Update: 25/11/17 - Writer's Block & Art (Patreon)

So it's been a while since I did an update post and this one today is a little different as there's not much to say on the video front because not much progress has been made on stuff just yet.

I do feel shitty for saying that given the whole point of what I do on here is to show you guys what I'm up to on the video making front, and obviously your pledges will help out towards the next reviews when they happen, but I'm just not sure when exactly that will be at the moment.

There's a few reasons for this, the main ones being a serious lack of creative drive and the other, inevitable one of needing to take time to focus on some thing in, for lack of a better term "the real world".

The lack of motivation came from having made 3 videos in October and basically having all 3 of them do nowhere near as well as other videos have done in the months before it. Little Nightmares in particular was a major flop, talking around 4-5 days to reach 100 views.

The other thing that I feeling of things were starting to become a bit stale, as those 3 videos in October were all the fairly simple "talk to the camera and review a game" style of video.

These are fine, and sometimes it's all that's needed, but I guess putting myself under an unnecessary time constraint held back some ideas I would have otherwise implemented, and in hindsight have left me feeling pretty unhappy with them.

As for the real world stuff... It's nothing serious, and nothing bad but as much as I like making videos and other content... it's all a huge distraction from stuff I need to be doing so I better get cracking on that come the new year.

It's actually part of the reason I scrapped "Jakuary" as I really couldn't be doing with another 3-videos-in-one-month situation whilst trying to juggle that stuff on top.

So since then I've been in a bit of a rut when it comes to video making, and I've been focusing on some other things to keep myself occupied and keep the creative thoughts rolling.

If you follow me on Twitter then you're probably aware I've undertaken a somewhat ambitious art project, of drawing some other talented content creators and handing these drawings out over the course of December as a Christmas present (of sorts) to each of them.

It's nothing video related, per se but it's a round 2 of something I attempted to do last year, but with much nicer looking results this time as I'm able to do everything on my PC with a proper graphics tablet this time around.

I don't want to say there's an ulterior motive as such, but if these prove to be popular enough... I may think about adding these as a secondary reward tier over here on Patreon, or offering them as commission pieces to those who would want one, perhaps.

THE VIDEOS...

This is where things get a little spread out, unfortunately.

At this present moment I currently have 2 potential videos lines up, neither of which are game reviews.

The first one is a Behind the Scenes video.

This will be all about the general creative process behind making a Petronious video, going over things like what software and equipment I use, to where my inspiration comes from, and other bits of stuff that never made it into the final versions of my videos of 2017.

The second one is a list of other games I played this year, but didn't get round to reviewing.

This will be the first list video I've done since E3 2016, and it's fairly self explanatory. I'll be quickly going over a bunch of other games I've played this year but not had time to mention on the channel.

My main catch is not all of the games I'll bring up were RELEASED this year. I just have to have played them for the first time this year,

Looking at the ones I've played, most will be sort of recent-ish games (Yooka-Laylee, Uncharted: Lost Legacy etc) but there's a few I just never got round to playing until this year that are otherwise fairly old news.

I may bring a couple of games in this list I did already talk about this year, but they will only be very short mentions. There's no point re-treading old ground, after all!

Given the current timing of things, the Behind the Scenes video might get pushed back into early next year as ideally I'd want to talk about the other games before the end of the year!

REVIEWS...

Beyond those two videos, Reviews are not necessarily on hiatus, but given how frequent my uploading has been throughout this year... what comes next is doing to be noticeably less frequent content in terms of uploads.

Which incidentally is the other reason I scrapped "Jakuary". I felt it best to leave the new year more open rather than surprise everyone with lots of content and THEN suddenly go quiet...

For the reviews in particular I'll be taking my time with writing them to ensure I have a reason to justify doing the videos other than "maybe I should review this".

I don't want to say exactly which ones, but there's games I've been thinking about a lot which I've got ideas for some storytelling I could incorporate into the review to almost narratively justify bringing them up.

And as I like to think of myself as an amateur filmmaker of sorts, these ideas also involve me being a bit more dynamic with my camera angles, editing and use of sound effects. Just thinking about them is kind of exciting to be honest!

However, I understand ideas mean nothing when they're spoken about so vaugley, as at the moment these are just ideas on paper...

As such, I have to stress it is totally fine if anyone decides to lower pledges, or even outright back away from this Patreon Page in the mean time.

I don't want to be one of those guys that takes money and delivers nothing, but should anyone stick with me I can assure you any and all pledges will go directly into props, equipment and whatever else might be needed for these eventual reviews.

It's humbling to know a few of you enjoy and believe in whatever it is I'm doing here on Patreon and YouTube enough to support me at all, really.

So again, if you do decide to back away from all of this due to a slower upload schedule than the one that was in place when you first signed up, I totally understand and there's no hard feelings on my part :)

Regardless of what you decide to do, just know that a handful of videos have happened, and will be happening thanks to your pledges so far.

As recently as 3 days ago I piled together some pledge money with some of the money from YouTube to buy a weird platformer on eBay I've wanted to play for years, and it's my intention to review it next year if I can!

So far that's Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, as well as two other games I've yet to discuss that I've found for cheap on eBay and bought from combining pledges and ad revenue.

A big thanks to all of you for helping with those!

Depending on how long all of this this goes on for I may alter the Patreon Page to a "per creation" page, that way you can still access the blog and have the discord server role, but not have anything paid out until I actually get round to making these reviews again, as it's only fair.

In the mean time, it's down to you guys how you feel about what you currently pledge. I just don't want to come across as some sort of scammer or e-begger, so just know I'm keeping alternate things in mind to prevent anything coming across that way.

Depending on how long this goes on for I may make a YouTube video going over everything I've just written and give a little context to some of the real world things I've been a bit vague about here.

But rest assured, I'm still here doing things! Just at a slower pace than I have been for the majority of 2017.

I hope everyone is well, and seriously, thanks to all of you for pledging what you have this last year. It will all come in useful in the future, especially given there's two games you guys straight up helped to fund me getting my hands on.

I'll be back on here as and when I can but of course, I'm always around on Discord and Twitter, and there's that Patreon exclusive room in the Petronious Discord Server if you ever wanna chat about stuff like this!

Thanks for reading, and a bigger thanks for your support!

- Pete