Hi there everyone. Before I say ANYTHING else, thank you all so so much for all of your continued ongoing support. I don't understand it personally, especially with my current output, but you will never have a clue how appreciated it will always be. And as a reminder - this Patreon page is NOT an obligation, you DO NOT need to support if you don't want to, and NO VIDEO will be locked behind a paywall. Please just know that I'm working as many hours as humanly possible every day to get something done - it's just been a HELL of a 12 months for me. As always, please feel free to cancel whenever you'd like. There NEVER will be any guilt-tripping, hard feelings, judgement, jokes or anything else. The thought of anybody staying because they feel bad makes me feel physically ill lol, so PLEASE prioritise yourselves.
Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. I wanted to let you all in on the current progress of the next vid before I made a public post about it on YT community and the rest of social media. For all that you've done to help keep us keep chugging along without being asked, it's the absolute least I can do to have you all know first. I have a finalised release date for it (and when I say finalised, I mean finalised) - May 1st. The sponsor is lined up, the timing is perfect for me and everyone at home, and unless there is a family death or something equally as serious (or extremely unlikely), that is the deadline and it will be met. I'm immensely sorry it has taken this long.
So where the hell have I been? I obviously don't expect any of you to know anything about my life or even see anything I post, so I'm sorry if a few of you already know a lot of what I'm about to say. However, since it has been SO long since any video has come out, I absolutely owe you all a brief explanation on what's been happening. For anybody that isn't active on social media, missed any public posts, or just isn't aware of some of the things we've been fighting against since the previous upload; some of the reasons this video has taken as long as it has are:
It's currently over 3 hours long. I didn't mean it to get that long, but I've decided that the rest of my career on YouTube specifically should be dedicated to just making what I want to make, however I want to make it. No algorithm-chasing, no trend-riding, no length-optimising, no external editor hiring that doesn't get EXACTLY what I'm looking for/what my comedic timing is, etc. I want to make something good and what I am personally happy with. If a project ends up being 3 hours long, then god damn, it's 3 hours now. If I have to redo segments that look bad, capture additional footage, re-record lines because of audio glitches - then I'm gonna do it. If I can't get Olly to film me because of schedule conflicts on either end, I'd rather not rush it out/cut things out/tripod 99% of the shots - I'd rather wait for him and then do other work in the meantime. I just want to make good shit so that I feel good about it and YOU can all reap the benefits of the time that's gone into it.
The video is about a cheat book I've had for 20+ years, and the book features 230 PS1 games. I don't cover every single one in-depth for the video, but every single one IS mentioned in one way or another. I've recorded footage for over 160 of them mentioned. You can certainly imagine the time that would take to arrange and record, let alone script and then put together!
The obvious stuff that's been happening with Cerys since March last year. If you don't know, you can certainly find out about it online somewhere, I'm sure. I don't like constantly mentioning it mainly because after a while it could look a little bit like a fish for sympathy, which is NOT what either of us want. Any time it's been talked about has been purely because we've been asked about it, or just to keep everyone up-to-date because of why my work is taking so long to get done. Ultimately, you guys and the rest of the YT audience are here just to see what stupid shit I make next - so I'll take any chance I can to let my audience know what's happening to hold up production for you and everyone else. Just in case any of you missed the most recent big update; in December, Cerys was officially declared clear - which is absolutely fantastic news - but neither of us ever expected how many little things would still follow on and roll off in regards to further treatment, prevention and mental support. It's been a constantly ongoing battle for our family that's very gradually getting a little easier as each day passes, but there's still a lot of behind-the-scenes things happening that throw curveballs. Obviously that stuff comes first, as it should for anybody else, and that's one of the main reasons why streaming has completely stopped for the time being - we just have NO clue what could possibly pop up one day to the next. We're all doing completely okay, please don't worry about us - it all just takes up a lot of time.
Ever since the ending portions of editing the Crash Bash video last year, I have been dealing with one of the WORST computer problems I've faced ever since the original PC-build video I did years ago. 7 months of editing this current video has been completely broken, scattered and outright lost because of this particular issue and only in the last month has this extremely specific issue been figured out. It's been such a hugely stressful situation on top of everything else that I will absolutely be making another video in the same vein as the PC-build video explaining all of it to you. Same animator and everything. It deserves it. I know a lot of shit has been happening to us to halt video production but this was one of the big ones - and it absolutely needs to be talked about so you can understand just 1 of the angles why I've been in limbo for nearly 8 months!
There has been an oddly huge amount of inner-family-related stuff AND external-family-related stuff that has been happening for us not even related to Cerys' treatment. Both good and bad. It's almost far too much to list, and where SOME of it has been posted about, not ALL of it has been disclosed publicly for obvious privacy reasons. Needless to say there's been FAR more going on for all of us here in the last 12 months than probably we've ever dealt with in the last 5 years. Again, please don't worry, none of this stuff is horrific (or anything legal-related, lol), but hopefully I can mention parts of it when things settle down.
Ultimately, I'm an online video producer, and people know who I am and keep updated with my nonsense BECAUSE I'm an online video producer. So if that expectation isn't being met, I absolutely owe everyone an explanation why that is - especially if it's been so many months since my previous video went out. Absolutely none of this is a sob story, a call to action or an excuse - I DO NOT want anyone to worry. I'm literally just explaining why things have been so slow with as much detail as is needed, so that you all know I'm not just sitting here with my thumb up my arse. It's just been an unusually unlucky 12+ months for all of us at home, probably the MOST unlucky we've all ever had in our lives, and only in the last month has everything started actually falling properly into place so that a routine can be solidly established (hence the release date of the video now being set in stone). I've also got multiple extra projects that have been worked on in the background, things I want to do and things I need to announce soon that I'm extremely excited about.
Once again I can't thank you enough for your patience, your understanding and your kindness. I cannot apologise enough for how long this video has taken to get done. To tell you the truth, I'm sick of working on it as much as you are probably sick of waiting for it! Looking at the same clips of you and listening to the same audio of you while editing the stuff you put together over half a year ago is absolutely draining after this much time - and even though I'm proud of what this video will hopefully be, I'll be happy when I finally move onto the next project!!
Take care all and I hope you're all excited for May 1st. The video's Patreon thanks credits are gonna be gigantic. <3