June 2024 - Which project would you prefer I focus on next? (Patreon)

Good morning all. This is the follow up post to the one on Saturday.

Having worked on that video-essay for 3 months or so, it would be nice to have a change of pace before going back to it afterwards. Is there a potential bullshittery you'd like me to make?

Brainstorming with the chat a couple of days ago, I came up with 12 possibilities. But filtered it down to 6 to ease up on choice-paralysis.

For those unfamiliar with this process:

• I'll do my best, but I cannot 100% guarantee the creation of a video. The first step often involves a sort of preproduction in which I review the highlights collected in full-stream mp4 form. And there's a chance that there's simply not enough funny moments for a satisfying compilation.

• There are two polls. One here for the Patrons and one on Discord for the Twitch subscribers. I'll combine the results and post it below in the comments.

• Please feel free to vote on several options below.

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1.) Valheim:

Valheim is a singularly excellent Viking-themed survival game. Typically played cooperatively with half a dozen of my clan mates.

There have been two playthroughs of Valheim. The first village being Knobheim and the second being Knobgard. A video would likely consist of the first playthrough.

• Cooperative highlights involve inquisitive exploration of the survival environment. Playing with the idea that Valheim is a place where "average Vikings" go. And our inept misadventures quickly confirm we were very average Vikings. As we bumbled into one stupid situation after another.

• Expect another fairly large bullshittery. I might be reluctant to split it into different pieces, years apart in production, compared to one singular piece called "Knobheim". We'll see what looks better on the edit.

• Extensive pre-production required. No prior scrubbing has been performed.

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2.) Half Life Alyx - "Jeff" only:

Half Life Alyx is a high quality VR game set in the Half Life universe.

Whilst a full playthrough was completed ages ago, there was a particularly interesting segment involving a monster in a Vodka factory. Resulting in something that Alien: Isolation fans would recognise - a panicked attempt to sneak around an intimidating monster.

I'm pretty hesitant to start editing the entire playthrough of Alyx, with big project like Divinity 2 or Sons of the Forest still incomplete. But I suspect this horror segment alone would be quite popular. It certainly was on the night.

• Clips are horror focused. With plenty of intense puzzle solving, panic and palm sweating close calls with the monster.

• Single player only. No other ZF members are present.

• Extremely similar (if not outright identical) to Alien: Isolation editing. So not a traditional bullshittery of non-linear gags. But an extremely linear run of highlights through one single level.

• Full pre-production needed. Though the segment is not overly long, so I can't imagine it'll be heavy.

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3.) Helldivers 2:

Helldivers 2 is a cooperative third-person shooter. In which four players battle against various minor bases and armies of enemies in the name of "managed" democracy.

• The status of this bullshittery is a bit of an unknown. For whilst some games were played, it was nowhere near the number typically associated with most bullshitteries. About 24 hours in total for play time.

• It may be wise to prioritise this one regardless for the sake of channel relevance.

• Gags likely involve friendly fire, sabotaging each other, or other cool and interesting moments. As opposed to lengthy discussions about topics during moments of downtime.

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4. Minecraft:

Minecraft is an extremely popular procedurally generated sandbox game in which you build structures from your imagination. I doubt I need to explain what Minecraft is.

Multiple ZF clan servers have been setup over the years, along with a wide variety of mod packs and configurations. And as a result, lots of highlights have been steadily built up. Mostly involving sabotaging each others bases and engaging in banter.

• I don't think a master project file exists. But the notes seem pretty extensive and well tracked.

• Also should be fairly simple to assemble. As I doubt the length will be out of my control. More details to be determined with further cutting. It's currently a bit unknown.

• Some VR Minecraft games were played before the nauseous nature of it stopped me. I may as well fold those moments in here.

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5.) Left4Dead:

Left4Dead is a cooperative/competitive zombie shooter that various groups have played on and off for many years.

• A bit of a curveball with one. As I don't yet know if I have enough comedic moments to make a full bullshittery. I'd need to scrub first and find out.

• Expect plenty of bickering, friendly firing and immediately leaving my teammates behind for giggles.

• Often very clan focused due to the few number of players possible in a team. Meaning a lot of regular ZF.

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6.) Human Fall Flat:

Human Fall Flat is platforming-style game that's mechanically similar to Gang Beasts. Except with an emphasis on puzzle solving as a group. The various animated characters have their individual arms controllable to pull, prod, poke and shove each other.

Expect lots of backstabbing and bickering as many ZF worked hard to thwart each other.

• No project file exists as no part one has been created. Expect some preproduction.

• Rather than typical disconnected moments of comedy, it might be wiser to structure this around the specific puzzles. With lots of rapid-fire cuts as we sabotage each other trying to solve them. A sort of high energy Gang Beasts with lots of bickering and revelry.

• This might prove challenging due to the lack of consistent tracking points + frequently of vocalisations. But it could end up being hysterical.

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Once again, remember that you can vote on multiple things. Let me know what you might fancy and I'll start sifting through the available footage. Many thanks all.