The GOTYs got messy, but that’s not why this week was so weird | MyWeek #1
A strange week full of news: GOTY, unexpected moves in the industry, AI improving like crazy, bizarre finds on Kickstarter, and progress on my projects. A quick rundown of the highlights.
This week had a bit of everything. From GOTY nominations and relevant AI news from Google, to an Xbox event, interesting podcasts, a Unity event, and several other things.
And besides watching all that, I also managed to make progress on my projects. Here goes the weekly recap.
Developer
Unity event:
I haven’t watched the whole event yet. It’s on my list because I want to go through not only the main keynote but also all the hangouts and the roadmap.
The main thing is a very relevant announcement: Unity and Epic have reached an agreement that will allow us to create content for Fortnite directly from Unity, to put it as simply as possible.
It will take time to see the consequences, but I’m sure this will completely change the life of more than one person who manages to build a big success story. But there will also be people who won’t make a great indie game because they spend their time expanding something owned by a third party. In the end, the choice is personal.
Gemini 3 + Antigravity and GPT 5.1 codex max:
I wouldn’t call myself an AI fan, but I’m definitely not a hater. Right now what I use the most is GPT’s Codex mode in Visual Studio Code, which since release felt by far like the best thing I’d ever seen.
My main use is pair programming. I write the code and make queries about alternatives, optimizations, or bug fixes. But I’m not doing vibe coding or pasting autogenerated code.
This week GPT released an improvement to Codex. After initial tests, I’ve noticed a clear upgrade especially in how it structures tasks and the clarity of answers.
On the other hand, Gemini is dominating among AI influencers, and the examples I’ve seen look very promising. In terms of coding I’ve only done a few tests with the new Antigravity IDE, but it also gave me a sense of substantial improvement—so much that I’m considering making a small new project exclusively using Google as a test.
Free assets:
Every day I check Unity’s store and Epic’s FAB for new stuff. Here’s a small selection of recent freebies:
Leds.
Interesting podcast:
I really enjoyed the new episode from well-known YouTuber Thomas Brush, who invited Edmund McMillen & Tyler Glaiel to his podcast.
If you like indie games in general, it’s a must-watch.
Gaming
GOTY nominations:
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but the GOTYs are my favorite event of the year. I always watch them alone at home while binging junk food and writing down new games to follow.
And I like them so much that I end up rewatching the whole thing at least four more times (not an exaggeration), each time on a different creator’s channel to see their reactions.
But now it’s time to comment on the nominations… and honestly, I think they’re overall very solid. I’d obviously make some changes, but everyone always has their own preferences.
I would have nominated Silksong far less. To me it’s a commercial title inflated by a once-in-a-lifetime meme. It’s a good game… but it’s just another one in the pile.
There’s also an excess of Death Stranding, but that’s because there’s an excess of Kojima fans worldwide, especially in the press.
Dispatch missing from several categories bothered me.
And Expedition… for me it is indie! For a very simple reason: money doesn’t matter. What matters is whether the game is made exactly the way the creators want, or if people in suits are making decisions for non-artistic reasons. And this is easily the most artistic game of recent years.
Apple nominations:
It’s not just the GOTYs. Every year Apple publishes its own list of best apps by category and platform.
Best iPhone game: Capybara Go!, Pokémon TCG Pocket, and Thronefall.
Based on my playtime, I’d vote for Pokémon TCG Pocket.
Best iPad game: Dredge, Infinity Nikki, and Prince of Persia Lost Crown.
Voting for Dredge would be the popular choice, but if commercial success is part of the criteria, I’d give it to Infinity Nikki despite the controversies.
Best Mac game: Assassin's Creed Shadows, Cyberpunk 2077, and Neva.
What a list… one bad game, one old game, and one beautiful Spanish niche game. In a serious vote, I’d always pick Cyberpunk 2077.
Best Apple Arcade games of 2025: Katamari Damacy Rolling Live, PGA Tour Pro Golf, What the Clash?
I don’t like any of them. Not even a little.
Best Apple Vision Pro game:
Since I can’t buy the device in Spain, I’m not even commenting on the list.
xbox partner preview:
I watch all game conferences. Every major one without exception, and this Xbox Partner Preview was no different.
What I find curious is that they still exist now that Xbox has basically become just another publisher rather than a platform. I bet this specific format won’t last much longer.
Ironically, as a partner preview, this was one of the best I can remember. Lots of new titles (including the new Vampire game) and especially that incredible new trailer for Tides of Annihilation.
Kickstarter
In the early days of the platform I visited often and backed all kinds of projects.
When it grew and became filled with purely commercial projects, with truly interesting indie stuff becoming the exception, I stopped paying attention.
All that was before videogames dominated the platform. Now I think Kickstarter is worse than ever overall, but at the same time you always know there’s a chance to find something truly interesting.
That’s why I’ll dedicate a weekly section to highlight what stood out to me in the videogame category—the only one I check daily.
I include this one just to point out the nonsense. You create a project and set the goal at €50. What’s the point?
I assume the strategy is to deceive? Hoping that the moment it’s instantly funded, the algorithm will promote it and people will join without checking?
Or you want to build a profile with a track record of “funded” projects?
Not sure, but all thoughts I have are negative.
Similar, but different. The goal is €404, but here it’s obvious the idea is to make a free-to-play. So publishing it, getting visibility, and maybe scraping something…
Streamer-backed project. They asked for 3k and got around 7k. But the funny part is their “real” expectations shown in a table going from 50k to 3 million.
It’s very strange: they mention 90 streamers, but also that the game is made by a solo dev with very little experience.
Feels like it actually underperformed compared to what they had in mind.
Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/buriedcandy/the-calling-1?total_hits=181&category_id=35
When I was around 14/15, I loved Cálico Electrónico, a Flash series that started as marketing for a shop and became a cult hit among Spanish geeks.
Coincidentally, the creator has launched a game seeking at least 8k (currently at 4.5k). The game stars secondary characters that parody Doraemon.
The proposal itself didn’t appeal to me, but it sparked a lot of nostalgia because I used to watch every episode of that classic series.
Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nikotxan/pollo-x-la-pasta
Link to Cálico: https://calicoelectronico.com/
Otros
The Mighty Nein
New series from Critical Role on Amazon. I’m not really a fan of the group—I haven’t watched their campaigns—but everything they do outside of that, like Dispatch or Vox Machina, is fantastic.
These first three episodes of The Mighty Nein feel denser and set in a deeper universe, but so far the characters don’t feel as charismatic as the Vox Machina crew.
Stargate returns!
It might look like I’m an Amazon fan, but it’s pure coincidence. I can’t ignore the announcement of the return of this legendary sci-fi saga.
As a kid I loved it, and as a teen I watched all the series from beginning to end.
More Arcane behind the scenes
I wish we had this kind of content for many more games.
My projects
Manager eSports:
My biggest progress is the subnavigation system. For example, when entering the “Club” section there’s now a second button bar with its respective options.
I designed the system so adding/removing options doesn’t require duplicated code.
Clicker Hacker:
I finished all the minimum gameplay features, the latest being passive point generation. Now I’m refactoring the entire core because I had one massive manager that I can split into at least two scripts with clear responsibilities.
Fixed a small visual bug.
Improved performance on pagespeed.web.dev: from 79, 95, 73, 92 to 100 across the board. The main change was removing the Substack iframe; the rest were smaller adjustments such as:
- optimizing all images via kraken.io
- aspect-ratio tweaks
- improving color contrast and device-specific image loading
I also added tags, reading time, and dates to posts, plus a hero banner for posts related to a specific project.
Devlog #1:
I published my first formal devlog for Clicker Hacker. You can see it here: https://senseisolodev.com/en/posts/clicker-hacker-devlog-1-en/
And that’s it for my first general weekly recap. My process is simple: every time I see something I find interesting I jot it down in a rough notes draft, and on Sunday I put everything together and publish it.