Save Point: September 2022

September has been filled with events and video games.

The first few weeks were focused on food, with Meatopia offering plenty for barbecue lovers and the BBC Good Food Festival taking place in the beautiful setting of Goodwood Racecourse. And it closed with a couple of gaming events, which I’ll talk about a little later on in this post.

This time of year is busy for anyone who works in education. While the optimistic part of me hopes the pace will slow in October, the realistic part knows this is unlikely to happen. As mentioned in my latest apprenticeship update, I’m still trying to complete several roles at the same time alongside my training and things can get pretty crazy at times. But things are moving in the right direction so there’s plenty to feel positive about.

n the flipside though, the UK has been negatively affected by several events this month. I’m not going to say too much about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II as I feel no attachment to the monarchy, it would be wrong of me to not acknowledge it at least. Many people are also battling against the cost-of-living crisis going into autumn and with a government that seems to be collapsing from within right now, it feels like there’s no end in sight just yet.

Sometimes you have to keep reminding yourself that you can’t change everything – but you should always do your best to change the things you can influence. It’s important to bring a bit of positivity back into the world whenever you have the chance, both to keep yourself grounded and lift those around you. Volunteering for SpecialEffect last week reminded me there are people out there who are actively working to change the lives of others and I’m even more determined to make the next GameBlast a success.

Progress report

Game of the month

It’s hard to pick a favourite game for September as there has been so much to play, but there are two I’d like to highlight. First up is IMMORTALITY, a must for full-motion video (FMV) fans as it’s so beautifully shot (although you’ll want to make sure your kids are out of the room first). And next there’s Unknown Number, a unique adventure controlled with your voice which contains plenty of drama and humour. Some readers may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned Return to Monkey Island here – and that’s a discussion for another day.

Event of the month

September’s highlight was Phantom Peak, a real-life open-world adventure that I can’t recommend highly enough. Arriving at the venue was like stepping into another world and we lost ourselves in solving puzzles and uncovering conspiracies for five hours. After recently hearing that a spooky version called Hallowed Peak would be taking place next month, I bagged a couple of tickets and we’ll be heading there again towards the end of October. I’m so ridiculously excited about this and will hopefully have more photographs to share.

Photo of the month

This photograph was taken at the EGX expo. The event itself may have been a little lacklustre for me personally but having the opportunity to volunteer for SpecialEffect made it all worthwhile. After several years of being unable to do this in person, it was so lovely raising awareness of the charity’s work at a real-world event again. Seeing the reactions of people after realising they could play Minecraft with their eyes was priceless – and I even got to meet Charles from Comfortably Adventurous, although we didn’t realise it!

Plans for next month

In terms of gaming, I still want to rewatch the IMMORTALITY videos in order so there’s likely to be a few more hours logged for it in October. As a result of my Kickstarter habit, there are also a few crowdfunded releases due to arrive next month so I’m going to have plenty of new games to play: Monorail Stories, Lucy Dreaming and Unusual Findings. I need to finish platforming action-adventure Tinykin too after being inspired to pick it up by this review by Frostilyte from Frostilyte Writes.

As well as Hallowed Peak towards the end of the month, we’ve got the WiFi Wars live show lined up for this weekend. While the stepkid and his friends attended the MCM Comic Con in London, Pete and I are going to take the opportunity to check out a few board game cafes in the surrounding area. Our tabletop collection has been growing since our first visit to the UK Games Expo in June but we still don’t really know what we’re doing, so we’re looking forward to finding out a bit more from the professionals.

Planning for next year’s GameBlast will continue through October. Writing about the streams we’ve completed for previous marathons has given us some inspiration about what to do for the next one, and we know we need to go even bigger in February for the event’s tenth anniversary. Please do get in touch if you have any idea or would like to be involved, and look out for another update in a few weeks’ time which include a round-up about my time spent volunteering for SpecialEffect in September.

Now over to you guys: what have you been up to lately, and what have you got planned for the coming month? Enjoy your weekend tomorrow and I’ll see you on the other side.