The first half of the year went rather ok, the second - not so good. From the current point of view it seems those were the worst twelve months since at least a couple of years, if not ever - various health issues of all our bunch made us fail to deliver multiple projects planned for 2022.

This is the eighth 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, and 2021.

Tradition of laughing while comparing what I wanted to do with Enclave Games in a given year versus what actually happened continues. — me in 2020

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

• New backend for js13kGames, growing the platform with the community. Please kill me and let’s be done with it already.
• Focus on Decentralized games - develop something on our own, but also create teaching materials, run game jams, events, and more. Continue to collaborate with OP Games on the Arcadians NFT project, and everything else they plan on doing revolving around Web 3 games. Tighten the partnerships with Protocol Labs, NEAR Protocol, and few other initiatives like Flux and 4Everland. Two Decentralized categories in Gamedev.js Jam 2022 and js13kGames 2022. No games, tutorials, or other events, not much tightening either to be honest.

• Gamedev.js Survey 2022, new Gamedev.js Weekly website and email template, Gamedev.js Jam 2022, Gamedev.js online meetups throughout the year (most probably about Web Monetization, js13kGames, and Decentralized games). Survey was conducted, Jam was held, but no new website and template for the Weekly though, and no Meetups at all.
• A few new Enclave Games creations, hopefully with Phaser 4. Exploring Triska theme as it seems people like our black cat Badlucky. Not a single new game, Phaser 4 is not out yet anyway, nothing with Badlucky.
• Don’t forget about speaking opportunities. Only a few - five to be precise. Three online, two offline (Cracow and Poznań), all about js13kGames.
• Have fun with games. Well… not quite.

Not entrely doom and gloom, but you get the picture. Ok, let’s look at the past twelve months in detail and see what bad, ok, and good things had happened to our gamedev company.

Bad things

No new backend for js13kGames, I will keep pushing until it happens or I die trying.

The Open HTML5 Games placeholder turned into the Web3 Gamedev School placeholder. Go figure.

Nothing at all was happening around the Gamedev.js meetups in Poland.

No new games. No Hat Tricks, Badlucky, Clippy, or Mona. Only a Halloween level in Flood Escape which took, like, two days to make.

Ok things

Attempts were made, but nothing came out of them for the Gamedev.js Weekly newsletter - new website unfinished, no new template. I suck at project managing, big time. The only good thing is the consistency in sending the issues every Friday (despite incidents happening), because I’m doing that myself. Number of subscribers didn’t move at all though, open and click rates went down a bit.

We haven’t launched our online swag shop yet, but beside the usual printing and shipping of js13kGames t-shirts, we also did print Enclave Games hoodies (and tote bags) for ourselves. That’s something, right?

Gamedev.js Survey, although some of the questions (and answers) were slightly out-of-date, was conducted, and results published.

Good things

Gamedev.js Jam went well, with the number of attendees and submitted games growing slowly, but steadily.

I wasn’t very active with the speaking opportunities, but some related stuff happened like attending a few JavaScript conferences, meetups, online panels, spotlights, round tables, and such. I was in the JS Gamedev Summit’s Program Committee, actively discussed various topics at multiple W3C Games Community Group meetups, and assisted with Kernel 5. My GitHub Star status was renewed, my Breakout game ended up in Eclipse, and my other game landed in a master thesis.

Another edition of js13kGames happened. Even though the number of participants compared to a few previous years dropped, I still think it went well, given how many top quality entries we got in 2022. The old website was used to submit entries, but there was a new voting app this time.

Plans for 2023

Finish and release some games, hopefully - ours as the priority, but client work might also happen if there’s a need for that.

Launch an online store with swag - mostly js13kGames t-shirts, but also Enclave Games hoodies, Gamedev.js mugs, and such.

Yes, I’m gonna say write it out loud: new js13kGames backend. Also, release two js13k related eBooks for the 2023 edition.

Gamedev.js with the usual stuff - Survey 2023, Jam 2023, Weekly’s new website. No online meetups in plans though, and no offline meetups in Warsaw as well.

Continue exploring the Decentralized topic with current partners, but also make new connections. Launch Web3 Gamedev School and follow up with some basic demos and tutorials.

Not much speaking in plans either.

Survive and don’t go broke or insane.