[TL;DR at the bottom. It's a lot of text, I'm sorry!]
Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well. Just to begin with yet another huge thank you to each and every one of you for helping along with the production of any and all videos and/or streams. Your support is never unnoticed or unnapreciated, and once again, there's still absolutely no pressure for you to stay or to continue support. No judgement, no hard feelings. I know I've gone out of my way to describe this entire Patreon page more as an ongoing 'tip' system because of the lack of rewards, but it may be worth repeating again just in case you ever feel as though you aren't happy with what you 'get back' for your insanely generous support. I'm happy to refund anybody at any time, I won't be upset if you leave, and you don't even need an explanation. Regardless, thank you so so much. You're all incredible.
Anyway, I'm writing today to let you know wtf is happening on my end for videos/streams. Like I've eluded to before, there's been a LOT of stuff happening in my personal life. Some of it I've talked about, other things I can't, other things I won't, and other things I don't feel the need to actively mention - it'll make itself very obvious as time goes on (and one of those things will explain a lot about where the majority of my time was spent last year up until a few months ago!). If any of the more sensitive stuff accidentally or naturally comes out over the future then that's just the way it is, but rest assured that some of the family things happening over here have been absolutely huge - and it sadly has slowed down my plans to get back into streaming sooner than I would've liked. I apologise greatly for that, but as I've said before, if I'm going to pick between what to spend my limited work time on (streaming or videos), I will ALWAYS pick videos first. I haven't given up on streaming whatsoever, I just physically/mentally/logistically have been unable to and currently still can't, haha. I know it sounds completely unbelieveable, but mine and my family's luck over the last 18 months has been legendary terrible. The main thing is that everyone is completely safe, we're all okay, and more importantly to you all, the next video is well underway.
The next video is called 'The Incredible World of the Best Game Ever Made'. I won't tell you what the game is just yet, but after I played it at a demo event and then played the full thing, I've never felt so inspired to make gags about an individual game for a looooong time.
Before explaining a bit more about it though; you're probably thinking that I'm 'breaking my own rules' by talking about a single game, which I've said multiple times to social media commentors that I'm never doing again. However, I want to clear up the conceptions about that personal 'rule' so that people get where I'm coming from if I ever 'break' it. Whenever I've mentioned this 'rule' before, it's been in response to people asking me specifically for reviews on single games. Or, more bluntly, 'old Caddicarus'. I do not, nor will I ever again, want to go back to that style. I was done with it in 2015 but I kept it going anyway, and I think the results speak for themselves. Whatever anyone's personal opinions are of me or my older stuff (specifically between 2015 and 2019) - taking aside the more comedic aspects of them - one thing I can categorically tell you is that if you think I was decent at 'reviewing' or 'critiquing' whatever I was doing videos about.......not to burst your bubble, but during that time period, I HATED writing out videos like that. So by that immediately logic, I objectively wasn't any good at it. It was completely inauthentic, which is the number 1 thing you do NOT want to be if you want to get into reviewing stuff. I wanted to stop providing serious written criticism for things a literal decade ago, but I couldn't let go of what I had built - so 95% of my 'critical' opinions on things back then are just me waxing bullshit and trying to make it sound like I knew what I was talking about. That's not good faith criticism and I absolutely should never have kept that charade up for as long as I had, while also trying to mix it in with dumbass jokes to mask how I wasn't confident in anything I was actually saying. When you then apply that to something like me talking about Tarzan on PS1, it adds an extra level of embarassment.
SO YEAH - whenever I talk about not doing videos on single games - THAT is the kind of video I'm referring to. Shorter, more structured, trying to force together Monty Python alongside paragraphs of explaining why something is good or bad without it being clear at all that I'm just saying what I think and that my 'professional critiques' don't come from any claimed or lived experiences. I do that on streams all the time, and in casual conversation - I don't NEED to get it to paper and ruin organic reactions for the sake of trying to prove to other people that I'm an opinion to be taken seriously, and make cash lol. I'm rambling though, sorry - just making it clear what the distinction would be between a 'single game review' and a 'single game video' in terms of my own creative work before explaining what the hell this next vid is going for. If any of you remember my Crash Bash vid from a year ago, that was another example of a newer 'single game video' from me, and THAT is how I'd like to approach any potential future single game videos if the opportunity ever presented itself. From the way that my Crash Bash vid was written, the entire concept and existence of the vid, is itself, a huge joke. I don't 'review' Crash Bash in any traditional sense during that vid - instead I just play the entire thing, think of as many gags as I can, while jumping back and forth to a literal scientific whiteboard explaining mathematically why Crash Bash is terrible and unfair. It's completely preposterous. Who needs to go in depth about game design, when I know absolutely NOTHING about it, when instead I could just put my own footage into time calculators and show a thousand reasons why everyone is wrong? Haha. So long as I can imagine a unique and enjoyable concept that can carry an entire video in EXACTLY the way I'd like to do it, then I will do it. To put it in an even simpler way - if any of you have ever watched a Joseph Anderson video before - look at the difference between one of his actual critique/review videos he's known for, and his 'vs Fallout 76' vid. Completely different concepts, both on singular games.
All of this is to say that the next vid I'm working on IS on a single game, absolutely, but the concept behind it is completely different from the concept of the Crash Bash vid - and equally total nonsense. It's looking to be just over 90min and I've already done a near cross-country UK roadtrip with Olly filming segments and scenes for it. The vid will even be opening with a 7min-ish documentary. It will eventually go back into territory that you're more used to as the vid progresses, but even then, it won't be executed in a way that you'd probably expect. I'd also wager that none of you will be able to guess what the game even is that I'm talking about - your only clue is the screenshot above that I used as this post's image. The vid could completely flop or it could be great, no idea - but I'd rather take risks and make stuff that just feels right to me rather than worry too much about if it will land or not. I'm excited to see what you all think whenever it's done. Not sure when that'll be yet, I'm afraid.
Once again, thanks for all that you do to help keep the channel going. If streaming is ever back on the horizon, you all will be the first to know. I hope you're all doing well and I'll talk soon!
---- Jim/Caddy
[TL;DR]
Thanks for your support, everyone. My personal life has been an unbelievable avalanche of awkward timing and bad luck, and I'm sorry that streaming is still dead. As soon as I can get back on it, I'll let you know. The new vid is called 'The Incredible World of the Best Game Ever Made' and the entire concept of it is dumb - it's not a review. It's looking to be just over 90min and I've already filmed segments all over the country with Olly. Thanks again for the support, bye bye.