NewtC

Draft 2 is coming along nicely, and is about halfway done. There are still some concerns with the final vision, but some areas were fleshed out quite well. I've also been sick for almost all of this month (I'm still a little sick) so hopefully once that finally clears up I can pick up speed.

For now though, I'm turning my attention to the second of my planned Members Only videos. We'll be taking a quick look at Phillip's various forms and how they play into his character and story progression. Originally, this was also going to be in the Ruina video, but like all of these members only videos it would have derailed things drastically. I still think it's important to cover though, as it's genuinely one of the most interesting ways PM has done storytelling in the series. Very rarely do we get to see a character in so many different forms throughout his time in a story, and that makes Phillip unique.

I'm going to leave you all with a small glimpse of something upcoming in the Ruina video. Feedback is very much appreciated, as I don't do poetry often but I thought it fit for the section this shows up in.

There once were four magical girls,
Holy guardians of the land.
They formed a pact of justice,
To stop what evil had planned.

The Magical Girl of Happiness
Gold and full of desire,
Spread joy, faith and power,
To push back the shadows dire

The Magical Girl of Justice,
Upholder of chivalry,
Stood for those done wrong,
A better world to see.

The Magical Girl of Love,
The brightest of the four,
Hunted down the wicked,
And protected those she adored

The Magical Girl of Courage
The furthest from the rest
With solid judgement and sound heart
Would judge the others best.

Together they were strong,
Each protected the other’s flaws
But when the jester came,
They failed to uphold the laws.

The Magical Girl of Happiness
Forever spreading joy,
Lost herself to her desire
And began to hoard her toys.

All that glittered, shined and shone
Were now her only thought
An eternity of greed
Was all that could be bought

Justice stood as a stalwart shield,
A knight of greatest fame.
But the protector’s role is forever writ
As the one to shoulder shame.

Those she protected would only remember
The faces of those she lost
And so despair began to cloud
All that was left was the cost.

Love’s light was inescapable,
And all evil touch abated.
Without a purpose with which to stand,
She was soon lost to hatred.

Good and evil, black and white
Her search was all in vain.
Without a foe to give her form,
A serpent became her bane.

The Magical Girl of Courage,
Found a friend among her foes.
Her trust rewarded not with love,
But an endless source of woes.

Betrayed and lost she wandered on
Her sins corroded her mind.
The failures inside ate at her soul
Until she left her form behind.

Their tale is told but is not done,
As we turn towards the clown.
For deep within Nihil’s heart
He drags the others down.

Within us all the joker stirs,
A reminder of the worst.
Why fight at all when the end will come.
So he always cursed.

But hope will always find a way.
Friends will come together.
When times are darkest and shadows dire,
We will take our measure.

Awoken again to right their wrongs
The girls return to the stage.
“The Magical Girl is here at last”
Their eternal war to wage.

6 days ago | [YT] | 12

NewtC

*Cries in too much Ruina*

Draft 1 is done. It's 47 pages long. A job has been found so I once more have cash flow, though a lot less than with my previous job. Production needs have been identified. I have no idea how in the world I'm going to fund this.

I'm so fudging tired.

Members will be getting another members-only video soon(TM) aka when I figure out where I'm sitting financially. There will be four total for Ruina, including the one that's already out.

Time to start editing draft 2.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 20

NewtC

Hello everyone! Finally getting another video out. This took a bit longer than expected, largely because I've been focusing on job hunting and making the portfolio website I mentioned in earlier posts. The next video, a retrospective on the OPUS series, will be releasing at 8 AM PST tomorrow morning. As always, I really appreciate anyone who's been supporting me through this month. It means a lot that you're willing to put up with the long wait between videos, and I want to address that more.

For the most part, I've been pretty clear: videos are released when I'm satisfied with them, and I don't want to tie myself to any single franchise. That means a lot of research time, and these notes are what I release when I start writing scripts. This process takes a long time, and I want to see if I can move towards smaller videos in between. I always have a struggle while writing on what I can cut out. The next video in particular feels breakneck towards the end because I wanted to condense it as sharply as I could. However, I feel like putting out only one video for each research target, regardless of how complete it is, is a waste. I want to reuse my notes as much as I can. As such, I'll be working on more Patreon and Members only videos while I push towards Ruina. I have several ideas, one of which is pretty much entirely written at this point. Hopefully I can find more ways to reward people who help me fund these stupid big projects.

On the topic of notes, I'm working on a way to release partial Obsidian vaults for public viewing. Initially this was a reward to supporters, but the struggle to lock this ended up being far too much effort to be worth it. As a result, this will be removed as a patron incentive in the Firekeeper tier. Script drafts however will still visible only to Firekeepers and above.

Expect a video about Chains in the near future, likely sometime next month.

2 months ago | [YT] | 2

NewtC

Let's get the the big thing out of the way first: I currently have no income outside of YouTube Memberships and Patrons. As of the October 28th I quit my job with 5 months of savings to keep me afloat.


So how does this effect me right now?

Well, I've got a lot more time and a lot less money. This means I'm able to work on things I never had the time to feasibly do, as long as the info for that is available for free. I'm currently working on a website that will act as both a central site for all of my projects to be displayed (I have quite a few outside of videos), but will also be a bit of a portfolio to hopefully get me hired. Uncertain how long that will take, but I'm confident I can self-host it without any further cost to myself.

On the topic of this site, once I have it running I'll have patron/membership only areas where people can view all of the hard work I put into my videos. That includes hopefully finding a way to view the entirety of my notes Obsidian vault. That's the picture down there by the way. If you've never seen Obsidian... it's awesome. It's a great way to take notes that naturally forms your own wiki over time. Problem is, I'm not sure how to share it yet. I'll be working on this.

Anyway. Vid-e-ohs.

OK so the next video is a series retrospective on the OPUS series, which is getting its fourth installment sometime in the next month or so. See that gigantic mass of nodes in the image? That's all the notes I've taken for this. I've recorded all the footage I need, but going through said footage is taking a while as I flesh out the notes and find new info about it. I fucking love this series and hopefully I can get this video out before that next game drops. I'm operating on a budget however, so I may have to sacrifice a bit of quality to get this out.

After that's done, I'm returning to my Library of Ruina script. That script is like... I wanna say 80% done, but I hit some real writers block and I knew with my current status I couldn't do the video justice anyway. My goal is to finish the script and drafts and immediately go into production mode as soon as I have the finances.

Other than that, we will be releasing the combined version of Lobotomy Corporation's story video. Unfortunately the second half -- the significantly bigger half -- of that video did not do very well on release, despite phenomenal responses in the comments. I really love everyone who responded to that video btw, it's giving me a big emotional boost right now. I'm hoping that by releasing the combined video we'll solve some of the problems that video had.

Finally, to anyone who's deciding to continue supporting me through all this -- holy shit thank you. I know stuff is incredibly tough and I was aware of that when I finally decided to quit. I'm just hoping that I can last long enough to figure out my income sources before finances run out and all of you are making a sacrifice that I know is hard as hell right now. You may not think you're making much of a difference, but even a dollar a month is huge to me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 12

NewtC

This got drowned out by my superboss analysis, but the second part of the Lobotomy Corporation story analysis is also out.

This is the biggest video I've ever made, so any help in sharing it around will go a long way. I'm hoping that this video will stand as my strongest argument for funding the editing on the Ruina project next, especially since I'm about to be without an income for a while. If you've already watched the video and loved it, you're awesome.

If you're a member or patron, remember that this video was only made possible with your help. I cannot thank you enough.

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 10

NewtC

Lobotomy Corporation and the Ascent to Divinity is now out, but along with it comes a bonus video. For those of you who were interested in the two superbosses of the game, my video covering them has now released to the public. These sort of videos will hopefully become a standard going forward, as a way to thank members while I work on the main videos. Hope you all enjoy!

4 months ago | [YT] | 4