My Game of the "Year" 2013 (?) - NOW WITH A RIDICULOUS VIDEO

Whoa-ho nelly, here's a big one. Normally these are blogs, but this year I decided to go the extra mile and make a video. That video turned out to be 23 minutes long, and took me close to a month to put together. I would definitely say it is worth watching, if only for the sake of my own sanity. PLEASE WATCH IT OR I WILL CRY AND NOBODY WANTS THAT

I've lamented the loss of the days when GiantBomb used to do "shows" with actual "production", but how much time and how much effort I had to put in to this video made it a pretty stark reminder that yo, that stuff is really hard work and takes days, weeks, or months to put together.

Was it worth it? Kinda, yeah. I'm trying to push myself to be more entertaining when I go through the effort to "produce" a video, so this was an opportunity to dip my toes in to that pool and see what happens. Hopefully it came out alright. Speaking of: If you have feedback on the video, I’d be greatly interested. Do I sound okay? Did my jokes land? Did I fall flat on my face? How can I improve? I want to make videos you want to watch, and I can’t do that unless you tell me what I’m doing wrong.

I mention "show notes" in the video, but if you want to see those, you're going to have to go over to the video page on Youtube. I've also compiled some "stat porn" for this, if you're curious about the whozit and whatsit that went in to this monster:

Script

• 3680 words
• 21047 letters
• 185 sentences
• 44 paragraphs
• 7 pages long (single space, 12pt font)

Data

• 262 video files (119gb, XVID compressed)
• 394 image files (190mb)
• 373 audio files (1.4gb)

Media

• Dialog: 57 minutes recorded (20 minutes used)
• Video: 4 hours, 53 minutes recorded
• Music: 104 songs totaling 4 hours and 25 minutes (14 songs used, 44 minutes total)
• Art: 15 hand-drawn pictures, scanned and digitally colored

Project

• "GOTY2013" folder created December 26th, 2013 at 6:13pm
• 149 audio/video layers
• 720 pieces of project media
• Size of “goty2013-jan2014-8-HD.veg”: 1.11mb
• Total Video Runtime: 23 minutes, 26 seconds
• Resolution: 1280x720
• Framerate: 30fps
• Video Codec: X264 @ 5530kbps
• Audio Codec: Uncompressed ADPCM WAV @ 44.1khz
• Time to render in 720p: 2 hours, 24 minutes (estimated: 4 hours, 15min)
• Final File Size: 927mb
• Finished January 24th, 2014 at 6:54pm

You did a great job duder. Did you hand draw the Mario pictures at the 8 minute mark? They were pretty awesome.

Edit: Ahh, I see in the stats section that you totally did. Super cool.

You did really well, but you have a lot of fall off on almost every single sentence.

This is something I'm aware of but I have no idea how to stop doing. I don't even realize that I'm doing it and I've tried and failed to wrap my head around the concept of stopping. It just happens as part of the way I speak. I'd probably need some kind of voice coach or something, but those aren't cheap or easy to get.

I remember when Joey did a How To Make a Screened Feature video. He had a process down, but it was still a ton of work for a short video.

I do miss GB's heavily produced stuff, but that Joey thing made me realize why it made sense to get away from it. Luckily, we still get a ridiculously good Drew project on occasion :)

This should be on the front page. The production values on this are off the chain, excellent video @blazehedgehog! Also, you bought Zeno Clash 2 and gave some love to the original game, so you're cool in my books :D There is a weird cube trinket in Zeno Clash 2 that a person gets slapped over :P

You really need to get around to it, the story totally changes the way you look at this small universe. And the world building is totally mindboggling. People who say Zeno Clash 2 isn't as good are crazy. Like Corwid of the Free crazy. Much deeper combat system, one of the coolest worlds in a game ever, weirder environments, cooler character designs, and probably the most surreal thing you'll ever experience.

Where did you get the clapping sound files like from Giant Bomb's dubious awards segments? And the music samples? Some free royalty sound library?

@assinass said:

This should be on the front page. The production values on this are off the chain, excellent video @blazehedgehog! Also, you bought Zeno Clash 2 and gave some love to the original game, so you're cool in my books :D There is a weird cube trinket in Zeno Clash 2 that a person gets slapped over :P

You really need to get around to it, the story totally changes the way you look at this small universe. And the world building is totally mindboggling. People who say Zeno Clash 2 isn't as good are crazy. Like Corwid of the Free crazy. Much deeper combat system, one of the coolest worlds in a game ever, weirder environments, cooler character designs, and probably the most surreal thing you'll ever experience.

Where did you get the clapping sound files like from Giant Bomb's dubious awards segments? And the music samples? Some free royalty sound library?

The music is actually listed in the credits where I got it from - a dude by the name of Kevin MacLeod has a pretty sizable collection of music he's composed and he grants anyone free license to use it as long as they credit him and link back to his site.

http://www.incompetech.com/

The clapping came from my own personal library. Which is to say "I don't know where it's from, I've been downloading sound effects off the internet for use in various projects for like 15 years".

Bravo on the video!

Really good video. Enjoyed watching.

Wanted to mention something you said during your GotY segment about GTA V and Sleeping Dogs. I know people love Sleeping Dogs, but damn, it's not that good. I got it for free for being an Xbox Live Gold member, and after a couple of hours, I'm like, dude, where's the fun at. How people think it's better than GTA V is beyond me.

@blazehedgehog: Great job, looks on par with any of the top gaming sites these days.

The one thing the video was missing in my opinion is if once in a while you stopped talking, and we heard a lighter sparking, then some bubbling and a large inhale followed by exhale and coughing. You know, keeping with the blazedhedgehog theme!

Ironically I am probably one of the only members of my family that does not smoke. And, even though I am a Colorado resident, do not intend to smoke, either.

I would say I appreciate having a clear head, but the truth of the matter is I'm already pretty absent minded even when I'm sober. I'd probably wander out in to busy traffic if I ever became inebriated.

@blazehedgehog: I don't mean for real, it would be funny to keep up the persona - one moment just straight up typical game talk, and then a sudden break for a bong hit.

Anyway great job once again, it looked really professional and I can tell you practiced the script so that it doesn't sound wooden or disjointed.

Holy sh*t, that was fantastic. Really. Well done.

I kind of feel like I got more out of your quirky list than even the Giant Bomb GOTY videos this year. I mean, you weren't super flashy, but you had a quality and consistency that made explaining it all just work. Nicely done.

My one question regarding your list would be why you listed FEZ as your runner-up for biggest disappointment. Did you beat both playthroughs? I know some people walked away from it early on because it still seemed like a basic platformer, but there was so much more to that game and what it was conveying. I suppose I just can't imagine how someone could experience the evolution of the game and not consider it, if not great, at least mid-range.

Anyway, thanks for sharing! :)

I watched the whole thing. That was awesome!

I got the first ending, knowing there was more to the game, but not really enjoying it. I walked away from it with the intent on going back some day, and around that time a friend of mine bought the game and got both endings, reigniting my interest. We talked it over and his description soured me enough that I just watched the second ending on Youtube and decided it wasn't worth it.

Had a couple people ask me in-depth about this on my Tumblr, you may be interested in reading this and this.

Really enjoyed the video! Great job with it and I admire your honest that all the awards were based on games you played this year. I also thought the applause sound effect was a good little nod to the GB GOTY shows. Great job overall and keep it up blaze!

I think not doing that second playthrough really colors that final impression. Reading what you wrote, you actually seem to be explaining some of the reasons it's an interesting experience, but you're coming from a perspective of expecting something it isn't. Its whole point is ultimately to not be that.

[Obviously, some FEZ spoilers ahead for anyone looking to avoid them]

In the second playthrough, you gain two abilities that completely break what you thought the game was, on purpose. You gain the ability to fly, which makes the platforming even more insignificant, reemphasizing how trivial it is in the larger matter of understanding the game. And you gain the ability to look in first person, changing it from a purely 2D experience to a 3D one, opening up a view of things you were never able to see before. These open up doors to the language of the game. And it all adds up to a world telling a story about the progression of videogames from 1 plain(Atari era) to 2 plains(NES and SNES) to 3 plains(N64 and PS1) and the potential evolution from there. In that context, it looks at the value of our time and the lengths to which gamers will go to figure things out because they're there. To beat games and climb the mountain because they can.

A lot of gamers wracked our brains to figure out the crazy clues and cryptography of the game until almost every secret was found. Not because there's some big reward, but because figuring things out, talking about theories and trying to find answers, is more important than any big reveal. I cherish my time really sitting down and working out the alphabet, the math, the mind-boggling puzzles, and helping others do the same. In a time where direct narrative and big conflict is king, FEZ is simply a love letter to the basic mechanics of videogames and the very act of thinking about and making videogames.

I can understand your issue with engagement, but to me, the engagement feels clear. Like if you meet someone for the first time that everyone has raved about, but when you spend some time with them, you don't see what's so special. I'm saying there's more to that person than it seems, and while we may not see them the same way, I do believe there's someone well worth knowing there. FEZ is imperfect in many ways, but it's also special in even more.

I imagine it would be hard to go back now, but at the very least, I hope further discussions of the game will help convey a better picture of what it was. :)

See, I don't know. I feel like Fez should have communicated all of that faster and more clearly. Your "artistic statement" should not be buried under layers of boring gameplay and poor control that go on for hours. Fez could have been fun outside of the statements it makes and still done everything you say it does.

That's one of the things that has really rubbed me the wrong way with indie games - the message often overrides whether or not the game itself is actually fun.

Defcon is fun. But Defcon also makes a pretty bleak statement. Fez needed to be a better game in order to more clearly deliver its messages. It's a shame about Fez 2.

I guess we'll just have to disagree on how fun it is. I had a lot of fun with the gameplay of FEZ and the game surrounding it. So, the additional elements and overall points just made it even better.

Though, yeah, a shame about FEZ 2. In my heart, I still believe it will be made. I don't get the impression Fish can stop making games. So, my guess is that he is still working on it, just in secret for now. That way he can keep working without all the distractions.

One day, some kind of followup to FEZ will come out.