Happy New Year! 🎊🥳🎉🎊 Last year did not go as expected. Not only was the Nintendo Switch 2 skipped, creating a hole in Photics.TV content, the book about web games was not completed. That’s because it was changed to a vanilla web design and web development book — The Photics Web Guide. That’s going to set the tone for 2026. That book must be completed!
I suppose it wasn’t all bad in 2025. I became Time Magazine’s Man of the Year again. It’s kind of a joke, but not really. Back in 2006, Photics was creating web content. And in 2025, there was the start of some AI projects planned for 2026 and beyond. That’s technically being an “Architect of AI”, which is part of the plan for this year. It all depends on the speed of the book project. It seems appropriate to add a chapter on AI, but that’s not definite yet.
Finish The Photics Web Guide!
That highlights the first goal. There needs to be a new Photics product online as soon as possible. I’m not rushing the book though, as the new direction feels important. One of the book’s themes is to help newcomers to the profession. The complexity of basic HTML was surprising. Yet, after 30+ years of creating websites, if I’m learning new things then perhaps this book will be helpful to the next generation of web designers and web developers.
Also, the book’s media was changed. Instead of an ePub, the plan is to create a traditional printed book. Yet, not all web development lessons translate well to static pages. Fortunately, there’s a new “Courses” section on the Photics.TV YouTube channel, the idea is to add supplemental content online. Basically, the plan is to create a series of videos to help promote the book. If some topics just don’t work well in print, videos can be created instead. Will this combo work? Well, if this project goes according to plan, that question should have an answer by the end of this year. Again, the project is feeling pretty good. It’s just been more work than expected.
Less Video Games!
And while there wasn’t a new Photics book in 2025, the two game video projects were finished. The “Crossy Road — Chicken Tournament” was completed. In hindsight, that project should have been skipped. While it was a fun project, the views were well below expectations. The same could be said for the “Super Mario World ‘All 96 Exits’ Guide!” 🍄. It received less than 8,000 views after nine months.
One board game video (about Quorador Pac-Man) outperformed all of those videos combined.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch 2 was disappointing… and priced higher than expected …making it difficult to expand the channel into new gaming topics.
Apple Arcade was also disappointing. Aside from Skate City: New York, and some events in Crossy Road Castle, that should have been skipped too. My annual subscription to Apple Arcade will be expiring later this year. During the summer of 2026, it will have to be decided if my Apple Arcade subscription will be renewed. So far, probably not.
That means no big video game projects are currently planned for 2026. Yet, continuing to create gaming content is part of the strategy. The idea is to catch the attention of people, with breadcrumb-like content, hoping that they can see the possibility of being more than a content consumer. They can create their own games and websites.
Where’s Hype 5?!
It’s not clear what’s going on with Tumult Hype 5. Yet, that’s one of the reasons why the gaming book was delayed. Creating web games feels like a better match for Hype… especially since some of the Matter.js related issues are solvable …but that depends on the future of the software. Will 2026 be the year the app is finally updated to version 5? If so, and if that update actually improves the software, then my plans for the year will need adjusting.
Less-To-Zero YouTube Shorts
While this is not a new lesson… and I’ve paused the creation of YouTube Shorts before …I wanted to retest the situation. The results are in. It’s gotten worse! Less than 4% of Photics.TV channel views are from YouTube Shorts. And even though the production quality was increased, with nice background music and a fun editing style, the views have been weak. That’s even after YouTube started counting mere glances at YouTube Shorts.
Not only is the plan to create less YouTube Shorts in 2026 — or even no new YouTube Shorts in 2026 at all — there’s also a personal goal of watching less YouTube Shorts. Overall, I haven’t been enjoying such content. The reason I like YouTube is because it has lots of entertaining, educational, and informational videos. However, that’s usually found in the longer and horizontal videos. I’m not interested in “Brain Rot” and “AI Slop” videos.
Use Linux More
I think Apple has the potential to have a great year, as Windows 11 is disappointing a lot of people. Macs are a solid alternative. But personally, do I really need a new MacBook Air if my plan is to just have a simple couch computer? While Apple Silicon is amazing, I already have an M4 Mac mini. And even though a lot of new Apple tech is likely to launch in 2026, perhaps I should just skip as much of that as possible. I could use a new snowblower more than a new Apple gadget. So, the idea is to create options with Linux. Such experience is going to be needed for the web book anyway.
Year of Trees!
I’m still trying to grow backyard trees. Hopefully I’m more successful this year. Not a single evergreen tree seed germinated last year. (If it did, I didn’t see it!) The goal is to remedy that problem this year.
Summary
The general idea is to not repeat the disappointment of 2025. It probably would have been considered a better year if a new Photics book was published. That’s why 2026 needs to be different. There’s going to be intense focus on launching the Photics Web Guide.