FALL SEASONAL UPDATE! (Patreon)

LEAF TIME.    SPOOKINESS ON THE HORIZON.    IT'S FAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

Another new month means it's time for another update on what's happening over here at OSP.

As we mentioned in the last seasonal update, summer was a bit of a slow season for us. We kept up with the Friday video-uploads and the podcast, but we reconfigured some of our "extra-curriculars" and added in some new types of content that are slightly less labor-intensive to make (City Minutes & Detail Diatribe).

We really appreciate you all bearing with us as we make these adjustments — we'd rather take things easy and not burn out than push ourselves too hard and, like, melt, or something. We've seen dozens of fellow creators on YouTube take breaks for the first time in years, and we support that kind of self-care, but it's still real to internalize that and practice that self-care on yourself, y'know?

Probably the biggest change you'll see is how we handle streaming. It's super fun, but it's tough to get everyone in a call at the same time, and it's been extra hard on me to make interesting conversation and also play the game and also be manning the computer that's actually running the stream (with all the technical troubleshooting that entails). We had a blast with the Zelda Dog% charity streams earlier this summer, but it took a lot out of me.

So here's the new plan for live-streams: we'll still do the big group streams where it's a big party, usually accompanied by a charity fundraiser, and we do a few in the span of a couple weeks. We're aiming for at least once per season at a minimum (since that's about the pace we've had so far this year), but we can't promise anything more than that. In between those big streaming events, we'll have two other types of livestreams.
You might have already seen the first one — OSP After Dark. Red and Indigo have had this one in the works for a while, and they're super excited to be doing these late-night streams. So far they've done two tier-list streams ranking Himbos and Detectives, and they've got plenty of other tier-lists to do, but they're also thinking of other new ideas for OSP After Dark streams. If there's something you want to see Red and Indigo talk about on an OSP After Dark, leave a comment below!
The other new type of stream is me going back to my roots and streaming Assassin's Creed 2, front-to-back. This is intended to be a very chill series of me just playing through the game, maybe one or two guests per stream, maybe just me. I haven't started it yet, but we'll see how it goes! One technical benefit is that I can stream directly from the PS4 rather than booting up Streamlabs OBS, which makes the setup and troubleshooting infinitely easier on my part.

So essentially, the new three pillars of OSP Streams is the following: big streams with the whole gang at least once per season, peppered in with Red & Indigo hosting OSP After Dark and  Blue playing through Assassin's Creed 2. This ought to make streaming more frequent, more varied, and a little more sustainable than doing one big thing all at once and then having a multi-week drought.

That's the biggest change to the channel itself that'll have long-term implications. In the short term there's an Autumn hiccup in the form of Cyan and I getting married. If all goes well you won't notice any disruption to our schedule, but in case we later announce a schedule alteration, that's why.

Next up, merch! This season we have a few things to get announce. First up is a Dionysus pin & sticker sheet that will go up with a video on Midas next month. Woot. We're also going to be doing our big Black Friday 2021 re-release sale at the end of November. Our plan again is to restock all of our 2021 pins, so that means you'll have another chance to grab Hades & Persephone, Loki, Zeus & Hera, Poseidon & Athena, and Dionysus if you missed them the first time around. Last year we sold out of our entire restock in just 3 days — I'm pretty sure we didn't even make it to Black Friday. This year we planned ahead and have way more stock, but I still want to warn you that they might go fast. We'll post about it on twitter and the community tab when they go live before Black Friday, so keep an eye out there if you're interested.

On the 3D side of merch, we're also very excited to premiere a Sun Wukong Vinyl Toy later next month! We've worked with the independent toymaker DoomCo Designs to make a Wukong figure that we think you'll really love. Details are still being finalized, so we'll have more to share when it's ready for you.

With all that explained, here's what videos you can look forward to this season. We've got myths of Urashima Taro & Midas, the folklore behind Werewolves, and at the end of the season we have the next installment in The Journey To The West — meanwhile, look forward to Trope Talks on Fridging and Smart Guys. On my side of the channel, we've got the History videos about Sicily, Minoan Greece, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, a City Minutes on Native American cities to celebrate Indigenous People's Day, an architecture deep dive on a topic TBD, and a Detail Diatribe on the world-design of Breath of the Wild's Hyrule (as voted on by you last time!).

Speaking of, time to vote on stuff. Last time we asked you what you'd like to see in future detail diatribes, and we'll continue referring to your votes as we plan our next slate of DD's after the World Design Of Hyrule. But this time, we'd like to ask what you want to see Indigo and Red rank in an upcoming OSP After Dark Tier List stream.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and thank you for supporting the work we do here on OSP. It's been kind of a bonkers year, more so than 2020 even, but it's reassuring to know that the silly videos we make are doing some good :)

-Blue