Well I know you guys like updates, so here’s what’s happening:

Progress is continuing steadily on The Tunnel, but it’s going slowly. To give you an idea of why things take so long, I did animation work on two scenes I though I was going to be able to complete in one night. The actual time ended up coming out to seven days. These weren’t especially complicated or complex scenes either, it’s just the nature of animating in the Source engine. The Source engine is such a convoluted means of animating scenes. Every little detail requires about 12 steps to complete. I’m often animating the scenes blind, meaning I don’t know what will happen until I compile a map. It involves crossover work between two programs where you can only make rough guesses on the timing and how everything interact, leading to a LOT of trial and error to get things to look right, and this is when everything is functioning smoothly with no bugs, which frequently doesn’t happen. The whole experience leaves me kind of bitter and I hope that at some point I can find a more efficient method of animating in the future, either on Source or something else. Most other engines I’m familiar with either don’t have good animation tools at all, or else suffer from a different set of problems and/or limitations.

I’m absolutely going to continue The Tunnel to completion, however I realize this is taking significantly longer than I hoped and there’s literally nothing I can do to speed it up. This is nothing new to the series, but since the fanbase is much larger than it used to be, I realize it’s frustrating more people than ever before, not just myself. On that note, I’m going back on what I said and will produce one more Freeman’s Mind episode, then go back to working on The Tunnel. I’ll try and make it a longer one, hopefully this will tide some of you over since Civil Protection is taking so long. I am giving no more time estimates for The Tunnel; I can’t, there’s too many variables. Freeman’s Mind is a much simpler affair however, I think I can safely say it will be done by next week.

This is going to be a long post because it’s a bit of a rant. If you want a quick update, the next Civil Protection episode is still a couple weeks off, so my new estimate is for mid-May. This is why I don’t like giving time estimates, they’re almost always wrong. I’ll resume work on Freeman’s Mind as soon as the animation and filming is done for the next CP episode.

Now my rant. I have bad news in that despite my best efforts to fight this policy, I can no longer use game soundtracks in any videos unless they’re from games by Valve. Every episode of Civil Protection and a few of Freeman’s Mind have been using music from other games. Even the theme song to Civil Protection is from Quake 3 Arena, so that’s out as well. This frustrates me for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is that to some extent I try to pick more obscure tracks people are less likely to have heard. For the most part, the music on most of my videos is NOT high-risk material for a copyright violation. I’ve included music from obscure games, very old games, games where the original developing company is now dead and the rights weren’t bought by anyone, games where at one point the soundtrack was released for free online by the game company itself, etc. Apparently none of this matters. Due mainly to Youtube’s paranoia about any DMCA violation, the rules have changed for submitting videos are much stricter regarding any music use. Any loophole I find (and have found) is basically irrelevant because it won’t change this policy any. Yes, I could theoretically not release through Youtube or Machinima.com, but that’s not really practical if I want to maintain a fanbase. Despite whatever you may think, views through Machinima.com and Youtube are ENORMOUS compared to any other distribution method for the medium. Rooster Teeth may be the only exception to this, but they have a contract with Microsoft and were one of the first groups on the scene.

Now you may wonder why this is such a big deal for me. The biggest reason is that I am a soundtrack FREAK. Probably half the music I have doesn’t even have words. Having listened to many, many soundtracks over the years, this makes it much easier for me to pick out the kind of music I’m looking for in a scene. In fact, many ideas I’ve had for videos come from listening to soundtrack music and trying to envision what sort of situation would fit that the best, then working a script around that. Also since I have listened to so much soundtrack music, I enjoy being able to share selections many people may not be familiar with. In the case of dead game companies and old, obscure games, I almost looked at including picks as a way or resurrecting some interest. While there are still many other things to fix and add with the website first, in the future I may even try to exploit the current fanbase and add a side section for people interested in old or obscure game soundtracks like myself. For those who don’t care about any of this, don’t worry, this is a low priority for me next to making more videos.

Another point some people may think is that it’s not unreasonable to ask me not to use other people’s composition work. I suppose not, but I have some gripes about the current legal system regarding this. The last thing I want to do is upset any of the composers who have created so much great music. If I ever received a request from composers not to use their music, I would never fight that. All the music I’ve used is with the intention of showcasing it because I think it’s great or ideal for the situation I want to use with it. I’ve credited the music I use in the videos I’ve created because I want people to know where it’s from and who did it. What I don’t like is that much of this music is likely doomed to obscurity due to complications with copyright law. I’ve written fan mails to several game music composers in the past. Everyone I contacted seemed flattered I enjoyed their music and was happy for people to listen to it. I think the situation for the vast majority of the music I was planning to use in future episodes was that the composers would be happy for me to use it, the game companies that aren’t dead would probably either not care or else would like the additional exposure on an old product, but there’s no legal precedent for any of this, so I can’t use it. I think very, very few game companies would be willing to respond to an inquiry about music use, let alone give an official ruling on it. Many composers I simply can’t track down any contact information for (Chuck Barth, I want the soundtrack to Rama!), so a lot of music is tied up legally when the reality is it’s unlikely anyone actually cares about it anymore (besides me). As much as I love lots of game soundtrack music and want to share it with others, it’s becoming apparent to me this is a losing battle.

Now there is some good news to all this. First, Craig Kesicke is an excellent composer who’s offered to continue making music for the videos I work on. He has a very wide range of styles, which is necessary, given my music tastes. Based on what he’s done for me so far (a lot of it’s unreleased), I anticipate him becoming the lead composer for future videos here. The second piece of good news is that for the one soundtrack I really, REALLY wanted to use for the next CP episode, I was able to contact the composer and got direct permission to use in the upcoming video. So with the kind of help I’m getting with the audio, it should end up very close to the mood I’m looking for.

As for the next CP episode, it’s still underway. Animation is going slowly and I’ve run into new bugs with the Source engine I’ve never seen before. Fortunately these new ones I’ve been able to work around and production is continuing. I realize this is going slowly, but no one wants to finish this episode more than myself. I’ll make an announcement when it’s closer to being finished.

Arr, I been hearin’ me some chatter regardin’ me speech on the last tale. It seems to me ye gobs been out at sea so long ye forgotten what the King’s English be soundin’ like. Arr, I suppose it best I be goin’ back to talkin’ in yer accent what ye can understand me proper. So here goes:

The subtitles for Episode 27 are now up on Youtube, which should shed some light on it for all you 21st century people. Also a handful of episodes are getting new subtitles posted, which will be up sometime in the near future; they’re being posted by Machinima.com on Youtube and a web admin for the site.

Viewers seem pretty polarized on the last episode. If you liked it, great. If you hated it, great. It was easily my favorite episode of Freeman’s Mind, though my accent could have been better, by far the most difficult part of it was trying to keep it consistent. I did break my own rule of reading some of the Youtube comments for that episode (which is something I’m never going to do again), and the wisdom of the masses there seemed to think I was going to release a “normal” episode 27. No, I’m not. The only reason I did a redo of episode 10.5 last year was because this is a continuous series and the main character DIED. I’m sure this has ruined the series for some of you, as we all know there are no other points in the game where Freeman fights soldiers again, but oh well.

I’ll be working on Civil Protection and taxes. I really cannot promise anything as far as CP, but it’s my goal to get the next episode out sometime this month.

Youtube

Download 672x384 WMV (52MB)

Arr mateys, here be a new tale for ye to gander at. This ought to quell yer squawkin’ fer a spell, though I knows thar be no pleasin’ some o’ thee. But consider this, I sez: If I were to tell the tale any faster, then I’d be done before me voyage was over and me crew would mutiny on me. Where would I be then, I asks?

Nay, I’d flog some sense into ye swabs if ye were aboard my ship, but thar be so many of thee me lashing arm would get tired long a’fore I were done. Arrr. Me own crew is a sight less ornery than yer lot. They serves me loyal even when our ship keep springin’ leaks as it oft do. Arr, we’ll steer her in to port soon enough and have wonders to show all.

May ye have fair winds and calm seas, unless ye be lookin’ to cross me crew, then may ye dies a most painful death what with yer innards spilled open and yer head on a pike.

-Cap’n Ross Scott

Youtube

Download 672x384 WMV (68MB)

Here’s the new episode of Freeman’s Mind. This one isn’t the most interesting since it’s mainly just backtracking through the level, however I promise the one after this will be more exciting. I did record new intro footage, however it’s not quite as elaborate as I wanted. I wanted to add scientists doing things, but it turns out recompiling the exact same maps from Half-Life Source causes mysterious lighting glitches, so I doubt I’ll be editing the maps to HL Source anytime soon. I’ll still try and swap out new introductions every so often.

After I finish the next episode, my plans are to work exclusively on the next Civil Protection and not do anything else until it’s done (unless I run into a new show-stopping bug). That episode has been delayed for about 2.5 years now, so I’m going a little batty having it still uncompleted.

If you’ve written to me and still haven’t gotten a response, I have about 150 emails I still need to respond to, so be patient. However, I’ve stopped replying to emails that have atrocious grammar, are asking me questions answered in the FAQ, or are asking questions that can be answered with five minutes spent looking up the answer on a search engine. If your email doesn’t fall into those categories, you’ll probably get a response eventually. I appreciate people’s interest, but I’m focusing more on getting more videos out right now.