January 2nd

So, it's time to look back and ponder over what 2009 brought. Both good and bad...
From my own part, 2009 was a wild ride with a strange mix of good and bad, but the overall feeling is that 2009 was a pretty crappy year and that things can and should improve from now on.

The good things:
1, Darkfall:
We finally released our game, Darkfall. This is a major milestone in my life as I've been involved with this project since the very start from when we started talking about this over 10 years ago... Which is quite crazy to think back on. I left my country, my career, my house, my family and friends to move to a foreign country over 7 years ago only planning to stay one or two years. So, I'm basically feeling like I'm 7 years behind my "real" life that I left back there and that I have sacrificed A LOT to give this game to our players. Now in the end, how many people can say that they've made an MMORPG from the very scratch to end? I'm feeling very lucky, especially considering the tiny team, the size of the game and amount of features, and how many major projects out there getting canned and canceled.

2, New projects:
2009 did bring along plenty of new clients and projects. Some of which I can't even talk about yet as I'm waiting for release dates etc, but it's all very exciting; at least to me. I've besides other things gotten a foot inside the Warhammer 40K franchise, which I'm very proud of, and several new clients with smaller projects has either already been completed, or contracts signed and deals sealed.

3, New friends:
We've gotten to know more people here in Greece, which is nice now that I'm basically the only left from the original RPG group of people left here.

4, New office:
Our company is expanding, which is good news. We moved into a brand new building quite recently and things are going well.

The bad things:
1, Illness:
Several things happened to family and friends during 2009, and I also feel that most of the summer of 2009 went completely missing because of this. I don't mind missing a summer, but it just illustrates how much time went into taking care of this as Greek summers are REALLY long. It can really wear you out.

2, Burned out:
Been having major problems during 2009 (and still) working on extra projects as I'm quite close to meeting the wall. It's strange how the simplest tasks can seem unbearable and impossible to start. I've managed to get a couple of weeks off during the holidays to relax, sleep and recharge, but it hasn't been as efficient as hoped.

3, Neighbors:
I can't say it enough; I sometimes hate having neighbors. I have absolutely ZERO tolerance when it comes to hearing noise from others when I'm indoors in my own home. We decided to stay here in Greece during Christmas and New Years because we wanted to avoid the risk of getting any flu's (we have medical reasons to be careful), and to recharge the batteries, but has been bugged by neighbors on all sides with loud music from morning to nights, to high heeled ladies walking around for hours above us moving furniture what what ever reason. Car alarms, building alarms, kids spamming the doorbells keeping me awake, etc.

4, Insomnia:
Been having severe problems sleeping. Usually find myself working until 3am sometimes 4:30am and going to bed not because I'm tired by simply because it's so fracking late. Also, can't sleep when going to bed. Need to try to turn this and find out what to do about this.



So, there it is; my 2009 summed up in short bullets. From now on things will hopefully be better and I want to send out my best wishes to everyone who took their time to read my little summary. Happy New Year!


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A small and cozy art community with weekly themed speed painting events, and monthly themed art events.

Here are some of my available Deviant Art prints. You can also get my prints from “The Untapped Source”.