2022: A Year of Projects In Review

There were many times throughout the last year I thought I wouldn’t make it, but here we are; it’s done! Fifteen months later, with 12 projects completed. A little overdue, but I made it in the end. Having it off my chest and out in the world feels fantastic.

There were times throughout the year I felt anxious during the month about what I was going to build and how I was going to fit it into my schedule. I love making things, but in retrospect, the structure of one a month could have been better. There were some projects I should have iterated on and others that could have been more.

12 projects in 12 months were far too much! Life was hectic in 2022, between ArborXR growing like crazy, traveling a lot, and a busy personal life. There were many evenings and weekends I gave up on projects that I likely would have enjoyed doing something else better.

Things I Didn’t Build

I’ve always had a long-running list of projects I want to build, but that list got even longer this year. So here’s a rundown of some of the things I considered.

Where To Ski

As mentioned in my Ski Resort API post, “Where To Ski” is an idea I’ve had on my list for years. Put something that tells you what resort near you has the best conditions.

When I first came up with that idea, I was skiing at Whistler and local mountains in Vancouver. Since then, my skiing habits have changed drastically, and now I only ski at Whistler, and it’s just once or twice a year.

This is not one I will ever build, but I hope someone else takes it on!

Podcast

I know, I know. We don’t need another generic cis white male making a podcast, which is probably part of why I haven’t made one.

I’ve had an idea for a podcast I have been working on for years called “Their Other Side.” Taking historical figures and looking at the side of them that’s less talked about, both the evil side of those we think of as good and vice versa.

I spent a few hours researching and came out with some episode outlines, but I never progressed past that point. I was sitting on the back burner for another day!

Video Game

Video games are what first got me into development in the first place. Growing up, I wanted to be a game developer and played many video games.

One of my good friends, Sam Walker, released a great game this year called Dastardly which I loved being part of the play-testing process.

I have had a few different ideas I bounced around and prototyped. I’ve always loved the vertically scrolling shooter games such as 1942. I was playing with how to modernize that idea for phones or VR.

As I’ve gotten older, I have been playing way less games. As a result, I purchased a Steam Deck in 2022 with a paltry number of hours played on it.

Board Game

Unlike video games, board games have become something I play more and more of. One of my favorite ways of spending a weekday evening or weekend afternoon is to get together with friends and dig into a meaty board game. Some of my favorites from the last year are Eclipse, War Chest, and Sleeping Gods.

One of my favorite styles of board games is deck-building games. In my teenage years, I loved Magic: The Gathering but was never enthusiastic about having to construct and plan decks ahead of time, so deck-building games are a great alternative.

Thankfully I have friends who love to design board games, and I’ve had the chance to play tests and give feedback on various games in the last year. I can’t wait to do more of that in 2023.

Anything Web3

I started this year with an NFT project before the crypto winter began in earnest. I keep up to date with what’s happening in crypto and what’s being built, but I still need to catch my interest. So for now, I am just enjoying reading Web3 is going just great.

Projects I Did Build

People close to me know that some of my projects have been flops. My sparkling water dispenser? It started a slow leak, and I gave up on it. My pannier disc golf bag? My prototype fell apart, and I moved on to a disc golf backpack I love.

I am incredibly proud of some projects and am excited to keep them growing. I’ve used BC Flights numerous times since building it and have a laundry list of features I want to add. Publish Perks just came out last week, and I am excited to keep growing it.

Marketing and promotion continue to be my weakest piece of all the web applications I built. Some product-led growth is needed for them to find their sweet spots.

Next Year

One of my underlying goals for 2022 with this project wasn’t just to build more projects and write more, too! That was a resounding success, with me writing more for pleasure than in years.

In 2023 I am going to focus more on just writing. Either about projects, I’m working on, technical ideas, or remote work tips. I’ve already been enjoying this, writing about some of the best board games to play with product teams.

I still have a bunch of projects I hope to release this year! First, I am iterating on a new Disc Golf Club Management project with some partners. A simple cookie compliance platform. A cross-platform parcel tracking application. We’ll see how many make it through, but building and experimenting is just fun.

A few previous projects are in sore need of attention. I just revamped Weather Embed to be a SaaS platform instead of an API – watch out for a blog post with more about that soon. ChatFox needs some love; we just moved from a Digital Ocean droplet to Google Cloud Run, removed some less-used features, and I have some exciting things I want to add to it for my use at ArborXR.

My biggest takeaway from this project was a renewed reminder of my love for building! I get a lot of satisfaction from taking an idea through completion. If you’re interested in anything I’ve built or the pictures I haven’t made and are interested in partnerships or collaboration, please reach out!