November 2021 Report (Patreon)

Happy December! Alright, actually quite a bit of things and updates happened in the past month. You might have seen bits and pieces, but I figured I'd consolidate them all into this month's report!

Personal updates...

For those who missed it, yes, I've begun working full-time! It isn't the most dreamiest job, but it should be a nice start. This should mean that I'm able to start working more on YouTube on the side during my downtime, but I'll still be exploring different avenues like art commissions or even additional freelance work. In the meantime, securing a job that's even just slightly related to the stuff I like doing is good news for me, so even though my 'free time' might be cut down a bit, I should be a lot more comfortable working on more things for YouTube now. Speaking of which...

YouTube updates!

Considering it's been a while since my last core video, I've been planning on giving my channel a small refresh when I return to them, including updating my intro, commissioning new logos for series such as Things of Interest, and perhaps other things as well! I'm in talks with some folks to make that happen, so stay tuned.Alongside these refreshes, as I mentioned in last month's report, I've rebranded my second channel to Akfamilyhome Plus, hosting a slew of new unscripted content for all patrons! Hopefully you've been enjoying the topics so far and I look forward to making more of them. Current upcoming topics include the official Chinese Mario 64 strategy guide and a look at the Hong Kong version of the Famicom! To see all the previous releases, you can sort my Patreon posts by the 'Akfamilyhome Plus' tag.And now, updates on my next main channel video...

Ranking every unique level gimmick in New Super Mario Bros.

That might not be the final name of the video, but it is the gist of what I'm working on! New Super Mario Bros. is a way more unique entry in the series than people give it credit for, and as someone who's both a Mario fan and someone who's interested in level design, I find this to be a very fun topic to discuss. I put together a tier list template and everything!

Don't worry I'm not gonna spoil all the surprises lol

This video will be coming out before the end of the year, and to be honest, this could very well end up being a core video, I guess depending on how much jokes I write into it! (I originally wanted to work on this as a 'smaller topic' since I'd mostly only have to record game footage, but then I end up writing multiple on-camera gags into the script anyway. :p) The definition of 'core video' isn't too clear cut either way, but this topic definitely fits that title, so who knows!

Recent pickups!

Last but not least, I figured I'd talk a bit about my recent pickups once again! Some things I pick up for my own collection might not warrant full main channel videos, so they could make for fun second channel subjects in the future, or maybe I can just give my quick impressions of them here!

As I mentioned, I picked up a Hong Kong Famicom, complete with most of the original box contents including the instruction manual! There are slight external differences between this and the original version, and I'll be taking a deep dive into them in a future AK Plus video as most of them have not been closely detailed before. (including a flip through of the manual!)

I recently unboxed the Hori Split Pad Pro live in a Discord livestream and gave my quick first impressions of it! I felt it was the right time to pick this up for an at-home handheld mode setup compared to the Switch Lite. While there are already plenty of reviews of this thing you can find online which is why I don't think a scripted video from me about the thing would be too worthwhile, I think it's still possible to give it some time in a future AK Plus video to talk about my prolonged impressions with its pros and cons.

And finally, I managed to pick up some multiplayer accessories for the iQue Player! I was thinking of potentially covering them for the planned core video about it, but it took a while for the most price-friendly listing to pop up. The slight downside is that they weren't in the greatest shape (the analog sticks are probably toast) and I couldn't even test them -- they're missing one vital cable -- but I'm currently arranging a trade with a mutual to address that as well! At the very least, having the physical items would make for good on-camera material, and probably keeps ballooning up the potential scale of the core video if I ever were to start production on it lol (though it is a super exciting topic that I'd love to dive into, so perhaps within the next 2-3 core videos...)

And that's it for this month's report! Feels great to finally have something to write about again even if it isn't exactly about new uploads. Going forward, I'll be trying to strike a balance between my current full-time job and YouTube content, hopefully without fear that I'm prioritizing one over the other too much.

This entire year has just been incredibly transformative for me, and I guess I'll talk more about that in detail during the 2021 Year in Review (if it happens), but for real, thank you for sticking through this personal saga of my life. What's next? Well, I'm gonna try my best at growing this here YouTube thing, and of course this Patreon page as well! So...please look forward to more stuff coming out soon!