Everything I Worked On In 2025
The biggest gamble of my career
I just published my yearly recap: Everything I worked on in 2025.
It’s been a year of sustained work on the biggest gamble of my career, running alongside a high output of freelance work, pixels, and words.
With this instalment, that makes nine years of yearly recaps. (You can watch all of them here).
Here’s some TL;DW highlights from 2025:
We ran the first three alpha waves of Dinolords and started testing with players at scale.
I gave the opening keynote at Deep Dish Swift and taught at Creative Pro Week in Arizona.
I designed and shipped a large body of freelance work, including dozens of app icons and several logos.
I wrote more on flarup.email
Dinolords was featured on the cover of PC Gamer with a 10-page in-magazine feature.
Seen all together like this, it’s clear how much of the year was shaped around one long-term bet: Dinolords.
There was plenty of freelance work, speaking, and writing along the way, and the year was packed with experiences. But at its core, 2025 was about committing to something ambitious and seeing it start to take real shape.
Thank you for following along, whether it’s been for one year or all nine.
I hope this recap is useful to anyone navigating long projects and uncertain bets of their own.
Sincerely,
Michael
Really solid look at how longterm projects need that balance. I've noticed the same thing in my own work where keeping smaller wins going (freelance gigs, writing) actually makes it easier to stay patient with the big uncertain bet. The fact that Dinolords went from alpha to PC Gamer coverage shows that sustained focus compounds in unexpected ways.