TL;DR - I became a dad! I paused the Patreon for January. But I'm starting to return very slowly to work, so will be turning it back on for February.
Hello everyone!
I'm thrilled to announce that at the start of January my son was born, and I became a dad!
The experience of becoming a parent was absolutely wild. Those first few days were among the most stressful and shell-shocking of my life. You are thrust into a whole new world of bottles and nappies (diapers, for the US folk!) and so on - all on hardly any sleep.
And it feels like your life is basically over. I can hardly find time to take a shower - how would I ever make a YouTube video ever again?
But things started to fall into place and make sense. We got a handle on all the feeding and changing and napping. And my wife and I put together a good shift-based sleep schedule which means we both get a good chunk of kip each night and no longer feel like zombies each day.
And so now, just over a month in, things are going great and while my little man is basically just a potato who eats and farts - he is the greatest person in the world and I am head over heels in love with being a dad. It's already the best thing I've ever done. And he can't even smile yet!
Now, I initially decided to take a good chunk of time off of work. A few months completely away from anything resembling GMTK. And I'm glad I did that for the first month - I was able to support my wife through the whole of January, while my other new dad friends were straight back to work after a couple weeks, leaving their partners to do everything.
And, as I previously discussed, I took a payment holiday on Patreon to reflect this.
But I've decided to start slowly, tentatively, trickle back into doing some work.
You see - what I didn't envision before my son was born is how much becoming a parent messes with your sense of self. You go from having a full and fulfilling life of work, social occasions, and hobbies - to being a 24/7 butt wiper.
And so I've found it important to carve out some time to do things that make me feel like me. Go on walks. Do some exercise. Watch movies. Play games. See friends. And - most importantly for all of you - start to think about GMTK again!
And so in those precious moments of downtime (my son is currently snoring away in his crib as I type this!), I've started to think about future videos. Do some research. Some planning. A little script writing. I'm not ready to start making videos properly - but I'd like to get a few scripts underway for when I am.
So I've decided - as I'm now working again - to turn the Patreon back on. I dunno when I'll next release a video, but I will do a Digest each month so you're getting something for your generous support.
I honestly don't know what GMTK will be like in 2026. Right now my number one priority is supporting my wife and caring for my son. But in the moments around that - I want to do the one thing that makes me most happy and fulfilled, and that's this stuff.
Hope that all makes sense! Sorry I couldn't share more baby photos, or his name - I want to be respectful of his privacy and the internet is weird.
Oh, he just woke up. Right, that's probably all the work I'm getting done today, then!
Speak soon,
Mark