So those are my goals for 2020. Hopefully some other global catastrophe won't get in the way of achieving them!