I’m really excited to start growing more seriously as a developer this year and to finally get my feet wet with computer graphics.

I spent some time this morning looking around for good resources to get started, and after a bit of reading, I’ve decided to focus on OpenGL. It’s the graphics API I already have some experience with, and it seems like one of the best places to build a strong understanding of graphics fundamentals and the graphics pipeline. I’m planning on working through the LearnOpenGL tutorial from the beginning. Even though I was exposed to OpenGL in my Intro to Computer Graphics course at OSU, I want to revisit the basics and really solidify my foundation.

As for goals this year, one big one is to finally make a complete game project. I’ve spent a lot of time messing around with small demos and environments in Godot, but they usually don’t go anywhere. It would be awesome to actually finish a simple, fully fleshed-out game, maybe even collaborating with a friend I’ve talked about making games with for years.

I also want to build a solid collection of personal graphics projects. I’m not totally sure what the pacing will look like yet, but a rough goal of finishing one project a month feels like a good place to start. Alongside that, I’d love to stay consistent with this site and aim for about one blog post per week.

Another major goal for this year is landing my first professional software engineering position. It doesn’t have to be a graphics role right away. Everyone has to start somewhere. Getting my foot in the door is the priority, and I can continue specializing and growing as a graphics programmer from there.

Outside of coding, I want to keep up with playing guitar and reading more. Hopefully that helps me spend less time doomscrolling and more time actually exercising my brain.

Here’s to a new year of learning, building, growing.