My 2024 in Review (a look back at this year on the channel and a look toward the future)

 Here's my "YouTube wrapped" for the channel in 2024 and, since I have to make everything a tradition, here's my look back at the year to send out 2024. Of course, like always, I really really appreciate each and every one of you, whether on Patreon or not. The fact I'm still able to do what I do all these years later is always something I'm in awe of and I couldn't possibly do it without people who give a shit, so from the bottom of my heart thank you for another year.

My Year

My 2024 has been a strange one, nowhere near as positive as 2023 and while that happens I'd like to give some insight into why. I've had ongoing health issues for years now, I've always been open about that but I've maybe never really been honest about how much it affects my mental health sometimes. I'm not in a rut 100% of the time, but it is getting harder to push it to the back of my mind and power on through it. It's having an effect on things I do in my life, my creative work and that kinda sucks. I'm still actively seeing doctors and have some appointments coming up to hopefully gain some clarity and in 2025 my aim is to really push to try and get my health back on track however possible, even if that means looking outside the NHS despite the cost of doing so. I'm not looking for sympathy or anyone to actively help me, just being transparent. It's one of the major reasons I've posted less this year than I did in 2023, I'm just a bit tired.

The other big reason is because Elva and I are planning to move soon... At least we hope. We've been wanting to move for a while, the reason being, we just feel we want to for one, but also we need more space, we have for a bit now. With Sora and with Elva working from home, both for her day job and streaming, she really needs a space that's not our kitchen, an office for her so she has somewhere to focus. Plus, we'd love to have our family or friends over without being cramped, and with Elva's family visiting all the time from Ireland it'd be nice to let them stay with us. Our house wasn't mean to be where we stayed forever, we moved here in 2019 knowing it was somewhere to get our footing, we always planned to move out in 5-ish years. I'm explaining this because people keep asking me why we need to move, as if anyone really needs a reason to move, but that's why. We just need more space.

The moving process has taken us an ungodly amount of time and having that going on for over 12 months is more draining than you think it would be.

And so because of those things I haven't made nearly as much stuff as I would've liked to and that's disappointing, but that's not to say what I made this year wasn't some of my best, because I've really loved every single thing I made.

This Year's Highlights

 Starting the year with the Black Flag video was one of the biggest highlights. I've never made a video like this before and it was such an interesting experience. A lot of the reason this video took the form it did was off the back of Hbomberguy's plagiarism video. I think a lot of creators came away from that video wanting to be a bit better about citing sources and doing actual research and I was no different. Sitting down to read tons of books, both fiction and nonfiction in order to get a better picture of the period the game was set, the political situation and the influences that the developers used was enlightening. This video is one I am deeply proud of and I think I will be for some time. This video taught me that I am capable of making some truly impressive stuff and the response and kind words I've had from you guys as well as creators in the same space have been touching and so so appreciated. I loved this video.

 Working on some more casual videos was quite a nice change of pace. Whether they were mini scripts or collabs like the old days, or edited commentaries, I felt quite fulfilled but being able to post some more low effort stuff every once in a while, especially after the Black Flag video.

My mini essay on the backlash that ACShadows was getting is one I'm especially proud of. I think it's still heavily misunderstood as to what I was actually getting at but those people were never going to listen anyway. Being able to jump back in to talking about AC without having to cover every little detail or really even pay attention felt quite nice. It's nice to having something worth saying and feeling like you're contributing to a conversation positively.

Getting back together with George and Tyler for ACUnity Coop was an absolutely fucking blast! I forgot how much I used to love doing this shit, be it the podcasts, the videos with each other or just hanging out. It's not something I could ever do again full time, but it was such a great week to get together with all 3 of the boys for podcasts and dumb shit, editing the vlog for the second channel was also such a fun time.

 Working on the traditional critiques this year was really nice because they all varied from each other in really nice ways.

The Watch Dogs Retrospective was a video type I'm used to but with a new spin. I tried to use this video to challenge myself, "how concise can I make this script?" was my question and I tried my best to make that so. I think it came out really nice, and although it's not my usual style, nor do I think it'll become my main way of creating videos, it was a really nice exercise to push myself outside of my comfort zone whilst making something relatively expected from my channel.

Both my videos on Shadow the Hedgehog and Shadow Generations are quite similar to each other and I do think toward the end of the year I was getting a little concerned with revenue and so fell back into something I knew well, which isn't an issue, I'm happy with those videos, I think they're really good and give unique insight into both games from an angle that I hope people can appreciate.

The big one though was the Doctor Who Critique. I am so unbelievably happy with how this one turned out, I think it's easily one of my best critiques yet. While it didn't get "The Fall of Doctor Who" level traction, I am honestly pleased with the amount of people who've seen it, it's currently nearing 50k and that's damn respectable for a Doctor Who video on my channel. Making this one really pushed me to try new things, to be a little more inventive and creative with how I recorded my script and was deeply cathartic to express. This video was easily a major highlight of my year. Cannot articulate properly how proud I am of it.

 My favourite video this year though has to be I'm Homesick For a Place I Can Never Visit. This video is potentially my favourite thing I've ever made. It didn't do crazy numbers but the fact it did any numbers was a shock to me. This video is so deeply personal and vulnerable in a way I never thought I could be through a video essay. When I was making this and really going all out for filming locations and specific shots, I was worried that nobody would relate, that it might be such a unique experience that I'll look a little silly even putting it out there... But I knew I had to, because I made it for a reason. To have kept this one locked away in a vault would've been unfair and the response is a testament to that. The outpouring of positive comments, of people saying how moved they were was remarkable and really touched me in a way I don't think I ever have been when making YouTube videos before. This video taught me that what I make truly can be art and realistically always was. Thank you so much for the support on this one, it has spurred me on to make more like it, to try and tackle more personal topics and to shoot for the stars when creating videos.

Patreon in Retrospect

While I haven't posted to YouTube as much as I would've liked this year, the stuff I've done for Patreon has been monumental.

 What I've made this year exclusively for Patreon has been a collection of such diverse and interesting videos that I'm really really please to look back on. Honestly I can't believe the position I'm in to be able to post exclusive stuff like this for people willing to support what I do. The growth of Patreon over this year has been one of the things I cherish most, both because it obviously helps me considerably financially, some months Patreon eclipsed my YouTube revenue which is mind-blowing to me. But a huge reason I love this place so much is because of the community we've built. The Discord is such a calm and chill vibe, with no need for moderators because everyone has paid to be there, we're all on the same page and because of the pay wall, even just being $1 means we don't get any people looking to cause trouble, because usually those kinds of people are 12 years old and don't have money to waste on something so silly.

It means a lot to have you all here and I'm really looking forward to (hopefully) doing even more in 2025. I have a whole range of new ideas for series and one off videos and I'm really feeling positive about the future of Patreon. Thank you all for your continued support of me and my work. I really honestly mean it, I couldn't do this without you.

Closing Words

This year has been turbulent in a lot of ways, but it's also been comforting too. To know I have this stability in a hugely volatile space is something I think about incredibly often. Writing this up and reflecting on what I do and am able to do is deeply humbling and really is the stuff I dreamed of as a teenager. If I could travel back in time and show my channel or Patreon to myself 10 years ago, I think he'd probably be completely blown away because this really is more than I ever expected to achieve, regardless of how hard I worked to get here.

Although the views have been lower, the channel growth as been slower, I mean all the numbers have been less than last year, I still feel content with that and I think that's huge. What I make and how well I make it matters more, if a video touches people it means more to me than hundreds of thousands of empty views and 2024 has been a year of really letting myself feel that and letting it guide me. Hopefully 2025 can be more of the same. I have a lot to do, both for myself, my life and my creativity, but I'm generally feel good about it and that is something I will try my best to hold onto into the new year and beyond.

I have a lot of plans and I'm sure not all of them will come to fruition but hopefully many will and what I put out next year can be some of my best.

To wrap this very very long post up, I hope you all have a great new year and a great 2025. I hope you achieve your goals, whatever they may be, and that you aren't too hard on yourself if you don't. Striving for anything is the real achievement, it means you care enough to try.  Shit can be hard, life can often be tough and cruel and it can feel like everything is against you, but rolling with those punches and picking yourself back up shows huge strength and I believe in all of you. You got this.

Thank you everyone, truly, much love. 💚