Gnomies in the Know - October '23 Edition

 

Hello friends!

One thing I'd like to talk about before I begin - I know I talk about views occasionally, but I want to clarify something.

I am not doing this to make it big. Heck, I'm shocked there's as many of you fine folks already. I'm incredible appreciative of every ounce of support I get. I'm not one of those folks who will ask or hint at giving a like or subscribing to my channel.

 I have no love for 'The Algorhythm'. I never started Youtube for fame, or money. I got into Youtube because ever since I was a little kid, I've loved making movies. I have always had a passion for telling stories, entertaining, making people laugh. This is the ultimate expression of that passion - every single view tells me that someone, somewhere, found some entertainment from my work. That alone is so fulfilling for me, and all I would ever ask for.

Anything past that is a happy accident. In a perfect scenario, I'd end up with a close-knit little community in a quiet little corner of the internet. I'll never ask for likes or subs - If you want to stick around, you will! It doesn't matter to me who is and isn't subscribed - as long as you're entertained.

With that out of the way.... 

I've been hard at work lately, taking my mental health seriously and taking measures to improve myself. I want to give an update on things behind the scenes a bit!!

7 Days to Die - Corpse Forest

With episode 14 out, we're halfway through the series! I plan on a full 28 episodes, though if I die three times, its game over! I am making an effort to roll those episodes out more reliably. After that, I have another 7 Days to Die series coming that will... deviate from my usual 7 Days series, so keep your eyes peeled for it once Corpse Forest ends!

In addition to that, I do plan on doing a similar series to Corpse Forest for all the Biomes, building in difficulty until a Wasteland-Only series - which may be short-lived, knowing me, but worth a shot!

Modded Minecraft Survival

This series tapered off for a bit, as I didn't see too much interest - it was performing worst, view-wise. However, over time it racked up more views and some kind folks reached out to me to let me know they enjoyed them. I'm actually delighted to see the views for that series really jump up (Relative to my channel's metrics, anyway). I plan on keeping it up as long as possible, though I am slowly introducing an overarching 'plot' which should helpfully add some more depth to the series.

Sub'Gnautica

Ehhhh. I'll be honest, I have given a lot of thought to progressing forward in this series. My anxiety is loads better than it was when I was running the series, so who knows? Maybe I will pick it up. For now, though, I've got other projects in the works that demand more immediate attention.

The Ghost & Paranormal Guy

With spooky season upon us, I am working on season 2 of this series! It's going to feature many more games than just Phasmophobia, which should hopefully add more variety and suspense!! Keep your eyes peeled for that - I've got some pretty cool stuff planned!! Maniac Zak, Neckbeard the Pirate, and possibly other TGPG characters may make a return!

New Projects

I have a couple of new, different things coming up that I don't want to spoil! That said, they're going to be very interesting. I may even run one or two of them with my face cam on - who knows? I wonder what some of you will do if you find out I'm not actually blonde! There's going to be a pretty long-lived, story based series coming up, as well as a short mini-series in the works. Lots of stuff to do, yes, but I'm taking extra care not to wear myself out - would be a pain if, after I recover from autistic burnout, I hit a vanilla burnout instead.

Another project I'm working is a Podcast with another TGPG member, Zal. Keep your eyes peeled for that as we discuss and debate everything from PC games to tabletop RPGs.

There may be more special guest stars on the horizon - Mahm and Munchkin will be returning soon, as well as some new faces!

My art has improved a bit, and I continue to challenge myself to improve my skill, and by extension, my production value.

That's about it for this one, friends. Thanks for reading, and always, 

Take Care of Yourselves!

Autistic Burnout and Me

Hello Friends!

Skitz here. I wanted to post here and shed some light on what I've been going through for the past year or so, in the hopes that it will both help contextualize some of my behavior, and also help you all get to know me a little better.

In December of 2022, I was diagnosed with a couple of psychological disorders. Particularly, I was diagnosed with ADHD, ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), and both Generalized and Social Anxiety. Now, I haven't been particularly shy about my ADHD on my channel, as it is somewhat of a running joke that I behave rather 'squirrelly'. But I wanted to talk about the other ones in this post, too, because I need to talk about my burnout, and these things are relevant.

Everyone knows what burnout feels like. If you are autistic, or live with someone who is, you'll already know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to beat you up with what Autistic burnout looks like or why it's affecting me so much (Though Autism.org and Western Tidewater have some great articles if you insist on educating yourself). I wanted to talk about it briefly because in the upcoming episode of Corpse Forest, Ep12 "Jobs for Joel", I talk briefly in the beginning of the episode about this in relation to a hiccup in content production.

I've spent a large portion of my life thinking that I was just really, reallllly bad at being a person. My brain just worked way too different than everyone else's. I spent my entire life trying to fit in a neurotypical world. Only recently after having these diagnoses have I been able to step back a realize I am not bad at being a person, I'm a different kind of person. It let me embrace my more creative avenues and stop worrying so much about fitting in. 

It also gave me some context for a lot of the mental health roadblocks and difficulties I've encountered over the years with time management, education, social skills, relationships and life in general.

Really, that's all I'm doing now. I'm sharing that context. Its easy for me to look at myself and tell myself I'm being lazy and letting people down and not committed enough as I stare, paralyzed, at the empty editing screen. It's both better and worse when I know its because I literally wore my brain down to the wire pretending to be human.

I digress. I just wanted to say, hi! I'm Skitz! I wasn't kidding about the neuro-divergent thing! And I am absolutely still around. I've come up with some strategies that will help me avoid this situation in the future and hopefully keep my mood (and, by extension, my content production) more stable.

I will post more once I have more for you. For now, I just wanted to provide a little bit more information about myself and hopefully clear up any questions someone might eventually have.

Now, as always, I ask you:

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES!

TGP-Gone?

 Hello friends!!

I want to break the silence since going dark a little while back.

Videos will be returning soon! I am actually in the process of moving, so as soon as life for me quiets down again, I will be able to start farting around in Minecraft and filling my pants in Subnautica again very soon. So fret not!

That's not to say that I haven't been working on the channel. I have been working on art, concepts, etc while I've been busy. Lots of back-end stuff, really - the stuff I do have time for!

When the channel does return to life, there will be a little extra oomph behind it. I fell off of it for a number of reasons, really. One of them was the lack of time and space to properly produce content, but another was simply discouragement. I am usually pretty good about shutting out what other content creators are doing, because I know myself and I know I will draw comparisons and discourage myself.

A big gaming channel I love recently put out a cinematic Bigfoot playthrough not too long after Figbuht dropped, which I am sure are two entirely unrelated events, but as you could imagine it left me feeling a bit discouraged.

They're a huge channel, and a huge community, with enormous production value, staff, and resources. I am one dude with half-rate equipment and a go-get'em attitude. That's apples to oranges, and I know that.

Doesn't stop my brain from eating itself. 

 Thankfully, I never began this project with aspirations of making it big or even modestly present. I put the time and work that I do into these videos because I find it fun. I couldn't care less what the algorithm thinks or wants. I don't need  or even want to get larger than maybe a few hundred of you. I'd love to just carve out a little slice of the internet for a small community and I. If I can achieve that, it'd be above and beyond my expectations. 

So, I'm going to keep plugging away. I hope that when this hiatus ends, you all enjoy spending time with me even more.

Until then, as always, take care of yourselves!

Modded Minecraft Made me Cry

 Hello friends!

Sad news I'm afraid. I pulled up my Modded Minecraft earlier today to get some recording done and found that I had apparently soft-locked myself. A mod (as Satan as my witness, I am clueless as to which one) has locked up trying to spawn an entity or something or other. Either way, it has locked me out of my game.

So, rather than get discouraged, I've taken the opportunity to move to a newer version of Minecraft. I'm moving to 1.19, and will still be utilizing an offensive number of mods.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Lycanites was the culprit, as it has been so far, but thankfully it isn't ready for the newer versions and I will be skipping it entirely. I felt like it was making getting a foothold difficult anyway.

So, with this new opportunity, I will be able to revamp the series and include newer content. Hopefully it turns into something worth watching.

That's it for now.

Take care of yourselves!

Gnomies in the Know - April '23 Edition

 Hello friends!

I took a break last week. It was sort of unplanned, in that time caught up to me way too quickly and I was not ready for it. It was also 100% necessary. Life has gotten a lot more interesting of late, and I've had to overcorrect a bit for a while. I'm back this week, and I want to introduce you to what I've been cooking!

SubGnautica

Mondays @ 8am EST

Coming back 4/10/23, SubGnautica will take a more story/narrative-driven approach. I'm realizing that making this any longer a series than it absolutely has to be will be equivalent to torture. I will not be rushing the series, merely honing my focus on progressing the story.

Pal-Heim

Occasional Wednesdays @ 8pm EST

This series will be taking over the Phasmophobia series for a bit, while I work on diversifying the content for that series. This is definitely the low-key, low-stakes 'non canon' series with myself, Breyarte, and Natilda as we screw around and shoot the shtuff. This one won't be released regularly, as it will be largely dependent on when we gather up. Freeing up my Wednesday slots for only intermittent episodes significantly releases a lot of pressure on my ever-shrinking schedule.

I also plan on dabbling a bit on using a face cam for some of these episodes. I don't have a good webcam (But I don't have a garbage one, either) and I don't have the setup for a green screen or anything like that yet, but I want to give it a shot and see how people respond!

Ark: Stupidity Involved

Every other Saturday @ 9am EST

The Ark series will take place on the custom map Fjordur and will be a series for as long as I can play it without rage-quitting.

Ark can be a frustrating game.

Hopefully, though, it will make great content! I'd love to play it through to fight a boss, especially as I've never gotten that far in this game before.

Modded Minecraft Survival: Season 1

Fridays @ 5pm EST

Not much to report on this one. Expect more actual progression and even more stupid deaths. Some of the mobs from the Lycanites mod have presented some unique problems - some keep generating super laggy structures over and over, for example - that have made half my job for this series 'config hunting'. While I don't mind it, I am thinking that season 2 will have significantly fewer mods.

Perhaps by force, as season 1 is currently operating on Minecraft version 1.16.5. There have been numerous large updates since then, and the modding community seems to be getting better at keeping pace with the version releases. Hopefully I can compile a mod list I am happy with for season 2!

That's more or less it for now! Take care of yourselves!

Gnomies In The Know - March '23 Edition

 Hello Friends!

I have some updates for you regarding the channel!

Modded Minecraft Survival

Episode 15, "Jungle Bungle" will mark the last of the bulk-recording session I did back in January. Moving forward, the episodes are going to have more polish - I've improved as an editor, and my audio equipment is upgraded. Hopefully, I can start getting into some crazy stuff. Maybe I'll launch a long-play session or two, who knows?

The Ghost & Paranormal Guy

This series was visibly dipping in performance, with the season finale only garnering a handful of views after a week. The capstone movie, "Figbuht", got excellent views but mixed reception. Between that, and how difficult lately it's been to juggle all three of my ongoing series, I am thinking I will put this series on the back-burner. Perhaps I'll drop in episodes here and there as time goes on, but I wouldn't expect any regular updates until viewer interest improves.

SubGnautica

This is another series that isn't doing so well, but I suspect a lot of that is due to less 'punchy' titles. As I get into more scrapes, things should improve. Either way, as stated earlier this month, SubGnautica is not forever! Once I've seen the story to its conclusion I expect to never play it again. Like ever.

Valheim

Preparations have been made, plans have been drawn, and footage recorded. This series isn't going to be a narrative based series like the rest, set within the meta of the 'TGPGVerse'. Instead, this will be a casual long-play session style of video, with guest stars and, most notably -

Face Cam. I don't have a very good camera yet, but that too will improve with time. Should be interesting to see how these videos perform!

All in all, some changes are coming to the channel. I am hoping that reducing the expectations of videos may help alleviate some of the stress I've been experiencing as I try to juggle the chaos of my adult life with the routine schedule of my Youtube content. It's a never-ending war.

That's pretty much it for now! 

Take Care of Yourselves!

~Skitz

SpringTGPG 2023

     Hello friends!

    It's nearly springtime again, thank goodness, and I wanted to take a moment to give you some insight into what I am planning next. At the time of writing, we're going strong with Sub'Gnautica on Monday Mornings, Phasmophobia on Wednesday nights, and Modded Minecraft on Friday evenings. So, without further ado, what's the plan?

1. Sub'Gnautica is not forever

Subnautica is a story-based survival game, and as such its got a very linear direction and clear cut story. This isn't a bad thing - it just means its length as a series can only be so long. Once I've reached the blessed, prophesied day where I don't have to play that game ever again, it will have to have something new take its place. I have a couple of candidates that may end up taking the slot - 

ARK: Survival Evolved - "ARK: Stupid Involved"

An ARK: Survival Evolved Let's Play. The premise will be to continually explore and travel, never setting roots too deep in any one spot and constantly exploring, taming dinosaurs to take with us on the way. I haven't quite decided on a map I want to do yet. I'm taking suggestions, though I want to avoid the oldest ones, like the Island.

Valheim -

A Valheim playthrough, casually played and joined by guests! This series would largely just be three or more friends farting around in a fun and challenging game set in the Nordic Afterlife. Odin's watching us poop. It's largest drawbacks right now are scheduling recording time, and recording obstacles. At time of writing, we haven't been able to iron out the details yet. Still, I figured it was worth mentioning - It may be a nice departure from some of the more narrative-heavy stuff. If interest exists for a more in-depth playthrough, it can certainly evolve over time.

Rust - "Gnomad"

This one could be tricky, but I'd love to do it. It has a lot of opportunity for PvP antics (A gameplay style I am notoriously horrible at - You've seen me just trying to deal with PvE) How feasible long-term this series is will have to be science-ed but it could be a ton of a fun. I have friends who may be willing to guest star too, provided I can conquer the same issues I had with Valheim.

2. The Ghost & Paranormal Guy

The overarching premise of a paranormal investigation team has a couple of really fun outlets I can explore outside of Phasmophobia. There will still be plenty of those, but I do plan on sprinkling other types of games in the same playlist. I'm having fun slowly unrolling the meta. So look forward to other paranormal-themed games coming to that Wednesday timeslot. Phasmophobia has a very limited number of maps, and even more limited maps that are feasible single-player, so I feel like the variety of games will help keep things fresh.

Bigfoot - "Figbuht"

This one is great, but only has so much replay-ability. With only three maps, this one will likely be used to punctuate between seasons as little movies. The first in this vein, Figbuht, will drop shortly after Season 1's finale. It's going to help introduce some more characters!

Devour - 

I know very little about this game at the time of writing, but from what I understand it is a Phasmo-like with a little bit of a different flavor to it. I'm considering giving it a shot - we'll see how some test runs go.

Slender: The Arrival

A classic, this one might also make a great series of movies similar to Bigfoot. The game is simple - collect notes scattered around an enormous map while an eldritch horror slowly drives you insane.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you how much fun I could have with that!

SirenHead?

Backrooms?

SCP Foundation?

All those, and still others, are on the table and being examined for potential additions to The Ghost & Paranormal Guy series. This is one of the narratives I'm really enjoying so far, and look forward to fleshing it out. 

3. Modded Minecraft

Good god. Well, the first batch of recordings is nearly up, so hopefully the audio quality should begin to catch up to the other series. I recorded Minecraft up to episode 15 before my audio situation was as streamlined as it is now, and it ...shows? You can hear it is my point.

I have no real updates on this series, other than it's probably going to be here for quite a while. It's one of the few games I play that strike that balance between open-world do-what-you-want-when-you-want and objective/exploratory narrative. It's versatile, especially for some of the things I want to do, so it will likely remain a steady series.

That's all for now. Take care of yourselves!

2023 Lineup

 

    Hello friends!

    State of the Channel Report:   

•  7 Days to TGPG Season 2 has come and gone, and now the Monday timeslot is free.
• Modded Minecraft Survival has started up and seems to be performing.
• Phasmophobia case files finally start dropping 1/18/23 and every Wednesday at 8pm. At least for a while. Once we've done all the maps to death (Wakka wakka) this timeslot may change as well.

And I will be starting a new series soon! This will be the one to take over the Monday 8am time slot. I don't want to spoil it so keep an eye out on YouTube for the announcement once it gets closer.

The winter months are when I tend to hermit up and get lots of stuff like this done so I'm hoping to get a lot more progress. I've already begun dabbling in animation, which will start to show I think around Episode 5 of the Phasmophobia series. I'm really looking forward to broadening my skillset. Despite the simplistic and flawed art and the general borderline cringiness of the brand aesthetic, I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish so far. 

Hope you're all well, and don't forget!

Take care of yourselves!

-Skitz

2023!

 

    Hello friends!!

Providing another update on this old thing. I've gotten a pretty solid flow going, and am feeling confident about regular content output going forward. Took a bit to get here, but here we are!

My channel will have three time slots -

Mondays @ 8am EST

Wednesdays @ 3pm EST

Fridays @ 5pm EST

Of note, at time of writing only the Friday slot has a series in it. 7 Days to TGPG 2 is in the Monday slot, but it will end on the 9th of this month.

Wednesday, I think, will be the Phasmophobia series. A bit of a departure from the survival games, more on the spooky end of things.

Still have noooo idea what the hell to do with the Monday slot but I will have something soon!!

The Minecraft series is doing far better than the 7 Days to Die series, and that isn't too surprising to me given the scope of their respective demographics - but it means that the Minecraft series is definitely here to stay, at least until I hear differently.

That's all for now Gnomies