Enclave Games in 2023, and plans for 2024

The past year was difficult for us on many levels, but the last two months were a little bit optimistic. Let’s look at the details of the twelve months that passed in Enclave Games, see exactly how 2023 went, and make some reasonable plans for 2024.

This is the ninth Yearly Report already - make sure to check the previous ones if you want to learn more about our history: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Let’s start by reviewing the plans we had a year ago:

• Finish and release some games. Nope, not a single one.
• Launch an online store with swag. Yeah, the JS13K one, finally.
• New js13kGames backend. Also, two eBooks for the 2023 edition. No, and double no.
• Gamedev.js with the usual stuff: Survey, Jam, Weekly’s new website. Jam was ok, but Survey done in the last month of the year, and no website.
• Continue exploring the Decentralized topic. Launch Web3 Gamedev School. Not much, and no.
• Survive and don’t go broke or insane. Well… kind of.

I clearly want too much from life.

Now, a quick recap of 2023, month-by-month (brand new thing this year):

• January: ChatGPT articles on Gamedevjs.com
• February: js13kGames swag shipped, my GitHub Star status renewed, updated NSHex Counter with Pirates
• March: Gamedev.js Jam preparations, me becoming W3C Games CG co-chair
• April: Gamedev.js Jam happening, Gamedev.js Shop launched, WC Games meetup about MESIG
• May: Gamedev.js Jam announcing winners and sending prizes
• June: Hat Tricks jam demo, W3C Games meetup about Defold, EPT updated to Phaser 3.60
• July: js13kGames preparations
• August: Gamedev.js Weekly hits 500 issues, js13kGames happening
• September: js13kGames voting, JS Gamedev Summit
• October: js13kGames winners and prizes, testing Neuroshima Hex on Steam
• November: attending GitHub Nova and Universe in San Francisco, W3C Games meetup about Godot
• December: Gamedev.js Survey conducted

Let’s look at the past year in detail and see what bad, ok, and good things had happened to our gamedev company.

Bad things

No new js13kGames backend yet again, although there was some work done. The Awards Ceremony had to be cancelled as I couldn’t host it.

No new games, not a single one. I did rewrite the Hat Tricks game idea by changing the gameplay, but ended up spending only a few days on it for a game jam, and didn’t follow afterwards.

Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter don’t have the new website even though the design was completed a long time ago already.

Web3 Gamedev School is still just a placeholder.

I haven’t used GitHub Copilot at all, since there was no coding opportunities - beside Hat Tricks demo, which was for a jam happening a few days anyway.

Ok things

No local meetups in Warsaw, and no online events as well, but I wasn’t planning anything anyway, so it’s not in the “bad” list.

Same for my public speaking - dropped it and focused on other things. I won’t have time even for half the things I’d like to do, so I need to pick and choose.

Gamedev.js Survey 2023 was done very late, I was even considering dropping it entirely. Fortunately enough, we’ve launched a compressed edition (submission open for two weeks instead of a month) and got more surveys than in previous (two) years, so that was cool.

Good things

The js13kGames 2023 competition happened as usual, even though running on the same old backend, with prices rising for everything, and while experiencing difficulties getting sponsorships on top of all that. We’ve received a similar number of entries than last year, which is good.

The Gamedev.js Jam 2023 was a success, with record breaking number of participants joining, games submitted, and votes cast. We had six extra challenges with dedicated rules, experts, and prizes for each.

The Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter is still being sent every single Friday. The number of subscribers is not growing much, but it’s also not declininig - I’m not gonna complain, especially that the marketing budget is still zero.

We’ve lunched Gamedev.js Shop with two designs: one generic and the other following the Time theme from 2023 edition of the Jam, and added the Weekly one celebrating 500 issues of the newsletter.

I joined W3C Games Community Group as co-chair to help move the group forward with more regular online meetups.

I flew to San Francisco for the GitHub Nova and Universe conferences, where I was invited for continuing to be part of the GitHub Stars program.

Plans for 2024

I guess I need to reduce my plans for 2024 as there were a lot of nopes when reviewing plans made for 2023. Need to chill a bit and don’t expect too much, but still try to cross out the things from the TODO list one by one and try to move forward. Play it safe and it should be ok.

We plan to build and release some games, hopefully with the help from Copilot.

Continue organizing Gamedev.js Jam, conduct Survey earlier than in the last month, and send Weekly newsletter regularly in 2024.

Organize the 13th anniversary edition of the js13kGames competition, release those two planned eBooks.

Launch Web3 Gamedev School and explore decentralization further.

The biggest focus on delivering is the jam and the competition, as those shouldn’t be moved or cancelled.