Another year has flown by, with 2024 about to make way for 2025. As with every year, New Year's Eve is a chance to look back at the last 12 months, as well as looking forward to what’s to come. So sit back, relax, and let’s run a recap of 2024. Oh, and there will be a sneak peek ahead at what’s coming to M4J in 2025 too!
2024 - A year in review
2024 has very much been a mixed bag for the channel. In a change to the norm, I’m going to quickly go over the negatives first before highlighting everything that was awesome about the last year.
Let’s start with burnout. Constantly creating content can leave you exhausted after a while, and that’s definitely true with me. 2024 actually started with a month-long break, with January written off and no new content posted until February.
I also took an extended break throughout October, although for different reasons. I have an explainer coming up soon that dives into the reasons for that a little more so I won’t dwell on that too much now. Just look out for From Steam to Electricity episode #31 for the full explanation.
Breaks are fine to take during a year, but considering I finally found real momentum this year, I’m still disappointed in myself for breaking the streak so close to the end. Maybe I’m just being hard on myself though, who knows?
I’m also scratching my head a little on why my video views are so inconsistent. Despite maintaining thumbnail design, title styles, and maxing out my SEO scores, things just aren’t quite where I want them to be.
I’m sure I’m being harsh here too, but there’s always that pang of disappointment when a video fails to achieve the view count of the previous episode in the series. It’s happened a few times this year, and it never gets easier, trust me.
But that’s enough of the negatives, let’s talk about the good stuff!
Finding rhythm
I believe I’ve made some of my best videos this year, with the new Global Ventures series doing very well right now. My preview video for this series is probably the most fun I’ve had making a video too, and I think that shows with the passion that comes out in the video.
I’ve also cracked the SEO enigma at long last, with more progress in that area coming in the new year. It’s a bit like selling your soul to the devil when it comes to SEO, but when you get it right it definitely gets results.
I’m also really happy with my subscriber count as the year closes. Ok I didn’t hit my target of 2,500, or even my revised target of 2,000, but it’s considerably higher than I started the year with and that’s all that matters.
Then there’s the support from you all. This year finishes with three Patreon supporters and two YouTube Members. Honestly, I am incredibly grateful to all of you who enjoy my content enough to support the channel financially, without whom I wouldn’t be able to continue doing what I do.
There are also three of us now on the Summerset MTR Minecraft server, with the city continuing to develop at a strong rate. I’m blown away every time I visit other builds at just how things are shaping up, and I can’t wait to see that continued growth in the new year.
So on that note, what does 2025 have to offer for the channel?
Growing the park
Global Ventures will be the new flagship series moving into 2025. It’s about time I moved away from transport games dominating the channel, and what better way to do that than with my other main love, theme parks.
I’ve had a couple of creative blocks with the series so far, but that’s mainly trying to get the right in-game pieces to use for the buildings I have in mind. Where it’s worked really well is in the park entrance and ‘main street’ area, and I’m sure the same will continue through the rest of the park.
January will start with the construction of the newest themed area, Odyssey of the Olympians. This area will contain the park’s first roller coasters, including an epic duelling coaster forming a key landmark on the skyline.
I personally can’t wait to get stuck into this area, as it will also be the first to use a scenery theme in Planet Coaster 2. This, of course, is the Mythology theme, as seen in the Wonders of the World dark ride already in the park.
So Planet Coaster 2 is hitting the headlines, but that’s not the end of the line for the M4J Network.
Back on track
The M4J Network will be returning in 2025, with a whole new strategy. Basically, I just want to get the network running again, so I’m going to compromise following realistic practices just a little to make that happen.
I’ve already spoken to Master Trams to get the final HighSpeed and TransRapid schedules completed to a professional standard but after that, I’ll be attempting to make my own schedules for as many routes as possible.
I already have a heritage railway episode lined up for January, then after that we’ll be travelling back to Sanley to begin services on the Bay Lines. Once that’s out of the way, I want to start looking at improving areas of the network to better match the new style.
This will involve rebuilding junctions, redesigning stations, and altering signals to make it easier to get trains running.
I also have a tutorial on realistic vehicle scheduling due to arrive in January. This was originally meant to come out in November, but grabbing the footage has been a right pain and so it will be out in 2025 now. The tutorial series will be continuing as and when I can produce episodes.
I’m also planning on improving the Patreon and Membership tier rewards for OpenTTD, as well as finally getting the save on a server so my loyal supporters can run their own franchises. Stay tuned for more info on this as I’m hoping it will be within the next couple of months.
The M4J Network will be taking the second spot behind Global Ventures, but there will still be other series running on the channel in 2025.
The rest is content
Summerset MTR will be back next year, with the opening episodes focusing on preparing the site of the city centre hub. I’m aiming to build the station itself along with the other members of the server in either March or April, as it will be a big project that needs a lot of time to complete.
Just like with the M4J Network, the Patreon and Membership tier rewards for Minecraft will be overhauled in the new year, just to add some more incentives.
From Steam to Electricity will also be making a comeback after a four-month break. As I said earlier, the first episode back contains a quick explanation as to why the series disappeared for so long so keep an eye out for that.
Besides that, there’s not a lot planned for the channel other than the four main series. Of course, things may change as the year progresses, but I’m happy to go with a ‘less is more’ approach for the coming year.
Trying to cover multiple games was a cause of my burnout, so I’d rather be really good at a handful of games rather than somewhat good at lots of games. This allows me to explore my creativity without spreading it too thin.
My Patreon and YouTube Memberships will also be improved in 2025. As I’ve said already, the tier rewards will be tweaked, but I also want to look at the tier amounts to try and encourage more people to join up. This will actually benefit existing supporters as there’s a chance tiers will become cheaper moving forward.
Finally, I want to overhaul the M4J website at long last. This actually started in 2024, but every time I made a breakthrough it took hours to get to that stage, and again was a cause of creative burnout.
Oh actually, there is one more little announcement. 2025 will see the launch of a brand new M4J channel. M4J_Quizzing will be a pub quiz/trivia channel hosted by myself with questions by both me and my brother, Tom.
Each week a new episode will drop, featuring five rounds of ten questions covering a wide range of subjects. Each question will be multiple choice, with players choosing one of three answers on screen.
The animations for this have been made, but still need some tweaks before the channel officially launches. We’re aiming to get the first episode out in late January, but I’ll keep you posted if this changes.
So that’s all I’ve got for you this time around. It’s been a long post but hopefully covers everything that’s happened and is yet to come.
Before I wrap up, I just want to thank you all once again for liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing. It always means a lot to have people enjoy my content, and I assure you things will only get better in the new year.
Thank you for an awesome 2024, and I wish you all the best of success for 2025. Happy New Year everyone, and until next year I will see you soon!