Hey everyone, I have TWO Christmas surprises coming! Here is the first one:

This is an “outtake” from the Christmas episode for Civil Protection. I meant to release this years ago, but hadn’t gotten to around it. While I’ve dealt with countless bugs with the Source engine, this is the only one that was actually entertaining to watch. I was so surprised by it at the time I recorded a quick videoclip of it here. What’s interesting is you can see Mike’s head still tracking the location of the cameraman. You might think this bug is the result of me doing something wrong or experimental, but no. I was giving it basic instructions and the engine just decided to do whatever the hell it wanted. While Civil Protection could return eventually, scenes like this are one of hundreds of reasons I’m abandoning the Source engine for future projects.

Anyway, I’m still working on the second part of the Christmas surprise. It should hopefully be out sometime later today!

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ADHD version: Outtake from Civil Protection! Another surprise coming later today!

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Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

Subtitles: English

More Freeman’s Mind! This episode, like many others, is pretty much more of the same, except in an alien universe. This area of the game might be my favorite in terms of the color and lighting. As a bit of a spoiler (watch the video first if you don’t want to read it) I am disappointed the conveyor belt was unable to kill the controller. In one practice playthrough I got the barrel to shove it out of the room entirely. I’m not sure if the physics can kill it or not. I don’t have a lot else to say about this episode except I was quite satisfied with the explosion sound quality.

I’m currently behind on reading comments and VERY behind on giving proper replies to donators and general emails. The same goes for updating a lot of the website links + adding video downloads. My plan is to catch up on all that after the episodes are over. I have seen some comments of people who suspect the bet was a ruse and this is done already, I promise it is not. While I was able to push ahead on a lot on the voicework, I’m going to be extremely busy between now and when I finish FM. I’m quite confident I’ll make it, though I have some special stuff planned for the last episode, so it’s going to take longer. More videos coming!

LINK TO COMMENTS

Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

Freeman’s Mind returns! This episode was almost a break compared to some of the others, since the screaming ratio was much lower than the past few episodes of Xen. Because of that, I anticipate people may not like it as much, there’s usually a correlation between popularity of the episode v. how much screaming occurs. Also, some may be disappointed that this level does not play out quite the way it normally does. I don’t know why this is, but I tried recording it 3 times and it was the same each time. Normally one of the tentacle monsters emerges and there is a flier overhead, but it simply did not trigger for me. So for those that notice their absence, it’s nothing intentional on my part. Speaking of tentacle monsters, while practicing the level, I actually manage to blow up and kill one of the tentacles, which uprooted it out of the ground and caused it to flip upside down. I wish I had been recording a demo when it happened, as I absolutely would have put it into the video if I had. I have not been able to recreate the event however. More episodes are coming, though the only deadline I’m promising is still completion before the end of the year.

LINK TO COMMENTS

Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

More Freeman’s Mind! I originally thought this would be a faster episode, but while recording the demo, I discovered an area I never even knew existed, which I think was the intended way to finish this level. As many people know, you can simply jump in the pits as a shortcut, but that’s trickier to pull off. In terms of the atmosphere, I think this has some of the best level design in the game; I like the claustrophobic feel contrasted with the open area, all of which manages to make the level seem bigger than it is. There’s not too much else in the way of news. Right now for me every day is Freeman day. More episodes coming!

LINK TO COMMENTS

Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

Subtitles: English

Here is one of the most climatic episodes from Half-Life! I actually couldn’t remember how to beat this level initially and had to look it up. I’ve never been a fan of “bullet sponge” enemies in games unless they LOOK like they can take an incredible amount of punishment. This is the reason I’ve often tweaked the damage settings in Half-Life, since I’m used to organic things dying relatively quickly against modern military equipment, even if they’re big. That approach just simply wasn’t doable for this episode, so you get to see more of the normal game experience. I also ran into a bug where the boss just didn’t want to move and was in an invincible state, that took some tricks to get working. This episode also has two continuity errors that I’m aware of. One I left in for the hell of it, the other would have been nothing short of a nightmare to try and fix. You can probably spot them if you look for them.

“General Cornwaffle” put a bunch of effort into the sound effects for this one since it’s such a pivotal point in the game and this was an all-day job for volume balancing on my end, so it should hopefully sound pretty good. I’m anticipating we may lean a little more on the default side of the sound effects for the next few episodes, but we’ll see. More episodes coming as soon as they’re done!

EDIT:
I’ve seen some continued skepticism that I won’t get through Freeman’s Mind before the end of the year. I’ve mentioned this in the forums, but anyone is free to bet against me if you think I won’t make it. Just use the Donation Page and put in the Paypal subject that it’s a bet. If I don’t make the deadline, I’ll double your wager.

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS