halfcoordinated 2016 in review

In a lot of ways 2016 was inarguably not a great year; it was a year that in many ways was dominated by anxiety, fear, and loss. While I was definitely effected by a lot of this, on a more personal level 2016 was actually a very good year for me. I'd like to review and share a lot of that positivity with all of you.

The year started out of course with AGDQ 2016, where I ran Transformers: Devastation. I remember being very anxious about its potential reception, given that it's a mechanically simpler run than Vanquish- but it was very well received nonetheless. I had a ton of fun with it and I'm glad that enjoyment was shared by many others. following this run contact from others with disabilities helped me fully accept my own hemiparesis for the first time in my (nearly) 28 years of life. I realized how much good I can potentially do given my own situation and the leverage it gives me to actually make a tangible difference. This really stepped up my confidence and dedication to accessibility advocacy.

A few months later, Momodora: RUtM was released. I had access to the full game early because somehow I convinced rdein to be my friend (<3 you rdein) and he had given me a key well before actual release. With this I was in on the ground floor with routing for the game along with several others that picked up the game. It was a very exciting and new experience to be routing and exploring a game with an active community for the first time since I got into speedrunning! With the game being out for just a couple weeks, I had just enough time to grind out runs of insane difficulty to submit it for SGDQ 2016.

I came out as bisexual not too long after that, and was welcomed with such warm acceptance that it brought me to tears. It's such a great feeling to be honest with others, and for that honesty to be celebrated instead of condemned.

I quit caffeine a couple weeks before SGDQ, and it improved my health in ways I didn't even expect. Nice!

SGDQ 2016 as many of you I'm sure are aware, was a HUGE event for me. Time leading up to it was particularly emotional, if you are unaware and want to know why it was decently summarized here: https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/4rgff9/thank_you_halfcoordinated/d50xkur/ This lead to the heavy emotional impact that my actual run had. I was absolutely blown away by the community response and how strongly people resonated with my message and feelings. Honestly it's still a little hard to believe! The deluge of follows, messages, and personal stories from others was so powerful that I was shaking and barely functional the entirety of the next day. I never expected such a huge outpouring of love and I appreciate it to this day. SGDQ 2016 was also a wonderful experience in many ways just from the great people at the event itself, and I am quite confident that it was the best week of my life.

This ended up opening up a lot of opportunities for me. First, thanks to support from all of you I am now a Twitch partner, a goal I had told myself I would never accomplish. being able to profit from what I love to do more than anything else has been amazing, and I am so thankful for the continued support that I have received from many people. Second, I started officially working with Household Games as an accessibility consultant, tester, and game designer. It has been a great experience working with everyone there, and I feel it has been an especially positive introduction to working in gamedev in general. I'm really looking forward to continuing to work on Way of the Passive Fist with Household Games, and hopefully assisting in accessibility for many more projects with other studios as well in the future!

Accessibility in gaming has seen a huge push in 2016, and I am very proud to be a part of that push. Large companies have started to take notice of the importance and overall benefits that accessibility has for their games. My own work aside it was particularly moving to see my favorite studio PlatinumGames, include remappable controls for the first time in their 10+ year history. It may just be in the demo for NieR: Automata at this point, but I feel it is a great sign for things to come.

This year is also the first full year that I've had the adorable and excellent Pepper Lane as my partner. I want thank her for putting up with my dorky self so far, and I hope to fluster her with sweetness and horrible puns for much longer.

Overall I'd say my personal 2016 largely had themes of acceptance and appreciation. Thank you all for your acceptance and support of me, my ideas, and my endeavors. I couldn't accomplish nearly what I already have or what I plan to do without it. I appreciate this more than I can I can fit into words without wearing that very acceptance thin. I love you all and it is my goal to do my part to make 2017 even better for others than 2016 was for me.

Thank you again,

Clinton "halfcoordinated" Lexa