The Unreleased Projects: Shield Up Pilots (Patreon)

Hey Producers & Posh Slugs,

Here's the first of April's Producer exclusives. We thought it'd be fun to let you see some of the projects we never released. First up, in the playlist linked here you'll find the three original video episodes of Shield Up.

• Pilot #1: The Frenchwoman and the Scotsman 
• Pilot #2: Fight Yourself 
• Pilot #3: I Don't Agree with that in the Workplace 

We recorded these on September 17, 2017 in Loading Bar, Dalston. This was the first time we made anything together independent of our work at IGN. 

A little context: Prepare To Try was two-and-half years old, we'd just wrapped Bloodborne, and had ideas of doing something on our own. We wanted to gauge how popular something like that would be away from IGN's 10 million+ YouTube channel.

Our initial plan, hatched in 2017, was to launch our own YouTube channel and start publishing Shield Up, a community-focussed advice show. The reason for this is our contracts at IGN prevented us from creating any video-game-related stuff outside of work, so we thought this would be a good way to start a channel and connect with at least some of the audience we'd found making Prepare To Try. The idea was to slowly grow the channel, so if we ever left IGN, it wouldn't be quite as scary as starting from scratch. 

An early start at Loading Bar, Dalston. Set-up begins.

We never ended up publishing these for a variety of reasons but partly because of FinchyFest 2017, which took place roughly a month after these were filmed. Seeing so many people attend –  people even flew in from different countries – filled us with confidence. We realised we had a community that liked our videos not  because they were published on a very popular YouTube channel but because of three idiot friends.

So we decided that we'd rather wait and launch our own channel with something really representative of what we do best – Retry: Dark Souls II.

These Shield Up episodes were filmed back-to-back on the same day, using cobbled together equipment because we had no money and barely any of own gear. These are the initial draft edits of those three episodes without music, graphics, or artwork. They were just for us to get a feel of how an episode would hold together. They're a little rough and a little raucous (the 3 pints of Goose Island definitely didn't help), but we think they're a fun, early glimpse into the origins of RKG.

Just about to start filming.

We always loved the Shield Up idea, and once we started to develop the Patreon tiers, it was one of the first rewards we put down. Recording Shield Up is still one of the highlight's of every week and there's not an episode that goes by that doesn't result in us laughing like wild men. 

Enjoy the episodes!

RKG x

The final photo from that day, taken in a pub just off Oxford Street. Obviously a very important meeting about the future of RKG taking place. (This photo has not been edited to preserve the historical moment it captured.)