As I've become more serious about what I do on YouTube and Twitch, I've been dealing with classifying my time with video games. It's been a long time since I've been able to say that I could absolutely lose myself in a video game. While I certainly do miss being able to do that, it hasn't diminished my fun or my love for games. On the other hand, with Twitch and YouTube taking up so much of my days, I can't really say that I play anything "just for fun" anymore. That is a major issue for me right now.
When you have to spend so much time getting footage or sharing a game with the audience, you really don't have that much time just to sit and enjoy an experience yourself. Everything starts to seem like its work instead of just a fun romp through a digital world. The only game I play "for fun" now is SMITE, and when you've got a backlog as big as I do of video games, playing a game that has no major goal to achieve seems like quite a timesink. I could be completing so many other games in the time I've spent sitting on SMITE.
Then again, that's also part of the problem, now isn't it? Not only do I constantly think of what I'm doing as work, I also think of games I might start playing in the future as work. I've been trying to not be so strictly adhered to the schedules I developed for myself to live my life by because... Let's face it, life's not about all the carefully laid plans you've set out. Is it truly living if you never let yourself experience something that hasn't been penciled in? As much as it pains my OCD to say so, I certainly don't think so.
There's a balance in everything and I've got to find mine! All work and no play makes Okami a dull boy, and it's also pretty certain that I'll burn out if I keep things up like this...
Monday, March 21, 2016
Monday, February 8, 2016
My first day off in two weeks!
For the past two months, I have had to attend a funeral or a wake each and every week and it's been literally driving me crazy. Finally thought all the funerals were over, and then it turns out that my grandma is in the hospital. Come on sky wizard, give me a damn break! I've been so exhausted lately that I actually volunteered to nap at one point! If you know me, you would know that that means I was pretty damn tired.
Anyway, all of that appears to be behind me, so I can finally get back to work. You might have noticed quite a dip in my videos and all that recently, so now that I have hopefully at least one week to myself, I should be able to get back to work on projects that should have been completed a while ago. As of yesterday I was officially two weeks behind on work, and that's not a good place to be when you're trying to get your emotions back under control.
In any case, Jedi Knight shouldn't have a missing week for my Tuesday Let's Plays (assuming tomorrow goes according to plan, anyway), and I've got a bunch more stuff coming down the pipeline! I'm really sorry that I haven't been giving my audience the attention they deserve, but I'm hoping to change that in the coming days.
Keymailer has been really nice to me lately, so you can definitely expect a few more My Two (S)cents and even the first On the Hunt in the near future! I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to work on things a little quicker, but don't worry, I'm still standing!
Anyway, all of that appears to be behind me, so I can finally get back to work. You might have noticed quite a dip in my videos and all that recently, so now that I have hopefully at least one week to myself, I should be able to get back to work on projects that should have been completed a while ago. As of yesterday I was officially two weeks behind on work, and that's not a good place to be when you're trying to get your emotions back under control.
In any case, Jedi Knight shouldn't have a missing week for my Tuesday Let's Plays (assuming tomorrow goes according to plan, anyway), and I've got a bunch more stuff coming down the pipeline! I'm really sorry that I haven't been giving my audience the attention they deserve, but I'm hoping to change that in the coming days.
Keymailer has been really nice to me lately, so you can definitely expect a few more My Two (S)cents and even the first On the Hunt in the near future! I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to work on things a little quicker, but don't worry, I'm still standing!
Thursday, January 21, 2016
More bumps in the road
Well, if you know me, you know it's absolutely impossible for me to get through anything smoothly. I've just now discovered as I sat down to finally work on the first On the Hunt and this month's Okamigakure Plays that the audio codec I had enabled in OBS when I recorded is not compatible with my version of PowerDirector. I'm going to attempt to re-render both videos and see if the new videos are... watchable in the most basic sense of the word. If it's not that good quality-wise, I'm going to forego the audio in the first On The Hunt video and just put an audio track over the video. That was actually my original intention, but I really do like the music in Between Me and the Night, when it exists anyway.
The other video however, since it's an Okamigakure plays video, absolutely needs to have the audio of all of us going nuts while we play, so I definitely will need to re-render the video no matter the consequences. I've actually filmed next month's Okamigakure plays video as well, since I'd been planning to use that game for this month's, but something (seemingly) easier came up. Either way, you guys should be seeing Okamigakure plays either a little later in this week, or next week!
My new Let's Play on YouTube has begun, and while I have more videos in it ready to go, I have been trying to deal with Okamigakure Plays and On the Hunt so I haven't had a chance to render and upload the videos. You'll definitely see another one by Tuesday, however!
For those of you that don't know, I've been working on coming up with a Patreon, and while it's not ready yet, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle have been coming together recently and for that I'm actually really proud of myself. There have been very few times in my life that I can say I was confident, but with that starting to be an every day occurrence, I think I'm also finally ready to reach out and ask for help. I'll keep you posted on that.
The other thing I've been meaning to let you guys know about is Unfair-Y Tales' Season 2 opener, The Laundry King. The actual person The Laundry King, is pretty... well, let's say unreliable. I actually need him to come over and help me film something for the season opener and he's been... unreachable most recently. In any case, he's officially signed on and now he just needs to get his ass over here. You guys know me, nothing goes as planned in my life, so why should YouTube-ing be any different?
The other video however, since it's an Okamigakure plays video, absolutely needs to have the audio of all of us going nuts while we play, so I definitely will need to re-render the video no matter the consequences. I've actually filmed next month's Okamigakure plays video as well, since I'd been planning to use that game for this month's, but something (seemingly) easier came up. Either way, you guys should be seeing Okamigakure plays either a little later in this week, or next week!
My new Let's Play on YouTube has begun, and while I have more videos in it ready to go, I have been trying to deal with Okamigakure Plays and On the Hunt so I haven't had a chance to render and upload the videos. You'll definitely see another one by Tuesday, however!
For those of you that don't know, I've been working on coming up with a Patreon, and while it's not ready yet, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle have been coming together recently and for that I'm actually really proud of myself. There have been very few times in my life that I can say I was confident, but with that starting to be an every day occurrence, I think I'm also finally ready to reach out and ask for help. I'll keep you posted on that.
The other thing I've been meaning to let you guys know about is Unfair-Y Tales' Season 2 opener, The Laundry King. The actual person The Laundry King, is pretty... well, let's say unreliable. I actually need him to come over and help me film something for the season opener and he's been... unreachable most recently. In any case, he's officially signed on and now he just needs to get his ass over here. You guys know me, nothing goes as planned in my life, so why should YouTube-ing be any different?
Monday, January 11, 2016
Whistle while you work!
Hey there guys and gals! It's been a little while since I last posted here on the blog, but I'd like to catch y'all up on what's been going on on the YouTube/Twitch front!
The first On the Hunt video is well on its way to completion. I have all the footage I need, but now I need to figure out what I'm going to be saying and exactly which footage I'm going to be using. Once that's done I've actually got another giveaway coming, and it'll be tied to a breakdown of the system in Hi-Rez's new game Paladins. There's so much about the inner system of the game that they just haven't explained, it took pretty much a whole day of fiddling around to figure some of the systems out, and I haven't seen too many videos that just sit there and explain things to you. Let's be honest, those are the kind of videos that I'm best at, so why not?
After the longplay that you guys will be seeing this week on Tuesday (heads up, it's The House of the Dead IV
), I'll be starting a new Let's Play on the YouTubs that I'll be seeing to the end for once! I also went and purchased a composite>HDMI device so even though my laptop is currently out of commission, I should be able to record old school games again via Game Capture HD! This will actually simplify things on a lot of fronts, and it will actually make my console game videos a bit more standardized, since they'll all be recorded the same way. That's actually really great, you guys won't have to worry too much about the wildly differing qualities on my videos if this works out!
I've also been on a bit of a Skylander spending spree, so you can expect some new Skylander Path Guides videos in the near future as well! I finally snagged a Nightfall, Splat and a Scratch, and that just got the ball rolling on all the figures I've wanted for quite a while.
Moreso than any of this news, just remember that there's new and exciting things coming to my channels, so stay tuned!
The first On the Hunt video is well on its way to completion. I have all the footage I need, but now I need to figure out what I'm going to be saying and exactly which footage I'm going to be using. Once that's done I've actually got another giveaway coming, and it'll be tied to a breakdown of the system in Hi-Rez's new game Paladins. There's so much about the inner system of the game that they just haven't explained, it took pretty much a whole day of fiddling around to figure some of the systems out, and I haven't seen too many videos that just sit there and explain things to you. Let's be honest, those are the kind of videos that I'm best at, so why not?
After the longplay that you guys will be seeing this week on Tuesday (heads up, it's The House of the Dead IV
), I'll be starting a new Let's Play on the YouTubs that I'll be seeing to the end for once! I also went and purchased a composite>HDMI device so even though my laptop is currently out of commission, I should be able to record old school games again via Game Capture HD! This will actually simplify things on a lot of fronts, and it will actually make my console game videos a bit more standardized, since they'll all be recorded the same way. That's actually really great, you guys won't have to worry too much about the wildly differing qualities on my videos if this works out! I've also been on a bit of a Skylander spending spree, so you can expect some new Skylander Path Guides videos in the near future as well! I finally snagged a Nightfall, Splat and a Scratch, and that just got the ball rolling on all the figures I've wanted for quite a while.
Moreso than any of this news, just remember that there's new and exciting things coming to my channels, so stay tuned!
Friday, December 18, 2015
First looks and impressions videos
In terms of confidence building and also varying degrees of success, the last week or so has been something amazing for me. I've been gearing up to ring in the new year with quite a few changes coming to my channels. I think I've also suddenly become a bit more visible to everyone on the internets. I don't know how or why this came about, but I am definitely happy about it!
I was recently referred to a site called Keymailer by my good friend BurningPunch and it actually is working out in my favor. I have a bunch of new games to make videos on and I'm working on the first of (at this moment) four at this very moment. I need to reconfigure my OBS to make sure I can get these videos recorded and held to a proper standard of quality, so bare with me until I've got the formats for everything set! That being said, these four games are going to be used to start up two new series for my channel, stuff I probably should have been already working on, but I don't know, I never felt my opinion was all that warranted in the community (This has never stopped me from giving it though, haha).
The two new series will be called On the Hunt and My Two (S)cents. On The Hunt (thanks for the title, Teth!) will be a series where I take a look at Early Access games that I play/have been asked to play and I'll let you know if I think these games are worth keeping a close eye on or not. My Two (S)cents will be more of a general opinion/review type show. I generally try to stay away from early access games, but there are just so very many of them out there. It's basically a genre in and of itself at this point, and far too many games are overlooked for no other reason than they are early access. I don't think I'll be giving a score for the games I feature in either of these series, but I will give you my personal opinion. I hope that's enough to help you decide whether or not you'll give the games I feature a shot!
I was recently referred to a site called Keymailer by my good friend BurningPunch and it actually is working out in my favor. I have a bunch of new games to make videos on and I'm working on the first of (at this moment) four at this very moment. I need to reconfigure my OBS to make sure I can get these videos recorded and held to a proper standard of quality, so bare with me until I've got the formats for everything set! That being said, these four games are going to be used to start up two new series for my channel, stuff I probably should have been already working on, but I don't know, I never felt my opinion was all that warranted in the community (This has never stopped me from giving it though, haha).
The two new series will be called On the Hunt and My Two (S)cents. On The Hunt (thanks for the title, Teth!) will be a series where I take a look at Early Access games that I play/have been asked to play and I'll let you know if I think these games are worth keeping a close eye on or not. My Two (S)cents will be more of a general opinion/review type show. I generally try to stay away from early access games, but there are just so very many of them out there. It's basically a genre in and of itself at this point, and far too many games are overlooked for no other reason than they are early access. I don't think I'll be giving a score for the games I feature in either of these series, but I will give you my personal opinion. I hope that's enough to help you decide whether or not you'll give the games I feature a shot!
Friday, December 4, 2015
Video Quality
This is more of something I feel like I need to write down so I can remember for future reference moreso than a blog that I'm sharing with you guys and gals out there, but I figure putting it on the web means I can access it from anywhere should I need to!
PS4 Video - 720p 60fps - Capture my microphone but not party chat (Needs in-game voice chat testing).
Game Capture HD - 1080p 60fps capture (w/ mic - use playstation eye and output sound through speakers if necessary to capture party chat/in-game chat)
OBS - 1080p 60fps - will capture video in full screen format (need a new monitor or to use tv and tweak settings)
Everything that PowerDirector edits will lose 60fps, but it will stay at 1080p or move to 1440p sometimes.
Rerendering fraps videos -> "Best Quality playback" will make the video fullscreen size (Also drops quality down to 360p)
PS4 Video - 720p 60fps - Capture my microphone but not party chat (Needs in-game voice chat testing).
Game Capture HD - 1080p 60fps capture (w/ mic - use playstation eye and output sound through speakers if necessary to capture party chat/in-game chat)
OBS - 1080p 60fps - will capture video in full screen format (need a new monitor or to use tv and tweak settings)
Everything that PowerDirector edits will lose 60fps, but it will stay at 1080p or move to 1440p sometimes.
Rerendering fraps videos -> "Best Quality playback" will make the video fullscreen size (Also drops quality down to 360p)
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Schedule Changes for 2016
Alright, I know, I know, it's been a long time since I've updated the blog with a new entry. I've mostly just been crossing things off the request list (which can be found here), but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on stuff in the present. There's actually a lot of changes coming to my channel starting in January!
Well, first of all, some series are coming back (namely Unfair-Y Tales!), but also a really big change in terms of scheduling is coming to the channel. I want to spend more time and getting a little more serious in terms of uploads! Right now I'm having a lot of trouble with my schedule because everything I've been filming lately has been part of the same day's upload schedule, so I really needed to find a way to space things out so I'd have time to work on things. I'm going to be changing my schedule in January to a 7 day schedule, so I can have even more regular content! I'm not saying I'll be uploading every single day, but there's certainly a chance that that will be a case.
Before I show you guys and gals the new schedule I need to let you know that I couldn't have come up with this without CreepshowKate and Valleyofegeria. Their brainstorming help has been absolutely invaluable to me the last two months or so! So without further ado, here's the 2016 schedule as it stands right now:
Vlogs
Unboxings
Well, first of all, some series are coming back (namely Unfair-Y Tales!), but also a really big change in terms of scheduling is coming to the channel. I want to spend more time and getting a little more serious in terms of uploads! Right now I'm having a lot of trouble with my schedule because everything I've been filming lately has been part of the same day's upload schedule, so I really needed to find a way to space things out so I'd have time to work on things. I'm going to be changing my schedule in January to a 7 day schedule, so I can have even more regular content! I'm not saying I'll be uploading every single day, but there's certainly a chance that that will be a case.
Before I show you guys and gals the new schedule I need to let you know that I couldn't have come up with this without CreepshowKate and Valleyofegeria. Their brainstorming help has been absolutely invaluable to me the last two months or so! So without further ado, here's the 2016 schedule as it stands right now:
Sunday
Unboxings
Monday
Tutorials
Guides
First Looks
Guides
First Looks
Tuesday
Let's Plays
Wednesday
Stream Highlights
Thursday
General Gaming
Requests
Requests
(If a LP is getting long or has a lot of parts, and it's not a fighting game/beat-em-up I may also upload parts of it today as well)
Friday
Series (Like Okamigakure plays, or other videos that are part of a playlist/not one shots)
(If a LP is getting long or has a lot of parts, I may also upload parts of it today as well)
(If a LP is getting long or has a lot of parts, I may also upload parts of it today as well)
Saturday
Fighting Games
Beat-em-ups
(If a LP is getting long or has a lot of parts, and it IS a fighting game/beat-em-up I may also parts of it today as well)
To sum up, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are staying the same as my current schedule. The rest of the days are changing. The way my current schedule is, it's been very hard for me to work on specific videos because they end up getting pushed really far down the Tuesday pipeline, and it stops becoming plausible to even upload them by the time any of you guys would be able to see them, unless I spammed the hell out of the uploads. I try not to spam uploads because when there's too much content at once, a lot of it ends up being forgotten or looked over. There are a lot of days in this new schedule that have videos that can overlap, and I think coming from the rigidity of my current schedule, this will be a welcome change! Let me know what you guys and gals think! I hope you're all as excited about these changes as I am!