It Did Not Turn Out Okay
Tuesday June 9, 2026
In my last post, I expressed some optimism for how the year was going to turn out. Well, We Gotta Go! didn't meet performance expectations and as a result, we're all back on the job market. It was pretty crushing for us; we'd put our heart and soul into making the game quirky and full of character. Everyone contributed a bit of their personality; for me, the inclusion of the Explosive Durian and the King Durian items were a real treat, but Art Director Noah also made us graffiti tags in the gas station bathroom, so I used it as an opportunity to sneak in a Kiwi reference.
I think this one was particularly sad because the small group of us were so talented as a team. I will miss working with each and everyone of them dearly. In the meantime, the weather has improved and it's no longer consistently below zero, and the sun sets after 8pm now, so there's plenty of things to look forward to in the coming months. Over the past month or so, Toronto's trees have burst into life with the cherry blossoms hitting peak bloom, along with the magnolias and tulips. It's truly a lovely time to be out and about in the city.
I was in Ottawa for Victoria Day weekend to catch the annual Tulip Festival, which I had last seen in 2018. Saturday was spent driving most of the time. We wanted to get up early to head down to Dow’s Lake before the big crowds, and had originally planned to be there at 8am, but instead my brain decided to wake me up at 4am and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, we headed down at 6.30am and it was so peaceful and serene, barely any people at all. We met up with some friends later and went kayaking on the lake, then headed up to Parliament Hill and later to Gatineau Park for a short hike. Traffic heading back to Toronto was really bad on Monday, though we still managed to catch the usual fireworks down by Woodbine Beach.
We also went to Vancouver for a week. The weather was phenomenal - it only rained for 2 hours the entire time we were there. And of course the scenery was absolutely stunning. We did three hikes in the time we were there; the first was Joffre Lakes, an hour north of Whistler - three glacial lakes that flow into each other with that beautiful green colour and the stillness providing an amazing reflection of the mountains and the forests behind. We were there early before the crowds, and it was well worth it. The second was St Mark's Summit in Cypress Mountain, which took us up past the ski fields and over to the west side overlooking Howe Sound. The final one, the most brutal, was the Stawamus Chief in Squamish, a trio of mountain peaks overlooking the town next to the Sea to Sky Gondola. The initial climb was a 600m elevation of literally just stairs, worse than the Grouse Grind, but the view at the top was incredible. We covered many parts of town as well - biking around Stanley Park, exploring Steveston and Fisherman's Wharf, absorbing the ocean breeze from Spanish Banks and watching the sunset from Queen Elizabeth Park. I got to meet up with a few ex-colleagues as well, and as always, the food was excellent throughout the week.
Today I'm off to Europe. It’s a nice time to travel and it feels like a while since I’ve been overseas - New Zealand doesn’t really count as a foreign adventure. I’ll be heading to Barcelona for a few nights, running to my favourite cafe in the Gothic Quarter for a Suizo and Xuxo, then consuming as much tapas and alioli as I can, then I’m over to Rome for a week. The last time I was there, I had food poisoning, so I’m keen to rewrite those memories and properly visit the city and all its history. Then to Frankfurt where I’m meeting up with a Kiwi friend who’s living in the Netherlands, and we’ll road trip to Luxembourg, Brussels and The Hague and end up in Amsterdam where I’ll fly back to Toronto.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:11pm on Tuesday June 9, 2026 :: 0 comments :: 
Definitely the Shittiest Game I've Ever Worked On
Friday March 6, 2026
After being laid off last October, I knew I was unlikely to land a job that side of the new year, so I decided to just relax for a few months. I played a lot of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and purchased the Mega Dimension DLC to go with it. While it wasn't a particularly standout game - in fact, a lot of the gameplay in the DLC felt like chores - the active battle system was a fresh take on a very old formula. Still, it was a good way to pass the time, especially with the days growing darker and darker. We had a nice gathering at Asian Dragon Buffet with my friends from the badminton group for our end of year do, and then another buffet at Spring Garden for Izzy's birthday, but otherwise most of my days were spent playing on my Switch and cleaning up 20 year old PHP code for Psypoke.
In the weeks before Christmas, I had some interviews with a Vancouver company that looked really promising. The recruiter was a Kiwi - immediately putting me at ease. Real nice guy to chat to, and just wonderful hearing someone else that sounded like me. The technical test wasn't too difficult, apparently I had one of the quickest solves, and the cultural fit interview was also smooth. After finishing the two rounds of interviews with them, I was waiting to see if they would offer me a position, when surprisingly I received an offer from the last place I expected to - FuzzyBot. Someone was leaving and they needed extra hands to help ship the game. It was a no brainer. I loved working with the people there and I loved the work I did, so I had to turn the Vancouver company down. On January 5th, I started working for FuzzyBot again, on the shittiest game I have ever worked on.
We Gotta Go is a "friendslop" game - games designed to be played with friends, where the intent is to pull people in and go viral. In our game, you are the embodiment of poop, trying to find a toilet in a haunted mansion where everything scares the shit out of you, literally. There's so much room for humour and though it's not the kind of game I love playing, I have been having an incredibly fun time working on it. Turns out toilet humour is extremely popular.
The period between Christmas and New Years was nice. I cooked a big Christmas brunch with bacon, eggs, avocado and sourdough, and then an even bigger Christmas dinner with wasabi mayo prawns, and herb-crusted lamb cutlets, roast vegetables and purple yam mash. We finished the dinner with Costco tiramisu and hot chocolate! On Boxing Day, we had planned to go to Niagara Falls to see if they were frozen over, but the weather was so bad that we decided to stay in Toronto and have hotpot for dinner. For New Years Eve, we had another hotpot and then we went down to Billy Bishop Airport and braved the -10C weather to watch the fireworks over the waterfront in front of the CN Tower. New Years Day had nicer weather, so we drove to Missisauga to have IHOP and then to Tiffany Falls and Niagara Falls to see all the ice. It wasn't cold enough for everything to properly freeze over, but there's still beauty in the ice formations that we did see.
January and February have gone by reasonably quick, although there was a period of 11 days where I absolutely did not leave my building at all. The snowstorm during that time was so severe that both badminton and church on Sunday were cancelled. 60cm of snow was recorded at Toronto Pearson Airport. The piles of snow from that storm are still visible almost 6 weeks later, though we are getting False Spring 1 this weekend and that should melt away a bunch of the ice. Probably the highlight of January was seeing Rob Paulsen (voice of Yakko and Pinky), Maurice LaMarche (voice of The Brain) and Randy Rogel (songwriter) perform at the Flato Theatre in Markham. It was a night of 90s nostalgia, with plenty of laughs and humour. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to sing along to Yakko's Nations of the World song with Rob. United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru... 🎶 After the show, I got to chat with them a little bit and take a photograph with them, and mentioned that they had worked for Steven Spielberg, and I work for Max Spielberg, so at some point in time we've all had a Spielberg for a boss.
For Chinese New Year, I cooked up another massive dinner. I don't know what I was thinking - my place can only hold five people but for some reason I ended up cooking for like, eight people. I guess that fear of not having enough food was real. The yee sang turned out super well, and in addition to being immaculately presented, it tasted excellent as well, perfectly balanced in sweetness, saltiness, freshness and sourness. So many ingredients went in - the base of cucumber, carrots and radish, and then mango, pomelo, red capsicum, smoked salmon, salted egg fish skin and abalone - the premium ingredients inspired by the yee sang I had in Malaysia two years ago.
In addition to this, there were prawns, duck and lettuce wrap, roast pork, barbeque pork, stuffed tofu and fried rice. Phoebe had brought some famous Chinese New Year snacks as well as some of the selection of treats I had bought for dessert.
And now that it's March, and the Nondescript March Event has passed, I've felt a lot more reflective and introspective than usual. What I've achieved with my life, where I am now, what I want to happen in the future. Things have largely gone very well for me in my life, despite one very marked tragedy early on, and more recently, two layoffs in two years. I still feel uncertain about this year and how it will unfold, but hopefully things will turn out okay.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:54am on Friday March 6, 2026 :: 0 comments ::
Cancun
Friday December 5, 2025
I’m a few hours from leaving Cancun and returning to the refrigerator known as Toronto. We’ll be going from 30C to -3C over four hours. While I’m glad to get out of the capsule hotel and return to my comfortable, spacious bed, I will miss the weather, which has been absolutely gorgeous the entire time.
On the first day, we were up early at 4.30am to catch a tour to Chichen Itza, the world famous Mayan Pyramid. In fact, it’s a double pyramid, with a smaller one within the confines of the outer, visible structure. There’s so many mysteries and such a rich history to the area, and our tour guide Rodrigo who is part Mayan, had plenty to teach us about their way of life and the knowledge of his ancestors. Of particular interest to me was the numerical symbolism in the pyramids and how they used it to calculate astronomical phenomena. As a memento of the place, I bought a personalised Mayan Calendar with my birthdate converted to the Mayan format, as well as some zodiac-type symbols that I’ll have to read up on later.
In the afternoon, we went to a cenote called Chichikan, which is a watering hole formed from rainwater collecting in the limestone caverns. We had AYCE tacos, which were fine, and then went for a quick dip in the cavern. It was an incredible place, with the roots of the trees at ground level growing a hundred or so meters underground to reach the water. Then, after some tequila tastings, we were off to the town of Valladolid for a quick pit stop and then back to Cancun, a total of 14 hours on the road.
The next day, we caught the ferry to Isla Mujeres. Off in the distance, some dark storm clouds were brewing, but it wasn’t quite raining on the island yet so we walked around Playa Norte and some markets, and settled on some tacos for lunch. As we were walking to the south past the main ferry area, it started bucketing down so we sought refuge in one of the hotels for about 15 minutes. When the rain subsided, we continued down the eastern side of the island to reach Punta Sud, the southern end of the island. There wasn’t really much to see on the way, but the beaches were beautiful and the storm had passed so the sun was out. We took the bus back, having researched the route and the cost as well as how to hail the bus and ask for a stop. We caught the ferry back to the mainland around 5.30pm and walked back to the hotel from Playa Tortuga.
To be honest, that walk was pretty boring. Cancun’s Hotel Zone is mostly just resort after resort with really not much in between. It’s much larger than you think as well, so not particularly walkable. The food is very touristy and not cheap at all, catering very much to the American market. We’ve refused to tip while being here, and that almost got us into trouble at one place.
Yesterday, we were up early again for a day tour to Tulum, another Mayan city to the south. Though less impressive and less busy than Chichen Itza, the backdrop of the ocean made the area incredibly scenic. We left the ruins and began our snorkeling adventure. The water was a perfect temperature, and it felt great to be exploring the Mesoamerican Coral Reef, second in size to only to the Great Barrier Reef. We quickly saw some finger corals and fish, and very briefly a sting ray who swam harmlessly two meters below us. Then a giant turtle appeared, surfacing to breathe some air right in front of me! It was literally inches from my face, I couldn’t contain my excitement. We swam on, through a school of around 50 fish, and another turtle appeared, surfacing to breathe right in front of the group. It was incredible.
After snorkeling, we went to another cenote, this time it was more enclosed instead of being an open cavern. We swam through the interconnected tunnels, seeing an impressive array of limestone stalactites and stalagmites, as well as several small furry bats. The water was much colder than the ocean, but still pleasant to wade through. We exited and dried off for lunch, which was pretty decent, then we began our journey back to Cancun. On the way, we stopped by a convenience store for a coffee and saw the local spider monkeys swinging in the trees! We got the driver to drop us in downtown so we could explore a bit - we ended up going to Chinatown, which was quite small, and Costco, which was almost exactly the same as in Canada, but perhaps slightly more expensive, and then we went to the Las Americas mall before heading back to the Hotel Zone for dinner.
On our last day, we headed south to Playa Delfines - Dolphins Beach. We took some photos at the Cancun sign, then to El Rey archeological area to see some more ruins. We ended up getting chewed out by the mosquitos, so we took the bus back to downtown to wander around the central markets and more of the shopping malls. For lunch, we ended up in an industrial area and visited a small restaurant that I had found from Reddit, with no sign of English anywhere, which was probably the most authentic food we had the entire trip.
We had checked out earlier in the day, and we wanted to leave our luggage with the front desk while we were out, but the staff didn’t fully understand English so we weren’t completely sure they knew to take care of our bag. It was a little anxious coming back to the hotel to see if our luggage was there or not, but luckily the same receptionist recognized us and wheeled out our bag. We chilled for a few hours, grabbed some dinner para llevar and some snacks with our leftover pesos, and headed to the airport.
I had purchased 10kgs of luggage to check in, both ways, but what I failed to realize was that there is a size restriction and the bag must be cabin bag sized which makes no sense because it’s going into the hold anyway. There was no issue flying into Mexico, but they tried to enforce the limit as we were checking in for departure. Thankfully we managed to remove enough to squeeze most of the suitcase into their size checker, and the person at the counter decided that was good enough, so we went on our merry way, happy to not have to pay an extra $180.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:41pm on Friday December 5, 2025 :: 0 comments ::
Hello Darkness My Old Friend
Friday November 28, 2025
Summers in Toronto are short - too short - and that all too familiar feeling of dread starts to set in as the leaves begin to change their hues from green to gold and red. Summer this year was very hot and dry, which meant that forest fire smoke was not great. Despite this, I still did my best to get out and see the city, whether it was for the multitude of cultural festivals, a trip to the Islands, blueberry picking at Wilmot Orchards, the free night at the AGO, or taking pictures of the many, many street cats that I’ve named after desserts. There’s Flan, a shy brown and white cat with a “haaa” kind of meow. His brother, Choco, a void with grey streaks, who tends to be a bit spicy. Oreo, a very rotund black and white cat that loves to flop on the floor and expose his belly. Smores, an aloof white and brown cat that always glares at me. Tangerine, a ginger who always has a place to go to. Sesame, a very talkative black and white cat who also has a tag saying “please do not feed”. Recently I also named Crème, a white and grey patched cat, and her brother, Brûlée, a friendly void, as well as Hazelnut, their brother, who’s a bit more shy.
We went to Point Pelee over Labour Day in the hopes we’d catch the monarch butterfly migration, but because of the hot weather, they hadn’t started their trip yet. Nevertheless, we visited the southernmost point of Canada, both on the island, as well as the bit on the mainland. We went canoeing around the marshes of Point Pelee Provincial Park, and got to meet some tiny baby turtles being released into the water.
Work was busy. We’d been leading up to our release on Nintendo Switch in September, and I had spearheaded the major feature, Buddy Up!, with GameShare. Because it was such a new technology, Unreal hadn’t fully supported it in the way we needed it to work, but after some help from the Nintendo forums, and some good old fashioned debugging (and some wild “I don’t know what I’m doing!” hacks), we managed to get something pretty damn solid, and I’m proud of what we shipped. Unfortunately, we didn’t do as well as we had hoped, and due to some other factors relating to the industry as a whole, the majority of the team was let go. I continued working until the start of October to finish the final QoL patch for Lynked, but it was a sad ending to a company and project I had poured so much into despite my short time there. We can all agree that the worst part of this is having to spend winter in Toronto.
The news broke the day before my parents were due to arrive in Toronto, which meant that after I finished up, I’d have plenty of time to take them around. We rejigged a few things and made some bookings, and soon I had a full ten day trip planned with them, from Algonquin to Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal.
We covered so much in the month that they were here. For starters, I took them to Graffiti Alley, Chinatown and Kensington Market. That weekend, we went to Port Hope to see the salmon run, which was incredibly exciting for them. We had lobster mountain at Fishman’s afterwards, which was phenomenal. I also took them to Antler to try a bison steak and Tinuno for Filipino kamayan. The following weekend, we went for a maple farm tour on the way to Niagara Falls, where we got to try freshly made maple taffy. We saw the beautiful light show and fireworks over the falls at night, and in the day, the full splendour of the falls up close, with the boat ride right up to the Horseshoe Falls. We had a quick walk around the floral gardens and ended the day with a wine tasting for my parents, and an Italian meal in Niagara on the Lake before driving back to Toronto.
It was their anniversary on the Tuesday following our Niagara trip. We had dinner at New Orleans, a Cajun restaurant near Scarlett and Eglinton. Dad has always been a fan of Karen Carpenter, and being able to try the foods she sang about in her song On the Bayou was a real treat. The night had more to offer though - I’d been receiving aurora alerts and the readings online were all looking promising, so we went home, changed into warmer clothes, and drove out to Vaughan. Though the initial colours were faint, we were treated to a beautiful display of greens and reds at 11.30pm. Even without the cameras to show the colours, the lights were so bright on the horizon. An incredible spectacle for my parents, and such a memorable anniversary for them.
We covered St Lawrence Market and the waterfront that weekend. Saturday night was Nuit Blanche, and though there weren’t any standout art pieces, the vibe was great and a good showcase of the atmosphere in Toronto during these summer events. We had another lobster dinner at Yumi in Richmond Hill with the badminton crew, and then we were off to Algonquin the next day. We hit it at just the perfect time. I’ve never seen Huntsville so peaceful and quiet - I’ve only ever been there during public holiday weekends like Thanksgiving. The colours were stunning from Dorset Tower, and even though it was overcast the next day while we walked around the provincial park, we still got some beautiful pictures of the magnificent red maples on Highway 60, as well as a fox sighting!
We made our way over to Ottawa on Wednesday, where we did an immersive 3D experience of the Peace Tower, currently closed due to renovations. It was pleasant to be walking around Parliament Hill even though it was a bit chilly. For dinner, we found this incredible Burmese place near Chinatown that was super interesting and tasty. We had tried to go kayaking at Dow Lake, but they had closed for the day so we went the next morning, and dad throughly enjoyed being out on the water. We began the long drive to Quebec City, hitting some Thanksgiving traffic as we passed through Montreal.
I’ve only been to Quebec City once before this. It was fine, I guess? My parents loved it though. It’s got that French vibe and aesthetic, especially with the cobblestone paths in the old town, and the pots of flowers on the balconies. We had been super lucky with the weather so far and our lucky streak continued in Quebec. On our way to Montreal, we visited Chaudiere Falls Park, which I had missed my first time, and it was a short, peaceful walk (and free!) to see a beautiful waterfall.
I think my issue with Quebec is that I never know whether to fully lean into trying to speak French, or if I should just immediately admit defeat and go with English. I can’t really converse in French but I know enough to order off a menu and ask for basics, but it requires so much effort and my French is really bad, so I’d much rather just talk in English, especially if the other party knows how to speak English too.
We spent a few more days in Montreal. Originally we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to fill the time but everything worked out perfectly. Upon arrival, we went to St Joseph’s Oratory to catch the sunset. The next day, I took them up Mont Royal and then to the Botanic Gardens where we spent three hours walking around in the afternoon. At night, we caught the garden’s light show, Jardins de Lumiere, which we found to be well worth it. The Chinese lanterns that we had seen during the day had now been lit up at night, producing some incredible reflections in the lake where they were placed.
For our last full day, I took them around the old town and port area, and we finished the day at a French restaurant recommended by a friend, Leméac. What a meal - and what an incredibly massive dessert as well. The next day, we went to Schwartz right at opening for dad to try some authentic poutine, and then we did a Thousand Islands cruise before reaching Toronto late at night.
It was genuinely nice to have my parents around, especially because of the layoffs. The last time it happened, they basically just fed me all the delicious foods while we were in Malaysia. Being a tour guide gave me a sense of purpose and something to do. Following their departure, I bought myself a Nintendo Switch 2 and I’ve been playing Pokémon Legends ZA ever since.
There was the excitement of Halloween and a brief explosion of baseball frenzy as the Toronto Blue Jays made the finals (with a heartbreaking loss to the LA Dodgers), but it was only three weeks after my parents left that we got our first snowfall of the season. It was a significant dumping, with the snow lasting all throughout the weekend. It was an interesting sight to see the red and yellow leaves with a heavy dusting of white snow, which made for some beautiful pictures, but it was horribly cold and a sobering reminder that I’d be spending winter in Toronto, my first in four years.
In a last ditch effort to absorb some sun before the darkness of December and January, I’m off to Cancun - my first time in Mexico - where the forecast is 28 degrees. It’s begun to snow again in Toronto as we’re waiting to board the plane, and I’m looking forward to a weekend of warmth.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:43am on Friday November 28, 2025 :: 0 comments ::
There's Always So Much To Write About
Wednesday July 9, 2025
It's been an eventful four months since arriving back in Toronto. Upon returning to my apartment, I'd discovered a pigeon had disposed of the rosemary plant in the planter I'd left outside and replaced it with a small white egg, and multiple piles of pigeon shit all over the balcony. It was too cold to clean everything up, but the next day, a second egg had appeared so I knew I had to do something. Fortunately the temperatures skyrocketed to 16C one wet day in March, so I took the opportunity and binned everything.
The weather didn't really warm up properly until May. But when the city's cherry blossoms, magnolias and tulips burst into bloom, it heralds the start of True Spring and it's such a wonderful time to be out and around the city to visit all the beautiful trees downtown. The University of Toronto, Queen's Park, Christie Pits and High Park have some magnificent flowers, and it's all a matter of finding the less crowded ones so you can avoid the Instagrammers. We had the Victoria Day fireworks and very soon after, the official 1.0 launch of Lynked: Banner of the Spark.
Though it's only been a year and a bit since I joined FuzzyBot, it's felt like I've slid in and made myself useful pretty quickly. Shipping a game is intensely stressful for everyone. Console development is hard. Programming for TRC requirements is hard and often those features will never been seen by the majority of players. But we did it. The team did it. We pulled through for a largely successful launch and quickly patched some major issues. Reception has been very positive, but I think the game has struggled with discoverability, which is a very common problem these days. It's satisfying though, and we're all incredibly proud of what we've accomplished, and we should be! We celebrated in style - the three of us in Toronto, with partners, at Barberian's Steak House.
There was also Doors Open (Got to see the Mayor's Office and a bunch of cool things in the City Hall, as well as a guided tour of the murals out in Islington), a week in Montreal, Eurovision, and the usual street festivals like Taste of Little Italy and Do West Fest. There was the inaugural Toronto Video Games Month; one of the events they had was to project some video games onto the wall of a factory building by Billy Bishop Airport while people played - that was really cool to watch for a bit, but the highlight was getting to meet the Mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, who has an incredibly strong Asian Auntie vibe about her. She tried really hard to sound like she knew about video games but ended up talking about Angry Birds. There was also the Rat Race, a scavenger hunt of sorts through Toronto's underground PATH system, which we achieved second place for! There was Pride, a few days in Bruce Peninsula, and a week in Sudbury visiting Manitoulin Island and Killarney Provincial Park, some of my favourite places in Ontario.
Summer is truly a great time to be in Toronto, it's really a shame that it goes by so quickly. This autumn though, my parents will be visiting me, here in Canada, for the first time since I arrived eight years ago, so there's plenty to look forward to in the months ahead.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:35am on Wednesday July 9, 2025 :: 0 comments ::