2025 wrapup

2025 is coming to an end. A lot of things happened for me. I wanted to write a wrap-up and project myself into 2026 with all the new projects.

Working at 6it.dev

After the initial rush of end of 2024 right after CppCon, I needed to rebalance my work-life balance to be able to continue to work at 6it. I can’t really talk about what I am working on, but I could take the time to learn a lot about C++ and API design, as well as production management that I put into practice at SAE Institute with my students.

However, one of the big challenges of the beginning of the year was to not push myself to work too much. When freelancing, as we might get tired, we’re thinking of taking the afternoon off, but a simple multiplication of the hour with the hourly rate gives us a cost of a break. I needed to learn not to take this into consideration and that if I needed a break, I should take that break. I think that I have found the balance that works for me.

ADDON

This year I went again to ADDON in Rennes, France, and for detail, you can read my post about it here. I really enjoyed the time there and to learn new things. I was very thankful to meet Thomas Poulet who famously wrote the frame analysis of Ni No Kuni 2. I gave a translated and updated version of my CppCon 2024 talk about multiplayer game and using rollback. It was also a nice opportunity to take some days off in Paris.

Marathon de Genève

Running a marathon was last year resolution and in the end, I ran the Fribourg by Night trail which was a lot of fun, but also a good realization that after about 2 hours, my body is completely empty and I need a lot of supplies during a long race.

So I registered for the Geneva Marathon in May as a challenge, not really knnowing how it would look like. Maybe one regret is that the training might have not been to the best for a marathon as I was counting on my mental to make me go through.

So fast forward to May the 11th, in the morning, a very sunny day, packed with supplies at the starting line. When the race began, I did not rush, did not try to follow the people too much, trusted my heartbeat and my footstep. All went good, until I crossed the middle mark.

My legs started to cramp, so I needed to slow down, making the struggle for the marathon really start. This race was really emotional, I was switching music style when needed, I could see the Mont Blanc. Except for the feed zone, I would not stop running, even though I was running pretty slowly. The closer that I was from Geneva the harder it got. Finally I could see the lake.

But my pain was not over as they were still a bit less than 10k to run. My gf sheered me up in Genève-Plage. Then N. Siorak ran with me in Bel-Air. The hardest part was the last 2k with a loop in Les Pâquis where I was running with someone that was going just a bit too fast for me. I sprinted to the end! ANd I finished my first marathon. It took me about half an hour to recover (my belly was not happy). And I did 5:09:18, next time better!

Sierre-Zinal

People who train marathon usually have a small downtime or depression after the event, as the main goal of the year is done, but I registered for an even crazier race this year after the marathon, so I could not stop training just yet.

Registration happened in April and because of the amount of people who wants to register, I needed to be ready on time. When the register button appeared, I instantly clicked and needed to wait 1 hour and 15 minutes to be able to register. I finally had the confirmation, so off to the race.

Sierre-Zinal happened on August the 9th, during a heatwave. Fortunately, my race started at 6:45am, so temperature was at around 20°C. I needed to take a train at 2am. When on board, I realized that I forgot my small trail bag that I had during Geneva Marathon… Unfortunately, I could not go back at home to get my bag and nobody could go back to my place to get it for me and bring it to me on time for the race. In the end, I found a way to bring most of my heavy stuff to the arrival, but used my bigger bag to go up for the first part.

The first part of Sierre-Zinal goes from Sierre to Chandolin. It goes up about 1500m so it is considered the first half of the race. The slope is very intense as soon as we leave Niouc. I practice this part with N. Siorak, so I knew what to expect. However, there is a little but important detail…

My mom was expecting to arrive in Chandolin at 9:55, with me leaving at 6:45, I had 3 hours to go up. However, when practicing, it took 3 hours and a half from Sierre train station, and we were walking and taking break. So there was a point during my climb that I needed to slow down, not running, otherwise I would have needed to wait half an hour in Chandolin to give my bag. Like in the hike, I could enjoy the view and the moment.

In the end, I waited about ten minutes, quick supply fill, giving my back, putting some sunscream and I was ready to go. The real race started now. I felt fresh after going pretty slow on the first “half”, but there was still a lot of kilometers to do, and the sun was hitting hard. Fortunaley, we were high in altitude ~2337m for the hotel Weisshorn.

It kept going up! Until finally, it went down, Zinal coming closer. I was feeling much better than the marathon as I was alternating between running and walking. But the hardest part for me was the sudden way down to Zinal. I should definitely practice it for next time. It was so steep and my legs were too sour that I could not go as fast as I wanted. Finally, arriving in the village, I simply sprinted with the slope and arrived after 7:21:40.

I told my mom I would arrive at around 3:30pm, but I arrived at 2:30pm. Like the marathon, I needed half an hour to be able to walk again. After a meal, we finally took the bus to bring us back to Sierre where the heat was waiting for us. You can find the video of my race here.

BIC Fest + awards

A few days after Sierre-Zinal, I took the plane to South Korea, to showcase Beach Slap at BIC festival in Busan (I wrote about it here). Before that, my gf helped me localize the game to korean, so Beach Slap became 해변의 귓방망이 (which sort of translate to “Slap to ear of the beach”). This title made it very successful, as the title is very funny in korean (everytime I tell the title, I get a big laugh out of korean players).

We got the E-sport Excellence Award which is rewarding multiplayer competitive game (and that’s me giving a slap to the public). It was the first award that we ever got at Team KwaKwa which was a first sign for us that we were onto something with Beach Slap. There is still a long way ahead before the release, but getting a recognition is always nice.

Korean trip

I enjoy some good time in Korea afterwards. Thanks to 6it full-remote policy, I could enjoy a half-work half-holiday trip. I went all around Korea, from Gangneug to Gwangju, Gyeongju and Jeonju, of course Seoul. I could buy a few second-hand games, update to the Nintendo Switch 2. The heat was often unbearable, but AC makes it livable, especially to sleep. I ate so much… I saw my first baseball match, went to the sea, did a small hike in Daegu, did countless hours in buses and trains. Looking forward for the next time.

Herofest + SAE convention + Stunfest

In October, we went to showcase Beach Slap at Herofest in Bern and in Rennes for Stunfest. I already wrote about it here. Seeing David Wise was a high point of this year, of course, it reminded me of Soup Raiders and I sohuld probably write about what I think made the project stop (in terms of design). We won a prize again, which surprised us again, but it means that we are onto seomthing with Beach Slap.

I had a week end of October when I took the train to go to Leukerbad, Koln, Geneva, Paris and Rennes. I like travelling by train, but this week was intense. I think what I really like with train’s travel is that I can just take my computer and start to code or write, which is harder for me in a plane. Also I can take a break and just look outside. Stunfest and SAE convention have something of nostalgia for me. I remember the campus in Koln the first year I went to SAE convention being a rookie and Stunfest around the same time when I was starting to showcase Splash Blast Panic. Those two events have a different taste now, we won the SAE awards this year and the talks were all about AI and Stunfest is way smaller in scope than back in 2018.

Graphics Programming Conference

I already wrote about it here, but what I really liked with this conference, compared to other conferences I went to, was that it was pushing my technical boundries. I want to try new things in computer graphics, but I also want to try new things in teaching! As the tech world is changing to more AI and CPU and GPU now adds NPU, I am also questionning how and where I should push my efforts. In the end, I am a game developer and I just want to make new games and sometimes also tell stories. So the new cool tech is only interesting for me from two points of view, as a teacher or a game developer, and both have different means and goals. In the end, I came back home with my head full of ideas.

Spelkollektivet

While my gf was going to see her family during the Winter Holidays, I decided to spend this period at Spelkollektivet, a community of game developers living in the Swedish countryside, sort of like an incubator of game companies. While the perspective of being with complete strangers for one week and half sort of pertrified me, I still decided to go, such that I could spend some time to work on my own projects: Beach Slap and Welcome at Houdini’s.

This was also the opportunity to get back to working out, as there was a gym available and I decided that I would go there everyday. I tried for the first time to run on a treadmill, one time with full incline and one time as flat surface. I did some sword practice as well, which was a lot of fun.

It felt good to be back at the gym, lifting some weights, pushing myself. As I did not need to focus on anything else than my games and the gym, I felt like in paradise. It even snowed.

I was afraid that I would mostly be on my own as I don’t like to mingle anymore. I think that came from my big trip to Japan in 2022 (some photos here). I spent there 5 weeks, mostly by myself and enough though solitude was hard, I kinda got used to be with myself, work on my things ad I feel frustrated when gets on my way. But more recently, I started to question myself and got to spend more time with dear friends, going out of my bubble (Spelkollektivet being one of those decisions). Finally, on the last day when departing, I had a few homies coming to say good bye, and I actually felt happy to have spent some time there. As I said to James: “I was productive and more happy to be at Spelkollektivet than at home.”

Next year?

So that was 2025, what about 2026? I plan to release a few games, Beach Slap being the main one, Welcome at Houdini’s and some other small projects. I think I finally pass the depression period after Soup Raiders. I love making games. I just spent a whole week and a half doing that in Sweden and I could have go on forever (but reality comes back). It will also be a year of change, I don’t know exactly how, but I want to try some things (like this blog here). I need to keep in shape, what is going to be my new objectives, marathon and/or trianthlon of Lausanne? We’ll see.

Conclusion

At the end of 2025, I felt lazy. I did not do enough sport (while I still did a marathon and a mountain race), I did not work hard enough (even though I have technically three jobs) or I did not improve enough. There is a point where I can’t push myself more than what’s possible, so I need to accept my shortcomings. Let me continue to try more for 2026.