This is now at least my fifteenth attempt at writing this goddamn farewell article. Fifteen times I tried to hit the right tone. I wanted to explain again my reasons for deciding to shut down game curator for good. I wanted to write about how hard it has been for me to keep motivating myself without regular external feedback. I wanted to say smart things about why it is not bad to fail with a project and that suddenly letting go of it after years of clinging to it can be very liberating. I wanted to reconcile all of that somehow. But honestly? I just did not manage not to come across as bitter. And that is why I will write a few lines instead about what I plan to do in the future.

I decided to start a German Let’s Play YouTube channel called Sebastian Tries His Best. There you can actually already see a complete Let’s Play of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”. But if you think that this was the first project because I like the game so much, you are wrong! It is rather the favorite oldschool Zelda part of my partner Diana and for her birthday I secretly recorded this video series over a period of three and a half months as a special gift. So yes, it is actually a personalized Let’s Play, in which I also address her directly over and over again, laugh at some little inside jokes we have and even throw her kisses at the end of each part – yeah, it is cheesy, sue me!

Since Diana did not want only herself to have access to such a time-consuming gift, she gave me the impetus to make it public for everyone after all. And I am happy about it, because that way she also gave me the impulse to indulge in a new hobby. Sure, it is all still quite amateurish – after all, it was my first attempt – but I hope that already my next project, which I want to start in about two weeks, will go better. Thanks to a new desktop computer and better lighting equipment, I hope to be better prepared at least on a technical level when I start playing through the very first “Final Fantasy” title. In the long run, I plan to record a Let’s Play for every single-player “Final Fantasy” game in the main series, but let us see if I can keep it up, shall we?

Of course, from time to time I also want to and will present an indie game in this still unfamiliar form for me, but for now I am looking forward to returning to my own roots as a video game lover. It is a comfort project for me, after all – and I think that is also exactly what I need right now after closing game curator. I am really looking forward to it.

Now it only remains for me to thank you for your time and attention over the past years.
Take care and see you soon!

— Yours truly,
Sebastian Standke