Why I still blog after 15 years ★

Why I started the blog

I started this blog because I wanted to create a bunch of fast game prototypes and I wanted somewhere I could write about my plans and, ultimately, the games.

You see, I was a budding programmer and I wanted to learn how to program by making a game. Not a simple game like Tetris—that would be way too sensible—no, I wanted to make a big RTS game, like StarCraft or Supreme Commander. And to do that you needed a game engine.

So I got stuck developing my engine with truly groundbreaking features such as:

• A menu with keyboard and mouse support.
• A console you could bring up with F2 where you could update variables (such as unit speed) without having to recompile.
• You could select units with proper Ctrl, Shift, and right click behavior.

… But, embarrassingly, I didn’t have anything even resembling a game, and with the development speed I had I doubt I’d be finished to this day.

I’d gotten stuck in the Game Engine Trap, and I hated it.

Then I found The Experimental Gameplay Project (of World of Goo fame) that promoted the idea that you should be able to create a game prototype in just 7 days. That sounded like the perfect cure against the Game Engine Trap, so I created this blog to document my progress.

Why I’ve continued to blog

While the blog fulfilled it’s initial purpose as I developed around a dozen game prototypes that got me out of the Game Engine Trap (and that gave me a small “game engine” library at the end), I soon started write about other things.

There are a number of reasons I continued to blog:

1. I enjoy writing.

   I realize now that the biggest reason I blog is that I enjoy the writing process. I can’t put my finger on why, I just generally like it.

   This isn’t always true though and I’ve had years where I’ve barely written anything at all (2022 for example). Sometimes I’ve had to force myself to write something.

   I guess the motivation ebbs and flows sometimes.

2. Writing helps me think more clearly and helps me flesh out ideas.

   The act of writing something down helps me find errors in my thinking and helps me consider different viewpoints. Rewriting the text you’ve written has a similar benefit to refactoring your code; your thoughts will be more polished afterwards.

3. Publishing something forces me to do better.

   If I’m going to put something out there I’m going to re-read and rework my text/code/ideas more than if I had kept it for myself. (Even if nobody will read your posts, the mere act of putting something out there has this effect I think.)

   For example, my custom keyboard layout wouldn’t have been nearly as well-developed if I hadn’t published it for everyone to see.

   Being more thoughtful about how I write is something I’ve become more cognizant of as the years have gone by. My first posts where little more than a stream of thoughts, while the larger posts I gravitate towards today have gone through multiple revisions and rewrites before I publish them.

4. The blog is a place to document my personal projects.

   Over the years I’ve done other projects, such as built a 3D printer and wrote a book. It’s nice to have a place where I can write about them.

5. Looking at a log of things I’ve done makes me feel better.

   I’ve been doing a small yearly review every year where I try to list the highlights of the past year. It’s been super helpful for me as it helps counteract the depressing feeling that nothing has happened and that I haven’t done anything.

   Doing a yearly review of some sort is a practice I highly recommend everyone to try, and of course you don’t have to publish it for everyone to see.

6. I enjoy developing the blog as a project that exclusively solves my problems.

   Programming is my biggest hobby and I can’t see myself ever stopping. The blog is a great project as it’s something that exists only for me so I can rewrite, refactor, and add whatever silly features I want and I only have myself to answer to. It’s a nice feeling.

7. Blogging helps me become a better writer, which in turns helps me become a better developer.

   I think communicating well is an important and underrated part of being an effective software developer. Writing well is a skill that can be developed by practice, and maintaining a blog is a pretty good way to practice I’d say.

Evolution of the tech stack

One of the reasons I’ve been blogging so long is that I’ve been able to play around with the tech stack of the blog. I’ve changed the tech stack a number of times; from choosing languages I wanted to learn, to a boring setup that “just works”, and back again.

At the moment the blogging software is a whole project in and of itself (by design; it’s a fun project to tinker with).

Posts have changed focus and increased in scope

It probably comes as no surprise that my posts have changed a lot since I started the blog. I made the above visualization that counts the words of each post and plots them on a time axis, together with loose grouping of the type of post.

I have two main takeaways:

1. The posts have grown larger and more ambitious.

   In the beginning I treated the blog almost like a Twitter/X feed with short updates on my game making progress. Now I spend weeks or even months slowly working away on a post until I feel it’s interesting and polished enough to publish.

2. As my interests have changed, so has the focus of my posts.

   I only write about my hobbies or things that I’m interested in at that moment so it’s only natural that the theme of the posts have changed. Gaming related posts have given way for more programming and the occasional meat-space related project.