Is January 23rd too late for a 2025 round-up? Perhaps, but nobody has managed to stop me so far. Quite the opposite, actually! You've all been absolutely wonderful, making 2025 my best year ever in terms of BuyMeACoffee supporters. Thank you, all - it really does mean a lot!
Halfway through 2025, I put together a recap of everything I'd done at that point in the year. Six months on, there's obviously been more hints, maps, guides, and other goodies, and I can't wait to share them all!
Just like before, though, I ought to reintroduce myself for anyone confused to see me in their inbox. Hello! I'm Kieron. Don't worry, I only send emails once or twice a year at most.
• I went to university for game development and created a few small projects as a designer.
• Until quite recently, I was obsessed with collecting platinum trophies on PlayStation.
• That started my career - writing trophy guides was how I got my foot in the door.
• Nowadays, I freelance on Fiverr and create interactive maps for Map Genie, a site owned by IGN.
• You may know me from NiceGameHints, PSNProfiles, Game Rant, Gamer Guides, or most recently, GameFAQs. I get around!
Now, where were we?
In my previous post, I made a list of best-laid plans for the rest of 2025, starting with Stellar Blade maps. I had great fun using Otis_Inf's camera tools and Adobe Illustrator to lay out floor plans, rollercoaster tracks, space stations... I felt like a right proper cartographer! Can't really recommend the game itself, though; bland characters, repetitive combat, and usage of AI in its art assets soured my enjoyment, but was seemingly not an issue for a playerbase drooling over the scantily clad protagonist.
Next up was hints for The Biggleboss Incident, which I reviewed rather negatively for its aggravating writing and middling puzzles. It's got a likable developer in Adam Bunker, who you can find on YouTube, so I'm keenly awaiting his next game and the myriad of improvements that are sure to come from the experience he gained from Biggleboss.
Over a period of months, I went bananas with a couple of other mappers in Donkey Kong Bananza. It's the kind of game I would've loved playing as a kid, and absolutely worth playing for its astronomical 'simple fun' factor (but you might want to wait until the Switch 2 has a handful of extra games - it's pricey!)
I may not hunt trophies anymore, but there's still fun to be had writing guides, so I put one together for Slay the Princess. It's a game that you should know as little as possible about before playing, so I'll leave it at this: I thoroughly recommend it (as someone who doesn't like visual novels.)
On August 31st, I got engaged! I've been with Ellie since late 2020 and she said "yes" as we overlooked beautiful scenery from the top of Corfe Castle. It was a little stressful with all of the schoolkids running around, but we managed to find a quiet spot and it was a really sweet moment. I struggled to hide the ring-box-shaped dead giveaway in my pocket, but she was totally caught by surprise. Phew!
Right, back to video games - Sable is excellent. I should clarify that I used speed cheats to make mapping it easier, so your mileage may vary, but it was a treat to explore a beautiful open world that you can explore at your own leisure (and I still find myself thinking about its heartfelt coming-of-age story.) Plus, the collectibles are cute little worms. Who doesn't like cute little worms?
Hollow Knight: Silksong came out of nowhere in September, and while I didn't particularly like the first game, this one... was pretty much exactly like the first game, so I wasn't fond of it. Mapping a game with someone else is always fun, though, and the map we put together did crazy numbers - I only wish the crazies among those numbers would stop trying to rename one of the bosses to "Ass Jim".
With a bit of free time at the start of October, I delved into the backlog and finished up the map for Marvel's Spider-Man. I'm more of a Batman guy myself, but the web-swinging does feel pretty damn good.
October naturally means spooky games, so I stepped into Silent Hill for the first time with the latest entry, Silent Hill f. It's got a unique story exploring the expectations of women and the awful ways they were treated in 1960's Japan, told through multiple cycles of NG+. I do appreciate an established franchise taking risks like that, and I hear that recent patches let you skip some of the more tedious sections, but be ready for a lot of repetition. It is worth a try, though, even if you don't like horror (it's not very scary! You can trust me :) )
The Outer Worlds 2 was upon us soon after, and it was Fine™. This post is starting to make it sound like I really don't like video games, eh? In this case, I'm chalking it up to every character 'talking the same way' and a few too many maps that just didn't feel as fun to explore as Avowed's.
It's also possible I was comparing it too much to Fallout: New Vegas, which I finally played 'properly' this year around the same time, and found it absolutely lived up to its legendary reputation (even with all the crashing). Thorough maps for the base game and DLCs were great fun to put together; I know the folks at Bethesda / Obsidian are well aware of the demand for a remaster, so here's hoping there's something coming soon.
In November, something quite daunting: AdventureX, a convention dedicated to game narratives and adventure games in general. I didn't really know what to expect once I'd swallowed my shyness and stepped through the doors, but wrote "NiceGameHints" on my lanyard and talked to an absolutely wonderful bunch! They include, but are certainly not limited to:
DuckMadeOfWood, creator of D3AD HAND, who had an infectious passion for making games.
Andreas Norberg, artist behind the excellent visuals of The Tragedy at Deer Creek
Remy Karns, writer and level designer behind the devastatingly relatable A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe
Tom Mardis and Lisa Broadt, husband-and-wife team behind the stylish and ambitious Dark Tides
Yawning Dog Studios - I didn't catch their names, but Ashwood Conspiracy had great puzzles!
Jared Rigby, developer of the modern and mysterious Mithra
Johnny Nys of Adventure Game Hotspot fame, who kindly shared advice and his unique perspective on games media.
Many of them also agreed to interviews! I'm still a total rookie but can't wait to "talk shop" and get to know them and their games better. I did a proper report on the event and point-n-click adventures that I found most exciting; you can find it here.
I couldn't go without mentioning Juho Rutila, creator of NiceGameHints! We finally met in the flesh and got to chat about all things hints, exploring AdventureX together. He told me some very interesting things about Finland, including a tradition to have an actor or relative dressed as Santa come visit your home and get treated to some songs by your kids in exchange for presents. Great to meet you, Juho - we ought to meet in Finland next (just don't ask me to dress as Santa!)
The remainder of the year was a bit of a whirlwind; without any huge releases, I found myself swimming through Map Genie's backlog to update maps for Fallout 3 (far too many skill magazines), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (oui oui, great story), and Fallout 4 (creation club nonsense). As a nice end-of-year treat, the subreddit hit 450 followers - that's a five-times increase from when I took it over in February! Sweet!
A new freelance client also saw me make a debut on GameFAQs with guide and walkthrough for This Way Madness Lies and My Big Sister Remastered. The former is a quirky mixture of Shakespeare's classics and Sailor Moon, and genuinely quite good for a small RPG! The latter is a short-but-sweet adventure game with a fairly nonsensical story, but I hear you're supposed to play Ashina: The Red Witch first. Oops.
So, what does the future look like? I'm continuing to update our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 maps, have started work on mapping Blasphemous 2, and am making good progress on hints for 3 Minutes to Midnight. Just this week, The 2025 Adventure Game of the Year awards debuted with a familiar face in the jury, and I mapped out the genuinely awesome underwater-themed Sanctuary of Sarras DLC for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. Shoutout to the tainted grail wiki; the tiny team there work super hard and were a big help in tracking stuff down for the map.
Resident Evil 9 is just on the horizon, as are many of those excellent games I saw at AdventureX, so it's safe to say I'll be busy - and thanks to all of your support, I've never been happier. Cheers!
Internet-Friendly Bullet-Point List (The TL;DR)
Stellar Blade Interactive Maps
The Biggleboss Incident Hints & Review
Donkey Kong Bananza Interactive Maps
Slay the Princess Trophy Guide
I got engaged!!!
Sable Interactive Map
Hollow Knight: Silksong Interactive Map
Marvel's Spider-Man Interactive Map
Silent Hill f Interactive Map
The Outer Worlds 2 Interactive Maps
Fallout: New Vegas Interactive Maps
Visited AdventureX and saw some amazing games (+ planned some interviews!)
Fallout 3 Interactive Map Update
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Interactive Map Update
Fallout 4 Interactive Map Update
This Way Madness Lies Guide / Walkthrough
My Big Sister Remastered Guide / Walkthrough
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - Sanctuary of Sarras DLC Interactive Map
I appeared in the jury for the 2025 Adventure Game of the Year awards!