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!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 227

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.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 252

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!

2 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?

3 months ago | [YT] | 27

Jon Graham

If you're subscribed to me on YouTube you may have recently noticed another channel's videos appearing in your subscription feed. This is because I'm in said videos; it was the result of a new feature on YouTube called Collaborations. I wasn't sure exactly what it did and tried it to help a smaller channel that was kind enough to have me on their show that I enjoy. I saw a sudden drop in subscribers and have had someone message me asking what was going on. I'm not sure it was the right decision and have just turned the feature off. I'll continue to simply post links to my appearances on other channels on X. Sorry for any confusion.

3 months ago | [YT] | 127

Jon Graham

Production Update | September 2025

Hello, friends.

I hope you're well.

After pausing my Patreon billing cycle for three consecutive months I've now re-enabled it for the upcoming October cycle.

I've just released a new video commentary exclusively for my YouTube, Patreon and SubscribeStar members at the Gosu and Hax0r tiers on season eight, episode ten of Arby 'n' the Chief, which is almost an hour and a half long.

I have spent a bit of the month working on my game as well as some external video editing jobs, but what I've been working on most is a script for an Arby 'n' the Chief Halloween special for this year, which is just about done and constitutes as video production work.

I'm not sure if I'll make one for Christmas yet but I'm kicking around some ideas.

The work I've done on my game includes the sound design and programming involved in different footstep arrays for both walking and running on four different surfaces, as well as a few bug fixes, like freezing certain physics processes along with others while the player is examining an object, and ensuring a key can always be pressed while in any player or game state to free the mouse cursor from the game window.

I've been sitting on my Hard Justice episode two footage for some time now and will resume editing it when I've finished one or two Arby 'n' the Chief episodes.

My weekend game streaming continues and I've recently started the Resident Evil series, starting with the first entry released in 1996, in the form of the relatively recently released Windows build from Good Old Games.

I'd like to continue playing horror games or perhaps Resident Evil games exclusively one after another throughout October, as a Halloween event.

I created a couple of emoji for use in my live chat: Craig the Brute of Halo Infinite fame, and my soy face.

For those concerned about my health, I'm doing much better.

I still have a hernia but much of the pain has subsided on its own.

There's still a hole in my lower abdominal tissue I'll be receiving surgery to seal in November.

In an attempt to resolve my chronic stomach and GERD issues and reduce my general anxiety I'm now on a low dose of an SSRI that's new for me, which hasn't given me any grief yet, and may even be helping me slightly so far, which was unexpected as I haven't had any good experience with SSRIs in the past.

I've greatly increased my fibre intake with Metamucil, which has been making my gut feel far better.

As I wrote about previously, I took some time for myself in light of very sad news regarding the health of a family member.

Since then, within the same month, I received more terrible news about another family member's health.

They're not things I want to share details on, but they did slow me down a bit in regard to my work.

It's been a pretty terrible month for me, and all I can do is wait for things to unfold, but after taking some time, talking to some people, consulting medical professionals and learning a few things I'm in slightly higher spirits.

My appearances on others' streams this month:

Gronkin' Gaming (@Gronk__Squad)
State of Play/007 First Light Reaction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lUX2...

Mozza (@Mrmozza22)
Dead By Daylight Birthday Stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8xu...

BlabberingCollector (@BlabberingC)
Uno Stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iif2-...

Every Frame A Pause (@MauLer)
The Iron Giant Breakdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0Bd...

Thank you all very much as always for your patience, viewership, encouragement and support of my work and streams.

3 months ago | [YT] | 20

Jon Graham

Production Update | August 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I've paused my Patreon billing cycle for a third consecutive month, out of respect to my paying subscribers on the platform and what specifically I've set for them to expect from me through it, and what I've earned in superchats through my weekly streams.

None of my Patreon subscribers should be charged within the billing window at the start of this month of September.

I'm still taking time to work on my horror game.

I've come a long way with its environmental design and core navigation mechanics, but believe I need another month or two to get the stalker threat in a state that's at least demonstrable -- at which point I'd like to create a poll exclusively for my Patreon subscribers to assess whether or not they'd be happy with their monthly contribution to me through that platform going to the development of my game, in addition to my video production, whenever I switch back to it.

Regardless of my Patreon subscribers being okay or not with their money funding that particular work at this point, all of the handful of people who've spoken about it to me so far kindly being so, I don't want to take any until I reach a point in development where I'm convinced I have a handle on all aspects of the project and can complete it.

I'll probably resume video writing and production work shortly as Halloween and the Christmas holidays approach and I've been kicking around ideas for corresponding Arby 'n' the Chief specials.

Those regularly tuning into my streams may be aware I had a catastrophic problem while playing Majora's Mask on the Nintendo Switch Online emulation service, in that my primary save state slot became corrupted by a crash of the application, and I wasn't cycling through save state slots, nor was I aware Nintendo apparently doesn't ingest manual save data until the application is safely closed, despite what text in the game says regarding data saved on The Song of Time being utilized, and I hadn't done so for a long stretch of time.

I know better now but, unfortunately, much of my progress has been irrecoverably lost.

However, I have ideas, and am taking steps to rectify the situation.

I'm going to dig out my actual Nintendo 64 and try hooking it up for PCI or HDMI-converted capture and streaming, and my Majora's Mask cartridge should still have the save on it that I abandoned on a stream of the game I did several years ago which, funnily enough, progress-wise, more-or-less lines up with where the emulated game on NSO crashed.

Alternatively, I also just found and bought a Nintendo 64 cartridge ROM dumper online which may, legally, allow me to play off my aforementioned cartridge save in a native PC recompilation port of the game, which includes all sorts of features including HD resolution, true widescreen, increased framerate, modern camera control and mods.

For those curious about my health following my mentioning of a likely inguinal hernia, I had a CT scan done and am still awaiting the results of that and the next steps to take, which I'm expecting to be decided when I meet with my doctor this week.

Thank you very much as always to my viewers for staying tuned into and/or generously funding my work and streams.

4 months ago | [YT] | 227

Jon Graham

Production Update | July 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

My Patreon billing remains paused. None of my subscribers on that platform should be charged at the start of August.

I'm still taking time away from my video production to work intensively at solo game development; a small-scale, first-person horror game which I'm, in terms of graphics, referring to as low-resolution, high-fidelity; meaning real-time lighting, shadows, physics and things of that sort, but through PSX-like pixelation.

Once I've cleared the most significant hurdles of the process including enemy AI and character modelling, rigging and animation, and perhaps compile a teaser video or playable demo, I'd like to create a poll for my Patreon subscribers to determine if my game is something they'd be happy if their money went to the production of.

If so, I'll add game development to my product list on that platform. If not, I may seek an alternate funding method or platform for my game, and switch between pausing billing on one and the other depending on what I'm actively working on.

It's been very challenging and time-consuming work modelling and coding everything from scratch. It's also been a lot of fun and, despite my first attempt at rigging a skeleton to a character mesh being a failure, I think it's all coming along at a decent pace, which I've surprised myself with.

I don't wish to take money for this project's development until I've reached a point with it at which I'm happy with how it's turning out and thoroughly convinced I can bring it to completion.

I didn't start any software development until not only having read three books back-to-front on programming in C and working with the Godot 4 engine, but also had the whole game down on paper, including the story, characters, a psychologically metaphorical monster design, floor plans, gameplay loop, scares, checks, key items and their locations, all of which I worked on for at least a year.

I currently have a test bed in Godot in which a number of core functions have been programmed and polished, including a global layer for fading to and from black, an interaction reticule, collectable items, a Resident Evil/Silent Hill-style item preview instance and collection text prompt, a custom cursor, clickable buttons, lamps that turn on and off, drawers that open and close, ceiling lights turned on and off independently by separate wall switches, some sounds for object interaction and the environment, and a large, dynamic and mathematically randomized aspect of enemy behavior applied to a capsule mesh that I was worried I wouldn't be able to crack, but ended up figuring out across a couple of days.

When trying to rig my enemy mesh in Blender not only did the limbs not properly adhere to the primary joints in the armature, but moving them would also warp nearby limbs along with it, despite my belief that the limbs were far enough apart in the mesh's default T-pose that the armature wouldn't get confused. I think it has something to do with a lack of cuts in the mesh overall, or edges where the mesh is meant to bend, or faces incorrectly set as inside or outside.

Any tips from knowledgeable Blender users as to what my problem(s) might be would be appreciated.

Whatever the case, the current plan is to re-model my enemy from scratch based off of some new tutorial series that incorporates rigging within the same project file, or move onto building some different functions for a little while, like a splash screen and main menu, constructing additional rooms, or interactable doors that transition the player from one area to another.

Regardless of pausing my Patreon billing for the second consecutive month, I am sorry to make people wait for my next Hard Justice or Arby 'n' the Chief video, but editing was driving me a bit crazy and I needed to do something different for a while; and this is very different, in a good way.

I'm not sure when I will, but when I eventually do switch back to video production I'll be able to work at it with much added perspective and enthusiasm.

Revenue through YouTube superchats and memberships has been carrying me through my game development, for which I am and always have been enormously appreciative.

Thank you very much as always for your continued viewership, encouragement and generous support, and I hope you can look forward to what I'm working on.

5 months ago | [YT] | 194

Jon Graham

Production Update | June 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

I've paused my Patreon billing for the upcoming monthly cycle; none of my subscribers should be charged anything at the start of July.

I've gotten a bit of work done on Hard Justice throughout June, resulting in a roughly hour-and-a-half assembly cut, but not enough, I feel, and I haven't released any exclusive bonus content for the month either.

I've had a lot on my mind recently, a load of external editing work I was assigned, and a few things I attended or had to attend to including concerning family matters and a trip out of town; as well as taken time to enjoy some games and movies I was anticipating, and could simply use a break from Hard Justice, which has been an all-consuming task.

I'd also like to give my paying Patreon subscribers a break, especially considering the sheer generosity I've received financially through my streams, on my recent birthday in particular, as a way of further showing my appreciation, and that I don't take the support for granted.

I'd like to use my freed time in the month's remainder to perhaps record a couple of extra streams if I feel up to it, partly as an experiment to assess weekday viewership and because I'll be busy on the upcoming weekend, make some more music, or experiment with new software for use with other projects like a horror video game I'm developing.

My appearances on other shows this month include that on the Gronkin' Gaming podcast to react to and discuss the Xbox 2025 Games Showcase stream, and EFAP to help break down the film 28 Years Later. I always appreciate the invitations and discussions.

Thank you all again as always for your continued patience, viewership, encouragement and generous support of my content.

6 months ago | [YT] | 203

Jon Graham

Production Update | May 2025

Hello, friends. I hope you're well.

Didn't have time to finish writing my production update before June, the 31st of May was my birthday, much of it I spent streaming. I had a lovely day, enjoyed the broadcast, and was blown away by the sheer amount of birthday wishes, kindness, donations and memberships. To all those people, thank you for making the day special for me. I feel incredibly fortunate to benefit so much from something that doesn't even feel like work.

Earlier in May I released a new video commentary, on the ninth episode of Arby 'n' the Chief's eighth season, for my Patreon subscribers and YouTube members at the Gosu tier.

Near the month's end I released another stream highlight reel, of my Halo 5: Kardashians playthrough. As you'll see, I wasn't satisfied by re-visiting the game by its end, but was at least pleased it had all the sisters.

My second episode of Hard Justice is completely shot, aside from a few pick-up shots to possibly be obtained later. If I remember correctly it's comprised of roughly 940 shots altogether. I'm currently working on an assembly cut. A brief dialogue pass on the screenplay and casting will follow. I'll let people know via X when I move on and if I require auditions.

After I've released the episode, while I work on the script for the next (and likely final) one I'll be happy to shift back to production work on much smaller videos for a while, like Arby 'n' the Chief and other one-off ideas, some involving non-Halo games, some live action. I certainly have plenty of ideas written down, partly thanks to some great ones offered by my live chat, which I really appreciate.

In time I'll be looking into promoting Arby 'n' the Chief by releasing clips of old episodes via YouTube shorts, as I'm curious about the success of viewer reach they potentially offer.

I was kindly invited to and made a few appearances on other shows in May: Every Frame A Pause, to help break down Thunderbolts*, Metal's Forge, to do the same regarding Doom: The Dark Ages, and the semi-final competition of Nerd Duel's first season, an entertainment media quiz show presented by the SideScrollers podcast.

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

7 months ago | [YT] | 208