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Here’s the next episode of Freeman’s Mind. It’s the longest episode of FM so far, not because I planned it that way, but because that’s the only area I found a good jumping off spot. This one is pretty average. I think the next one will be better, there will be more to interact with.

This episode took longer than I anticipated. If I hadn’t done these last few episodes and if the website didn’t keep getting hacked, I might be done with the next Civil Protection episode by now, or at least the animation work. As for the website, the new version will almost certainly launch this week. It won’t be in a final state by any means, but it should retain similar functionality as this one and hopefully be more secure.

Since focusing on several different things tends to slow me down, there will be NO MORE FREEMAN’S MIND until I’m done with the animation work on Civil Protection. I don’t care how many people this pisses off, I want to finish it. The amount of time this episode has taken has become a real thorn in my side. You’ll also be wasting your time asking for release dates, I don’t know them either. I’ll make an update once the animation work is done however.

Hey people, while I’m still working on the videos, it looks like an interview I did a week or two ago from PC Gamer has gone up. I’ve been intentionally trying to postpone all interviews until I’m done with the next CP episode, but I was willing to make an exception for PC Gamer, since I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be interviewed by. They title this as me being a “hero” of the PC gaming community, which I think is really reaching. I haven’t made any games, I haven’t finished Freeman’s Mind, and I haven’t gotten to my best ideas produced by any means. I am an avid PC gamer however (or used to be back when I had free time anyway), and I plan to keep making lots of videos in the machinima medium regardless of what happens. Anyway, feel free to check out the interview here:

PC Gamer interview

On a side note, I asked a question of the interviewer that I never received a reply to, that maybe you guys can help out with. I have an interest in older games and would like to read old issues of PC Gamer. If you want to view an issue of PC Gamer that’s a few years old however, you’re out of luck. A companion magazine, Maximum PC, has put up all of their old issues online as a pdf archive and on Google Books. I’d like to see PC Gamer do something similar, maybe if you guys bombard them with requests it might happen. I think I found their contact information here if you want to email them. Alternately, if anyone wanted to mail me old issues of the magazine, I wouldn’t object.

EDIT:

The interviewer ended up emailing me back, he was away on a trip. It’s probably still worth asking them about the back issues however.

EDIT 2:

The dialogue for the next FM episode was completed on Monday, but the sound editing is going to take longer than usual for this episode.

EDIT 3:

I’ve uploaded the finished FM episode to Machinima.com. It will appear on their Youtube channel first, but I have no idea when. If you spot it go up and I haven’t made a post on it yet, feel free to email me.

Here’s what’s going on, separated into different topics:

WEBSITE:

I’m actually not entirely sure what the status is on the new website, but I think we’re getting close. Currently two people are working on it, with another person on standby. I was told on July 1st the site would be up by next Friday, then by another person that the site would be ready last week, then in two days from past Thursday, then on 2pm Saturday, now maybe tomorrow, etc. So you can see, the people working on this are as good at time estimates as I am with my own videos. I consider the fact that I keep getting flawed estimates a positive thing because it implies progress. Also I have seen some mockup designs, though nothing quite functional as this yet.

When the site launches (any day now maybe), it will NOT be in a final state at all, but should be functional enough to navigate and get to the videos. Later improvements will be added as they’re worked on. While there are many features I’d like to eventually have, right now the main goal is to get something working that’s about as functional, but more secure than what’s here right now. Later on, you can expect a forum, video extras, more subtitles, more polished design, etc.

CIVIL PROTECTION:

I’ve been working on the next episode every day and making steady progress. I’m absolutely going to finish the animation work this month, which is about 90-95% of the work involved with making an episode. I’ve had one animator bail on me, which has increased the workload and may make a couple scenes less polished, but I’m going to keep moving forward with backup methods to accomplish certain scenes that may not look as good, but will still allow the episode to get made. I’m very eager to get this episode done. Once the animation work is done, I’m making no promises as to how long the editing will take, as that will involve other people for sound and music. Also in the past, editing is one area that I’ve rushed in before, and considering how much time has aleady gone into this, I’d like to get this episode done properly as opposed to getting it done a day or two sooner.

FREEMAN’S MIND:

I seem to be getting pressure on all sides to get another FM episode out, which seems to happen whenever I devote time to Civil Protection and make real progress. While I’m tempted to say the hell with everyone and keep working on CP (especially since I’m going to have a flood of FM episodes afterwards), I’ve decided to do another appeasement episode. I’ll be starting on that today, so take your best guess as to when the episode will be done. I hate giving estimates, because they’re always wrong, which causes people to be more upset than if I said nothing at all.

Once I’m done with the animation work for the next CP episode, I’ll continue making more FM episodes while I go back and forth between that and recording/editing for CP. Once the next CP episode is released, you can expect many more FM episodes, probably a dozen or two before the end of the year. While things could easily change, I’m estimating I might be able to finish the series for Half-Life 1 by sometime in Q1 2011.

EMAIL:

I’m behind on responding to emails and currently have about 150 to write replies to. However, if you’re asking me questions that are answered in the FAQ or just want to know when the next episode will be out, you probably won’t get a response.

Hey people, here’s an update on things:

If you’re just tuning in, the site was hacked about a week ago, but it’s slowly coming under control. The security has since been semi-patched to hopefully last a few more days while the site revamp is underway. Since the site is slightly more secure than it was, I’ve gone and replaced the old posts. The new site will have completely different code and be able to support many features. It will have a Wordpress base, which will make posting and commenting easier (especially on my end), and I’ve been assured there are ample plugins and coding options to make the new site retain similar functionality as this one.

My apologies to everyone who’s emailed me about the site that I haven’t replied to yet. I received so many emails it’s a bit overwhelming. I’m not a born manager, so when I’m brainstorming about the best way to go about fixing a problem and receive a couple dozen offers by email, it can be tricky for me to determine who is reliable and competent and who potentially has brain damage. It’s like trying to hire someone for a job you don’t even know how to do yourself. I suspect that’s how many managers operate in the corporate world however.

Right now someone with a ton of experience is working on programming the backend for the site, with another on design, however I do want to incorporate more people as needed and have more people on “standby” in case we run into any problems. If you have a lot of of Wordpress or theme design experience, feel free to send me another email just so I don’t accidentally miss you in my sea of messages. In the future, I don’t want the site to stagnate for months on end like it has because any one person becomes too busy to work on it.

As for the new website, upon launch it will have the ability to browse all old posts and the ability to stay logged in. You will probably have to re-register your screennames (not yet), but all your old comments will be preserved. There are many features planned for down the line, but I don’t want to overextend things yet. There are a couple things I would like your feedback on. First it’s possible that once we reach a certain point, we could post the site as-is, in “beta” form so you could see development and changes on it as it happens. If this is something you might be interested in, let me know, otherwise, we’ll wait until it’s launch-ready. Also I wanted to ask how much interest there is for having an official forum here. I’ve tried this in the past, but to be blunt, I simply won’t have enough time to browse all the posts, so it will be there more for you to talk to each other about the videos or whatever rather than a direct line of communication (email is still the best method for that, if slow). If there’s still enough interest, we can look into what it would take to get a functional forum for the new site as well.

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In video news, the lead sound editor’s computer (Otto Beumelburg) has died on him and he cannot currently work on much. Otto saves me untold hours of time and does at least as good a job as I would with sound editing, so I’m going to just keep working on other areas until he’s able to get his computer fixed. Also while this will probably disappoint most of you, I’m choosing to continue working on Civil Protection over Freeman’s Mind, since I’m currently very driven to get the animation work completed on it. I promise you’ll get a bunch of FM episodes once I’m done with the episode however, you can expect at least a dozen or two more before the end of the year.

As I’m sure you know, this website has needed help for a long time, the guy who created it has basically had to abandon it and I don’t know about web programming. Somebody took over to make a mockup, but that’s been in limbo as well. Crap like this sets me back so I have less time to put into the episode. How about emailing me about what can be done to fix up the site? As far as your cred goes, hacking this site is the equivalent of beating up a homeless guy in the alley. I’m sure there’s better and more deserving targets.

TO VIEWERS:

I’m not deleting the hacker’s posts, because I think it would be an unwise move to act like this didn’t happen and would provoke further action from him. Also I don’t know how to disable the music, I’ll try and have that fixed when I can.

In the meantime, the website revamp has now taken full priority for obvious reasons. I’ll keep working on the episodes since I’m not the one who will be doing the actual programming, but there’s a lot to coordinate, so this will eat into my time.

EDIT:

Thanks to those who sent me the old news posts. Work is underway getting the site revised and hopefully non-hackable in the future.