Youtube

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Here’s the “mystery episode” that was alluded to in the progress bar. I’m sure some of you predicted this, hopefully no one’s expectations were ruined too badly. I thought about doing a training course episode before, but parts of it conflict with how I’ve been playing through the game, trying to make it seem more realistic. This episode is a compromise between not doing it and going through the whole thing. I’ve been informed after the fact that the creator of “Barney’s Mind” did the exact same thing of showing the training course after being unconscious, but it was just a coincidence on my part. When I originally created Freeman’s Mind I received a few emails from people who told me they were thinking of doing or had done the exact same thing, so I guess coincidences are inevitable.

I’m going to try and keep up Freeman’s Mind on a weekly rate for a while, but I eventually may slow it down some as I don’t want to neglect Civil Protection either. In either event, I don’t think I’ll have situations again soon where I go months at a time without a release. At least not until FM is done anyway.

EDIT:

It looks like the video was darkened again for Youtube and uploaded at 1280x720 again, despite the source being requested at 640x360. Ah well, the downloadable copy will look correct once I encode it.

Hey everyone, here’s a link to a group Q&A session I did a week or two ago with people creating “mind” series for other games with mostly silent protagonists, of which there are many. I was invited to it directly after the caboos15 interview and since “The Tunnel” has been completed for a while now, I don’t mind doing PR stuff again. It’s a long discussion session and I don’t remember everything that was said while recording or before/after, but you’re welcome to check it out:

Youtube

Youtube

Download 672x384 WMV (57MB)
 

This episode is a bit of a milestone in the game. If you haven’t played Half-Life already, you’ll find out why. It’s also one of the shorter episodes. This is because I split them when there’s a good stopping point, and it doesn’t get much more obvious than this one. It’s been proposed before that I switch over to the Black Mesa mod after this episode, but since that’s not out yet, I’ll just continue with regular half-life. You can expect something a little different for the next video as a kind of intermission after this one.

Youtube

Download 672x384 WMV (86MB)

 

Freeman’s Mind continues with a new episode. I’m mostly happy with this one, though it becomes difficult for me to tell what’s good or not the more of these I do. I’ll continue to update the progress chart, though I may forget some days.

This episode got delayed for release more than most. This is part of the reason I never like to give release dates, I never know them myself. Machinima.com works in mysterious ways. The progress chart on the right will tell you at least what’s been completed.

The brightness / contrast levels seem to be off in this episode on the Youtube version. The downloadable copy will have the original game light levels once it goes up. Also the resolution is being reported at 1280x720 on youtube, which is incorrect. I was told to submit it at 640x360 for Youtube. The original footage is now recorded at 848x480. Going to HD resolution really isn’t worth the slowdown in processing for me for Freeman’s Mind, since this is just Half-Life, there’s not much to show off visually. I plan on releasing copies of all the videos at original resolution and with higher quality codecs/formats in the future, it’s just something I haven’t gotten around to yet. That and some people appreciate smaller copies to download. So the current 672x384 WMV copies are just a temporary compromise between higher quality, lower size, and player compatibility.

You can look forward to more videos coming one way or another.

Well the site has now been set up to accept donations. The link is at the top of the page where you can donate money if you feel so inclined and/or read my thoughts regarding donations in general. I’d like to stress that I added this at the repeated requests of some of the viewers. I’ll continue making videos as long as I’m able to and I’ll never hold them “hostage” in exchange for more money. If you never donate anything, that’s fine, you’ll keep getting videos. I’m happy to have as many people interested in watching the videos as I do.

One thing I would like viewer feedback from is I’d like to do something extra for people who donate if possible, but I’m not sure what sort of things people would like. If you have ideas of little things donators might appreciate, go ahead and post them in the forums.