Jon Graham

Production Update | August 2026

I paused my August Patreon billing cycle but am letting the upcoming September one proceed.

I don't have a new video yet as I estimated I would in my last post, apologies for that, but I assure my financial supporters that I've been working laboriously for most of the month on my script for a new Arby 'n' the Chief episode of substantial length called Champagne Repoured, based on the recent release of Halo: Campaign Evolved.

The writing of it has been difficult but I'm very happy with how it's turning out, I'm just about done, and I'll begin production as soon as it is. There were a lot of things to unpack and consider for the script with the game's release beyond the game itself, like the overall management of the Halo property, the Halo Studios rebrand, and the franchise's migration to PlayStation.

I've also developed a new way of formatting my scripts throughout the process, to increase readability during production and make it easier by breaking everything down into more manageable chunks, complete with every shot, the details of those shots in terms of content and camera movement and, now, their superceding eyelines, and how exactly individual characters are oriented along those eyelines.

Development of my game, Button Mash Rental, is now the project on pause. I can only work on game or video production at one time, they're both far too complex to juggle at once.

As always, people are obviously free to unsubscribe from payment subscriptions to me at any time for any reason which, along with any and all donations via YouTube throughout my streams, are tremendously appreciated.

Thank you for your generosity and patience!

1 week ago | [YT] | 182

Jon Graham

Production Update | July 2026

I've paused my Patreon billing cycle for the month.

I was in and out of the hospital with nosebleeds at the start of July and took a few weeks to recover.

I've gotten a bit of work done on various projects through that time but not enough to have anything to show for it and, I feel, to charge subscribers on Patreon, especially considering the generous amount of donations I've already received through my streams, which I've recently resumed with the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved.

I have an Arby 'n' the Chief episode about the game half-written, the rest of the writing of it pending on my completion of the game and footage capture. I expect I'll release the episode sometime in August.

I've had a different episode written and ready to shoot for some time but I instead took most of that time to work on my game, Button Mash Rental, and the episode's not one I want to put out right after the Arby 'n' the Chief production pause due to its subject matter and the recent release of Halo: Campaign Evolved.

I've worked a bit on my game this month but have no new development update video yet.

I've decided to scale it down a bit from what may have been suggested to viewers by my last development video; there won't be much item seeking and collecting, as that would involve creating a far bigger environment.

As was intended in the conception of the idea, the focus will be within a small geographic space on the linear story and characters I've already written and, going forward on my end, implementing modular cinematic and NPC dialogue and travel pathing systems.

Before that I'm currently working on the limited natural terrain surrounding the rental store. I'm experimenting with different methods of its implementation.

I played with the Terrain3D plugin for Godot and it seemed to be working for me other than the fact that it significantly extended the time it takes to boot the game; I'm often closing and re-booting it for debugging purposes and so it was slowing my development, so now I'm using a terrain-building plugin in Blender and then importing meshes into Godot and it's solved the boot time issue, but I need more time with it to show anything new.

I've also been working on over ten different music tracks for the game and am close to finalizing a new one.

My appearances on other streams this month include playing Dead By Daylight with streamer Mozza of the Gronk Squad, and discussing the 1995 film Goldeneye on The Forge. Links are in the comment below.

Thank you very much as always for your continued patience, encouragement and generous support of my work and streams!

1 month ago | [YT] | 215

Jon Graham

Production Update | June 2026

Throughout June development has continued on my game, Button Mash Rental.

At the month's end I released a new update video showcasing the highlights. For those who aren't bored stiff by these posts here's a complete list of additions since the last update, a number of them not obvious in the video:

- Free camera rotation with keyboard, aiming with mouse, for compositional precision
- Camera heightens, lowers with keyboard
- Camera rolls left, right
- Variable, clamped speed of all camera moves controlled by mouse wheel
- Toggle handheld camera effect, sway intensity, speed controlled with keyboard
- Toggle camera zoom (FOV) with keyboard, with tween
- Toggle control of player with keyboard, mouse while remaining in free camera mode
- Camera-relative spatial raytraced sound in free camera mode
- Rain particle emitters, splash sub-emitters enveloping player, free camera, one set becomes inactive while other is active
- Particle collision height map for rain splashes on maximal geometry
- Particle collision box toggled while indoors to prevent rain falling through ceiling
- Screen space reflections
- Wet surface specular maps, reflections, toggle with rain
- Ambient rain sound
- Glass opacity reduced, adjusted specular map
- Volumetric fog effects, fog color affected by time of day
- Simplified, calmer water shader
- Models, interaction scripts, animations for collectable games, bananas, audio, video cassettes, floppy disks, cubes
- Model, interaction script, animation for boombox, emits raytraced music
- GLB files exported from Blender instead of FBX for improved model, texture data preservation, reading in Godot (all FBX files to be replaced)
- Textual inventory prints updating variables
- UV-wrapped game box art template
- Box art front, side, spine, back with synopsis for one game, more to come
- Games appear on store shelves on collection throughout world
- Game can be picked off shelf, rotated left, right with mouse
- Player can turn while examining game, it will follow the player's perspective, for examining, reading under better lighting angle
- Flashlight position, attenuation adjusted for illuminating examined games, other close objects, text
- NPCs turn to look at you

I should note that the free camera is currently for my use only -- for recording cinematic shots for development update videos, determining angles for cinematic shots over dialogue and cutscenes to be handled by a programmed system to come, and possibly for use in a machinima video series in the future -- and switching to the free camera is not currently planned as part of the final release.

The game remains in pre-alpha and everything is subject to change.

I have enough highlight clips extracted from my gaming streams that I'm working on a 'The Best of the Jon Graham Show' series, each 'volume' video planned to be about an hour.

I'm revising my stream's standby slate with a playlist of my music tracks, instead of just the one, that are appropriate for the aesthetic and tone of the show, as well as additional shots of the ship and its interior.

As I've written about over the past week, I've been having nosebleeds.

The last one was bad enough that I ended up in emergency, and an attempt to stop the bleed with an agonizing nasal balloon in my face for two days wasn't successful. It was as fun as it sounds.

After some cauterization I'm now managing the bleeding at home and taking some time from work, but I've been recovering a little bit every day, bleeding less and feeling less pain in my face.

My appearances on other shows across June include a couple on the Gronkin' Gaming Podcast, one of which being a reaction to the Summer Game Fest broadcast, and one on The Forge to offer my thoughts in a breakdown of 007 First Light. Links are below the post.

A lot of people have been very kind wishing me well and I appreciate it all, as well as everyone's patience, encouragement and generous financial support of my work, thank you!

2 months ago | [YT] | 127

Jon Graham

Production Update | March 2026

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I paused my Patreon income again. None of my subscribers via that platform should've been charged within the April billing cycle.

At the end of February I said I'd resume work on videos in March but I haven't.

I've been immersed in developing a new little idea for a video game and taking online video classes to enrich my foundational understanding of Godot, GDScript and Blender. I may take at least another month for the same reason. I'm very excited about this idea I have and want to take advantage of my current enthusiasm for it to at least get it near-final on paper, or even bring it to some kind of playable prototype.

I haven't given up on video production but I can't juggle that with a project like this, it's too much, especially as I continue to struggle with serious issues pertaining to my family's health.

I have and will continue to stream on the weekends whenever I feel up to it, which I hope people have been enjoying.

I'll let people know When I resume work on my video production.

Thank you very much as always to my viewers and supporters for your patience and generosity!

5 months ago | [YT] | 252

Jon Graham

Production Update | February 2026

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I paused my upcoming March billing cycle on Patreon. None of my paying supporters on that platform should be charged.

I worked a bit on Arby 'n' the Chief across February but not enough, I feel. I've had a bunch of external editing work to do, and I took a couple of weeks to develop, on paper, a new, technically simpler video game idea I have that I'm very enthusiastic about, though I'm uncertain at this point if it'll come to fruition.

I'm going to let the charges for YouTube channel memberships roll as I believe most, if not all people who become members enjoy my live streams, which I've maintained, and I'm actively streaming Resident Evil Requiem daily until I finish at least one playthrough.

I will resume work on Arby 'n' the Chief in March.

Thank you all very much as always for your continued patience, viewership and generous support of me, I really appreciate it and don't take it for granted!

6 months ago | [YT] | 231

Jon Graham

Production Update | January 2026

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I uploaded a new Arby 'n' the Chief video: my Christmas special, 'Chief's Li'l Package' - in the latter half of January. I didn't get an idea for one until late into December, at which point I jumped to development from scratch on that from what I had already been working on for some time.

My mom helped me come up with the initial idea; she pitched the visual of a big gift and a tiny gift being exchanged. I thought it was brilliant and immediately started workshopping it.

Since its release I've jumped back to the video I was working on before, which is already written and partially produced. It'll be longer than the Christmas one.

My appearances on other shows and events this month include an appearance on Halo Classic Hub's Discord server where they play the multiplayer modes of the original Halo games through various means including the Insignia service, The Forge to help break down 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and The Gronkin' Gaming Podcast to react to Xbox's latest Developer Direct stream.

Thank you all very much as always for your continued viewership, encouragement and support of me!

7 months ago | [YT] | 294

Jon Graham

Production Update | December 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well, enjoying the holiday season and wish you a happy and excellent new year.

As I've written about I've been dealing with heavy things in my life for a few months that remain tough, but they've recently started looking up a bit, enough that I had a nice Christmas, and I was able to get a bunch of writing done.

Wasn't gonna make a Christmas video as I didn't have an idea I had time to produce - until much later this month when my mom offered me a great idea for a short one, but I don't have enough time to put it out before January. I plan to release it early next month.

I also have my script for the longer Arby 'n' the Chief episode about the Halo ICE meme from the DHS near-polished, which I'll start producing quickly after the holiday short's release.

Beyond that I have many ideas and outlines full and partial for future episodes.

My appearances on others' shows this month include the Gronkin' Gaming podcast to react to this year's Game Awards, the voice of a security guard in machinima CRASH director B00mrang's latest episode of The Farside Files, Melee Games' Christmas Town Square stream to talk about the holiday, and Every Frame A Pause's New Year's Eve stream.

Thank you all very much for your continued patience, viewership, support, and the outpouring of concern and encouragement regarding the well-being of my family and I, it's all very much appreciated!

8 months ago | [YT] | 229

Jon Graham

Production Update | November 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I'm letting my Patreon billing roll this month. I hope that's alright.

I don't have a new video yet, but have been writing extensively most nights throughout November.

I currently have a script near-polished for an Arby 'n' the Chief episode about the Halo ICE recruitment meme shared by the US Department of Homeland Security that I need a few more days with, and thorough outlines for videos to follow regarding the announcement of Halo: Campaign Evolved and the franchise moving to Playstation, one about Chief leading his own game development studio, one about him becoming a popular YouTuber, one about him becoming an anime fan, one about him building a computer, one that's Greg-centered, and a Sherlock Holmes parody involving the Epstein files, which I have to take extra care doesn't come off as insensitive to the issue.

I've had a number of other ideas developed to one degree or another for some time as well that I've mentioned in the past, including a parody of Akira and a series involving time travel, and plenty of little ideas with potential written down.

I've also been cooking a Megaman Goes to Willamette reboot script for some time, which would utilize Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered.

This is a pattern I'd like to maintain if I don't have a script polished and ready to produce at the start of any particular month: to spend that month developing various projects on paper and getting at least one script polished, and the next month producing said script.

Hard Justice remains on standby until I feel prepared to come back to it.

What I'm thinking of doing in regard to that series, since people have been waiting at length for the next episode already, is go ahead and finish writing and then produce the third and final episode, then edit and release both episodes relatively close together, and make an event out of it.

As I've posted about previously, the past few months have been absolute shit and seriously distressing for me and my family, and will probably remain so to some degree for the next two or three.

I had surgery to repair my inguinal hernia and I'm recovering, but there are multiple people in my family who are severely ill and actively receiving treatment, the effect of which can't be predicted day-to-day. One recent day turned unexpectedly ugly, with someone almost dying.

However, things are on pause and stable for the moment. We're just dealing with things one day at a time.

Thank you all very much as always for your continued viewership, encouragement, well-wishes and financial support of me, it's all tremendously appreciated.

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 254

Jon Graham

Production Update | October 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I've just put out my Arby 'n' the Chief Halloween special, Polterg0hst, a parody of the movie Poltergeist.

I was a day late with it. I'm sorry about that. I worked on it almost every day for about two months. The bulk of that time was just working on the screenplay and polishing it, as is usually the case. I truly pushed myself to release it in time, though I could've managed my time a bit better. The edit was particularly grueling. I hope you enjoy the video. The feedback has been very positive so far. Please leave a comment if you have the time, and thank you to everyone who did, and for your patience with me.

My appearances on other shows this month include Blabbering Collector's gaming channel Blabs Life to play Star Wars Battlefront II, Metalcommander and Marc the Cyborg's The Forge to break down the Silent Hill 2006 film and Silent Hill f, MauLer's Every Frame A Pause (EFAP) to help break down The Fly (1986), and the Gronkin' Gaming Podcast to talk about the gaming news of the day.

Thank you all very much as always for your continued viewership, encouragement and support!

10 months ago | [YT] | 271

Jon Graham

I enabled and fairly quickly disabled the new YouTube Collaborations feature on my channel because I felt I may be upsetting my subscribers.

However, I quite like the feature, and have seen both positive and negative reactions to it, so I thought I'd create a poll.

The feature puts videos - which I approve manually and individually - from other channels featuring me into the feeds of my subscribers; for example, if I'm on someone else's podcast, or a bit of it is clipped and uploaded, the full episode or clips will appear on my subscribers' feeds if I approve it. It's not content I created, but I've contributed to considerably in some way.

I think it's a great way to help other channels grow, and I'd like to do that for others if I can and my subscribers are okay with it, considering how hard it is these days for new creators to be seen, either because of content hyper-saturation or algorithms working against them.

I may just keep it off regardless of the poll results, but I'm curious: do you like the feature?

11 months ago | [YT] | 28