Patreon Exclusive Video! + June Update

HELLO EVERYONE

I bet you didn’t think you’d see this huh? A video from me about video games news? How strange! Usually I just cover old ass video game music, so what gives?

Well, let me tell you all about it.

Short Story: 

• This video is me testing a new style that includes more of my personality, and it’ll be a Patreon Exclusive forever. 

• This new style/process is quicker, and I am planning to release new videos every 2 weeks from now on, starting with one about the music in Diablo!

Long Story:

There are currently two major things I don’t like about my channel:

• The way I present my videos lacks a lot of my personality, and 

• It takes way too long for me to make new videos. 

So, for the last few months I’ve been chipping away at both these problems. It hasn’t been a simple process, because any solution needs to also:

• Be enjoyable for me to make, 

• not lead to burnout, and

• be high quality and valuable for my audience.

I spent a long time analysing successful YouTubers and attempting a variety of projects that likely won’t ever see the light of day, until I settled on the method I used for this Suicide Squad video. So, let me tell you what I did:

• I did lots and lots of research, because that is where a big chuck of the value is for the viewer.

• I formatted my research into a dot point script, rather than completely script out every line of the entire video like I usually do. 

• I recorded myself off the cuff, for like a full hour, talking through all my research. I imagined I was telling the story to my brother, and let a lot more of my personality come through. 

• I cut down my massive ramble session into all the best stuff, so that the video you guys get is actually good, cohesive, and follows a clean thread. 

• I edited it together in my usual way, but with an effort to be less overwhelming. 

I tested out my new process with this Suicide Squad video, and it actually went really well (I think). The video was really fun to make, I made progress on it super quickly, and I like the results. So, I’m actually really happy with my new process and I’ll be continuing to refine it video by video. 

However, that’s not all. 

You might be wondering: Why did I choose a current events topic rather than my traditional topic of video game music?

Well, here is the other bit.

CONTENT

Optimising my process has really helped with the time it takes to make the videos, as well as injecting some much needed personality into them. However, if I don’t pick the right content I WILL burn out. After a lot of trial and error I released what I need is diversity and flexibility. If I have the flexibility to cover the things I find interesting, when I’m interested in them, I can continue to feel fulfilled by my YouTube stuff. 

The ultimate plan is to get the channel to a point where I can cover whatever I’m most interested in at the time, and do a good job of it for you guys. The through-line of the channel will be my personality and research based approach.

That being said, it’s not like I suddenly hate video game music. I’ve actually already started research on videos about the music in:

• Diablo 1 & 2,

• Hitman Codename 47,

• Silent Hill 2,

• Pathologic, and

• Dark Souls 2.

So my current plan, which is subject to change, is to make some or all of those videos using my new process, and then slowly transition to covering a broader range of topics.

I find the prospect of doing that very exciting, and I hope you guys do too. It means I can focus on topics I’m genuinely passionate about and are very interesting, rather than searching desperately for fresh content within a restrictive and predefined niche. 

I guess on some level I feel scared that if I stop exclusively covering video game music that I’ll disappoint a lot of people. But, at the same time, if I don’t permit myself the freedom to experiment then this whole YouTube thing won’t be sustainable or enjoyable. I know that’s kind of silly, and I don’t really think anyone has that level of expectation of me, but I guess it’s just scary doing new things. 

Basically, I just want to be more experimental with my content topics. Uploading more regularly will help with that too! So each upload doesn’t feel like the only thing I’m gonna be able to work on for like 4 months. 

ANYWAY

There’s some inside baseball for you! No idea if you found that at all interesting, but I think sharing is good, so I shared 😅

I also have dreams of doing live streams, regularly making Patreon only videos, and other cool stuff, but I think getting my footing with fortnightly uploads is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, and everything else can grow in time. 

If it all goes to plan, y’all should be receiving a video about Diablo’s music around the 5th of July. 

Now, will it go to plan? I guess I can only do my best, and we’ll find out! Everything’s a process, and I’m committed to getting better every day. 

Thank you all for sticking with me,

Talk again soon,

Simon ✌️