Pestilence. War. Famine. Death. Do the the Four Horsemen (bit sexist) ride?! This month we at the Offy D Corp learned that we're all in line for some international super-flu, that we're about two shitposts away from World War 3, and that our broken down car means we can't go food shopping. That's three. But Death? No, the Offy D channel is still alive! Honest!
Now last month I was like 'I'm sure my grand plan to boost the channel will take effect next month', and this time I return to you to say: 'I'm surrre m'grand plan to boost ze channel will taeeke effect next moonth'. I'm writing in an accent you see. What accent? I hardly think the distinction need be made.
Basically step one of the plan has worked: views and watch time are up! We're up 20% on last month, which I think was also up on the previous quarter by like 50%. However, step two didn't work, that being where the increase in views and watch time causes youtube to be nice to me and get me more subcribbiars. Wasn't that how it was supposed to work? As ever, we don't know, but growth has actually dropped throught the period of increased channel activity. I suppose people may just not want to subscribe, but I've seen the rubbish out there that people are willing to subscribe to, so I don't really know.
HOWEVER that was Janurary, and Janurary always sucks on Youtube. Normally teh main suckage is getting no money, but my increased activity mitigated that, so I've actually only had a small loss of money. Which means it might get to some kind of above old-average place next month. Yes... IM SHORE MGRON PLN TOBUZT CHANE WLT EK F NEGS MUMF. That's really all there is to the plan at this point.
The Fire Margin might actually end soon, which means a new plan will be required. I don't really know, but it will be done before ep 50. Probably. And perhaps an end will come into sight around ep 40. Planning to do a Gustavsen-Beep arc conclusion, then a final Rick/the skeletons arc, then end it, somehow.
I really haven't put much thought into what will replace it, other than an old idea to make a documentary-like thing based on a stellaris campaign. My main concern is that because it will have no/minimal characters (due to time frame covered and what you do in the game), be somewhat serious, and be limited by stellaris' own limited sci-fi vision, it won't actually be any good. Then again, I haven't got any better ideas. OTHER THAN PLAYING STALKER. Yeah, it might end up being STALKER. I suppose I can do Stellaris quick and painless, get the clamour for it abated with the realisation that it's not all that interesting, then make an existential crisis & vodka fueled Zone adventure. Now there's a cheeky breeky scheme.
Honourable mention to Rimworld, which has potential for more anime antics like Kenshi, with strong character-based stuff. But I've had it on my steam wishlist for like a year and they won't put that damn thing on sale! Yes I refuse to buy things at their asking price, I'm too poisoned by a lifetime of exclusively sale-buying.
HEY SPEAKING OF VIDEO GAMES I'VE ACTUALLY ALMOST FINISHED MY VIDEO GAME.
It'll probably be done in like a month. Now I'm wondering if I should try and round up more people to beta test it, as my previous attempt to get patrons to play it resulted in minimal interest. HEY, IF YOU'RE READING THIS AND YOU WANT TO BE A BETA TESTER SEND ME AN EMAIL(officiallydevin@gmail.com) OR TWEET OR SOMETHING! THE PAY IS YOU GET THE GAME FOR FREE, BUT REALLY THAT'S IT! AND YOU GET CREDITED IN THE FINAL VERSION IF YOU GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK OR FIND ISSUES ETC. THANKS.
I mean, it seems pretty stable now, so could get away without more testing, but the thing about testing is it always seems done until you find a massive issue that was totally unknown. This week I found that if you turned off a certain notification in the game menu, it actually disabled the entire mechanic it was meant to notify you of. How much other crap like that is going on in this stinky code mess? Does it even matter? Now that it's close to the end, I'm excited to try and make a steam page and just throw it out there, if only to stop endlessly tinkering and make room in my schedule for other stuff.
What other stuff? Well, I want to turn my scripts into ebooks, as previously mentioned in this blog. And I guess I could make some more... content... [thunder strikes].
SUDDENLY GETTING BACK TO CURRENT CHANNEL NEWS
This weekend I'll have to look into playing total warhammer again to get footage for something to replace my isengard abridged series, and I'm almost excited, having not really seen the game for years. I can't even remember if I didn't like it, so maybe it will be good! Although I have a background awareness that a lot of DLC has come out, and that it's rather expensive, so who knows what kinda husk of a product it is for we mere base-game owners now.
That's it really. Alright, guess I'll tell you...
### WHAT I PLAYED THIS MONTH ###
And it's pretty easy, because I just played Final Fantasy 12 The Zodiac Age. I had played the original on PS2, but remembered virtually none of it as it turns out. This remaster lets you speed up time, which, man, is 200% essential to the game, I really can't imagine what it was like without it. The whole gimick is that you set up 'gambits' aka AI to make your characters act on their own, so you as the player don't have to play very much, or at all, outside of bosses. Being able to skip the automated regular fights with the speed up thing seems central to the game, so how I did I play it without?!
Allow me to also parrot the usual critiscm about the game's use of the main characters - some of them aren't involved with either the plot or the other characters, and more broadly, the characters rarely interact. They aren't even really 'friends', they just go on this adventure without questioning what company they should keep. I remember thinking this back in the ps2 days as well, and being disappointed that the party aren't really a 'gang' like in FF8, for example.
The overall plot itself is actually surpringly deep, far more so than other FF games, with legit politics, supernatural revalations, and tonnes of detailed world building, but all that happens in the background, done to and by other people. It ends up meaning all the most interesting characters are outside of the party, seen through occassional cutscenes separate from your adventure. SHOULD'VE LET ME WRITE IT, as usual.
THE MUSIC IS REALLY GOOD THOUGH AND ALSO BUNNY GIRLS.
AND THAT'S WHAT I PLAYED THIS MONTH
So, how will the month of Feberooary treat the legendary Offy D Corp? Ready the all-new complaints in next month's gripping blog, see you there!
