Here’s some news on what’s going on this month:

APRIL FOOL’S DAY

I seem to have disappointed more people than usual this year, and I admit, this might be the meanest AF joke I’ve done. Sorry about that, my intent wasn’t to make people feel bad, this was just the only idea I was able to come up with in time. I had some other ideas, but they were more elaborate and I didn’t think I’d be able to do them this year. I literally thought I wasn’t going to have anything this year, which would have been a first. The fundraiser was a huge morale boost however, and after I finished the last FM episode, I had the Freeman Across The Universe idea and decided I had enough time to go through with it. To be clear, I’m not planning on making Freeman Across The Universe. It’s not that I want to disappoint people, it’s that I REALLY want to make the machinima movie idea I have. I have confidence the movie will be the best video I’ve ever made and top Freeman’s Mind AND Civil Protection. It’s still going to take a long time however, and it’s just not feasible if I’m busy expanding FM to other games as well. Also I wasn’t lying when I said I forgot what game that screenshot is from. I think it’s from a zombie survival mod for Unreal Tournament 2003 or 2004, but I COULD NOT find it again, I tried. Whatever mod it was, it came out no later than September 2004 if anyone wants to try and find it.

 
DOTA 2 VOICE PACK
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EDIT: Below is the original post I made on this, but you can call off the dogs. Since my pack was rejected, Valve has since updated their guidelines (which they KEEP CHANGING) so that mine is no longer applicable. I’ll re-revise it to their current iteration and try again. This will likely take a few weeks.
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A few people have asked me what the status on this is. The answer is sadness and frustration. As stated before, Valve sent me an email months ago saying “the developers of “Dota 2″ had to flag it as “incompatible”, so it cannot be used within “Dota 2″, yet the entry on the Steam Workshop is still pending. This is frustrating me to no end, because I can not get an answer WHY it is incompatible. They may be rejecting it based on the name, which is an easy fix, but it could be other mystery reasons also. I tried to follow the guidelines to the letter. The fact that they can’t give me a REASON as to what’s wrong with it I think is very unprofessional. Since then I have tried emailing frontdesk@valvesoftware.com twice, sdk@valvesoftware.com once, and made two separate posts in different DOTA 2 dev forums with NO REPLY. I honestly don’t know what to do next. The only thought that comes to mind next is to resubmit the pack as the “Ross Scott Voice Pack” instead of the “Freeman’s Mind” one (the pack doesn’t contain overt Half-Life references). My guess is if I do that, I’ll get another rejection notice, months from now, with NO REASON given again either. Frankly, I think this is bullshit. I spent months working on this, if someone actually did look this over, they could at least pick from some pre-selected reasons as to WHY it’s not compatible (improper database format, audio quality, etc.). If Valve doesn’t want my voice pack, I can live with that. But not even giving me a REASON so I know how to FIX it feels very dysfunctional and passive-aggressive from my perspective considering how much time and work I put into it. I feel like if they can’t even give an honest reply why they reject a pack with thousands of votes, maybe they’re not really ready to be operating the steam workshop for voice packs, or else they’re understaffed. Since I’ve tried doing this cordially with no results, I’m thinking my next step is to gradually get more obnoxious about it. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions how to contact SOMEONE at Valve about this, please let me know, or feel free to make noise about this to get their attention on my behalf.

 
GORILLA GONG

We have a BIG redesign coming to Gorilla Gong soon, it’s going to add a bunch of new features, have a better layout, I’m really looking forward to it. I should have another post on that in a few days.

 
MORE VIDEOS

I plan to keep moving forward with more videos, but it may get held up a little bit as I have to do my taxes for two different countries, and the person who was going to send me the 500GB SSD says it broke in transit from Fed Ex, so I may end up having to get one myself afterall. Regardless, my plan is to get to a certain point in the game for Freeman’s Mind (I think it’s 2-3 episodes away), then do a small Game Dungeon spree afterwards, so I’ll be alternating between those two series for the near future. I have some other things planned, but those are less definite at this time.

 
REPLYING TO PEOPLE

I am still WAY behind on replies, but I do still intend to reply to all emails. I kind of put that on hold so I could make the last Freeman’s Mind episode and April Fool’s Trailer. If I haven’t replied to you yet, it’s not me intentionally ignoring you.

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ADHD version: Ross isn’t making Freeman Across The Universe, he wants to make a badass movie instead, sorry. Valve isn’t replying to Ross about the DOTA pack and it’s kind of pissing him off. More videos coming!

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Good news! The fundraiser ended up being so wildly successful, that I’ve decided to expand Freeman’s Mind to EVERY first-person game made! Check out the trailer below for a small taste of what’s in store:

This is of course a large undertaking, so I’ve decided to cancel the full-length machinima movie I was working on so I have enough time to cover every first-person game made. Now I admit of being a little deceptive in this trailer in that it’s at 1080p. As a result, a few shots have some framerate drop, but it’s nothing too crazy. Freeman’s Mind will still be at 720p for now as there’s a BIG difference between capturing a 1080p clip at 180fps for 10 seconds v. 10 minutes. A difference of 60.

BONUS!

I did not cover all the games I wanted to in this trailer! One game was so obscure even I forgot the name of it! I have kept proof of its existence below:

If you know what game this is, let me know in the comments!

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

Here’s the latest episode of Freeman’s Mind, now in HD! This episode is about average, it has a lot of the hallway wandering Half-Life is known for, but is broken up with the action. I didn’t remember which way to go when I played this again, and could have easily broken about 2-3 episode into 5-6 pointless ones if I recorded this the first time through. I would argue the game even steers you towards the wrong objective way too early, leaving you lost. While old school FPSs can have a lot going for them, I’ve never been a fan of maze-like level design that tries to trap you. Also for the time being, I’m discontinuing releasing new videos on blip.tv, but will continue to leave the old ones up there. The reason being is ever since Maker Studios bought them out (shortly after my joining blip), the performance of the site has kind of gone downhill for me, so for now, future episodes will just be coming out on Youtube.

Thanks again to everyone who donated, you’re the direct reason this episode is in HD right now. I actually didn’t wait until any of the parts to arrive since I wanted to get it out ASAP and it absolutely was every bit of a pain in the ass to process as I anticipated on my system. The next episodes won’t be released until I get the computer parts, but I can keep working on them in low definition and swap it out later. I’m still afraid to go to 1080, though I’m looking into possible options for that in the future.

Also, as of the time of this posting, I THINK I have responded to everyone who has donated money, which has come to roughly ~850 people since the fundraiser started. I still have yet to respond to most other normal emails, but I’ll get to them as soon as I can.

More videos coming! In HD!

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Wow. It’s been a week, but my brain is still adjusting to the new reality of what’s happened. You guys not only sent more money than I was due to earn this year (without additional work), but this is easily the most money I’ve ever received at once in my life. Receiving this money has been like a weight being lifted, it should buy me all the time I need to get my life stabilized financially again. When I made the fundraiser video (which I was hesitant about doing in the first place), I thought the odds of getting enough money for the SSD were pretty good. The 12k figure I put on the funds raised thermometer was just a pipe dream. That was just me calculating how much I would need (with taxes) to supplement my own income so that I wouldn’t need ANYTHING for a year, and could focus just on making videos. I never expected to GET that much. I thought MAYBE I’d hit the 1k mark. Some people have asked if I’ve been super happy and excited about this. I was initially, around the 1k mark. Since then, I’ve mostly been in shock as I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before. But since it has happened, I’ll put it to use! This is the second-most thankful I’ve felt in my life (the first being when I accidentally had my carotid artery sliced open as a kid, was bleeding profusely and almost died), so, thanks!

How I feel about all this
 

FUNDRAISER OVER?

There was never really an expiration on the fundraiser, but I will be disabling the counter showing how much has been raised in the near future. The reason being is that only counts how much money is in my Paypal account, so if I withdraw anything, you would see the number go back down, not showing how much has been raised since. I’m still ALWAYS happy for donations and the “prize” of any line you want voiced is still applicable, for both past and future donators. Also I have added a link to all the isolated voice tracks to Freeman’s Mind so far (597MB) as a bonus. Also, due to popular demand, I’ve implemented some cryptocurrency donations as an option:

I honestly have NO IDEA where cryptocurrency is headed, but hey, I’ll give it a shot if people want to send me some! As always, anyone who donated will receive a “thank you” email from me, although I need more time to catch up on email replies to everyone, the response I’ve received has been overwhelming, it’s gong to take me a little longer to get through it all (also if you donate via cryptocurrency, I won’t know who you are to thank unless you also email me). I’ve spent most of this past week focusing on Freeman’s Mind.

 
WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?

I’ve heard many stories before about people who win the lottery going broke after a few months because they spent it all. My brain is simply not wired that way. I’ve had enough financial stress over the past year that I’m going to make sure this money lasts as LONG AS POSSIBLE. I don’t want to go on a shopping spree and be back where I was the next day. I want to make smart decisions and still be making videos decades from now. If you’re curious, here’s what I have planned:

-Reserve cash to supplement food and rent: I want to make sure I’m always several months ahead for groceries and rent. This one thing reduces my stress more than anything else and is where the majority of the money will go.

-Smaller purchases I could have used for months: Stuff like replacing my broken shoes, replacing a ripped pair of paints, replacing my partially-broken headphones, in short, stuff I would have bought a long time ago if I hadn’t been economizing as much as possible.

-Some money for long-term volunteers: This is money for a small number of people who have given me a tremendous amount of help with the site or videos over the years.

-Computer parts: Maybe! Josh Phillips of LPC Gaming has offered to donate a 500GB SSD drive and some other viewers (thanks to Chris Cogdon, Joe McJoey, and CyDrake583) have offered to donate some parts as well. So while this fundraiser was originally for the SSD, you guys have me covered there as well!

-Gorilla Gong: Besides making my videos, I want to improve the Gorilla Gong site, we have BIG plans for it, hoping to really make it explode with some of the features we have coming. I can’t reveal everything now, but it’s going to be awesome.

-Re-opening t-shirt shop: This is a low priority, but I do want to make this happen. The t-shirt will likely relaunch sometime in the future at a lower price to buyers with less money going to me (like $1 a shirt), but many, many more designs to choose from.

-Long term stocks investing and MAYBE some trading: Now before everyone panics, I’m going to pursue this very, very cautiously. I’ve wanted to learn more about stocks for a while now since I want to put my money where my mouth is regarding things like peak oil and the economy declining. Additionally, I know of a trader whose advice I respect, so I may dabble in this, but not without expert advice. In any event, I will not be risking a significant amount of income in this, I’m not much of a gambler.

-More videos: Most of these don’t actually COST anything (besides the food and rent part), but I have promised to complete Half-Life for FM this year, also you can expect a lot more Game Dungeon later on. For the long term, I hope to divert some funds later for making the full length machinima movie I’ve mentioned before.

-Robot attack dogs: Some Japanese company is working on it. They’re having bugs in the AI where the dog doesn’t discriminate against the owner and got set back by some casualties.

So, while my plans are pretty conservative and not as entertaining as a kickstarter scandal, they should lead to more videos in the long haul.

 
MISC STUFF:

On thankfulness + guilt: I’m amazed how many people feel bad because they ONLY donated a small amount. Guys, I can get a leg of chicken + thigh meat from the deli for about $1.50 here. It ALL counts to me. Also, if you can’t afford to donate and feel guilty about it, don’t. It’s not like you OWE me the money, I’m happy to have you as fans. As long as I can stay afloat one way or another, mission accomplished.

On SrcDemo2: Many people informed me of this piece of software and certainly threw me a curve ball regarding motion blur. Now that I’ve had time to test it, my conclusion is it WILL cut down on the sizes needed some due to .PNG compression. However, I will probably continue using my motion blur technique as SrcDemo2′s requires a MUCH higher framerate to approximate the quality of mine, so the load on the CPU doesn’t make it very practical.

On RAID 0: While two fast drives in RAID 0 might handle most of what I need in terms of capturing, since I’m being donated a SSD, I plan to stick with my original plan, plus I was leaning towards that anyway since SSDs beat out RAID 0 in noise levels any day.

On Freeman’s Mind: I’ve completed the dialogue for the next episode, just waiting on some help with sound effects. I won’t be waiting for the SSD to arrive for THIS episode, so I’m going to clear up a ton of space to record this episode in HD. In any event, I’m working to get the next episode out ASAP.

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ADHD version: You guys have sent Ross a lot of money! This has changed Ross’s outlook on life, thank you! New Freeman’s Mind episode coming ASAP!

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Well here’s a video people may not have been expecting. It’s part a send-me-money video, part behind-the-scenes of Freeman’s Mind. Either way, I tried to make it entertaining. If you’ve ever been curious about some of what’s involved in making an episode, you might enjoy watching this. The short version is this explains some of the obstacles to making the series HD and why more money will overcome them:

DONATE HERE!

Now the bad news is the next FM episode is NOT ready yet, however it is partially done. I’ll re-record it in HD and get it out ASAP if this fundraiser goes well. In all honesty, I probably would have been done with the episode by now if I never made this video, but the “why isn’t the resolution higher?” comments finally got to me, so by delaying the next episode and making this instead, it could be increasing the video quality on all future episodes.

On a personal note, ever since Machinima.com prevented me from releasing videos for months at the same time my pay dropped over 80%, this past year or so has been like a marathon for me trying to get my income stable again. I’m still crawling my way back towards sustainability and have been involved with a LOT of different projects to earn more income. I’m doing everything I possibly can to try and stabilize things and hope to do so sometime this year, but any extra money you donate will be GREATLY appreciated. A big part of the reason I haven’t bought this part myself is I’ve never been able to justify it; all donation money over the past year has gone directly to food and rent. By making this video, it FORCES me to buy the part and increase the resolution to the show. Anyway, because a lot of my time is divided up these days, I can say that for now, more money likely WILL increase the release rate of both Freeman’s Mind and RGD since it will free up time I would be spending working on other things.

As an extra “thank you”, I’ve also updated all the downloadable copies for Freeman’s Mind, and I’m going to try my best to reply to all the emails I’ve received over the past months, something I’ve been neglecting a lot (again). If you haven’t gotten a reply from me, it’s very likely you will over the next week. And if you don’t donate, I’m still glad to have you all as fans and will keep making more videos no matter what.

I throw out a lot of information in this video, so I can only imagine the comments I’ll get from people telling me I’m wrong about everything, but here are some questions / comments I’m anticipating:

Q: Why aren’t you using Kickstarter or Indiegogo?
A: Those fundraisers typically require many prize levels that would take a lot of time to fulfill. It’s not that I don’t want to give people prizes, but I’d rather not spend weeks mailing things when I could be making more videos instead.

Q: Are there any prizes?
A: Maybe! I will send an email of thanks to everyone who donates. Also I’m willing to give any prizes that don’t require me to act like a business and take tons of time to deliver. I am willing to record a line for anyone who’s donated $10 or more, just email me about it. Also, I was considering releasing all the isolated voice files for all the Freeman’s Mind episodes if people are interested in that. If you have ideas about something else you’d like to see, let me know.

Q: You don’t need a SSD! You need a capture card or use Shadowplay then play back the demos in slow motion!
A: For adding in motion blur, that wouldn’t actually help save me any time, plus it would still be susceptible to potential dropped frames if there was some sort of hard drive stutter.

Q: You don’t need a SSD! Your CPU is too slow!
A: While a faster CPU would speed up the motion blur processing some, none of the cores ever get maxed during recording, there’s plenty of overhead. The hard drive speed is the bottleneck.

Q: Will you be updating all the old episodes to HD?
A: Unfortunately, no. I no longer have the old demos and project files necessary to do so. I never would have gotten rid of them if I expected FM to be as popular as it became.

Q: What about the Game Dungeon?
A: Due to voting results, I plan to focus mostly on FM for the near future, but I have a LOT of RGD episodes planned. This part will remove all barriers for recording in RGD also, so I’ll be able to cover potentially any game after this, not just older ones (though I still plan to keep doing those too).

Q: Do you eat only beans?
A: No, but beans + onions have a good cost-to-flavor / nutrition ratio.

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ADHD version: Send money to Ross if you want to see Freeman’s Mind in HD! Or send money because you can, Ross can use it! New FM coming this month, maybe in HD!

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS