How Far We’ve Come, How Far We’ll Go - 2025 Channel Update
Let’s take a look at CoderNunk’s channel in the future!
Hey everyone! I hope you’ve had a fantastic end to your 2024! This is just a quick update video to share what’s in store for this channel in 2025, along with some personal updates. I kept the video simple this time with some background footage of working on 3D modeling, so I hope that’ll keep you company during the updates.
Returning to Work
Let’s begin the video with updates regarding my employment and financial situation. If you’ve been following my journey thus far, you’ll know that I was looking to start an IT consulting business a few months ago, called Nunkware Digital. My original vision was to help game studios with websites, cloud infrastructure, databases and other IT related problems through this new company. This would also be a way to ease myself back into the workforce and make an income again while I started building a network in the game industry.
After a few months of working with a coach, a marketing team, and a single client, Nunkware ended up not working out. Even if it did work, it just wasn’t for me anyway. But that’s totally OK! When I quit my job in 2023, my goal was to try out all kinds of different things. So learning it wasn’t a good fit is better than getting stuck with something I dreaded.
As far as why Nunkware didn’t work out, it came down to over-niching and marketing. I liked the idea of helping game studios make the best use of their software, as I’ve seen many process inefficiencies in my heyday, but it’s really hard to find someone who actually wants to spend the money on that. This is especially true in the games industry, where there’s many different studios of varying income sizes. Trying to convince a smaller developer that they could have their website redone is a tough sell, especially when the money’s tight in the first place.
The final nail in the coffin though was my feelings toward the marketing process. As mentioned before, I sought out professional help to set up a LinkedIn profile along with some cold email outreach. I know that their methods have helped plenty of people succeed, including my business coach, but I personally did not jive with the way I was represented in the marketing materials. Plus, I’ve already sunk quite a bit of money into this, so I wanted to cut things off before I spent more, given none of the marketing panned out anyway.
The bright side of all this though is that it made me realize that working a full-time job in a normal capacity is a much better fit for me than I used to believe. Even at rock bottom when I left two years ago, it had less to do with my job and more to do with the lingering sleep and mental issues I’ve had for so long. Since working through a good amount of it, I feel much better about returning to my old job with the stability that comes with it.
Before the two-year break, I saw my struggles with structure as a personal failing. After talking more openly about my issues and getting professional help, I learned that these struggles are due to real health issues and do not reflect who I am as a person. Part of getting older is the realization that your health will change, and it’ll affect your life in drastic ways sometimes. I was not prepared to see my own motivation and energy dry up so much, regardless of how much I tried. That being said, creativity thrives within constraints, and it just gives me an opportunity to solve a unique problem.
After this realization, I decided to reach out to some of my old bosses, and they pulled out all the stops to bring me back. I’m very fortunate to have had a great relationship with many of them, so seeing them go through the effort was such a heartwarming experience. So later this month, I’ll be returning to my former employer full-time for a second try. This will bring some much needed financial stability, but it’ll also bring structure and better opportunities to work on my health.
I know that returning to full-time work will reduce the time I have to make videos. However, I do think that it’ll work out well in the long run. The improved structure means I won’t have to stress about perfection in my side projects as much. In addition, I’ll have some money that I can invest into this channel as well as Arra World to help them be the best they can be. I’d love to see if I can get help from potential editors, content strategists and even game developers down the line. So while my schedule will take a hit, it may not even be that much of one (since I’ve really haven’t been consistent to begin with), and I’ll have even more flexibility to make great things.
Content Strategy
That being said about my return to work, what can we expect in regards to content on this channel in 2025?
Of course, given I’ll need some time to acclimate myself to the new schedule, I do not expect to upload much in the short term. However, I am not slated to return to work until the end of January at the earliest due to the hiring process, so I will have some time initially to make some content. My plan here then is to tackle some additional 3D modeling concepts I didn’t cover before, such as retopology and UV mapping. I decided to go back and make some improvements to Kaila’s 3D model as there were quite a few issues I had with it, so I thought I may as well dive a bit deeper into these subjects. So I hope to publish a few Shorts or so once I’m able to get some tangible results.
Once I return to work though, I don’t expect to be super active on this channel for a little while. I’ll try to post when I can but it’s going to be tough to adhere to that. Plus, I would like some time to work on Arra World, focusing on character art, animations and the combat system with the time I have. Therefore, my initial plan is to focus on those efforts and then I’ll return with a whole bunch of content ideas hopefully around this Spring.
As far as when I do come back, there’s two main focuses for content this year - 3D animation as well as character design. Both of these topics will be researched and explained in depth through lots of Shorts like I did with the complete character guide. I also plan to put together long-form videos too, but I think I’ll break them down into logical parts rather than the one major video like I did before. We’ll have to see how things progress, but that’s the main plan as of now.
In addition, I want to find ways to make my vision clearer in my content. My vision is to help inspire others to make games and to work toward their dreams as I am doing with mine. I believe that sharing what I learn is one way to help do that, and to help others build confidence that they can make games too. Arra’s an ambitious project by design - i want to be able to show the world that indies can in fact make larger games that still succeed. I’m not 100% sure how to articulate this vision yet, but I plan to slowly segue between different disciplines of game development in more related ways. That’s why moving to 3d animation will help now, it’ll be a way to help my existing 3d modeling audience build interest and then I can transition to topics closer to that when the time comes.
Lastly, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I realize that I would like to get much more involved in the art and game development communities. Growing up, I was restricted a lot on how I used the internet, so I never really posted much. However, I find this mentality holds me back a lot, especially as an educator and a developer all the same. There’s only so much I can do on my own. I’d love to be able to post my work more confidently and get feedback, so I can quickly identify issues and iterate faster. With art especially, I feel like I generally understand the fundamentals but I don’t always have the intuition to correct my mistakes on my own. I’ve also seen other YouTubers in art and gamedev niches reach out and PAY professionals by the hour to get really solid, targeted advice. I think this could be cool to do as well, because I’d really like to elevate Arra World’s art style and bring out the best in it. Plus, it’ll save precious time!
As the year progresses, I’ll adapt to this plan as needed. But I’ll always prioritize quality in my content, doing the best I can to effectively teach the concepts being presented in an engaging way.
Arra World
Content aside, let’s take a look at future plans for Arra World, my game. Due to the personal challenges I’ve faced, progress has been slower than I’d hoped, but I’ve developed a strategy to keep things moving forward even with a full-time job.
The first major milestone I’m shooting for is a prototype of each major feature of the game. This includes the combat system, the upgrade system, exploration and the cutscene system. Of all of these, combat is the major driving force of the game, and that’s my primary focus. However, in practice I sometimes find myself stuck relying on other things to get done before progressing, such as needing a stat structure from the upgrade system, so there may be progress on all components over time. If I can at least sell that the game is going to be fun through the combat system, that’ll be a huge win and will enable me to further the game’s other content too. I plan to work on these systems in tandem with developing the game’s story as well as refining the game design.
At first, I plan to keep the operation solo until I am able to get a working prototype. However, to accelerate progress I may look into resources such as seeking professional coaching. Once the prototype is in a solid place, then I’ll move onto the next step.
This is where all of you would come in. At this stage I’ll need to spread the word as much as I can, which can hopefully lead to building hype as well as getting the right feedback on the systems. The more eyes I can get on the project, even in these early stages, the more great people I will be able to meet and the higher chances the game has success in the future. Of course, I hope to make this all worth your while too by sharing what I learn right on this channel.
Once Arra World has an established base for design and a decent combat system framework, I plan to release a version of the game minus the story elements in early access to gather as much feedback as possible. Not having the story aspects sounds lame, but I think being able to get the game in the hands of players as early as I can will do a lot of good for it in the long term. Of course, this version will be free!
After this iteration, that’s when we go all-in. I am looking to use crowdfunding as the primary source of funding for this game. That’s because I want to keep the creative vision as much as possible, and it’s difficult to do that with publishers. Crowdfunding will enable a lot if I’m able to pull it off successfully - I can use those funds to build and pay a team fairly, purchase licenses or anything I might need for consoles, and invest into marketing. Of course, the exact budget for this is to be determined.
I’d also like to mention that through my journey, I’ve come to realize I enjoy working on the game more as a hobby than as a potential career option. To me, making games is NOT the end goal, but making this SPECIFIC game is. The story and the themes of Arra World are something I hold very dear, so I’d be content as long as this ends up being the only game I make. So it doesn’t bother me that I’m a software engineer as my day job anymore, as long as I’m able to tell my story through Arra World one day. This realization allows me to take more of my time on the project, and it’ll make it more fun too.
As always, I’ll keep you updated on the game’s progress and share milestones as they happen. I expect this plan will change over time, but at least this is something I can work with for the time being. My goal is to complete the prototype and get it in early access within the next two years, but I’ll make sure to communicate as things change. I’m committed to making Arra World the best it can be, no matter how long it takes.
My Socials
Before wrapping up the video, it dawned on me that I haven’t really been doing a good job promoting my socials on my channel. I’d like to take a minute to offer what else I have in case you’re interested.
First is my Discord server. We’re almost 40 members strong, but happy to have more join us. Outside of my community updates on YouTube, it’s a great place to get updates from me on what’s going on. However, what’s likely more beneficial to you is the share-my-work and the ask-for-help sections. I encourage you to ask questions on the Discord server. Even if I don’t answer them directly, others can and I hope this becomes a nice, safe place to get help on your games.
Second is my new Bluesky account. Given its recent rise, Bluesky seems like a good secondary social channel to have as a creator. I’m back-posting a lot of stuff from the 3D character creation days still, but here I’ll also post updates and miscellaneous tidbits. This will also be a good place to get updates on Arra World as well.
https://bsky.app/profile/codernunk.bsky.social
Third, there’s my official website (which you are currently on, haha). I’ve promoted this before through the descriptions in my videos but here I’ll be posting written versions of the tutorials I produce. Of course I got plenty of updates here too. My website will also host miscellaneous resources, such as the 3D modeling cheat sheet or Flick’s source code, so take advantage of these! Most importantly though, feel free to use this as a supplement to my video content to help you learn!
Lastly, there’s my second channel, GamerNunk. The idea behind GamerNunk is to teach game development concepts while playing some of my favorite video games. However, given my return to work and my increased priority on Arra World, I plan to put this channel aside for now. When I started it, I underestimated the level of commitment I’d need to stream consistently, let alone build an audience there. So I think it’s for the best, for now. Either way, the channel will be there and I may leverage it in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS9hlJw5QNpKqtTj3jeGUug
Year in Review and Closing Statement
And that’s pretty much it for the updates. Thank you all for a wonderful 2024!
We’ve had some pretty insane growth on the channel this year, going from just about 1500 subscribers at the end of 2023 to just over 20,000 subscribers now. I cannot understate how amazing this experience has been; and I couldn’t have done it without all of you!
This year, we accomplished so much, from learning how to model a 3D character from scratch to being able to integrate it into Godot, with all the bells and jiggles. I knew that I wanted to go in depth into making 3D characters since I started learning Blender in 2020, because there was so much trial and error I didn’t want you all to go through like I did. But this effort paid off in a massive way - out of the 45 Shorts I made on the topic, three went viral, gaining over 500,000 views. Not to mention the complete guide itself got over 40,000 views and the jiggle physics video garnered just over 90,000 views! I didn’t expect much, but this far exceeded anything I could have imagined.
Once again, thank you all so much for a fantastic 2024, and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2025! Cheers to another great year!
