Crafting challenge, week 26

This week saw the construction of a video and not a lot else.  (video here)  This one included three maps which I built from free textures found online.  I like building maps even if I don't use them and I'm starting to wonder if I couldn't build a few more and put them up on DriveThruRPG or something.

Next week is BrickCon so there isn't going to be a lot of action here, though the video is already shot.  The week after that also looks rough.

The best scene in any streamed RPG(TM)

This is The Best Scene In Any Streamed RPG(TM).  It's from the early part of Nebula Jazz season 2 which I'm still watching.  I'm not going to break it down but you should super watch it.  I don't think this would have worked if Adam hadn't played it up at every turn.  Sam, for his part, played into it perfectly.  It's a thing of beauty.

Crafting challenge, week 25

I meant to post this yesterday but got busy and forgot (go figure).  Video is here which concludes the multi-part discussion I'd been going through.  On the one hand I'm happy it's complete as I think it's my best advice.  On the other hand, going back to the days of not knowing what I'm going to make isn't great.

The good news is that my obligations for SHIPtember are now complete.  You can see the goods on flickr.

Crafting challenge, week 24

This week was mainly building one video and avoiding doing what I'm supposed to be doing, namely working on SHIPtember.  My build is not going well which shouldn't really be a surprise except that at this point last year I was already done.  I didn't really have much going on then which isn't true today but I don't think I've even hit the 1/4 mark with this build yet.  That's a little concerning.  To make matters worse, I know I'm missing some parts but don't want to put in a pile of orders right before brickcon.  It's looking a lot like I'm not going to finish for the show and that sucks. 

I'm at that scary part where I don't really want to continue building.  This happens on every big build and on every big multi-day project.  I get it most weeks for videos especially if the scripting isn't going well.  It's now happened so often that I expect it and have powered through it in the vast majority of cases, usually to good result.  This time feels different and I don't know if it's because so much creative energy is going into videos or what, but I really, really want to stop.  I'ma build like crazy today and see how I feel this time next week.  I don't like quitting on creative endeavors but something doesn't feel right and I don't like it.

Crafting challenge, week 23

I think I'm over the halfway point on my "make prep suck less" multi-part thing at which point I think I'm going to seriously explore other ideas for making videos easier.  The response from last week's video was underwhelming and again I note how terribly ironic it is to have that one voted down and the previous one at the top of the subreddit.  I have no idea how these things work but I'm really starting to not like it.

This week does have a bunch of crafting in it but other than the video it's mostly SHIPtember stuff which you can watch at my flickr.  This one's a departure from my normal scheme so we'll see how it goes.  Brickcon looms in the distance, too, and I really need to get on bricklink to buy some parts.

Crafting challenge, week 22

This one gets filed under "that's the definition of irony."  (video here)  Story time.

I saidtyped this last week:

I might feel differently if the response was higher.  It's been overwhelmingly positive for sure, but they're not driving many views and it is a pain to have to go try to drum up support every week.  

I've been going through a roller coaster of emotions every week revolving around whatever the script is and how terrible it might be.  It's usually better once the video is posted but not always--last week was one of those.  I hate having to advertise stuff and it's a real feel-bad moment in my week.  One of the places I'd been posting is the Matt Colville subreddit as it's a place that has mostly reasonable folks and occasionally good discussion.  I didn't post this one specifically because the last one did so poorly there.

I also saidtyped this:

If something significant changes in that time I'll reconsider but for now that's the plan.

Turns out that someone else posted my video to the Matt Colville subreddit.  It was heavily upvoted and drove a ridiculous amount of traffic.  It's driven more than double the channel's total views and more than tripled the sub count.  It's a pretty significant change.  A week later it's still driving subs and views more than the previous 14 videos combined.

The truth remains that building videos takes too much time.  It's also true that I still hate advertising stuff--none of that has changed.  This month I'm doing SHIPtember despite my better judgement so I'll have even less time for other stuff.  I'm not entirely sure how to make sense of all of this but for now I'm content to ride the wave and see where it goes.