Hello everyone. It’s me, Diego. The guy who barely wrote any posts over the past year.

This 2025 was not a fruitful year, full of activities or major changes in my life. Even so, it is still a year that can have an impact on my present life. So let’s go over the important events from last year.

Return to Lima Game Jam, 2025 version

This year, in January, I participated again in Lima Game Jam, one of the game jams held in Peru and linked to the Global Game Jam. This time, as a participant. At the event, I teamed up with three former students of mine, which made it interesting, and we ended up developing Nonoffice, a game related to the theme of verbal harassment in the workplace. My participation focused on the UI and characters’ art, as well as game design, so I didn’t explore new techniques or tools, but the development process was satisfying.

You can play it at this link: https://antortk.itch.io/nonoffice

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Taller Game Jam, the sequel

For the second year in a row, I carried out my game jam for students in Peru: Taller Game Jam 2025. This time, I included talks given by me, and the event lasted 7 days. There were more than 60 participants and a total of 9 games were made, making this game jam better than the previous one. All the management and execution of the event were handled by me alone, which you can imagine the amount of work involved, but it was worth the effort.

Here is the event: https://itch.io/jam/taller-game-jam-2025

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A needed flow at IGDA Peru

This year, there were changes at IGDA Peru. Some official members stepped down, and new members were incorporated, including me as co-president, with new responsibilities and duties. The Board Game Jam 2025 took place in September, which unfortunately had a smaller reach than expected, and a social meetup was organized at the beginning of the year. So… in simple terms, this year our work pace was very slow, with very few events organized and little internal activity. And well… the image and presence of the organization in the local industry is on the floor.

Currently the plan is to establish a list of events and internal activities for this year, as well as to fill areas with new members. We have quite a bit of work ahead of us in 2026.

Less time at my work, for worse.. or for the better?

In the middle of the year, there was a change that affected several of us teachers at Toulouse Lautrec: teaching hours were significantly reduced. I don’t know the exact reason, but I estimate it was due to the low number of enrolled students. This forced me to move to a lower hourly category and, therefore, receive lower pay. Interestingly, it came with some unexpected benefits: fewer teaching hours mean fewer classes to teach and, consequently, fewer assignments to evaluate and fewer additional activities to plan. This resulted in me having more free time and feeling much more comfortable. While I enjoy teaching classes, doing other unpaid activities is not pleasant.

I used this extra time to redo my web portfolio, review some documents, and relax a bit. Fortunately, I was earning enough to cover my expenses, but I was just barely surviving since I had almost no freelance work to do. I also think I should have made better use of that time by looking for commission work or developing new content.

My thoughts and goals

In my opinion, 2025 was a year with a fairly passive life, without strong or important changes, which is good… but also bad. And that is the point that worries me. Talking with friends and thinking quietly while lying on my bed made me identify something important about myself: my lack of ambition or desire for growth. I am very conformist and I suffer from depression and procrastination from time to time. And seeing how my friends continue to progress in their lives fills me with the desire to want to do the same, but I don’t take the first step. I don’t feel envy toward them, but I can’t stop comparing myself to them and feeling like a failure.

Continuing like this will be the worst outcome, because the day will come when my main life support disappears, and I feel that everything I have achieved will have been worth nothing. For that, I need to be ready.

I have some goals or activities that I have set for myself to accomplish this year. I won’t write the exact goals for private reasons, but you get the idea:

• Generate a higher income. Relying on my current job for this will not be possible, and I want my time to be more productive. For this, the creation of new products, activity on my platforms, and freelance work will be essential for now.
• Lose weight. I need to do physical activity, which will help my self-esteem in the long run.
• Produce Taller Game Jam 2026. I will do it again this year, in March. I am still thinking about what changes I can apply to make it better. Although it will once again be on my own, I am already considering getting support for the future.
• Renew my personal space. Changing my room environment can bring freshness into my life, boost my motivation, and it is not something complicated to do. I have already started by getting rid of things I will no longer use, especially clothes.
• Improve the image of IGDA Peru. It will be difficult, considering its current state, but it is not impossible. At the very least, I want to leave it organized and on the right path before stepping aside.

Conclusions

I feel that this past year was a year for reflection. To look at myself. To identify my current life and decide what to do with it and with my future. And it gave me a perspective that I can adopt, and I hope to stick with it throughout the year. Let’s see what the future has in store for us.

See you later.

I remade my portfolio website.

Cleaner and better organized. I needed this and I’m glad I did it. Although my knowledge in HTTP and CSS code is very limited, currently in the hosting plans there are tools that can make this work a lot easier.

Check it out: https://shackhal.com/

And give me feedback. Thanks.

Hello. Happy new year.

My last post here was at the end of 2023. It was a long time ago since then. And, to tell the truth, I didn’t followed my plans as it should have been. Well, let’s me tell you what happened this year.

Let’s begin with January. Two stuff happened that month: I got a job promotion with a better pay, and I was as staff inLima Game Jam, the local event connected to Global Game Jam. It was fun, with some interesting games made and some eventful situations.

Now, let’s go to May. In this month I executed the only plan I keep at the beginning of the year: Taller Game Jam. I begun developing this online event since November 2023 as a game jam for the local gamedev students. At the planned day, a total of 26 participants made 6 games around a theme. It was an good experience. One that I want to make again.

Also, some IGDA Perú events were handled around that time, between May and July. Like meetups, a talk event and the Board Game Jam. At least some activities were made for the community. But after that, I didn’t keep up with the community at all.

No meetups, no talks, no events. Nothing. Even more, I didn’t realize my plans to make more content, like game assets or expand my games. I don’t know why… or maybe I do. It could have been depression. Sometimes it happens, but it always soft so its temporal. Still, it’s a problem that I must fix as it affects me.

In August, I returned to my old job position. The new job came with a better pay, more teaching hours and some administrative work. The teaching hours were fine, but the administrative part? I didn’t like it. The project I was in charge in one moment ended up as a failure and I felt miserable. Just for 2 things I thought were fine. And it crossed my mind: If I continued that job… I would ended up hating it, including the teaching. So as soon my boss talked to me about it, I choose to return to my old position. Less pay but more happiness?? I guess. At least it means more time for myself for other stuff.

After that, it got better in September. As I had more free time, I begun to do freelance work again. It was part of my initial plans but, in contrast as before, I wanted to take it slowly. Sometimes it collided with my main work, but I still finish them as I could. And I kept it that way until now.

Finally, in December I decided to update Multi Platformer Tileset one more time. I saw that its tileset structure needed some changes. So I did that, and new tiles were made with it. And the holidays and that stuff.

This 2024 was a year with chances and changes. A few plans were keep, some were postponed and opportunities were tested. But to me what matter the most was that I learned something: to go at my own pace. The money is important, but if it comes with something I will hate, I will not want it.

Now, in 2025, I will do some freelance work and content at my pace. I will talk more about it in my Patreon. In case you wanna know about it, you can reach it there. Also, I gain weight recently so I must exercise but without paying for gym. And at least be more active in my local gamedev community.

Lastly, I will try to keep this place updated too. At least to relax my mind.

See you soon.

Hello everyone. Happy new year :D

2024 will be a year that, I hope, will be remembered by me, with some plans I have and said in my Patreon. But here I want to talk about what happened in 2023. Tons of stuff? Important ones? Maybe. But at least, it wasn’t forgetable.

Let’s begin then with January, as Global Game Jam came and I begun a diet. Here in Perú we have Lima Game Jam as a game jam event and this year it happened during my rest in the beach hahaha. Interestingly I was called to help there and, to tell you the truth, I was more interested in the event than the sand, sea and pool. So I went there. It was worth it, no doubt about it. After that, to the beach again for one more week. The bad news is that when I returned to my home on February, my PC’s Motherboard was dead for some reason. So I bought a new and cheaper one, as the money was lacking.

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On March, aside of becoming the Event Leader on IGDA Perú, I begun what I should have done a long time ago: to finish Multi Platformer Tileset. It was a good progress, until I stopped at end of April. I don´t remember why, to be honest. I also created my Patreon… and stopped using it at the same time with the project.

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On May, in IGDA Perú we begun the pre-work for Perú Games Showcase (PGS). And, as the Event Leader, I was in charge for its well-being. And the event was live on July for 2 days. It was good, surprisingly hahaha. I expected to not be good enough, but the public response was better than expected. There were some problems, but they were solved in time.

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On June, during PGS’s preparation, I begun my title degree process on Videogame Design. Yes, I studied that until 2021. It ended in early October and, after some tense moments, it went successfully! So, now I’m waiting for my cardboard. But I found some problems with my activities and, after finishing the title degree project, I stopped for a moment to think about my work ethics and ways to control my activities and time. I investigated on how to improve it and found out about Second Brain and the PARA Method. I though I could do use it with Notion, as I was using it for some simple stuff. So I made a kind of structure that works. Now I register my activities and stuff around it. At least it works for me, to not forget and have a way to reach my stuff, notes and proyects.

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Remember that I stopped finishing Multi Platformer Tileset and left Patreon abandoned? Well, that same month I retake them. And the last update was released on November, with some final comment and price change. I want to think it is a deserved rest. Not ideal, but it’s something. Btw, currently it’s on 35% off for Winter Sale.

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And at the last month, December, I begun to establish what are my plans for 2024. Also, I begun to prepare for a project I wanted to do since last year: a game jam for students. I won´t announce it here as it will be a local event, but at least I will post about the experience.

I think that’s all the important parts that happened to me in 2023. I still kept my diet and lost some weight, but I could have lose more if didn´t loose it from time to time. At least, I’m a better cook now hahaha. My important plans were posted in Patreon. In case you want to know them, you know what to do ;D

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This will be a year to remember to me. And I hope it’s the same to you too. So let’s do it, alright?

See you later.

Multi Platformer Tileset is 35% off for Black Friday, until Monday November 27th.

I hope this help you in your projects.

Hello,

A few days ago, I learned that Itch.io plans to make a Black Friday sale from November 24th to November 28th. So I though that I can make a sale for Multi Platformer Tileset. It will have a 35% off during all Black Friday Sale.

Of course, I will post when it’s live. get ready :D

The last update for Multi Platformer Tileset is out!! You can get it here: https://shackhal.itch.io/multi-platformer-tileset

It’s sad to let it go, but it is for the best. Thanks for the good moments, MPT. Now, let’s go for more projects.

Hello everyone.

It’s a long time ago since I made a proper post. Since April, I relegated my social media activities and projects…I don´t remember why. I can only think it’s because the damn procrastination. Fortunately I left it behind for now.

Also, since June I got busy with my thesis and getting a title in Game Development. And I finished successfully!! I already done my procedure, so in 6 months I should get it formally.

Now, as I got time in my hands and I recovered my motivation, I begun to organize my stuff. I’m trying to apply a method called Second Brain to organize my stuff. That includes my planned activities, projects, documents and more. The idea behind is to let your info and knowledge stay in one place and focus your capabilities and mind on productivity and creativity. I hope it works on me xD

Now, I left some projects on hiatus (because procrastination…) and I want to retake them, including the Remakes and doing some freelance work. But the most important right now is Multi Platformer Tileset. I left it very advanced, with some assets to add. And after that, it will be done. No more updates for it. It was a project I made in 2016 and I loved it. But I want to make new stuff, including more assets.

The last update of Multi Platformer Tileset will be live on November 6th, so wait for it… or get it before the update, as the price will increase one last time.

That’s it for now. Take care and see you later.