September 2022 - Which project would you prefer I focus on?

Hey there folks. So as a follow up on the previous post, I need to determine which direction I'm going to move in after Dungeons and Dragons.

Therefore I'm going to put up a poll and shall do my best to accommodate. What would you prefer I prioritise?

Once again, I plan to do two polls. One here that the Patrons can access. And another on the Discord for the Twitch subscribers. And then combine the results. Strawpolls last time were something of a faff.

What are you in the mood for? Remember that you can vote for multiple options.

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Holdfast: Nations at War:

Holdfast Nations at War is a standalone version of Mount & Blades Napoleonic era mod. And involves a very large number of players (up to 200) shooting at each other with muskets.

The roleplaying nature of the game leads to quite a lot of natural silliness. As people put on posh accents and lean into it. As a result there's a great deal of absurdist verbal humour.

• Since a couple of videos have already been made, the master project file already exists and is ready to go.
• The short and self-contained nature of the clips means that it should be very easy to assemble a 10 minute bullshittery. And it's very unlikely that this one will creep out of control, as some edits sometimes do.

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PULSAR: Lost Colony:

PULSAR: Lost Colony is a cooperative space sim that's probably inspired by those Star Trek bridge simulator games. But I'm not familiar enough with those to say for sure. But you have a ship controlled by multiple individuals working at different stations - a Captain, a weapons officer, a helmsman driving the ship, etc.

At the start of 2021 there were multiple VR sessions played among the ZF clan. In which we got up to various adventures and completed some randomly generated missions in space.

Whilst the game itself felt pretty janky (even for a Unity game) there is the potential for some good situational comedy in a setting that hasn't been touched before by the channel. Cooperative Star Trek-sim silliness.

• There are about 6 streams in total. All VR. Which unfortunately means that notes are very limited. As such, some hefty pre-production work will first be needed to determine what's there. And then determine if it's funny enough.

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Video Essay - "The Forest":

This is a weird one. The Forest is an open-world survival sandbox game, first released in 2014. Along with the sea of titles in that genre at the time. Where you play as a lone survivor of a plane crash in a mysterious forest (involving base building, PvE fighting, crafting and exploring, etc.)

I played through the early access with clan mates back in 2014. But recently revisited the game in 2022

What I want to talk about is how...bizarre...I personally found that experience. Not necessarily as some critical take down of a bad game. It isn't. But as a post-playthrough analysis of how weirdly constructed the game is. In a way that I've frankly never seen before.

For those who have played Bioshock, imagine your playthrough (with Rapture, ADAM, Little Sisters, Fontaine, etc), and then the final segment of the game fades to black with you unveiling the "new and improved anti-hijacking cockpit door for civilian airliners". Leaving everything with Rapture unresolved.

That's how weird it felt.

The final form of The Forest threw me so hard, I'd like to try and gather my thoughts  and present them in a way that I hope will be amusing.

• Video essay format only. Unknown length. The first action would be to assemble a script and then determine if it's something worth doing.
• Tangentially related to open world survival video essays. But a much more in-depth breakdown of just one of them. What happens if you try to put a story into a format that's popular partially because there's no guiding hand of a story? 

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Minecraft:

Minecraft is an extremely popular procedurally generated sandbox game in which you build structures from your imagination and explore above and below a blocky 3D landscape.

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 trolling, setting traps and generally causing mischief.

• I don't think a master project file exists. But the notes seem pretty extensive and well tracked. It shouldn't be too difficult to assemble the gags together.
• 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.

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Untitled Goose Game:

Untitled Goose Game is a single player puzzle game where you play as a mischievous waterfowl annoying the residence of a local village.

A playthrough was made a few months ago in which I gleefully stole sandwiches, pecked model villages, and generally harassed the local NPC's whilst repeating the words "I'm a goose".

• Single player only. Mostly linear cut of amusing moments of mischief and observational humour.
• I do worry a little bit about its length. My gut tells me that it could be quite a big bullshittery. And probably not the sort of thing that is best served by cutting it into segments. The game had lots of levels of moving between 6-7 homes and gardens and then back again. With something funny happening in each. So this one could easily balloon.

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Halo:

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is the PC release of the four Halo games (at the time). Allowing combined access to all of the multiplayer competitive maps and cooperative campaign.

As more than a year of weekly multiplayer sessions were played, there are a huge amount of highlights for several potential bullshitteries.

• Master project file has yet to be built. So there needs to be some preproduction time.
• Notes seem very good. So I'm anticipating no major problems.
• Lots of relatively quick cut clips in this. And with many of the custom game modes, such as obstacle courses, etc. Relatively fast paced.

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Rust:

Rust is an open world survival game that sits in a similar category to 7 Days to Die or DayZ Epoch. Randomly starting survivors have to fortify their bases. Then they start stockpiling valuable materials, to keep themselves alive from both the environment and the players in it. With trade zones, airdrops, risky looting areas, etc.

Numerous ZF clan servers have gone up over the years. Though there exists a fair division of taste between those who enjoy the PvP, to those who prefer to build novel things for the funsies. With a mixture of highlights from both.

• Weirdly, I think the prior Rust bullshittery predates the switchover to Adobe Premiere. Meaning no master project file exists and will need to be built.
• The notes look pretty well tracked though. To the initial cutting stage should be quite smooth.
• There also seems to be quite a lot of highlights. More than I expected.

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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 a few months 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, though in a richly detailed VR environment.

I'm pretty hesitant to start editing the entire playthrough of Alyx, with big project like Divinity still incomplete. But I suspect this horror segment alone would be quite popular?

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

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7 Days to Die:

7 Days to Die is an open world survival game that sits in a similar category to something like Rust or DayZ Epoch. Players start in random locations and subsequently have to try and survive.

The selling point here is that the normally reactive PvE threat becomes proactive every 7 game days. Resulting in a temporary tower defence segment of an otherwise traditional open-world survival game.

Highlights here involve the ZF clan members (and associates) filling up a game server and building our own individual bases. With lots of trolling actions, such as the setting up of traps, building rude signs, or stealing potted plants and holding them hostage, etc.

• Pretty sure there isn't a master project file of highlights. Meaning I'd need to build it up. For this reason I'm afraid there isn't much I can tell you on the composition of the highlights.
• I suspect it'll be similar to Rust. As both games lift their mechanics from the extremely popular DayZ Epoch in 2013 (both rushing to early access in December of that year).