The first week of April was filled with preparing the Foolish Mortals dialogue, ready to begin recording the following week. It was quite intensive and time-consuming but it’s not uncommon for point and click adventure games to have a huge amount of dialogue! Despite this, I also know from experience that the effort put in now, to make sure everything is right for when the recording starts, will be worth it. After this was done, I found myself in an odd place; or at least one I haven’t been in for many months, and that was with a slightly less hectic testing schedule.

For context, back near Christmas, and in the space of twenty-four hours, a couple of things happened that forced me to make the decision to start charging for my testing. I’d just finished my current stint on Blue Prince, and Tonda Ros, the developer, had sent through an amazing testimonial for my website. Up to this point, I’d been working hard to build up a portfolio of experience and projects so that I had something to back up what I had to offer. When I first started attending gaming events, I had very little to show so I knew I had to work hard and often to build this up. Testimonials, credits, contact cards, this website, etc., it all helps because sometimes it can be difficult to show what I’ve done. Testing often comes with a NDA attached and, to be honest, NDA or not, I treat it all confidentially, so there are limitations. I do have some ideas for the future though; podcasts or discussions with developers I’ve worked with for some light-hearted development insight into the games but I feel some time has to pass first before we start talking about them. There are some good stories within this. But anyway, before this goes off into a longer piece of writing I have in mind about testing, rather than this 15 Days blog, I’ll stop here.

My actual point is that I had been working through the list of games I had agreed to test for free, in order to make space for other projects that might bring something in for my time. By November 2024, I’d felt like this was coming for a while and with Tonda’s testimonial, plus another dev asking me what I charge (therefore assuming I did), it gave me the nudge to accept that things have changed. This is what I’ve been doing so far this year; quietly and diligently working through these free projects. I have helped a couple of devs who have reached out with projects but I’ve been pretty good in keeping these quite contained to half a dozen hours over a couple of evenings, as long as I can fit them in. It’s mostly to help me keep sharp and, at the very least, my minimum requirement is a credit in the game so I can add this to the website. This has worked well for me so far. At the time of writing, I now have fourteen credits in games, as well as a couple for writing and more to come.

Anyway, as I come to the end of this list, it has given me some time back to focus on what I’ve done so far in 2025 and what’s ahead. I’m really pleased to say that I’ve already worked on ten projects this year, compared to eight in the whole of 2024 and that’s a good indication of progress. The future feels very exciting!

Speaking of exciting, it’s also important to mark that on 10^th April, Blue Prince was released to the world. Now, I’m never going to talk about what I tested, without permission, but I will say I have been very excited to see the reaction to the game from players yet to experience it, and also desperate to share my own strategy in finding Room 46. I’ll wait a while but I will share it in future.

The reviews have been very positive, and the ‘Game of the Year’ talk has been justified. I’ve since gone back to Mount Holly simply to play the game for fun, no testing involved now, and it’s still as enjoyable and inspiring as ever. If I’m being really honest here, Blue Prince is the first and only game I’ve tested where I completely forgot I was testing it, so absorbed by its gameplay was I. It’s always been my response, whenever it came up in conversation, to simply say “Blue Prince. Keep your eyes on that one. Really.”, followed by a knowing nod. Eight years the game had been in development. Whatever awards come its way, will be richly deserved.

I’m also looking forward to my next gaming event of the year at Zzap in May. This would be my second visit and although I know very little about the Commodore 64 and the various other computers there (which is the main attraction of the event), it is quite interesting to see hardware and games gathered in one place and available to play. For me, access to this kind of gaming history is worth its weight in gold.

The History of Video Games course I mentioned last time continued to waltz us along through the decades and when it finished, I was quite sad that it had ended. It was really interesting and I’ll be looking for more to attend as they come up on the D6 Learning website. Link here.

After acquiring those protective boxes that I also mentioned last time, I sort of went a bit mad and start protecting everything, or at least the games I have on my self-styled ‘Testing Shelf’, along with some items that have significant meaning to me, like a few of the Fighting Fantasy books I have…

I will admit to some kind of incredible, nostalgic, ‘libraries of the 80s’ satisfaction at seeing old books covered with these protectors.

Moving on, I haven’t been playing Destiny 2 quite as much lately but I did hear about an emblem linked to my in-game clan, Guardians Mental Health, who were raising money for mental health awareness. Obviously I donated, and now have this emblem proudly displayed on my Guardian’s character page.

And there we have it, whilst I do have some very interesting testing ahead of me, for the first time in nearly a year and a half I have some time back. And with this, I turn my sights ahead. More gaming events after Zzap are lined up throughout the year and I’ll be keeping an eye on projects I would like to be involved with. There’s the whole point of 15 Days; to write regularly, and I have some ideas to get down on to paper. There’s even an inkling of an idea for a game of my own but I’ll sit with that and see what I can create. It’ll be something small, that could be finished by a player between 1 to 3 hours. But that’s enough for now. I’ve got plenty to be getting on with.

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

Paul.