Channel Update: February 2023

I’ve been quiet the past couple months because there just hasn’t been much worth updating on: lots of work but not much to show. Lots of backend work upgrading PC hardware and software, and developing a new production pipeline. While this will help make better (and longer) videos, this sort of work isn’t really exciting to give detailed updates on.

Other than backend work, and taking some time to rest and catch up on things I was putting off while making the Skyrim combat video, I’ve been doing a lot of recording for new projects. Currently I have 3 major projects in different stages of development, none of which are close to an immediate release, unfortunately.

Fallout 76

I’ve been working on a collaborative effort with PatricianTV for Fo76. It’s a game I’ve been itching to do a video on and it was likely to happen this year regardless, but Pat asked if I’d want to record a co-op playthrough, so 76 got pushed to the top of the project list. We finished recording a few weeks ago and I’m now sitting on 150+ hours of footage from that playthrough. I’ve gone through it and marked clips, taken notes, and sketched out a rough outline. I haven’t started serious writing of the script yet, just a few pages on some topics I wanted to get done, but even from what I have I can tell this is going to be a bigger project than I originally intended.

I was talking about a Bannerlord video a while back, but once we finished recording 76 I knew I didn’t have time to work on a small side project like that. So for the time being, Bannerlord is on hold.

This project is also requiring me to do some in-depth playthroughs of Fallout 3 and 4, which I’ve been recording for b-roll purposes and maybe some videos waaay in the future. These are both lengthy games and that’s only adding to the production time, but I feel it’s necessary for a better video.

As for format, I’m aiming for this to be a review (a channel first), as opposed to the analysis and retrospectives I’ve done prior. The format is going to be completely different, which is going to result in something not really built around a thesis. The reason is simple: there’s way too much to talk about with this game. I could either do a 3ish hour long review, or a 7 hour deep-dive analysis: there isn’t really a middle ground here, and I’m not looking to do such a big project while working on the third Skyrim video. As well, the game is still getting new updates, so there’s a good chance the video would become dated in a year or two. We’ll save Fallout 76 Deconstructed for a later date.

Morrowind

Once again, this isn’t going to be a deep-dive Deconstructed analysis video: I don’t have the time and exposure with Morrowind to do that right, and I doubt I have a whole lot to add that hasn’t already been said about MW. I’m imagining another review-type video comparing MW to other games I’ve played, my personal takes on a lot of the big discussions surrounding MW (like hit-chance combat and text-based dialogue), and just my overall experiences and impressions from playing the game. It’s going to be a more personal (and subjective) video, but it will be far from just being an edited Let’s Play.

I’m not sure how long it’s going to be, but I can’t imagine it being less than 3 hours, either. For context: I have laid out a spreadsheet with all the playstyles, builds, and content for 5+ playthroughs. This will likely result in the most footage I’ve recorded for a single video to date, and that usually means a bigger video in the end. It’s all going to come down to how much I have to say about various topics, and how much of the characters/adventures I want to recap.

I’m already into the recording process which will probably wrap by the end of March if it remains my focus for recording. It may get delayed a bit by Skyrim, but we’ll see. Because it’s going to be a more subjective video, I won’t have to spend nearly as much time researching and verifying things, so that might result in a much faster writing process.

Skyrim Part 3

I haven’t done much with Skyrim since the video released. I have the characters designed and content staked out, and have done a bit of extra research that’s going to result in some side discussions in part 3, but otherwise the third video hasn’t made much progress. Part of the reason I did a big hardware and software upgrade though is because I expect the third Skyrim video to be the final one, and with everything I want to cover, it would have been too long for my old setup to handle. So yeah, expect a long wait on this one, but it should be a rather long runtime, almost certainly longer than part 1.

With that said, I’m going to be spinning up recording VERY soon for that. One character I’d like to record live on stream with, so we can have some fun doing that. There’s also some more survival mode streams I’d like to do, but those are more a stretch goal than anything else. I want to do more streams in general, but they are really hard to work around, usually requiring planning a few days in advance to schedule for, and then one late-night recording session throws it all off.

The overall goal for Skyrim is to work on it alongside Fo76 and Morrowind, this way I don’t get fatigued the way I did while doing part 2, and hopefully content releases will be more consistent. I imagine I’ll be at a point where Skyrim part 3 is the only thing on my plate, but hopefully that will just be the last few weeks of video editing and not much else.

I don’t really know when these videos will be coming out or even in what order. Most likely Skyrim will be released last just because it’s going to be the biggest and I’m going to need the time. There’s too many moving parts still, and I don’t want to commit to any deadlines or restrictions unless I have to. All I can say is they’re being worked on and likely coming at some point—I don’t think I’ll be canceling any of them.

And that’s all I got to share. As always, I really appreciate the continued support, and I’m glad people enjoyed the second Skyrim video. Hopefully I can release something soon, or at least get some livestreams up.

Until next time.

<3 P.S.