January 2024 Production Update (Patreon)

Hello, friends.

I typically upload bonus content for my paying subscribers via Patreon and YouTube at the Gosu tier and higher on a weekly basis, currently in the form of Arby 'n' the Chief legacy content commentaries-- Hypermail at the precise moment-- but not last week. I'm sorry about that. I was suddenly swamped more than usual with external video editing work, among other errands, on top of all my own projects. I've cleared my plate enough now that I'll be recording a new batch of commentaries this week for release on the upcoming weekends.

Work continues on the writing of my upcoming Halo Reach machinima series about cops and aliens called Hard Justice. As I announced earlier this month in an X post, I've now finished a rough draft of an entire season of episodes and am currently combing through every scene from the start, repeatedly reading out all the dialogue to myself as if I was playing every character in the scenes, and making revisions. This phase will involve at least two passes. I don't want to move onto production and auditions until I'm confident in the strength of the whole season's material. It's not that I don't think the overall story and many of its details are strong already but, during revisions, there continue to be things I suddenly realize I haven't established or fleshed out enough that need addressing. This project differs from writing more Arby 'n' the Chief episodes in that I'm also building new characters and a new world of some complexity in which everything takes place. I don't want to enter production of the season early, complete the first episode, then discover during development of sequential episodes that I've locked myself into containing some redundant, contradictory, or non-sensical story elements. It's a significant undertaking. How the whole season will be chopped up and uploaded is still to be determined; the outline of the season in its current form has me uploading five long episodes between a half-hour to an hour each, each episode containing at least three chapters of story, but that's all subject to change.

As I had Arbiter say in my Christmas 2023 message video, this year I'd like to put out more regular Arby 'n' the Chief content, often-- not always-- in the form of smaller, sometimes particularly sillier ideas and scripts. I had said not too long ago that I wanted to take a break from Arby 'n' the Chief, and I did, but very quickly after the announcement I felt way less pressure, which promptly facilitated me getting a bunch of ideas for more episodes, because it's a fact that I still quite enjoy making the show and making myself laugh. Developed scripts and ideas lined up include toy Chief taking his helmet off, Chief building a PC, a previously-mentioned parody of the Japanese animated film Akira, the gang travelling through time to a different gaming era, the gang playing Dungeons and Dragons, and what will probably be a relatively lengthy story about streaming and online debate culture.

I wanted to stream Sonic Adventure earlier this month but I've had too many other, more important tasks to prioritize. It's something I'm still looking forward to doing.

The next Professional Reviews entry I have lined up is one on Insomniac's Spider-Man. Not even the sequel, but the first one. I realize the game's a bit dated at this point, but I've found a comedic angle on it in particular that I think makes the "review" worthwhile to produce at some point and for people to check out for a laugh even today.

For a while I've thought that when I upload a new Mediabyss it would be about the Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill, but by that time people may prefer hearing me talk about season two of the Halo show, since the first Mediabyss uploads revolved around season one, so I'm not sure what the next entry in my series will be at this point.

The order in which all of this will be produced and released I'm not sure of-- I'm spinning a lot of plates and just taking everything one day at a time, fitting in as much as I can each day while taking some time on a daily basis to remain healthy in body and mind in the form of doing a full-body workout, going for a walk, cooking for myself, getting a bit of reading and studying done, and going to bed at a reasonable hour. It's barely left any room for gaming and other entertainment, unfortunately, but my days feel satisfyingly full, I'm excited about what I'm working on, and I'm doing well. I hope you are too, that you'll bear with me, and look forward to whatever I put out in whatever order.

Thank you very much to my paying subscribers for another month of support, I greatly appreciate it along with everyone's patience and viewership as always.