ACCURSED FARMS 2015 ANNOUNCEMENTS VIDEO

[IanStarGem]

For the movie, I know you said you needed to get alot of technical stuff done first, but this is about the soundtrack. I could volunteer to do the soundtrack. You said it was a kind of medieval setting so I guess it'd need to be orchestral. I just finished a short orchestral demo track. I'll only put it up if you want me to.

[Binky The Rabbit]

Considering that over the course of me watching FM, I made the connection of Freeman's face to Ross's voice, seeing those old pictures clicked FAR too well in my head. Therefore, his current look did take me by surprise, but I was used to it by the end. Ross Scott is so much cooler than I could ever have imagined!

 

I'm perfectly cool with FM being put on the shelf. The amount of downtime deserved from the time put in to that series, Ross would probably suffer an existential crisis from taking such a long break.

 

I really look forward to more Game Dungeon. It's just as entertaining as FM, though I can imagine many disagree. I'm actually happy with whatever Ross puts out, apart from generic Let's Plays, because there's more than enough out there. I only watch Markiplier, and I struggle to keep up with that!

 

As far as suggesting ideas goes, I've been very inspired by the concept of Across The Universe, although of course suggesting anything FM-ish is off-limits:

 

I've found an FPS-mission that I think could make an alright ATU. It would probably have 2 or 3 episodes to it, so as to allow for dialogue. As far as production, I would make the whole thing myself, including script. The only input I'd request from Ross is his voice, for authenticity. More likely I'd give it a shot or get a mate to do it.

 

Generally, ATU could be a great community project, with people making their own episodes and getting Ross to provide the voice. However, he really deserves to put Gordon Freeman away for a good while.

[ISGC]

Woah, wait. How are you pronouncing it. They both look...the same.

 

I always said it "Accur-said Farms". I think Americans say "A-cursed". Haven't watched it yet, but in another video he said it the second way, and part of me died. So that's nice.

I'm American and I've always thought "Accur-said", but Ross pronounces it "A-cursed" in this video and it shook up my world for a second

[Crawfish]

Anyone else think Ross kinda looks like Joel from Vinesauce?

[Lavo]

You look like if Theon Greyjoy met Jesus.

Don't worry, I'm not going to call you "Reek".

[skeropo]

You look like a cross between Jesus and Rob Zombie

[pacguy19]

I found the Civil Protection part interesting. I'm looking into making machinima myself and goddamn does Source suck for it. The SDK is painful and outdated and SFM is a joke for anything other than TF2. (I can rant at length about how much I hate TF2) Should probably look into other, better engines for this stuff. I'm impressed with what I see from Unreal, is that any good?

[LSD]

Woah, wait. How are you pronouncing it. They both look...the same.

 

I always said it "Accur-said Farms". I think Americans say "A-cursed". Haven't watched it yet, but in another video he said it the second way, and part of me died. So that's nice.

I'm American and I've always thought "Accur-said", but Ross pronounces it "A-cursed" in this video and it shook up my world for a second

Hey, we know how to say it. And that's what counts.

 

And now that i've watched the video: holy shit, your beans come with bugs? You said it's about 60 cents for a tin of beans. That's around 40p. Round the corner at Lidl here in the UK, you can buy a tin of kidney beans for 29p, and they're guaranteed to not have bugs in. It even says so on the tin.

There's Lidls in Poland. It's a huge discount-store chain throughout Europe. Buy your beans from Lidl...you know, assuming they price things the same globally...which could happen.

 

Did you bring them back and ask why there's bugs in your beans?

[boatmurdered]

I'm very happy that The Game Dungeon is continuing, though I'm slightly apprehensive about your wish to make it "more concise", as you say. While it will obviously be different for each game, I'm very fond of them running a bit on the longer side (such things are in somewhat short supply when it comes to game-related videos) and I'd be sad to see too much of it taken away. I admire your ambition to make it more than a conventional "review" and I love how the series occasionally becomes more of a video-essay which uses a game as reference point, rather than simply being about a particular game.

 

I can't speak for anyone but myself, obviously, but I highly enjoy the somewhat "digressive" parts of the series. I love when you talk about copy-protection and "legal grab-ass" in the Test Drive video, for example; or how you get into midi-music and post-apocalyptic musings in the video for Strife. I also enjoy the almost "archeological" bent of the series, how you explore and think about the games' environments and worlds in interesting ways, and also the more technical aspects of digging into the game files and exploring the weirdness which comes of trying to run older software. I think you should take every excuse the game gives you to talk about things which you find interesting, even if it's not strictly related to the game in question.

 

Being "fun to watch" (as you say) doesn't have to mean making the videos "more funny" (although that's not a bad thing) and you shouldn't dismiss your "preachyness" (as you call it). There are many "funny" videos about games, but not as many which discuss them in the way you do, and I hate to see those aspects disappear. You will obviously make the videos in whichever way you want (and I'll watch them either way) but since you asked for feedback I thought it wouldn't do any harm to tell you what I like about the videos. Thanks for doing what you do!

 

 

I'd like to echo what this gentlemen said in regards to GD. I much prefer your videos as is, or I suppose the way your most recent one, or any of your past ones are. If I wanted a pointless soundbite with no substance then there's plenty of other choices out there. Listening to someone who's not a shill, or sellout, and who's just as passionate about gaming as I am talk about games, or rage about the evilness of EA is exactly what I want to hear.

 

It's a perfect mix of humor, content, and clever insights that keep me coming back for more for it.

[sullygass95]

I know this kinda goes under the "Raw Let's Plays" category, but I'd love to see Ross playing video games as Gordon Freeman. Basically the persona Ross created for Freeman in the Freeman's Mind series would be playing games like Portal or Shadow Warrior, or whatever Ross wants really. The key element and what differentiates this as an ordinary Let's Play is that Ross wouldn't break character while playing the game, Freeman is very much aware he's playing a game so this wouldn't be like Freeman Across the Universe. The thing I love about Freeman's Mind the most is just the Badass Commando Physicist character that Ross plays and I'd love to see more videos with him, even if they're unedited let's plays of other games. If you've heard of the Team Four Star series Two Saiyans Play it's a lot like that. TFS creators Lanipator and Takahata101 play their DBZ Abridged characters Vegeta and Nappa whilst playing a video game. This would lean more towards improve comedy so I understand your hesitation if you worry about the quality, but if you just pick a fast paced game where you always have stuff to react and think like your Gordon Freeman character I think it could be a really funny series. The Team Four Star guys' Two Saiyans Play series was so successful it has since spawned several other series where the guys play all sorts of game in character as one of the people from DBZ. Unless you feel this is too close to the Let's Play genre and have something fundamentally against the format I can't see why you wouldn't want to at least try it out and see what we think/how the video does in terms of popularity. Don't dismiss this idea just because you think your not that good at improv comedy, I don't think you give yourself enough credit, and like I said you could just try this out, as in play a game as Freeman for 15-30 minutes and upload the video and let us decide whether it's entertaining enough. Other than that good luck with the movie, and hey, if I can get better recording equipment I might just audition for a part.

[Sexypotato]

Well in other news glad to see Games Dungeon isn't going into limbo and the movie sounds interesting Medieval fantasy is sorta a neglected format Game of thrones is out and going but that is more a long the line of political thriller with fantasy elements in my opinion anyways this will be interesting and also i am in the same boat as everyone else regarding Games Dungeon is great as is

[dashofweak]

You might want to check out a new software called "Facerig". It doesn't do body motion capture but it's cheap and it does some pretty good facial tracking. It's mostly used to animate avatars but i'm guessing there's a way to just use the motion capture software without the avatar. Also, I'd really like to see more game dungeon with all the content it has. It's the main reason why I love the series, it explores topics outside the game, it can break the game down and give some perspective, AND I've actually gotten hooked on a few of the games you've put out (Tyrian and Nyet 3, you were right about Nyet BTW, i thought you were exaggerating), although one thing I'd really like to see, would maybe be older games that were popular at one point, but maybe fell out of favor, or perhaps are no longer well know. Games like "Postal 2" or perhaps "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." (i apologize if these two are actually really popular, i just haven't me one person who has played those two) or perhaps even go into topics about gaming, like how a soundtrack can enhance the gaming experience or something like that. I also think that showing off some of your favorite games could be interesting. Although one thing that I would like to see changed is WHERE you got some of the games, like with carnevil for example and maybe just a short explanation about how you got around to actually be able to play the game. Lastly, I'm pretty sure if you asked around most of us would love to see you at a convention, and while i understand you live in Poland, there must be something on that side of the pond that you could make an appearance at. It'll give you publicity for your channel and movie, plus it gives us fans a chance to meet you or at least see you as a human and not a character or a voice.

 

That's all i can think about, I can't wait to see what other stuff you're going to blow us away with!

[kingkolton9]

All questions answered (sort of)! In addition to my first Youtube video appearance, this is an update for just about everything I have planned for 2015 and beyond. I was hoping to have this video out about 2 weeks ago, but all the little things ended up taking me a lot longer than I planned. While I tried to add some humor, this video is largely informative more than anything else. I cover so much in this video, I ended up providing bookmark links so you can jump straight to different topics (they're in the Youtube description). Anyway, I'm making no promises, but I hope to have multiple videos out for next month. I'd say more, but really this video covers just about everything (for now).

 

ADHD version: See what Ross looks like! Ross is making more videos.

 

LINK TO COMMENTS

 

Always glad to see a new video, Ross.

 

For the RGB>YV12 question, I do remember a problem I saw really similar to this. I'm only saying this because I've heard you mention that you've used Sony Vegas before; I'm probably completely off, though. Sony Vegas outputs videos two ways: "Studio RGB" and "Computer RGB." The colors look fine in Vegas, but when being uploaded somewhere they look like shit.

 

For the mic question, that depends on how much you're willing to spend. Are you going for something like a studio microphone, a shock mount and a pop filter, or do you just want the best bang for your buck on the lower end?

 

As for your other projects: I await them gleefully. This movie sounds awesome, and I'm always happy for more game dungeon. Perhaps our One Free Man's time will come again.

[jbenefi1]

I'd like to see a Game Dungeon for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

[NAKEDnick]

Yay! All of my questions have been answered!

 

As an idea, what if there was content created for Accursed Farms? More specifically, content generated by community members, but approved by Ross. It would free you to work on "This Movie" while still being able to keep the community invested.

 

For instance, Opposing Force and Blue Shift are time lines that occur at exactly the same time as Half-Life. Why not some community driven spin-offs? Not only would it give the community something to look forward to, but also to be involved with.

 

As an extra, you get some exposure to writers, editors, animators, and voice actors.

 

IT'S A WIN WIN!

[BTGBullseye]

All questions answered (sort of)! In addition to my first Youtube video appearance, this is an update for just about everything I have planned for 2015 and beyond. I was hoping to have this video out about 2 weeks ago, but all the little things ended up taking me a lot longer than I planned. While I tried to add some humor, this video is largely informative more than anything else. I cover so much in this video, I ended up providing bookmark links so you can jump straight to different topics (they're in the Youtube description). Anyway, I'm making no promises, but I hope to have multiple videos out for next month. I'd say more, but really this video covers just about everything (for now).

 

ADHD version: See what Ross looks like! Ross is making more videos.

 

EDIT:

I completely forgot to add that I'm also interested in any offers from pixel-art artists. I'd like to have more variety with the titles for Game Dungeon, so I could potentially showcase more art in the show once I figure out what I'm doing. Go ahead and email me if you're interested in this.

 

LINK TO COMMENTS

[Ross Scott]

Thanks for the update Ross.

 

Can't wait for the movie! A few suggestions:

 

First, please create a twitter account, or use one you have (if you have it). It's an easy way to gain some visibility and an even better way to make some connections with other like-minded folks. Yeah yeah...twitter....but just think about how easy it'll be to keep your Adonis-like visage in the hearts and minds of your fans. Lets face it...that chest hair DEMANDS attention, it is like a beacon of awesomeness so why not share it with the world? Also, it'll be FAR easier for us, the fans, to advocate on your behalf and to hopefully get you in touch with people who can provide the assets/help/whatever you'd need.

 

Speaking of assets, i strongly encourage you to reach out to Polatarium, who is working on Shroud of the Avatar (Ultima!!!). The reason I suggest this is they do a fair amount of crowd-sourcing of assets they use in game. Perhaps they can get you in touch with some of that crowd who'd be likely to approve your use of said asset. Also, Richard Garriot/Starr Long are notorious for not only funding of smaller projects but truly believe in both an open dev philosophy and creative works done by those not in the 'industry'. In addition, they have done a fantastic job of crowd-funding, should you ever wish to take a step in that direction. They do a fair amount of interaction on social media so...you know....do that stuff? maybe?

 

Also, I might suggest trying to reach out to other folks in machinima, but also those who do game reviews and content-reviews online. I'm not thinking you do this to try to get them to plug your stuff, but rather to use for networking purposes as they DO have contacts at various studios who could perhaps lend you some assets/time/experience/grooming skills. And who knows, maybe you make some new fans etc.

 

I realize that the schmoozing aspect of this movie project is probably not high on your list. I mean, there's only so much conversation about bugs in your beans you can have right? Well... have you considered bringing on individuals who may be willing to do this for you? I know i'd volunteer time and energy to help try to bring people to you. or bring you to them?

 

The bottom line is that i'm sure, I, like many of us, want to see you succeed. Not just because we want a little ROI on those donations (ok who am I kidding, I didn't give you any money), but because we all want to be a part of what you do in any way we can.

 

Think about this for a moment if you will. Over the last...however many years you've been doing this, people have found hours and hours of entertainment in a space (machinima) that we know nothing about. We just like to have fun and watch some videos? I know zip about IV17, RGB or any of the stuff you mentioned towards the end of that video. But I do know that your fans likely have some crazy skills in other areas, and that would be happy to help you, for free, on their own time, because...well because our mundane lives can get boring. I know....who wants to ask for help? That shit can be tedious and probably will cause you some stress having to deal with people. People suck, i know.

 

Just know that if you'd call, we'd pick up the phone, and maybe only hang up on you one time out of five.

The reason I haven't used twitter is I already check the forums somewhat and email, and youtube comments to a lower extent. There's already more than I can keep track of, so adding on top of that isn't really a priority. That and the vast majority of my news posts are just announcing the videos, so the format of twitter doesn't really jump out at me.

 

I could check with Shroud of the Avatar, but my guess is companies will be much more willing to share assets AFTER production, sharing them beforehand just opens yourself up to a potential liability / leaks that they wouldn't have much incentive to do.

 

As for volunteers, I'd be fine with more people assisting, but honestly about 80% of people who offer to help I never hear from again once I ask them to do something small first. The flake out ratio can be so high that I have to weigh the pros and cons of getting help v. doing it myself much of the time.

 

I'm very happy that The Game Dungeon is continuing, though I'm slightly apprehensive about your wish to make it "more concise", as you say.

I basically want to avoid situations where what I'm talking about will appeal to a small minority of people and I'm essentially just abusing my ability to have a sort of soapbox. Polaris Snocross was pretty close to what I'm after. You can check the post of that for what I decided to leave out of it.

 

For the movie, I know you said you needed to get alot of technical stuff done first, but this is about the soundtrack. I could volunteer to do the soundtrack. You said it was a kind of medieval setting so I guess it'd need to be orchestral. I just finished a short orchestral demo track. I'll only put it up if you want me to.

You can always send me a demo. I actually have someone in mind who contacted me after the Strife video that really nailed the kind of mood I was after, but this project is going to be big enough to support multiple composers for sure. I am going to be somewhat merciless on what music I include however as that has a huge impact on the atmosphere.

 

I'm American and I've always thought "Accur-said", but Ross pronounces it "A-cursed" in this video and it shook up my world for a second

The dictionary says either is valid.

 

Yay! All of my questions have been answered!

 

As an idea, what if there was content created for Accursed Farms? More specifically, content generated by community members, but approved by Ross. It would free you to work on "This Movie" while still being able to keep the community invested.

 

For instance, Opposing Force and Blue Shift are time lines that occur at exactly the same time as Half-Life. Why not some community driven spin-offs? Not only would it give the community something to look forward to, but also to be involved with.

 

As an extra, you get some exposure to writers, editors, animators, and voice actors.

 

IT'S A WIN WIN!

I had a thought about that before, but my main concern is I'd rather avoid having to reject work that someone worked really hard on, but wasn't to my taste. Besides, Gorilla Gong is growing as a better avenue for that sort of thing, though the view boost is still small for now.

 

I'd like to echo what this gentlemen said in regards to GD. I much prefer your videos as is, or I suppose the way your most recent one, or any of your past ones are. If I wanted a pointless soundbite with no substance then there's plenty of other choices out there. Listening to someone who's not a shill, or sellout, and who's just as passionate about gaming as I am talk about games, or rage about the evilness of EA is exactly what I want to hear.

The biggest thing I think I'd like to do is make some of the episodes more thematic somehow, though that can drain a lot more time and only add a little bit to the production sometimes. I like how Angry Joe will sometimes have skits that tie in with the particular video game, but besides having limited production means, that's the sort of thing that could take up the time of 2 or more "normal" game dungeon episodes.

[throttledan]

I know this kinda goes under the "Raw Let's Plays" category, but I'd love to see Ross playing video games as Gordon Freeman. Basically the persona Ross created for Freeman in the Freeman's Mind series would be playing games like Portal or Shadow Warrior, or whatever Ross wants really. The key element and what differentiates this as an ordinary Let's Play is that Ross wouldn't break character while playing the game, Freeman is very much aware he's playing a game so this wouldn't be like Freeman Across the Universe. The thing I love about Freeman's Mind the most is just the Badass Commando Physicist character that Ross plays and I'd love to see more videos with him, even if they're unedited let's plays of other games. If you've heard of the Team Four Star series Two Saiyans Play it's a lot like that. TFS creators Lanipator and Takahata101 play their DBZ Abridged characters Vegeta and Nappa whilst playing a video game. This would lean more towards improve comedy so I understand your hesitation if you worry about the quality, but if you just pick a fast paced game where you always have stuff to react and think like your Gordon Freeman character I think it could be a really funny series. The Team Four Star guys' Two Saiyans Play series was so successful it has since spawned several other series where the guys play all sorts of game in character as one of the people from DBZ. Unless you feel this is too close to the Let's Play genre and have something fundamentally against the format I can't see why you wouldn't want to at least try it out and see what we think/how the video does in terms of popularity. Don't dismiss this idea just because you think your not that good at improv comedy, I don't think you give yourself enough credit, and like I said you could just try this out, as in play a game as Freeman for 15-30 minutes and upload the video and let us decide whether it's entertaining enough. Other than that good luck with the movie, and hey, if I can get better recording equipment I might just audition for a part.

 

I really like this idea, I can imaging Ross' Freeman character playing 90's video games while in college with a bunch of antics going on in the background as he's playing, like maybe he's playing Command and Conquer at a LAN party and Eddie sneaks over and releases a tarantula to crawl up the leg of his opponent or something. Even like a Game Dungeon review AS Freeman however old Freeman was in the HL universe relative to when that game came out and his feelings of how he feels about it at the time.

[dashofweak]

Also, one other thing i have to touch on is that I was shocked that this is how ross normally sounds, I in all honesty thought that he spoke like that only for his videos, but I guess the reality is that it's just his voice, and i like it. I'm sorry but i think ross has one of the best voices I have ever heard

[Lord Ornlu]

Hey Ross, good stuff. I'm excited about more Game Dungeon. Honestly though, I value it as much for it being a soapbox as much as it being a showcase of obscure games. That's just my opinion though.

 

As far as getting in touch with industry people about assets, I think one of the ways you can do it is to make yourself more visible to them through the wider internet community. An idea to do this would be to try contacting some of the bigger names in youtube to do some collaborative work with them. For example, Total Biscuit hosts a weekly show where they invite mostly let's-players to talk about video games. You could try appearing to something similar. Freeman's Mind isn't exactly an obscure Youtube series, so I'm sure you could find some people that could shine some more light on you and your other work. Anyway, good luck going forward. I'm excited to hear more about this movie of yours.