Hi A-movers,
I've been thinking a lot about this year, and I wanted to share my thoughts and thanks in what is turning out to be a little longer of a post than I expected. 2014 was a big year for me and the people close to me.
I got engaged (warning: things get a little sappy in the next few sentences). Katie and I have been together for a long time now, and we've been very close for a lot longer (we met during our high school orientation.) Taking that next big step felt like a huge, sappy, warm and fuzzy-covered, step. As I'm writing this my subconscious is going on and on about the wedding checklist (of which almost nothing is checked off), yet I could not be more excited to start this next chapter of our lives together.
Did you make it through the love-fest? Ok, good, time for the nerdy stuff. Lost Legacy, the first retail game I worked on as a graphic designer released. Many of you have gone out of your way to pick up the game and exchange stories with me about all the fun you're having with it. Crazy game stories is one of my favorite parts of The Angry Chicken and it's awesome to hear stories about a game I worked on.
I launched two Patreon pages with three of my closest friends. Hundreds of you have supported us at one point or another this year, and hundreds more are still supporting us. Many hours go into making a show, and I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't continue making this content for free just because it's awesome, but the support from the community has allowed me to put far more time into this work than I ever could have before.
Finally, there was Nerdtacular and BlizzCon. The community experience at these events was insane. Every year we get together at the bowling alley near the convention the night before BlizzCon starts. And every year fifteen to twenty people show up, geek out about Blizzard games, have some beers, and bowl. This year over one hundred people attended and proceeded to take over the bar. We all ended up spending just hanging out, sharing stories, and taking photos (no actual bowling ever occurred). It was utterly mind blowing.
Thank you. Thank you so much for playing a part in what has been a whirlwind year for me. I have never had the chance to connect with the people who enjoy the content I make like I was able to this year. The experience has been beyond any of my expectations. It helped a lot when my family had a scare with (thankfully non-fatal) cancer. Keep the emails coming, keep debating with me the merits of Crackle (I just remembered Ben Brode defended Duplicate on TAC, add that to the list of things I can't believe happened), keep blowing up the TAC twitter feed when a post screws up. Just keep being awesome.
Sincerely,
Garrett