BTS - Destruction Debry Retrospective (163) (Patreon)

G'day everyone, sorry I'm a little late to get this one out. Had a super busy October and then got sick and haven't been in the headspace. But we're here now, one of my all time favourite and most proud videos on the channel: The Full History of Destruction Derby! Let's get into the making-of!

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How did this video come to be?
Destruction Derby is a franchise that I've wanted to cover for the longest time, since I started reviewing games. Mostly as an excuse to experience the games I missed such as RAW and ARENAS but I just never got around to it. At one time there was discussion of it being a collaborative series of episodes featuring ColourShedProductions who is well known for racing games. That never went beyond a "hey we should do that sometime" so after moving, I found myself really in the mood to play these types of racing games!

The concept of doing a Full History allowed me to get into multiple games that I thought would underperform on their own as standalone episodes given there isn't a lot to say on them individually vs. as a franchise. (jokes on me, this almost hour long video underperformed anyway 🙃). Learning from ELR and Hawktober, I've had my best success on the channel with larger in-depth retrospective work so covering the full history of a series is something I wanted to try as a potential for future videos.

NEW CAMERA!!!
This was the FIRST EPISOSDE filmed with my new camera, the Panasonic Lumix GH5! Now with the default 25mm prime lens I got with it, the biggest drawback for me was that I need the camera well back to be able to fit myself and a natural amount of background into the frame. This led to a great opportunity to experiment with my new space to try a different angle. So for a more formal retrospective, I presented the video from my desk which allowed for fun cutaways to the couch to demonstrate play for some jokes. With the addition of hard red mood lights to fit with the destruction theme, this is no doubt one of the best looking videos on the channel to date!

Playing the games!
This has got to be one of the most enjoyable times I've had playing games for a video. My partner Donnie is also a fan of racing games so this was something we could do together, share the duties and really develop an opinion on each game. That helped me be as analytical as possible for this, but it also opened my eyes to many alternatives that I'd not heard of prior.
The original concept for the video was to explore destruction physics with cars in video games, using the Destruction Derby games as a foundation/timeline for it's evolution. This is what led to many alternatives to be featured, as that is something I began exploring long ago at the earliest stages of my game collecting back in the day. Donnie introduced me to the Motorstorm games which I'd never even heard of and is now a completed series on my shelf for future indulgence!

LOGO TIME hell yeah!
This series has some of the most visually appealing and diverse set of logos despite them all being crumpled metal junk. Rather than simply doing one, I wanted them ALL included so opted to break up the video into chapters which each introduced with a new logo.

The first huge step was to source all of the correct fonts that would be used, or at least as close to the originals as possible. Most of these were honestly simple: written text with some effects on top but the first and final games by far had the most interesting to work on, so those I captured for you!

The first game no doubt has the most complex design with the text being constructed out of junkyard pieces. To achieve this I found some scrap metal images to use as a texture in conjunction with some light shadow and emboss effects to help it look a little more 3 dimensional. I could have crafted the entire thing piece by piece but that method can get ugly VERY quickly and it's also a time burner. I'm super happy with the final result, however for a clear thumbnail to bank on recognizability, I went with the Destruction Derby 2 font as in my opinion, that would be the most well known game.

The logo for Arenas is fun as it's on a bent and battered license plate. This was fun to re-create starting off with a basic shape as the foundation, getting the colours and minute 3d embossed look correct first. Then using the liquify tool in Photoshop, I simply dragged it into the bent shape. The final step was a layer of rough metal underneath and then using a rough brush to add scuffs and paint scratches. Simple but I had a great time on this one.

As a complete set of logos, it's without question one of my personal favourites. Hawktober will probably always win but this is a close second in my opinion. What do you think???

Some behind the scenes fun!
One of the best gags in the episode is when I carry the CRT to a friends house to system link PS1 systems, I just love the visual of me carrying this big honking TV down the street. (shoutout to all the nerds like myself who did take TVs to friends houses to game on together)! It's a nice callback to a foregone era that's relatable. So yeah we legit took the damn thing to a park and filmed. One take, nobody around and then get THE HELL outta there before drawing a crowd! 😅
For those who didn't get the immediate reference, one of the most popular bits from any of my videos is the "asshole moving the TV while playing Pro Skater" from the Tony Hawk's Motion episode. This TV man... given us some great moments! 

For the shot after this showing 2 PS1 systems running the game side by side had to be faked unfortunately. I do actually own the PS1 link cable and Donnie has 2 original PS1 systems but they don't work unfortunately. I was able to use them to show a breakdown of how setup actually works but to show it in action was a WHOLE ordeal. Short version: my flat screen simply had my computer displaying previously recorded gameplay running. The CRT had a 3rd PS1 setup behind it legitimately plugged in, which I was controlling off screen to give the illusion that both games were synced together. I'm sure anyone halfway familiar would notice it wasn't legit but it looked good in the final product. I also shot alternate angles of the game case which I only have one of, to appear as though there was more than one in the room. A BIG EFFORT for such a small part of the video but it's stuff like this that really helped me feel like I was back to my old tricks again after so long!

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That's a WRAP!
As you can see, a lot of little things went into this episode compared to some other standard videos I've made recently. For me personally, I love that this felt like a bigger production with the fancy camera and lighting, so many additional cutaway shots and presented in an almost documentary fashion. I've very happy with this one. It's a shame the video didn't do great even by my channel's averages but oh well, we're still healing from the past few chaotic years so that's ok.

Anyway let me know what you thought of the episode, hopefully this was a good look behind the curtain and until next time, I hope you all have a great fucking day. Cheers guys! Next time will be the Hawktober 2022 BTS post so stay tuned!