2025 in review

2025 comes to a close; it’s time to look back and reflect on the last year.

✨ Intentions ✨

In previous years (2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024) I set goals for myself, and completed them to various degrees of success. At the end of last year I decided to go into 2025 with some more broad intentions instead.

The two intentions were focus on my body, and create things I like. The result of each isn’t quite as binary as pass/fail. But I think I can confidently say I kept those intentions very front of mind. I became very interested and committed to weekly mobility training to complement climbing. I did end up climbing a few v7’s, which isn’t a grade higher than I’ve ever climbed before, but is something I feel good about. On the creative side, I’ve been making great progress in various game projects. I created a bookclub app for my friends and I to use, which has been very successful for us. I also made a Daggerheart extension for Owl Bear Rodeo, which I then used to GM a campaign for my friends online. I want to clean this up and open source it, if I can find the time this year.

As I write this I’m still not sure if I want to return to goals or continue with intentions, but I suppose I’ll have to figure it out by the time I finish this post.

My favorite things of 2025

🎮 Favorite games

I played a lot of games this year. According to Steam, I played, however briefly, 105 games.

That is a lot of games. In no particular order these were my favorites:

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - This is by far the best video game I’ve ever played. From the story, which is an incredible exploration of grief. To the music, which I listen to all the time, and has such a wide range and depth. To the technical polish, the amazing combat system, and the fact that the entire game treats you like an adult. I haven’t played anything like it, and I bet it will take years until I do again. It’s so rare nowadays to find a game that trusts the player to figure it out. No big blue arrows, no NPC companion that constantly spouts “tips” at you. The developers trust that you will figure it out. Its gameplay, its themes, and its story. You learn about the abilities organically, piecing together builds, so that by the end of the game you’re one-shotting everything you come across. It’s incredibly satisfying.

• Hollow Knight: Silksong - In stark contrast with Clair Obscur, which has one of the best, most gripping openings in any game, Silksong’s opening is slow, sluggish, and sees you crawling toward the story. But it’s in the slow progression that you learn real mastery of its systems. By the end of the game Hornet is an extension of you, flying through zones at breakneck speeds that you wouldn’t have conceived possible mere hours ago. The story is fantastic, the side characters are a joy, and the ART is immaculate. Each zone is dripping with personality, so much so that you can learn the story of each zone solely by looking at it.

• Blue Prince - I can say without a doubt I have never played a game quite like this. Never has a game motivated me, made me LOVE taking notes like this. I scribbled anything I thought might be a hint down into a journal. I filled it with sticky notes to cover old notes. The notebook grew as my understanding of the game did, my constant companion to the ever shifting estate. This game somehow gives you the perfect amount of dopamine, at such regular intervals I couldn’t think of anything else until I beat it. It treats you like an adult, lets you figure it out, and rewards you immensely.

• Monster Train 2 - I’m not sure what to say about Monster Train 2. I clearly liked it a lot; it was my most played single game of the last year. Accounting for 15% of my time on Steam. It’s an incredibly fun, low stakes, quick roguelike card game. It was very easy to jump in and out. Play a quick run, and move on. I think the thing drawing me into the game is the urge to get the “gold room” by completing the game with every clan combination on the hardest difficulty. I love a good grind.

• Fellowship - This game was like crack to me. A MMO-like raiding experience without the rest of the MMORPG. Just dungeons with friends not unlike Mythic+ from WoW. I was utterly glued to this game until my group and I reached Eternal. I can’t wait to play it again in the future.

• Hell Clock - This is a roguelike ARPG that gets it. You get loot, level up, gain power and make interesting builds in a roguelike game that keeps you coming back. The setting is interesting, the gameplay is fun and satisfying. Clearly made by folks who love ARPGs.

• Replicube - A very fun programming puzzle game about writing shader-like code to replicate images. Still having fun with this one, very enjoyable.

• Warframe - Warframe is the game that I keep coming back to. This was a standout year for the game. The QoL increases were great, the new content was phenomenal, and overall the game is just in an incredibly good place. I’m really happy every time I come back for a few weeks to grind new stuff, and very glad I started this game ten years ago and not Destiny…

📕 Favorite books

This was a fantastic book year for me. In years past I had a constant stream of Sanderson books to propel me. With Sanderson effectively taking a publishing pause from mainline Cosmere books, what filled the gap ended up being some of my favorite books I’ve ever read.

• Will of the Many - I didn’t read Islington’s first trilogy, so I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. But wow…this book pulled me in. Much like Red Rising, after introducing you to the world he puts his foot on the gas and it just doesn’t let up until the book is over. The magic, world, and mystery Islington weaves is just fantastic. Traits that he keeps up in the follow up Strength of the Few. My only gripes with these books are that the characters feel very flat. However, the mystique of the world and interest in the overarching story is more than enough to keep me engaged and excited for a third.

• The Sword Defiant - I’ve got a soft spot for “get the band back together” stories, especially if the main character is a grizzled, over it, old man. This book delivers a familiar fantasy setting, with its own twists. A story and protagonist with a lot of heart, and wears its heart on its sleeve.

• Piranesi - I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this book. The slow unraveling of information, in the strange ever expanding house, draws you in so fast. It has interesting themes, as well as gives you so much to chew on and contemplate while reading.

• Demon in White / Kingdom of Death - In the future I think I’ll remember 2025 as the year I read the Suneater books. I plan on writing an entire post on my thoughts, because after just having finished Ruocchio’s last entry in the series, Shadows Upon Time, I can say with confidence this series is my favorite series of books I’ve ever read. I don’t want to say too much, as the books I’m putting on this list are the third and fourth in series. I’ll just say this two-book combo is maybe the most I’ve felt reading since I first read Robin Hobb. I can’t say enough about this book. The setting, characters, lore, prose…it’s all fantastic. I’ll think about Suneater for a very long time.

🥇 Favorite other things

• Kobo Clara Colour - Getting an eReader was a game changer this year. I did so much traveling; getting to read on this device instead of lugging around 2-3 books at a time was a very welcome quality of life increase. Not to mention while the Kobo ecosystem isn’t perfect, it is infinitely better than Audible/Amazon.

• UGREEN NAS - As I become more and more disillusioned with big tech, 2025 was also the year of self-hosting. I bought a NAS and I now self-host all my photos, media (movies, YouTube videos, and shows), books and audiobooks. It’s incredibly rewarding to know that I have no ties to big tech when it comes to the content I own.

• Tiny Beelink PC - Originally purchased for a week-long Baldur’s Gate 3 LAN party. It performed so well, now I daily drive it. I put CachyOS on it and it’s been my daily driver. I only use my Windows PC for gaming now.

🏆 Goals for the new year

That’s right, I’m going back to goals. While I enjoyed the more relaxed styles of having themes or intentions for the year, I think I function better with broader, more well defined goals. I want to laser focus on a few areas, two that have been on the list for years:

• Make and release a game - While many projects started and died, this is the year I think I have the stability and discipline to finally lock in and get something out the door.
• Become a v8 climber - I’ve climbed v8’s before, but I want this to be the year I become comfortable at that grade. I want a similar level of confidence that I feel with v6’s now to become the norm for v8’s this year. Icing on the cake would be a v8 send outside.