May 16th to May 30th 2025

I cannot believe how fast these blogs come around, or that this is Part 10! I want to start by giving a sincere thank you to everyone who has subscribed and read these so far. I enjoy writing them and I don’t offer anything other than a random jumble of words or thoughts, whilst I try my best to be as authentic as I can, so for people to click ‘subscribe’ means a great deal to me. Thank you.

I’ve had a really good time over the last 15 Days but before I get into it, I’m going to jump ahead a little and talk about UrbX Warriors and the Kickstarter campaign that went live on 28th May. In a lightning start, the campaign reached its funding target in less than an hour and only a day later, it was already 250% funded, and climbing! The first stretch goal is nearly unlocked too!

From Brazen Gameplay, a newly formed collaboration between Tony Warriner (Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword) and Stoo Cambridge (Cannon Fodder, Sensible World of Soccer), UrbX Warriors is an exciting project to be part of and one that I’ve had tremendous fun testing. This is where most of my focus has been lately.

Kickstarter link: UrbX Warriors

Demo link: UrbX Warriors Demo

Working on this has been a really cool experience for me, and we’re trying to reach people far and wide with this fundraiser so anything you can share is always appreciated. There’s a lot of potential ahead for Brazen Gameplay, and this is a great chance to support from the beginning in whichever way people feel comfortable.

Also, aside from another great project to add to the list, I get to learn from two incredibly knowledgeable and highly skilled industry legends with decades of experience between them. It’s been an interesting time. Whilst getting to grips with this excellent demo, I’m learning, and as you know, I am always happiest when creating and learning. Long may this association continue.

Going back just a little now, the second of what will likely be seven gaming events for me this year was on 17^th May, for ZZAP! Live at Kenilworth. I only heard about this last July and went along to the 2024 edition not long after. Being a Commodore themed event, a sister of CRASH! Live and the Spectrum, I was curious to learn about the gaming industry from those years when I was very young and gaming was far less important to me than a tasty Farley’s Rusk (remember them?). With the Spectrum 48K being the first home computer I ever encountered, I fell into that world instead and completely missed the Commodore and various other machines from the time. Going to ZZAP was my chance to make up for this and try the original hardware; something hard to imagine over forty years later.

Again though, I spend so much time talking to people that I forget to take many pictures except, of course, of the two gentlemen I’ve already written about above, holding my PC bundle of Cannon Fodder and Beneath A Steel Sky that I then took a photo of…without me in it. So, you know, I need to do better there! Anyway, for your viewing, here is said photo. I did ask them for a couple of autographs down at the pub later that evening as we discussed UrbX so that is something.

Stoo, being the kind guy that he is, even gave me one of his coasters which I use every day. Something I’ve noticed with his work is that everything he does is of excellent quality, even his coasters! Made from aluminium with a polyethylene core, it’s by far the most impressive coaster I’ve ever seen. Like, it’s a coaster, yeah? And it’s amazing quality, so imagine what UrbX Warriors and its pledge tiers are going to be like? See what I’m saying here?

I also grabbed a book on pixel art for the GBA from my friend Marc, AKA Sega Mags, who I often see at events and always seem to walk away with some excellent reading material.

In other testing news, one thing I haven’t done in the last couple of months is go searching for games to test. As I said in Part 7, I’ve been working my way through the projects I offered to test for free and now that I have the portfolio I’ve earned, I’m just looking ahead to how I spend my time. It may very well be that I focus purely on a couple of games for now. Certainly, UrbX Warriors and Foolish Mortals are well worth my time. And it has been a hectic couple of years building up experience and a network, so I could do with focusing on fewer. I’m always open to enquiries (there are so many wonderful projects out there) and that will remain the case but I have earned a little break, and I’m at the point where stretching myself across many projects may not be as beneficial now as concentrating on two or three would be. I think it may be time to really dive into fewer projects by taking everything I’ve learned and contributing to something more deeply. This doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed some projects that have caught my interest, just that for now, I have plenty going on.

Moving away from all this gaming stuff, I have been fighting with myself to get back into some kind of fitness routine, and I don’t know why but I’m struggling with this. Small gains remain but I cannot fathom where my old determination has gone. Nothing used to faze me when it came to routine and fitness goals but, for a long time now, it’s been really hard to get back into things. I could list excuses, reasons too, but I know that’s just filler and waffle. I wonder if I even want to try anymore? Yes. I do. I always feel great afterwards but something has changed, and right now, I’m not sure what. This being said, I have over the last few days of this 15 Days made a special effort to get on the exercise bike in my garage, dust of the weights for some arm curl sets, tried to do as many push-ups as I can, and generally just force myself into some kind of routine. I also ache like never before these days so I make sure to stretch and drink lots of water too. It’s important!

I’ve also been doing my best to finish reading the half-read books I have ongoing. It’s slow but a chapter here or there is better than nothing. And my writing, outside of this blog, does need some love. I will get there. As always, so much to do and no excuse to say I’m bored. 😊

Anyway, that’s all for now and I sign off with this:

Have you clicked that Kickstarter link yet? This one, right here?

Until next time, stay safe, and thank you for reading.

Paul.