Saturday Side Quest - Did I Meet My 2024 Goals?

Where has faith and fandom intersected this week?

First off — thank you for the warm reception of last week’s Saturday Side Quest on Life-Changing Games! It has been the best-performing Side Quest so far, so I plan to do more in that vein.

For this week, I wanted to look back at the goals I set for myself in January this year. I’ve taken the habit of not really doing resolutions anymore. I mostly do two things:

1. Set A Theme Word for the Year

2. Set Goals within my Passion Areas

For this year, I set two words—one for my personal goals and the other for Checkpoint, the church that I serve.

For myself, the word of 2024 was story-telling.
For Checkpoint, the word of 2024 was collaborative.

I think both of these evolved and adapted throughout the year, as these theme words are supposed to do. But I found both satisfying as guideposts throughout the year.

Now, onto the goals themselves.

For my personal goals:

• Pixel & Pulpit:

  • 500 Subs ✅

  • More Comments ❌

  • Use of Referrals ❌

  • Draft Book ❌

• Family:

  • Daddy/Daughter Dates ❌

  • Monthly Spouse Date ❌

• Media Goals

  • Read 150 Books✅

  • Watch 50 Movies/TV Shows✅

  • Play 100 Games✅

At first, this is depressing. But, in truth, it should show how useful (or not) goal setting can be. This was a daydream session to set where I wanted the year to go, but it can’t account for the unaccountable.

For instance, my wife and I didn’t have time for a monthly date… because we went to many exciting places this year. We took the kids to Disney World, for goodness sake. So, while we didn’t set up an established date calendar (for myself or the kids), we likely had at least a monthly date each. It just might have been shared with a vacation or family trip.

My goals for this Substack and Pixel & Pulpit were fairly unrealized. What does “More Comments” really mean? Back then, it meant engagement. I think we’ve gotten a bit more engagement, but who could have predicted the future that was Notes?

I also forgot what Referrals were until I reviewed these goals. As the year goes on, they become less and less important.

Drafting a book took a back seat to another project with some peers in the ministry world (more news on that in an upcoming article).

So, was 2024 a failure for me? By no means. But my goals weren’t quite what the year had in store, which is okay. It shows perhaps a bit clearer how vital the word of the year was, thought. I told quite a few stories, as my portfolio shows.

Now, onto Checkpoint:

• Discord:

  • 500 Members ✅

  • 30 LVL2 ✅

  • >100 Online Members ✅

• Twitch:

  • 1500 Followers ✅

  • 20 Average Viewers ❌

  • Have Others Streaming ❌

• YouTube:

  • 10,000 Subscribers YouTube ✅

  • Make Partner ✅

• General:

  • Content Calendar ❌

• Ludogood:

  • Make demo of second game ❌

  • Release second game ❌

Now, this one really exemplifies how goals can change through the year. I had no clue what was in store for Checkpoint in 2024.

We went viral on YouTube in February and everything took off. I had hoped for 10k subs… we’re at over 80k. It’s been a rocket ship of growth there.

Due to that, our Discord community grew quite a bit more than expected, as well. We’re well over 700 at this point and are more active on a daily basis than we’ve ever been.

Twitch, on the other hand, is a bit of a decaying heap currently. We’ve not grown much, even with our virality. It might even cause us to pivot our streaming focus to YouTube in 2025. Time will tell.

If you’d like to see what goals I set for 2025, then consider subscribing to continue reading. Otherwise, have a wonderful day!

Now then, setting sights of 2025.

We’ve already set our word of the year at Checkpoint for 2025: intentional. We are hoping to be more intentional in everything that we do for deeper relationships and sense of community.

But for my personal passion, I’m thinking that 2025 will be the year of focus. I’ve been a bit scatter brained with my approach to what I do. I say yes to a lot of things in a lot of different places.

I think for 2025, I will be honing in on things that bring me joy. Substack is going to be a key factor there. I’m going to feed the less-fun bits to AI for SEO and then the enjoy the process for the rest of it. I have a few big projects I know I’d like to pursue, but those might be better served by focusing on the things I do already.

So, with that in mind, here are the personal goals:

• Pixel & Pulpit

  • 1k Subscribers

  • 20 Paid Subscribers

  • 2 posts / week

  • 5 Notes / week

  • 1 Collaboratory Posts / month

  • Launch that new thing

  • Create 1 Big Thing / quarter

• Family

  • Monthly Date Nights (or some equivalent)

  • Daddy/Daughter Nights with each daughter

  • Call people more

• Health

  • Exercise every weekday

  • Get 8 hours of sleep

  • Cut back on coffee

• Media Goals

  • Read 150 Books

  • Watch 50 Movies/TV Shows

  • Play 100 Games

The best bit here is that none of these matter more than they ought to. Like this year, I give myself express permission to not meet these goals.

And now for Checkpoint:

• Discord

  • 1k Members

  • 150 Daily Active Members

  • 50 LVL2 Members

• Twitch

  • Discern the future of Twitch for Checkpoint

  • Get Retention Up

• YouTube

  • 100k Subscribers

  • Week-daily Community Posts

  • Week-daily Shorts

  • Launch Exciting New Thing :)

And there you have it—looks like 2025 is looking to be a consistent year for me. Eager to see what’s in store for taking this space, Substack specifically, more seriously.

See you next year.

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Will It Preach?

I finished a few things this week, so I will reflect on them in this space. Would they preach? See if you agree with my take.

• Casino Royale (1953)

  • Honestly, the book was just okay. I love James Bond as a character, but this was a surprisingly bland first entry. But that doesn’t stop him from being a compelling—and sad, to be honest—character. Will preach.

• Otherside Picnic, vol. 1 (2017)

  • This was an odd one. I enjoyed the premise well enough, but would need more meat to really make a judgment call. Might preach?

• Vivre Sa Vie (1962)

  • Wow—exceptional cinema. This is a multiple part journey into one woman’s life as a prostitute. I suppose a church could make an interesting parallel here. On one hand, Jesus and prostitutes are a literal Bible lesson. So, it could be a chance to explore grace despite vice. On the other hand, the descent into depravity is a fascinating one. Slow burn and slow fade… them’s Biblical themes, too. Will preach.

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024)

  • I loved this game. It was such a fun jaunt into Indy’s storybook. Like with any of these works, the Christian conspiracy rabbit trail is the crux of the story. This one is no different. I believe it could be a good conversation starter for the absurdity that is the fiction of Indiana Jones. Will preach.

• Arzette and the Jewel of Faramore (2024)

  • A silly time. Around the premise of recreating the SEGA CD-I era of video games, this game is surprisingly a Metroidvania. It’s not terribly good, but it’s not bad either. A fun enough dive into the journey of good and evil. Perhaps a boring sermon, but why not? Will preach.

• Until Then (2024)

  • One of my new favorite games ever made! It is an absolute nerdy-sermon-to-be and I won’t share here and let you steal my notes. ;) Must preach.

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The Credit Roll

These are some of the things I found this week that I am sharing as a bonus. Enjoy my custom For You feed.

• For those who grew up on Flash animations, Mr Weebl made a Christmas version of the infamous Badger song

• Jordan Daniels continues to tie in anime themes during worship… this time definitely not dreaming of Bunny Girl Senpai

• As a back pain person, Tom McGovern wrote a Daft-Punk-inspired anthem… standing desks ain’t it, chief

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What are some goals you’re setting for 2025? Share them in the comments and let’s celebrate them together!