Everyone makes New Year's resolutions. Some people make them privately, some people shout them out loud, and some people resolve to not make New Year's resolutions - then they implode in a puff of inconsistent circular logic. I make resolutions, too, but I call mine Nerd Year's resolutions.

I try to make attainable goals, and the last few years I managed to keep them... Sort of.

You see, last year I vowed that I was only going to spend money on video games that I earned from building video games. The idea was that it would prompt me to complete my first ever console game using Microsoft XNA. What actually happened was I got a series of Flash game projects that turned out to be lucrative enough to carry my game purchases through the year without worry.

The result was that while I kept my resolution, I didn't achieve the spirit of my resolution. Fatal Parsec has been sitting on hold for a couple months now.

This year I want to make my goals a bit more specific, so as to avoid any confusion.

Goal 1: Release Fatal Parsec

It's right there, the code works and the concept is fairly sound. It just needs a lot of polish, testing, and a few more art assets. (If you are a sprite artist and you are reading this, there might be some money to be made, contact me!)

Goal 2: Release Apocalyptionary

This is another project that I KNOW will be fun and that people will play. I have scrapbooks filled with diagrams, notes, illustrations, and other ramblings. I have prototypes of many of the games elements. What I need to do is get some art - then sit down and put it all together.

Goal 3: Read / Write Every Week

I read a lot... A lot of crap, that is. I consume game news, web news, news about this and news about that. It's all great stuff, but it isn't books. There is just something so rewarding about consuming an entire book, about committing to one stream of thought for an extended period of time. With the internet as my main source of intellectual input I can feel my mind flitting about from idea to idea far more quickly than is necessary. I suspect that this is true for a great many people, but I am overly susceptible to the temptation. My plan is to read at least one book a month, spend an hour a week just writing, and blog every week.

Goal 4: 100,000 Plays

This is the toughest one of the bunch. I want to create a game that gets at least 100,000 plays. One of the things that I am quite adept at is finishing a game and then never promoting it. This year I want to change that, I want to get better at promoting the games I create. I'll probably use Mochimedia to track how many people play the game, or I'll implement my own Clicky tracking to find out how people are playing my game.