Kartik Patel

Posted on Dec 14

DAT ONE RECAP: 2025

#recap #gamedev #softwaredevelopment #go

This year was insane for me.

Honestly, if I ranked every year I’ve lived so far, 2025 would still end up at the top. And yeah, I know my life is short, I’m still a kid — but the character development I went through this year is something I never imagined. This was the year where I faced life and death almost at the same time.

So this is the ultimate Dat One recap of 2025.

Let’s start from the beginning — from the first real video on my channel.

The video was titled “3D Version of Lua”.

It wasn’t actually my first YouTube video ever. I had uploaded stuff before, but this was my first English video. I’m from India, and the kind of content I make is already very niche. Making it in Hindi would’ve made it even more niche. So I decided to switch to English.

That switch was hard.

Tongue twisters, broken grammar, sentences that barely made sense — and honestly, some still don’t. But I’ve improved a lot since then, and I’m proud of that.

After that video, I uploaded two more videos on Lua and Love2D. At that time, I was completely new to game development. I was searching for an engine that gave me full control without an overcomplicated UI. Engines like GameMaker felt overwhelming. Love2D felt perfect — simple, minimal, code-first.

Then I made a tutorial on Godot.

And that became the first major checkpoint of my channel.

That Godot video became the most viewed video on my channel that year. I knew Godot was what the audience wanted. But even then, I didn’t want to turn my channel into a Godot-only channel.

The reason was Mini Micro.

I was searching for a simple, minimal, down-to-earth game engine — and Mini Micro was exactly that. That’s why most of my content this year revolved around Mini Micro and MiniScript.

Somewhere in this timeline, I also posted a video on the Fyrox Engine. That happened because I really liked the content style of the YouTuber GameFromScratch, and I tried to copy that style.

I quickly realized something important: making content like someone else isn’t fun. You have to find your own voice.

After that realization, I posted more Mini Micro and MiniScript videos, and one more Godot video — which ended up being my last Godot video of the year.

Then I disappeared for two months.

After those two months, I uploaded a video titled “2025 was the worst year of my life”.

In that video, I sounded unserious. I was laughing and smirking. The reason is simple: whenever I feel extreme emotional pain, I don’t cry immediately — I laugh. After recording that video, I cried a lot.

Because the reality was heavy.

Starting from November 2024, I had been suffering from multiple diseases. Due to heavy pollution in my state, I started having severe breathing issues. It felt like someone was choking me. I was rushed to a nearby hospital, and from there referred to AIIMS Delhi.

I was treated there for 24 hours on heavy medication and discharged with inhalers. After that incident, my physical condition went downhill. I lost around 12 kg of weight.

In January, I got jaundice.
In February, it disappeared.
In March, I got a UTI.
That recovered.
Then jaundice came back.
Then it came back again in April, with my bilirubin levels reaching around 22.

I was admitted to another respected hospital, where I was declared to have Wilson’s Disease — a rare genetic disorder that basically sounded like a life sentence.

I broke down.

I cried a lot. That’s when I made the video about 2025 being the worst year of my life.

At that point, I genuinely thought I had very little time left. I decided I had to work fast. I wanted to earn money — not because I’m greedy or materialistic, but because I wanted to make my family smile.

Even while writing this, I’m smiling and crying at the same time.

I decided to stop copying other creators and started producing content in my own style. You can clearly see the shift in my thumbnails and video quality after that point.

Then I decided to learn a serious, market-worthy programming language. That’s when I found Go.

I started a Go 101 blog series on my dev.to account. It was supposed to last 30 days. It didn’t even last a week. But during that time, I built a small tier list program in Go and made a video ranking programming languages.

Then came April.

I was still taking medicines for Wilson’s Disease when a relative who worked at the same hospital suggested we go to another hospital — one we had never even heard of. We went there for a second opinion.

I got admitted immediately.

That moment broke me.

I cried like a baby in the hospital. I had anemia, heavy jaundice, extremely low blood pressure. My life started feeling like a burden to myself. I genuinely felt like I should just die.

Every night, I cried. Other patients even complained about it.

Before November 2024, I had been studying hard for an entrance exam that could get me into a better government school for free. Now that effort felt meaningless. The exam was approaching, and I was lying in a hospital bed, fighting for my life.

I had my laptop with me, but due to network jammers, internet only worked after 4 PM.

That hospital felt more like an institute than a hospital — even its name had “Institute” in it.

They ran test after test. Around 52 tests in total.

Finally, they declared I had no Wilson’s Disease.
No asthma.
Nothing genetic.

What I actually had was multiple autoimmune disorders, hepatitis, typhoid, and several other conditions — around seven diseases at once.

The date was May 19.
My birthday was May 21.
The entrance exam was on May 26.

And then something unbelievable happened.

Without any jaundice medicine, my body started recovering on its own. Doctors discharged me on May 20. On May 21, I was home.

That birthday wasn’t happy. Life still felt ruined. I had lost around 15 kg and then gained back even more. My current weight is actually higher than before I got sick.

About the entrance exam — another miracle happened.

I had typhoid and needed injections for five days. The last injection was on May 25. That meant I could sit for the exam on May 26.

I gave the exam.

June passed in trauma.
Half of July passed in trauma.
I made a few videos in between.

Then, on July 18, the results came.

I had secured 3rd rank in the exam.

I got admitted.

That’s where the death phase of 2025 ended.

My body had mostly recovered by then, though I still take daily medication. I decided to make a heavy comeback. I upgraded my content quality again. I started participating in game jams regularly and ended up winning 3–4 of them.

I uploaded another Godot video — this time about the asset store — and my content quality reached a level comparable to bigger creators.

Subscriber growth was still slow.
But I never gave up.

At my lowest point, I had decided to earn — and I kept my word. I worked harder than ever. I earned through game jams, technical writing, and other small opportunities.

I still wanted a solid, long-term skill.

So I returned to Go.

And in November 2025, I fully committed to it.

Today, I’m happy to say that I’ve officially transitioned from being only a game developer to becoming a software developer.

This doesn’t mean I’ll stop making games. I’ll still participate in game jams regularly.

But it does mean that in 2026, you’re going to see some serious software products from me.

Some of them will be paid — a small one-time price, probably under $25 — and the reason for that should be clear by now. I’ll also release free products.

Finally, thank you to everyone who supported me during this time.

Special thanks to ds slower (His YT), @joestrout , and AnimeAbhi (A YouTube Subscriber) — for supporting me when I was at my lowest.

This was 2025.

And I’m still standing.