September Box Peek Update (Patreon)

Happy October! Awooo! First off, I can finally announce the Box Peek Season 1 premiere dates.

Episode 1 - Friday, October 26th at 1pm ET/10am PT
Episode 2 - Monday, October 29th at 1pm ET/10am PT
Episode 3 - Monday, November 5th at 1pm ET/10am PT
Episode 4 - Monday, November 12th at 1pm ET/10am PT
Episode 5 - Monday, November 19th at 1pm ET/10am PT

At the same time these videos go live on YouTube, each episode will also premiere on Twitch, followed by a live Q&A with yours truly. At this time I can't imagine cutting together a highly-narrated Behind the Scenes video once this is all done, so this might be the best I can offer. I'll bring props and drawings.

I'm planning to cut a trailer that will premiere on Tuesday, October 23rd during our group stream. Hopefully it will communicate the information above simply. I've actually done an audio cut of this already because I have a song I really like, but I think I might trash it for something tonally closer to Box Peek. I got a few weeks.

Production Update:
Episode 5's edit isn't done yet but should be by the week's end. From there I have a lot of tinkering I'll be doing to the rest of the episodes. For instance, I still haven't settled on what the Peekref voice should sound like and I've been trying different audio effects out between episodes. It's time to commit. Another thing I've been putting off for a long time is shooting the episode title cards, and like much of Box Peek I'm not sure the idea I have will actually work.
Editing a trailer is tough because there's so much I don't want to show yet but it would also be very boring if it's just scenes from the episode that's already available online today. Part of me wants to shoot original scenes but that could easily turn into another month of work. I have a couple of ideas, but really I want this to come last after I have 5 solid episode edits that I'm proud of.

Behind the Scenes Thoughts:
I'm nervous! An annoying part of this series' long run of delays is that maybe it inherently builds up a level of anticipation that this small-scale project was never meant to reach. I spend a lot of time thinking about what the audience will think. I mean part of that is important. It's like when you're telling jokes, there's this balance of not being so obvious that your audience sees the punchline coming (or worse--is just bored) but also not thinking too many steps ahead/sideways to humor that nobody gets. You want to have these check-ins to make sure everyone is with you at every point along the way. It's also like in game design, when you don't want to give players all the cool special moves at once since it could be intimidating, but you also have to roll them out quickly and consistently enough to keep from becoming boring.
But also I think a lot about the criticisms the audience will have. It's like reading the comments before they're written. Beyond "the audio sucks", "he clearly shook the table there", and "whoa that edit is so amateur bro" I'm mostly concerned about people getting bored.
Throughout this year I've shifted around on how big of an event I want Box Peek's launch to be. For a time I figured that since I'm putting so much time into this that it should be a huge freakin' deal when the show rolls out. Right now I'd almost prefer to keep it low-key. I think of how Concrete Genie was the only new game announced at last year's PSX and this poor game was thrust onto a live stage with larger expectations than it was ever designed to fulfill. That might be Box Peek.
The Behind the Scenes part of these posts are usually technical, so I'll try to come back around to it: I think all of these thoughts tie directly into the trailer. When I sit down to plan it out, I'll have to keep the following things in mind:
- Does it communicate the premiere information clearly?
- Is it entertaining?
- Does it disrupt my intended flow? (I guess Spoiling Stuff goes here too)
- Is it making Box Peek a bigger deal than it needs to be?
- Is the song cool?
It's nuts. It's a lot to think about, and honestly I think I think too much about it. Podcasts, live streams, and reactions can be so freeing because I'm never locked into this over-consideration, but at the same time I find Box Peek, sloppy and silly as it is, more gratifying to produce than anything else.

Alright it's about 7am and it's clear I'm losing the plot here. (Lately I've been trying to harness my nocturnal powers, to mixed results) I will make another post for the Season 1 trailer and keep you up on any forthcoming details, and then of course we'll have an eventful monthly update at the end of this month.

Thank you again for your patience and support.

Love & Respect,
Kyle