This month I did a video make. Can I habe zee youtoobe money nao? NEIN!
Okay, let's try really hard to remember things that actually happened this month...
I've been working on the final episode of Honourable Gentlemen. Like the ending to Barbarian Masters it is an audio-drama type thing with a load of random scenes that try to tie together the various plots floated throughout the series. It perhaps does so, albeit in a messy and probably very confusing way. The problem is I've been too infected by the Dark Souls storytelling method where you give so little information that only the most dedicated scholars can determine even a 'maybe this happened' level of plot understanding. I find it fun to allude to things happening that aren't necessarily relevant to the story, but are intriguing all the same. So yes, this ending alludes to a much more interesting story than the series actually told, for no particular reason other than it was fun to write it. "You fought in the clone wars?", you know what I mean?
My main high-quality-writing-trump-card for Honourable Gentlemen will be when someone finally points out that the series didn't contain a single perspective from the other side of the conflict, unlike my previous ones. At that point I'll be all jazz-hands and "I KNOW RIGHT?!" will a big banner reading 'artistic intent' falls down behind me. I put a few clues in this ending that this is a thing intended to be noticed, but then again it's a goddamned let's play on youtube - it could contain the secrets of eternal life and people would probably just be like '12.52 song name?'. Plus, when other people do near-opaque things with 'artistic intent' it really annoys me, so I don't know where I get off being like this. Man, I usually find something to complain about in these blogs, but this is just desperate.
Now that we're done talking about the HIGH ART of script writing for part 27 of a youtube gaming LP video, let's say something easier and happier: I got 22k subscribers! Hooray! That's another Number™! (Whoa, I just can't stop being cynical even about good things...) I think my goal for this year was 25k, which at the current rate I actually won't achieve, however I may be able to rely on the effect seen in previous years where September-January sort of time is just generally much better for me. Is it something to do with university starting for people and the desire for watching distraction youtube videos increasing?! Perhaps it's something magical in the Algorithm (praise be upon it)?
There is probably a way to find out using analytics, but they changed how all of youtube's backend works this month and now I'm scared of it. Pretty much all the things they changed made it Worse™, so that's Good™!!!!! One nice upgrade is that things fill the screen horizontally now, although due to the way videos are listed changing as well, you can actually see less information than you could before. It's also now SLIGHTLY harder to schedule videos, upload custom thumbnails, add video tags and click through to view a video on regular youtube from the backend. Literally these things take like 1-10 seconds longer / 1-2 extra clicks than they did before, which is enough to GRIND MY SEMI-METAPHORICAL GEARS (#IsDevinARobot?)! The button that schedules videos to release on Saturday is now where the button to release on Sunday used to be, causing me to mess up a release last weekend (#IsDevinBlameless?). RANT RANT RANT.
Also this month I did like 10 minutes of work on the Mount and Blade series I want to start. Distractions from the HG ending haven't helped, plus I keep forgetting to actually record the stuff I need to continue making it. Soon we'll have a special shiny thumbnail for it, which will let me kick-start things by finishing the introduction and getting into the juicy meat of it all. Maybe I'll mention that more next time.
In TiC news I've been filming a series in "Sakura Wars: So Long My Love!". It is the best and worst thing. I was going to do something in Prison Architect, but after playing it I found it to be actually rather dry and serious, betraying its first-glace zany marketing atmosphere. I suppose I should really get into my officially monthly Blog Content™ now. (I LOVE THE TRADEMARK SYMBOL NOW)
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WHAT I PLAYED THIS MOOOOOOOOTNH!!!!!!!
SKYRIM VR yeah still just playing this, which I covered last month. Up to nearly 50 hours now, with an earth-shattering Destruction-Enchantment-Archery-Smithing build. Spam staggering dual-cast spells until out of magika, use the shout that slows down time, then whip out enchanted bows and rain arrows at superhuman speed due to the combination of motion controls being really fast and the slowed time. 20 arrows hit the big bad boss all at once and all is well, especially if you debuffed it with some fire magic/have fire enchanted arrows.
I've also got a modded automatic crossbow that eats ammunition but is amazing for sneak-archery exploits, since if you actually manage to hit with a burst while hidden, all the shots do bonus sneak damage, more than making up for the fact that the auto-crossbow is balanced to do minimal damage with each shot. Also I got a dog. Also can't wait to stick another of Ulfric's boys.
Prison Architect, as mentioned above, as an actually in-depth and slightly gritty prison management thing. I thought I'd really like it, but I guess there just isn't that much to it in the end. You make cells and canteens, and the prisoners sit around in them, and if you accidentally delete the walls like I did one time, they run away. Sometimes they kill each other, but no one seems to mind all that much. You can do really complex micromanagement of where guards stand at certain times of day and stuff, but I couldn't drive the UI for it. Having guards wonder randomly seems to work too, except when prisoners get denied parole and stab their lawyer. Again though, there doesn't appear to be any negative consequence for that happening. Also I had a constant glitch where workers would never finish laying electrical cables, so it was annoyingly hard to get the lights on - eventually solved by spamming cables everywhere so when they bothered to lay them they would sometimes complete lines by chance. Overall, it was fun for a little bit, but I guess I just don't really know where the game is going or what I'm meant to be aiming for other than 'watch even more guys eat lunch'.
Sakura Wars, the thing I've been playing for TiC, is another inexplicable multi-genre game. It's primarily an anime visual novel with rather long mech-combat rpg-style intermissions. However don't get the wrong impression: this the campest, waifuist, japaneseist thing you could 'hope' for. Gotta get those relationship points with all the girls in your professional tap-dancing troupe - yes I said it is a game about mech-combat, and I stand by this. You'll just have to watch the content to clear the confusion.
It's got some sensational pun-filled localisation, and writing/plots that hover at the mouth of the TRASH-GOLD horseshoe. It also seems to be pretty long, so don't know if I'll actually play the whole thing for the series, but I've got like 12 episodes worth recorded so far. One of the episodes is totally messed up due to my voice being recorded by the oculus rift on the floor, which rudely decided to be my default microphone for a while.
Oh I forgot to mention the most important thing: one of the romance girls is a southern-belle with actual voice-acted texan accent! The prole hunting dream continues! This is like 75% of the reason I played this game beyond the opening. There's also a barmaid called 'Cherry Cocker', which I present without comment.
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I also played a little more Steambot Chronicles in order to film a bonus episode of the series, which I'll sneakily release once I've got my Bus Simulator trash out of the way.
By the way, with Honourable Gentlemen coming to a close I need something to replace it, and the last vote determined that it should be Attila TW with Ancient Empires mod. Problem is, I tried playing it the other day, and I still get Fields of Mars flashbacks playing that game and just can't bare it. Need to come up with some kinda weird gimmick to change things up a bunch / make the series very short. Planning on working that out at the last possible minute as it stands.
In closing I would like to mention that my high-low quality tactical rpg, Godless Tactics, is steaming along nicely! I've been testing it and making alterations after finally bothering to play it. It's very glitch-free actually, which is great, and a further sign that I am the greatest programmer. Still got some challenges regarding lag to overcome, but I've got a few ideas (grins and pushes glasses up with one finger, reflecting light at your amazed face).
It's fun to play though, which I probably a good thing. It's in an early access-ish state right now, but I hate early access, so you'll probably not see anything of it until it's all beautified and more finished. Today I'm trying to work out a way to calculate a character's predicted average stats at a given level, based on the rng-based leveling system stolen from fire emblem. Attempt 1 got the stats 100 times too high. Attempt 2 appears to be calculating the max possible stats rather than the averages. Attempt 3 is what I'm procrastinating from by writing this. Also this month I ran out of pages in the notebook I was using to record bugs and planned alterations. GET HYPED!
Guess that's it for now. Let's hope for a successful last quarter for 2018, and wish success to these so-called new serieses I'm making. People like the CK2 one which is good, since that style is so much more satisfying to make that it might bleed over into the next TW series... MWHA HA HA HA [loses all views]. See ya next time, lamers.
OH I FORGOT TO RANT THAT PATREON BROKE AND I DIDN'T GET ANY MONEY THIS MONTH AAAAAAAHHHH THAT'S ACTUALLY PRETTY BAD OKAY CYA
