15 Days: Part 22

January 1st to March 15th 2026

A Catch-Up

I wasn’t going to write and publish this blog yet. Instead, I was going to extend my break and enjoy following whatever interests took my attention. But then I started making a few notes about my time since Part 21 and, what do you know, this took my interest. And so here we are.

This blog isn’t really about the last 15 days but more about how I’ve spent my time so far this year.

As far as a break is concerned, I probably haven’t had as much as I‘d have liked because when I’m keeping myself busy or focused on something and then I stop, there’s only so much fresh air and normal life I can live with until I start needing to get back to learning, exploring, creating, or testing. I don’t get bored, I just need something to enjoy that isn’t the repetitive day-to-day grind that sometimes needs a little extra. So I did have some downtime but I also kept myself occupied with a few select projects along the way.

I also re-read Part 21 to make sure there was some continuity here and I still like the idea of structure and alternating certain topics. So, no fitness or health talk this time (I’ll keep that for a future blog) but I will make sure to have some regular topics mixed in with the random ones.

What I do have for you is:

• Shadows of the Afterland
• Grumpy Jack
• Books, TV and Games

I had no real plan to test anything at the start of the year. I really did need a break. I noted one or two projects that caught my eye, where I might reach out to the developer(s) when I felt fresher but, other than that, all I really wanted to do was read books, write, play games, and have a change of scenery. This is exactly what I did and, truth be told, I also spent some time thinking about whether this testing adventure may have run its course. I’ve thought about this on four occasions over the years as I wonder what else there is left to do but whenever I cannot see what is ahead, something will grab my attention and interest, I’ll bond with a team, learn even more, contribute in a meaningful way, and I’ll have a great time. Hard work, as usual, but great none-the-less. And friendships made. That’s always the best part.

So I took the time to do the things mentioned above and then, about halfway through January, one of the developers of Shadows of the Afterland, Rubén López, contacted me for some final QA testing before their launch date of 10^th February 2026.

Now, they don’t know this, but Shadows of the Afterland, actually is one of the games I had my eye on. I spotted it last year and thought ‘Oh, this looks interesting.’ But commitments to other projects back then meant I couldn’t fit anything else in, even if I wanted to offer my services. So for them to contact me at this particular point in time, felt extremely fortuitous and I quickly said yes.

Over the following two weeks, my time was spent running through this beautiful game, QA testing the life out of it, which is an odd choice of words since a lot of the characters are ghosts. And we did some really great work; catching some particularly nasty bugs that were exorcised before release. And even though I had carved out this period for a break, I had no qualms about spending some of it working on this project.

Plus, as always, I am grateful for another credit, along with some lovely words from Rubén, to strengthen my portfolio and march ever onward:

“We contacted Paul to do QA for Shadows of the Afterland after hearing very positive feedback about him from other point-and-click game devs. His reputation is well deserved. Even after extensive manual and automated testing on our end, Paul found a substantial number of issues. He even identified a critical crash bug that exposed a gap in our automated test system, which we have since strengthened as a direct result of his findings. We are much more confident in releasing our game because of his work.”

— Rubén López, Co-developer of Shadows of the Afterland

I have always enjoyed testing (even when I’ve considered stopping), and Shadows of the Afterland is up there with some of the most enjoyable. It is a beautifully made game that made me chuckle, is fun, and has a cast of characters that I really connected with. The animation, in particular, is excellent. It’s just so smooth and clean. You should check out @ChenkeGames, who is the person behind the animation.

After this test was done, I spent some time (as and when needed) on a new game from VP Games, developer of Super Roboy and Yokai Tales, called Grumpy Jack. It’s due for release on May 27^th 2026 and it’s looking just as good as their previous titles. The link for Grumpy Jack is here and wishlists are welcome and very gratefully received.

There have been a few other ad hoc tests, which I’m not in a place to share just yet but that meant I kept my skills sharp whilst also getting through some books I wanted to read.

Books, TV and Games

I got through:

• Among Thieves by M. J. Kuhn
• Assassins Creed: Black Flag by Oliver Bowden
• Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
• The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz
• Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

All very different, all very enjoyable. I’m not really one for reviews because I tend to find that one person’s opinion can be very different to another’s but I do like to mention titles on the off-chance someone may find something they might enjoy. If you search for them and they look like your kind of thing, all the better for it.

Outside of books, there’s been some TV (House, Paradise, Peaky Blinders, Fallout) and a few creative endeavours like some mock-up PS5 cases for games I’ve tested but don’t have physical releases (yet?), plus some outlines for my own projects.

The former is a nice way to add something to my Testing Shelf (a few initial attempts shown in the photos below), and the latter is slow and arduous and frustrating and blah and argh and whatever but I will persevere. Whether I ever get to a point of being able to share anything, I don’t know but, if I do, you’ll be the first to know about it here.

As for games, I’ve jumped around several titles. The ‘go-to-reliables’ (World of WarCraft, Destiny 2, Diablo II, III and IV, Microsoft Solitaire), the social media recommendations (BALL x PIT and Monsters are Coming! Rock & Road), and finally the ‘need-to-really-go-through-my-Steam-library-and-play-these-games’, which so far has been The Room.

So, in all, I’ve taken a break of sorts but managed to balance testing with fun. I’ll take it. As I type this, I’m on annual leave from my day job and already feeling refreshed for what’s ahead, and what’s ahead is likely to keep me very busy over the next few months. But that’ll have to wait until the time comes…

For now, as always, stay safe and thank you for reading.

It’s good to be back.

Paul.