So YouTube is Being Weird

I have no idea why this appeared all of the sudden but I'm a little weirded out by it.

So its saying I can upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes now. Thats nice and all and apparently its being applied only to certain users who've complied with YouTube guidelines.

I'm assuming that they generally mean with "complying with guidelines" they're actually talking about copyright infringement. I'm not sure if they're actually looking at who they're applying this to, but I know I'm not following copyright laws 100% here.

I'm basically using a copyrighted video game to amplify my own work, if I was under legal investigation I would be a prosecutor's wet dream right now. And I'm not the only one either.

Legality aside. Does this mean I'll be making videos longer than 15 minutes now?

No....well sorta.

For the Point Man's Mind, no there won't be videos that exceed 15 minutes unless things call for it. Internet videos tend to only work in short bursts like that and I generally feel like my writing abilities work in that same fashion.

Maybe if there isn't an appropriate cut off point for few more minutes of gameplay. Maybe then, but I wouldn't expect it.

The times where it probably will are going to be for Let's Plays. I haven't continued one of those in a bit but not having to look at the clock will make things easier. And with this new found time on my hands I might be able to bring one out soon.

So I figured I'd bring this to everyone's attention. I still find it weird and a little confusing that they're figuring me for a copyright abiding citizen, but whatever.

Yeah it's Here

You waited, you got it. Episode 12. And this will be the last episode for 2010, or at least the last one that'll be released this year. By next year I'll probably have all the work I spent during the holidays finished so I can get it out in January.

Until then.

12 Is Done!....Sorta Kinda

Alright, I got almost everything done now. The main footage is in now, the script is done and I went through the dialogue recording not too long ago. "Then why don't we have episode 12 yet?" you ask.

Well finals mainly. I've got 3 projects to finish off, one of which I haven't even started yet. That's where my time has been going lately. But I on top of that I need to correct a couple things.
There's a bit of recording I did that I'm not satisfied with yet, my crappy "acting" aside, comes down to timing this time. The other thing is a bit simpler, I need to re-record some footage.
Like I mentioned last post, A.Shephard will be coming back in this episode. However like last time I need to make sure I have the game sound going in the background and selectively delete the original voice. What this means is that I need to go through the same sequence of events once with no SFX and music and a second time with only voice turned on. This is what I did last time.

As a bit of behind the scenes of that episode however, I screwed up a bit. The actual video footage I used was the footage I used with no SFX on. And i used the audio of the no voice footage, interchanged between the two. If you listen carefully (and I tried to hide this a little) you may notice that the footsteps don't completely line up with the video.
Don't ask me why I kept going on when there was an obviously easier way. I don't know myself.

Lastly I'm still waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. Though he's a busy guy and with the holidays coming up I don't expect it right away. That's almost a given though.

So that's why you're not getting Episode 12 right yet. Excuses excuses I know, but hopefully some behind the scenes stuff like this will satisfy. Its actually a little fun telling you guys.
If anyone wants to know how other things were done in the series, just let me know.

Cheers.

Ep 12 Progress

Since you guys have been so diligently waiting, I figured I should let you know how far along things have gotten.

The script's rough draft before I record the game footage is done now, the final draft will be tweaked and finalized when I start dialogue. So I'm 1/3 of the way through right now. Things should calm down after this Wednesday in terms of work so that should make things easier.
I also managed to squeeze in the Shephard character's little banter with the NPCs in the script, only just long enough for it. I'm hoping to get everything I need done before I start bugging Krimsin though. Getting all of that out of the way first should free up my time for other things.


Also if nobody noticed yet I'm doing a team Let's Play of Contra and Super C with forum members on www.spoonyexperiment.com and they've already gotten to part 5. I opened that series of videos with level 1and will do another video with level 4 in Super C. I already have a playlist up for those videos so check 'em out if you get the chance.

Kane's Mind by Chunkboi

So when I checked my youtube to clear up my inbox today I noticed Cyhanide made an announcement about Kane's Mind. I was intrigued because I've been secretly been hoping one of the Doom3 engine games would be done right some day. That day has come check it out.

I feel kinda bad I didn't notice him earlier in the week. I usually check anyone who comments or subscribes to see if there's videos that are cool, but I didn't with Chunkboi. So to make up for it I've subscribed and I'm plugging his show here. Go check him out, it's a little rough right now but I have a feeling things will pick up soon.

War Comes to the Homefront....Again.

I've been seeing this game pop up a lot lately on the sites I regularly visit. Desperately trying to get my attention for yet another "America got Invaded" scenario. I have no idea why this still works.
Okay, that's a lie. I do know why this works I just don't understand how such an idiotic ploy can work so consistently.

For those of you not aware, Homefront is a video game coming out next year. Set in an alternate future where North Korea has become a new military powerhouse and taking advantage of the energy and economic crisis in America, invaded the mainland following a nation wide EMP attack from an orbiting satellite.
Yeah, that's really the story.

*cough* World at War *cough* Freedom Fighters *cough cough*

Lets forget about how retarded the idea of North Korea even having a space program is and just focus on what this game really is. It's an NRA propaganda vehicle, that's it. This was written by the same guy who wrote Red Dawn, a movie that was pretty much one long masturbation session for the American flag. America is in the right, all Russians and Cubans are evil for the sake of evil, it's only America that's at war there hasn't been any political backlash, and "Wolverines!"

 

"I Found My Boomstick!"

Ugh...I hate that damn battle cry. It sounds like some idiot couldn't think of something as cliche as "FREEDOM!" and just picked some cool sounding animal in the dictionary.
So if can't already tell, I didn't like Red Dawn. It was stupid and only really entertaining if I skipped to the part where Ferris Bueller's sister got shot. This isn't about Red Dawn, but it might as well be.

What it boils down to is that the NRA and all these fear mongering "evil foreigners" obsessed twats are once again trying to pass on their own paranoia to the next generation. Even if that means demonizing a country that's less threatening than Canada. Its ridiculous.

Wait...I thought they had EMPs. Oh forget it.

Now I wouldn't have a problem with this if the game had fun mechanics and gameplay. Like World at War which changed RTS gameplay for the better I think.Or Freedom Fighters, the game that put Red Dawn to shame. But we aren't getting anything new gameplay wise either. It plays exactly the same as every cookie cutter military shooter out there and looks the same too.

So I bet you're asking. "If it's so generic and idiotic that you aren't going to buy it. Then why do you care?" That's a legitimate question. The reason I care is because I know for a fact that this game will sell. Homefront is one of those games that caters to the lowest common denominator, and those people will throw their money at anything directed at them. And there's a lot of them. A lot more people who'd buy a game or movie because of their Nationalist pride than the people who'd buy the next Portal game.

So in short. Homefront pisses me off and I felt like venting.
I'll try and update you guys on my video progress in a few weeks.

Episode 11

After a few hiccups uploading and re-uploading. Episode 11 is here,in all its non Halloween themed glory.

For those that noticed, when I first uploaded the video it only showed the first 3 minutes or so. Somehow me re-formatting the file made it better, go figure. Been busy getting back home for the weekend and dealing with some lame ass haunted house deal earlier today. So didn't even notice until Krimsin commented, so thanks a ton man you saved my ass.

As for the rest of you. YOU SAW NOTHING!

Somebody also just mentioned my LP of Half-Life using the SMOD Tactical modification might have a chance of resurrection! I'll check this out but it sounds promising.

I Got a Better Idea

Remember that Point Man sprite I made not to long ago? How I said it was a stupid idea mainly due to the fact I can't draw...good... to save my life?

Well I found a way around that problem by simplifying things. I won't spoil when this will happen as its still further in the game and this is a long process. But suffice to say The Point Man's adventures into drug abuse won't end when he reaches maximum.

Thought of this mystery idea after some VO recording trouble forced me to give up for the day. Even got bored and made Point Man a few pixel friends (it was for fun, I haven't talked to anyone about it.).

I'll leave the guessing up to you guys. Till then!

Halloween is Coming up.

And I completely forgot about it.

Sorry guys, If you were looking forward to a Halloween themed special episode I kinda dropped the ball on this one. I actually haven't payed attention to Halloween in 5 years so I guess it was a force of habit.

On the bright side, I'm hoping to get episode 11 out by the end of the month just in time for the holiday. And this is one of the creepiest/scariest parts of the game too! So that kinda works out.

I still feel bad for letting anyone down though. So I've already begun work on a special episode that's a few more months down the road. Hopefully that makes up for this.

I'm not the only one doing a scary game!

MightyPirate finally released Harrison's mind Episode 1.



Cool stuff. How he did the intro was a lot more like the movies which is good. I actually thought about doing something similar myself for the atmosphere, but FEAR isn't based on an existing franchise so that wouldn't work out too well. All in all I like it.

I always forgot how big the maps were compared to the player in the campaign. Proportions always looked off for the player character's perspective compared to everyone else.
Besides all that this is pretty cool, nice to see I wasn't the only one who thought shouting "clear" in these lone wolf situations was stupid.

I miss Online Multiplayer

In case a lot of you weren't aware, when I moved out so I could attend college there were a few setbacks. I already mentioned the sound issue which is more or less fixed...sorta.

What hasn't been fixed is that the internet service I get up here is wireless and provided by the school campus wide. Meaning I can't play any of my games online with anyone and any games I have that require me to be connected to the internet even for single player are useless.
I'm back home for the Thanksgiving weekend (Canada remember?) so I can get back into gaming again but only while I'm here. As soon as I leave I'm shit out of luck. Only option I have to get around this is to get an entirely separate ISP to provide me with a fast connection, which will cost me money I don't have.

It does work out a little well because this way I can focus on my work more. Still though, I'm pretty sure The Shining started out like this and we all know how Jack Nicolson's character handled it. Did I mention I don't get any TV either?

Anywho, just me feeling like bitching about stuff that's completely irrelevant to you guys. This doesn't prevent me from recording footage or playing this my purely offline games either. So don't worry about it.

Also...

If you don't cry man tears after seeing this then you need to play Mass Effect 1 and 2 now!

10 is here...Finally!

Hell yeah! Got it done! And with a little extra to boot. Hope you guys enjoy this. Gotta work on 11 now, I'm hoping to get to the end of Interval 3 in at most 2 more episodes so we get at the real meat of the game.

Until then!

I'm Getting Close + Other Stuff

I managed to get a lot of recording done this weekend and even yesterday while nobody was around to be bothered by it. There's a bit more I have to tweak and record again, but this weekend coming up I'm hoping to finish and upload episode 10.

That's as far as video progress is going so far. But I also need to address something I've seen a few comments about. Me and the rest of the Mind Series (the most popular ones anyway).
There's been a fair number of people who have been bugging me to start bugging Krimsin or MightyPirate or even Corky about paying attention to my series.

To this I say, no, N O no.

Would I like the surge in popularity and subscriber increase? Sure! But that's not how to go about it. Those guys got their popularity on their own merits (everyone searching for Half-Life based mind series probably helped too) and that's how it should be. Exposure is something you earn, not force.

Granted, I was the one who contacted Krimisin for Episode 7. But I had a reason to do so and if I have to contact anyone else from that group I'll need another good reason.
It's not hard to email or PM them don't get me wrong, they seem pretty open about that. But you don't email or call somebody for the sake doing so. That's just stupid, especially if you do it over and over again.

Bottom line, I'm not going to do it because it's rude. If I get noticed at all by anyone else I'd prefer they find me themselves or have a friend tell them. Word of mouth is the least obnoxious form of marketing, and the last thing I need is to be an asshole to people I admire.

200 Subscribers!

Yeah...I got nothing so here's some crap.



I sincerely apologise

Lookie at what I Draw'd!

       Partly because I wasted a lot of time on this but mostly because I want to make you guys know I'm not dead. Well at least for those who actually read this damn thing. I coughed this up after having a dumb idea during class.

The Point Man

       Basically I had this idea of taking sound clips of all the mind series characters (this is mine in case you're braindead) and making a sort of Street Fighter-esque showdown thing. It wouldn't actually be a game of course but a sort of animation made to look like one. Check this out for an idea of what I'm talking about. Anyway I realized as soon as I started drawing that, I can't draw (see series intro screen). So that kinda put a damper on things, I had time though so I worked on making this not suck as badly and this is the result. Even got bored today and did this with him.



 

He Moves!

       Kinda cool. Again though I'm not sure why I did it at all. I seriously can't draw and only made it look halfway decent like this due to tracing on the computer. But like I mentioned I also felt like I should put something up since recording any voice over is a no go for now.
If somebody else wants to steal this idea go ahead. Unless I somehow pull artistic talent out of my ass, two random pictures on the internet these will stay.

All Settled in

So I'm pretty much settled into residence right now. Internet works fine and I'm pretty confident I can manage everything. Only one problem is getting in the way of things.

These walls are paper thin.

As I'm typing I can hear somebody playing their guitar 8 rooms away. And I checked, both of us have our doors closed too. This puts a serious damper on my plans to still continue The Point Man's Mind as there is literally no way I can remove all of this background noise (there's too much, I tried). On the other side of that if I start recording dialogue and I end up screaming or yelling (I will there's no way around that)I'm just going to get complaints about it from the neighbors. Which will suck because people have been kicked out of this place for that, but also because I don't like bothering people with noise.

Obviously I have to find some way around this. I won't be giving up but this is going to take longer than I thought. Figured I should let you guys know ahead of time.

G'night

9 Is Uploaded

I worked hard to bring this one out a little sooner than usual seeing as of monday I will be moving to a new town. Its for college so I don't know how temporary or permanent me living up there will be. But it will mean a decrease in activity as I'm taking this very seriously.

This should tide you guys over for a bit and I will be making a new episode before 2011 comes around that's a promise. But I still need to rearrange my setup. Make sure sound for me and my neighbors isn't a problem for one, of course there's also the fact I don't want this getting in the way of school and actually getting internet access.

On the bright side, I noticed Youtube increased their video limit to 15 minutes now so expect episode 10 to be a longer one. Also to celebrate how much support of got on this series I've got another surprise in mind for episode 10 as well.

See ya soon!

Episode 8!

A day later than I intended but now nothing is in the way of working on episode 9 before the school year starts! Like I mentioned earlier 1 third of the process is already done so that will speed things along. In the meantime enjoy!

Episode 8 is almost finished

So just have a bit more patience for that. I've already got the footage recorded so all thats left is to record the dialogue. Which I don't have a lot of time to do during the week. Other things have been getting in the way as well, I'm starting up a college course in the fall so my attention will be geared towards that for a while. But fear not, I've already run a rough draft of Episode 9 which will mean getting that video done sooner.

I also figured I should address a few things people are messaging me about.
About the SMOD Tactical Lets Play. In case you didn't get the message I sent out after Valve updated HL2 to run off of the orange box engine with achievements, any mods based on the old engine have crapped out. As a result that's going to be on hold until an actual fix is made, the quality just drops too low even for me to show it. That fix doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon however as the team who made the mod is pretty much dead in the water now. If it does happen though, I will be continuing forward with that.

In the meantime KOTOR and Perfect Dark will have to fill in the gaps. KOTOR is taking a bit longer mainly due to tech issues that aren't complete game breakers but still ruin continuity. You'll see what I mean in the next part. Perfect Dark on the other hand seems to be going much better, I've reworked the controls a bit so its closer to its N64 roots. So aiming is now much easier.

Hope that explains the situation a bit better.

Holy Shit Zombies!

This has got to be the coolest mod I have seen in a while, and they're still improvements to be made. The headtracking tech the guy added in there probably makes it a lot more immersive than it would otherwise. Naturally it probably makes it a lot scarier too, awesome!

Unfortunately I can't play ARMA 2 so watching youtube is the closest thing I can get. If you can play the game with a decent frame rate you might want to check this out.

Episode 7 is up

Kinda felt this summer was getting a bit boring, so to kick start August I did this a bit sooner than I originally intended. And yes, that is who you think it is providing a cameo.

I came up with the idea a while back but never really took it seriously until the end of episode 6. Luckily Krimsin liked the idea enough to do it. I haven't got any more surprises for the point man's mind aside from this, the character A. Shepherd will return later of course along with Krimsin to reprise his role but thats about it. So far.

Until then. Enjoy!

So, it begins.

Because updating people on Youtube is flipping annoying, what with video limits and character limits its all a huge hassle I don't think anyone appreciates. I decided to make this as a substitute. So I hope this will make it easier for a lot of people

Not really a "blogger" person myself. I never cared what blogs talked about or ever cared to make one until now. But as a substitute compared to a really really crap update system on Youtube, this works well enough

So that's pretty much what this will be. I'll update here with new videos and try to explain delays and answer questions people have for me here, and every so often I guess I'll post something funny or let you guys know about something I've got in the works.

I've got a few surprises in the works already but I'm going to wait on revealing those at least until I'm half way through one of my projects. In the meantime you can find The Point Man's Mind and other playlists I have here.