An update that doesn't contain a ton of new information, but sometimes you just gotta drop an update!

Hey everyone,

I don't have a ton of new stuff to update you on, but I just wanted to touch base and let you know that I'm still chugging away on the next video. I initially thought Serpent Isle would be a fairly simple project, since I covered most of the engine nuances in the Ultima VII video. WOW I was wrong. It's looking like this is going to be my longest video ever, and that's after some pretty extensive script editing. It's turned out to be a true emotional rollercoaster.

That said, I'm well into the video editing stage at this point. If you enjoy the historical bookends of these videos, I think you're really going to like this one. All in all there's about 45-50 minutes discussing history and context, which is always the most challenging part to edit. Suffice to say the involvement of a certain evil corporation has made things more complicated and more interesting in the story of Origin Systems. As we move through the 90s, more of the company history is preserved in documents, photographs & videos, which doesn't necessarily make writing & editing faster (especially considering the volume of research to comb through), but it makes the work more straightforward and the final product more fascinating IMO.

While this has been going on, the Majuular clan has been house hunting. It's tough out there but the basement exodus is happening one way or another, hopefully before winter. These days I feel like I'm spending just as much time driving around looking at places and talking to agents, brokers, and advisors as I am working. But I've been trying to make up for lost time editing in the evenings too. I know most of you understand that life happens, but I try to avoid taking this long between videos unless I have to for several reasons. YouTube being the way it is these days, I really appreciate having you guys here to help the channel. Frankly I would be completely screwed without the support. That or I'd just have to start compromising on my videos to get them out faster, which is also something I like to avoid when I can help it. You can't always live and die by your principles when your hustle is making youtube videos about video games. But the more you CAN, the better the videos are... I think anyway.

After sitting on the idea for a while, I've decided I'll probably shelve the idea of a System Shock video for the foreseeable future. I was already concerned that the games had been covered to death, and shortly after my post talking about it, SS2 remastered was released which led to a new wave of System Shock video essays. I got a good variety of feedback on the idea in the last update post, which gave me some perspective as well. It's definitely a concept worth revisiting, but I like to dig into things that haven't been sufficiently dug-into already... or at the very least armed with something unique to offer the subject. I know some people really liked the idea, but I hope you get where I'm coming from with the sober second thought. The good news is there's no shortage of people talking about System Shock on YouTube and there's probably some that are even cooler and more handsome than me. But probably not though... yeah definitely not I would say.

On the docket we've got Two Worlds (undecided whether I'm doing both in one video or splitting them... a megavideo might be a bit ambitious, but we'll see), then Ultima VIII which should be a fun one even if you don't particularly care about Ultima, and finally we're going back to Golden Sun. Remember Golden Sun? I remember Golden Sun. It's time to finish what I started with Golden Sun. Also have some short bonus videos written/recorded but not edited yet. Sometimes it's kind of cathartic to do those, but much like the history of power rangers, Patreon content has no set schedule. For those of you who enjoy the game music podcast, I'll in all likelihood be MUCH closer to my cohosts (and with a room that I can actually record in), so it'll be considerably easier to just casually have a conversation with them on air. But like I said, all of that stuff is secondary to the main channel videos, which are presumably the reason that you're here.

I won't venture a guess as to when any of the videos will be out, but I wanted to give you an idea of the channel's immediate future. Of course as I start chipping away at those projects I'll keep you all apprised of the details.

Anyway, just wanted to give an update to end the radio silence. Thank you again sincerely. Especially in light of what's going on with YouTube views and age restrictions these days, the baseline security of Patreon is a boon which I am very grateful to have. I hope you've all had a great summer, and I'm looking forward to sharing the next video with you! It's a doozy!