Mersey Remakes

So, I won an award last week. The 2009 Rodent Award for Pure Indie Thrills. I wanted to be there in person, not to say thank you for an award (for a start, I wasn’t even aware of said award) but to say thank you to the chaps over at Rodent who’ve been an inspiration for most of my time making games, to be able to put faces to names outside of the odd posted on the internet photograph and to get incredibly drunk in good company.

As it was, I couldn’t be there. One of the awkward things about being me is that I can’t really plan anything, I never quite know what’s going to crop up at home. And so, with all the will in the world I couldn’t attend. This made me a bit sad, admittedly, not just because I appear to have missed out on a great night out but because saying thank you is important. Not forgetting people is important.

2009 brought with it the usual chaos, I can’t remember the last time I had anything close to what you might call an uneventful year and sure enough, 2009 brought its own share of ups and downs to the table. Things went especially tits towards the end of the year, what with being rushed into hospital on the night I was supposed to be celebrating my 34th year on this planet and the financial drain that caused. Yet despite all that, I ended up sitting there on New Years Eve not lamenting at how horrid life can be but happy, satisfied and thankful. I may have had no internet access, I may have only had 60p in the bank but 2009 was a year to be incredibly thankful for.

I do believe that upon receiving an award, it’s the done thing to offer up a list of thanks. So, y’know, who am I to break with tradition?

On a personal note.

I’m thankful for the surgeons who took care of my wife in the early part of the year and made sure that we’re still together. Thank you to them all.

I’m thankful for the hospital staff who took care of me and made sure I wasn’t going anywhere either. Thank you to them all.

I’m thankful for the teachers and school staff who’ve helped my kid start to thrive and become his own little man (and the greatest 5 year old beta tester there is). Thank you to them all.

I’m thankful for my wife, who is not only as lovely as a lovely thing but doesn’t just tolerate what I do in my spare time but encourages and supports it too. Thank you Mrs Bob.

I’m thankful for my best mate, a chap called Darren who doesn’t really venture out into the realms of online communities much but has been a constant source of support and fun for over 15 years now and has been eternally ace.

Without all of these people, I wouldn’t be able to make games in my spare time. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do, I wouldn’t be sitting here comfortable in bed typing this post out now if it weren’t for the stuff that they do. And I’m thankful every day for that. All that stuff alone, I’d offer a million thanks.

The thing is, whilst I couldn’t do these things on a day to day basis without the above folks I mentioned, there’s these other folks – just as important – that I’m thankful for. The ones who’ve all helped make me want to continue doing what I do. Chances are, if you’re reading this now, that means you’re probably one of those people. You’re part of the reason I continue to do what I do. So, I thank you.

I’m thankful to Rodent, not just for being a place where it’s accepted that creative is just something people are but for being a place that hasn’t once failed to raise a daily smile in all the years of visiting it and has gotten me through some pretty rough patches where grinning was a struggle.

I’m thankful to the Retro Remakes mob, the place on this internet I call home because it’s filled with ace people doing ace things and I love them one and all. Without them I wouldn’t just not be making games, I wouldn’t be a tenth as happy as I am. Thank you.

Thank you to David Hayward of Pixel Lab who not only put my games on show but managed to facilitate me finally getting to meet some of the folks from RR and Rodent in Leeds last year and gave me the opportunity to meet someone whose work means a great deal.

Thank you to Terry Cavanagh, Mr Lavelle, Jeff and Giles of Llamasoft, Matt James, Charlie Knight, Anna Anthropy, Jon Blow and a few others for being an inspiration and an education and helping me make games in more ways than they’d ever know.

Thank you to Stu Campbell for the squirrel highlight of 2009.

Thank you to Andy Noble for making SYNSO on a console a reality.

Thank you to all the folks at Zombie Cow for being fab. Especially to Nick. I love you Nick.*

Thank you to every journalist, online or otherwise who’s featured my games somewhere. Be it in best of lists, in passing or in review.

Thank you to everyone who downloaded my games over the past couple of years, everyone who ever posted a comment on them be it favourable or nay.

Thank you to everyone who despite having no obligation to do so, put their hands in their pockets and helped the me making games things easier and less stressful to do.

Thank you. All of you. I don’t say it nearly enough but you’re great and I do appreciate you. You’re fab. Cheers!

To 2010 and all it may bring. Onwards!

*it’s a Left4Dead thing…

Now we’re getting somewhere…

Click to embiggen.

…yes, we know Bioshock did not do anything with the whole moral choice thing. I got bored of hearing that trotted out about 5 seconds after the game was released, still beating that drum two years later is tedious. Get over it, move on. It wasn’t important then and it’s not important now.

Mumble. Grumble. Shurrupalready.