An Actual Blog Post (Patreon)

Hello everyone, I don’t have any major news this time, I just thought it might be nice to give a little update on how everything’s going.

First of all I want to say thank you for helping us reach the goal on this page. Over the last couple years I’ve been dipping into my savings which have depleted a fair amount. I realise that’s my own fault but I hope it’s clear that my sparse updates came from a place of caring too much, not too little. That hardly makes it better but it is what it is. I suspect when we’re done with this batch of videos there’ll be another hiatus but at least for now I don’t have to worry about the bank statements going down, so that’s a load off my mind. I know I come off like a robot sometimes but your generosity is much appreciated, thank you.

If you’ve read my older posts you’ll know that I moved out of my apartment back in October. The new place is both cheaper and bigger, with the only major downside so far being that there’s no internet connection yet. At first this didn’t bother me but it is starting to grate on me a bit now that it’s been several months. I have to do everything over mobile internet. The Devil Daggers video took 16 hours to upload, although thankfully I was able to get a 4G connection for the other two videos so they only took a few hours each. Anyway I’m in the process of getting that sorted out now and hopefully when I get up and running I’ll be able to do some streams. I’d like to do shorter, more frequent streams but we’ll see how it turns out.

Apart from that, the new place is working out very nicely. The number of little improvements to my day to day life is too numerous to list but suffice to say it’s been a huge deal. Perhaps most importantly of all, I now have a dedicated office/game room. I’ve been able to put most of my games on clear display on shelves for the first time in about 15 years which is just wonderful. Being able to see my games at a glance reminds me of the things I want to talk about so it’s already been kind of inspirational. I find it much easier to get into a good play session now which has helped me to make some dents in my backlog too. This year I’d like to cross off my most shamefully unplayed games in an effort to expand my knowledge and maybe find some good video fodder along the way.

Being out in the country, the new place is much more quiet. I was actually able to record some audio for the Devil Daggers video in the middle of the day which would’ve been unthinkable before. We lived overlooking a busy road which meant constant noise until about 10pm most nights. I still haven’t gotten used to it here. Recently I decided to record a tutorial video for Bayonetta on a whim and was able to get it over and done with in no time. That’ll be going up on the second channel whenever I get a proper connection. Most of my consoles can stay set up and the cables are much tidier and easier to swap out. I can browse a shelf, pull a game off and play it. Overall there’s just so much less hassle between thinking about doing something and actually doing it.

As for what’s next, I’ll be starting the Zachtronics series soon. The SpaceChem script needs some work so there might be a small delay as I get that one ready but after that it should be smooth sailing. The Infinifactory and TIS-100 scripts are complete, Shenzhen I/O and Opus Magnum are very far along. I’m hoping to finish up these videos in quick succession then release them every two weeks as normal, freeing up some time for me to work on the following videos and hopefully tackle a commentary I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I actually recorded the footage for it back in January 2017 but decided it would be too indulgent to disappear for many months just to come back with one video so soon after the DMC commentary. Anyway, I don’t want to say what game that one is about - I’m still not even sure I’ll be able to turn it into a good video - but you should probably assume it’s one that doesn’t interest you, that way you won’t be disappointed.

With a more stable environment, I’m thinking I might do a live version of one of my commentary videos. The idea would be to play and commentate at the same time which might allow me to show off some stuff more naturally on video. Then I’d edit the best parts down and post it on the main channel. I don’t know if it would work but it might be useful to help me get over my perfectionist tendencies regardless. I have some games in mind for that one but if you want to suggest a game you think would work well with that format, feel free to let me know. I have some other ideas I’d like to try as well, I’m interested in experimenting more with the types of videos I make right now. The trick is trying to branch out while staying true to the core of the channel, so far I think I’m finding that balance.

Now that this page has hit its goal I feel like I should do something more with it but I don’t like the idea of locking anything behind a paywall. I’m very conscious of the fact that this is a global audience I’m speaking to and $5 can be a vastly different amount depending on circumstances. For all I know, my biggest fan happens to suffer from terrible living conditions, I’m not going to lock them out if I can help it. I also don’t see the point in putting up any more goals because working on this stuff basically consumes my life as is. Any incentive I could put up would just subtract time away from the other stuff I’m working on so that doesn’t make sense to me. There's always more equipment I’d like to buy so that’s something. Right now I need a new external HDD and in an ideal world I’d like a high refresh rate and/or 4K monitor, a 4K TV, a 4K capture card and a new gaming PC. If I was loaded I might even be tempted by the VR mistress. But it would be a stretch to say any of those are necessary, at least for now when I’m covering smaller games. Plus if you put something like that as the goal then you’d really have to change it all the time, where does it end, I wonder? Anyway, I’m happy with how things are now but if you have any suggestions on how I can incentivise more pledges, let me know.

I suppose I’ll sign off here. It’s nice to be able to talk about what I’m doing again. If all goes well I’ll have my internet set up within in the next few weeks and the extra channel will get some more activity so keep an eye on that one. I’ll be back with the next video in about a week, see you then.