Thank you, 2023. Welcome, 2024!

2023 was wild. A few big changes in my life triggered me to finally launch this site, Co-Op Mode. I had been riffing and sketching versions of it for YEARS, pretty much ever since I started creating YouTube videos, but never had the time or flexibility to make it happen.

Real quick, if you prefer video, here’s a video version of this post on my YouTube channel.

My previous job was so busy that I didn’t have time or mental energy to create much. The big kicker for me was getting laid off in Q1 2023. It was a rough time when so many software engineers were losing jobs and flooding the job market. Instead of immediately returning to the job interview hustle, I shifted my focus to making game development videos. I wanted a proper home for the videos where I could control the tone and feel of the experience rather than hosting on a site like Udemy or similar, so here we are!

Pressing “Record”.

Co-Op Mode has six full video series on it, all released from April 2023 to December 2023.

Ciabatta’s Revenge - where we build an action puzzle game in React JS. (Here’s the full game demo on Itch)

Pizza Legends Godot - where we build a top-down RPG Overworld system in Godot version 4. I was very excited with this one to explore Godot’s latest offerings.

Action Multiplayer - where we build a Link’s Awakening style demo with Excalibur.js and Peer JS, but with online multiplayer!

Canvas RPG Kit is all about creating a lightweight HTML Canvas-based game engine that can power top-down RPGs. We explore many abstractions and semi-advanced techniques with HTML Canvas.

Front End Interview Bootcamp is an in-depth guide to many concepts and challenges you may face when interviewing for a Front End Engineer role. Everything from technical coding prompts to behavioral questions. I based this on my own experiences hitting the job market again.

Next.js Level Editor is a journey in making a Next.js based content editor for an RPG game. It’s based loosely around the Canvas RPG Kit series, but it can be modified to match the needs of your game. I’m big on making custom tools for game dev projects, so this one was a long time coming!

That’s something like 120 videos on Co-Op Mode Premium.

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On to 2024!

As we kick off the New Year, I want to say THANK YOU to everybody who has been supportive and encouraging through the launch of the site. I don’t expose too much of my personal life on here, but 2023 had some very difficult stretches. The support I received from you all really kept me going, so thank you again.

I mention it in the video, but I’m a Dad now, too. My wife and I welcomed our first baby in November. He’s amazing. Having a kid kind of forces you to stop and think about every detail in your life. You become hyper aware of where every little morsel of time goes. That’s had a big impact on my plans for this year.

While 2023 was full of expanding in content reach, I am planning 2024 to focus on growth and depth. More free content and articles. Probably fewer big new series, but augmenting the existing ones with more depth and perspective. I also have some giant game dev projects in the works myself, which I’d like to open the hood on in a new series. That’s the stuff that really energizes me!

I wish you the best in 2024. Let’s do this!