Coming Next: Year 2 Of Scanlines' Journal
Mapping out the next 12 months
365 Days ago on the 5th of January 2025, I completed and then published my first ever Substack post after 4 days of writing, wondering whether this was a big waste of time and coming close to deleting my account. Today: on the 5th of January 2026, I am in a much different position.
I don’t want to stand on ceremony or to pile on more sickly sweet after a gluttonous festive season but I will still thank you all once again for subscribing and promise another year of articles that will be worth reading.
I’m writing this post today from a position of privilege. Last year I had to hop on the Switch 2 hype train, bait people in with a semi-hyperbolic hit piece on cosy games and run myself into the ground posting twice a week every week to get noticed and to attain a following but in 2026 I’m starting with an established readership, a body of work and a reputation: I’m starting with the ability to plan ahead and with your trust that if I don’t post for more than 3 days, it’s because I’m cooking up something good and not because I’ve quit Substack.
So, these are my plans for January and for the Journal in its entirety.
More Structure
In 2025, this Substack operated on a rapid Wednesday and Saturday posting schedule where I would (in theory) release smaller, bite-size opinion pieces on the Wednesday and large articles and reviews on Saturdays.
This worked well at first but I have a chronic need to write more and to go into more detail; I can’t just say a game is good or bad, I have to tell you why I like how it plays, what I find appealing about its art-style and more. The result was that by Autumn, both Wednesday and Saturday’s posts were huge and I was getting incredibly burnt out. I have too much pride to delay a post and the thought of getting on Notes and telling you how hard it’s all been to do something as simple as type on a keyboard makes me queasy so there were times where I sat with a migraine, or dealing with the grief of losing a pet or the impairment of 2 hours of sleep hammering out words just to meet a self-imposed deadline.
My posts have always been uncategorised and spat out at random too: sometimes a list, sometimes a review and sometimes a rant about annoying Ebay sellers or how much I love CRT displays.
Going forward in 2026, I’m going to be posting on Wednesdays only on an if-I-want-to basis and sticking to a Saturday schedule for my articles, furthermore, I’m going to start consistently labelling them and sticking to a schedule for the type of article as well. Expect a month of Scanlines Journal in 2026 to look something like this:
1st Saturday of the month: Retro Review
2nd Saturday of the month: Modern Review
3rd Saturday of the month: Anecdote/Thinkpiece/List
4th Saturday of the month: Off-Topic
As you’ve probably noticed… I want to discuss other things besides gaming too, just a little. I’ve read a lot of books, listened to a lot of music and done a lot of writing in my time. I love video games and they are without question an entirely legitimate and beautiful form of art but sometimes when I’m writing I feel a lack of… purpose? My style of review is to dissect a game piece by piece diagnosing the problems, assessing the severity of those problems and contrasting it with the game’s best bits; I don’t believe in perfection or in utter farce, for me a good game must at the bare minimum have more good than bad. This style of review doesn’t leave much room for… aspiration? I’d like to write things that make people happy, introduce you to things that sit with you and I don’t feel that’s what I’ve done so far.
I’m struggling to articulate this point, just know that once a month you’ll see something pretty out of left field from me.
More PlayStation
I seem to say this every month but… me and Sony have a complicated history. To cut a long story short, I’ve only ever connected to the PS2 in a deep way; the PS3 is one of my least favourite consoles ever and I find the PS1 to have aged worse than the Saturn or N64; the PlayStation 4 was the only competent console of its generation so I find it hard to praise too highly. Recently, I received some much-appreciated Christmas money and was convinced to buy my own PlayStation 5 after using the one in our living room a lot with my brother, so expect a lot more articles based around Sony’s console.
This will extend to retro reviews too, I don’t play the PlayStation nearly enough and the PlayStation 2 has a lot of amazing games I wanted to look back on in 2025 but never got the chance to.
More Collaboration
One of my favourite articles to write last year was on the Sega Master System: the NES rival that was destroyed in the US by barely legal market practices but flourished in Europe and Brazil. The Boss Level’s collaboration on this piece added a wonderful authenticity that I was really happy with. Harrison Polites went to massive lengths last year to include virtually every gaming writer on this platform in his collaborative articles, my posting schedule was too demanding to get involved (apart from one single time) but I'm happy to say I’d like to join in for each of them this year.
We’re still very much in the thinking stage for now but me and Harrison have plans to collaborate on a Resident Evil article this year, perhaps closer to Requiem’s launch. I don’t want to promise anything but don’t be surprised if we do some work together this Spring. The collaboration invitation (see? I can rhyme) is open to any others with ideas as well, I’m all ears.
More Outer Ops
This year I’d love to get out and about more and explore gaming culture and experiences.
I’ve said before that I’m something of a shut in but I know if I need to write about them, I’ll be motivated to go out and experience things instead of sticking to myself. I have no concrete plans as of now but I know of at least 1 arcade nearby that I could get to and my particular city happens to have links to some big names in the gaming space so stay-tuned. I’d love to just take a camera to a car boot sale or a CEX sometime and show you what I find and what I bought too, could be really fun.
I might show my gaming setup too but it’s not exactly AVGN’s basement in here, it’s mostly a room with too much stuff crammed in but it could be interesting to look back at some of the stuff I’ve picked up and some of the games/devices I have that have been with me for a very long time.
A Potential Summer Break
Last July was the morale and traffic low-point for this Substack. At the time I thought my momentum had run out and that my articles were just not very good but as it turns out… people have lives, once the weather cooled in the second half of August the views came back and the ‘stack began to grow again. With this in mind I may take July off this year, or change things up to be a lot lighter. I don’t want to write things that nobody reads.
Other Sources Of Online Content
I’ve made my strong dislike for YouTube pretty well-known in the past and I honestly, genuinely enjoy the Substack platform despite some long-standing annoyances and the callous disregard for other people inherently cultivated by the internet. All of that being said, I’d like to turn my writing/reviewing into something that generates a decent amount of money each month.
I have 2 immensely generous subscribers on Ko-Fi so far but let’s be real: the money is in video content and selling products. I’m not at all looking to make a brand or to peddle bullshit tat on you but don’t be surprised if I experiment with YouTube, short-form video or maybe even start posting simultaneously on something like Medium this year. A sponsor would be nice but I have no face, strong opinions and am not willing to review any old shovelware that falls in my lap, I’m unmarketable. To me, credibility is the biggest asset you can have online, especially as a critic; people sometimes hate on Roger Ebert but his voice was a respected authority on film because he had both integrity and honesty.
I don’t want to muddy the waters in regards to my own integrity, if I start accepting free copies and sponsorships then what else am I accepting the audience doesn’t know about? If I ask these questions of others then people will also surely ask them of me.
What’s Coming This January
Finally, let’s discuss what you can expect from me this month. I think you’re going to like these articles.
Week 1: Castlevania Symphony of the Night Review
Symphony of the Night is one of my favourite video games of all time but on original hardware it costs several hundred pounds complete in box and the Saturn version requires fan-patching a Japanese copy of the game; too expensive and too finnicky. With a PlayStation 5 in my possession I can finally replay this game at a reasonable price and review a true classic and a foundational title on the Metroidvania genre.
Week 2: My First 100 Hours of EU5
Europa Universalis 5 has had me enamoured since day 1 but the mechanical depth, the sheer variety of things to do and other games getting in the way has meant I’ve had to stay my hand in reviewing the game. After a little over 100 hours under my belt, I finally feel prepared to review it, with the huge caveat that this is a Paradox game in a state of flux and I don’t understand it all completely yet.
Week 3: The Greatest Video Games 1985-1999
My article on the greatest video games from every year since 2000: my birth, was immensely popular and has since become my biggest hit ever. In the vein of that post I’d like to go back to the past, back to the consoles and games before my time to pick out my retro favourites.
I’ve never played anything older than NES so 1985 will be the start point.
Week 4: Scanlines’ Goth Essentials
My first non-gaming post this year will be on the rich and complex world of goth music. As the years have rolled by I’ve grown to identify with the goth subculture and aesthetic more and more; coincidentally I was already a fan of a lot of music that is considered goth. In this post I’ll be going into some of the intricacies of the genre, the culture and pointing out some of my favourites.
This brings my little battle plan to an end. You can expect that Symphony of the Night review on Saturday the 10th of January and I hope we all get good numbers, publish great articles and perhaps most importantly: get our own category this year!
If you want to follow me on PSN, Nintendo Switch or Steam then feel free to send me a friend request, maybe send a little message too so I know you’re not a bot/spam account.
PSN: Scanlines25 (with the picture of the knight)
Steam: Scanny25
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-2835-8529-9483
I’ll see you there!
It's been great reading your thoughts in 2025, you were one of the first I followed/subscribed to. Sounds like 2026 will be great too. Don't forget to take breaks!
Very much looking forward to the Symphony of the Night article.
I'm glad to see your eagerness to delve into new subjects! Your notes clearly show that you have a wealth of ideas that I can't wait to read from you, so I'm looking forward to what you have in store next.
It goes without saying that it was a tremendous honor to be part of the Scanlines history with the SMS retrospective! I was a blast to share my perspective and adding a Brazilian touch to the article. Perhaps we can collaborate again in the future, but until then, I'm excited to see your insights on new topics. The goth essentials' post have piqued my interest!
Happy New Year and congratulations on a full year of fantastic writing!