Ross Scott

I totally disagree on this for multiple reasons: -If an indie developer doesn't have much in the way of resources, they're probably not creating a game that requires authentication from a central server to begin with. Afterall, that central server costs money for them to run. -Even if they are, an end-of-life plan doesn't have to be expensive at all. Releasing as much of the relevant source code would count. -This would not stop AAA development. AAA spends tens of millions or much more on games, an end of life plan would be a small fraction of the cost. All it would require would be to actually plan for it to begin with, instead of doing absolutely nothing and letting games die the way the industry standard currently is. -Again, not as extreme, but the "it would hurt the industry badly" mentality was the same argument used by business owners for using child labor in coal mines, enforcing safety regulations, requiring overtime pay for over 40 hours, etc. Not only in this case do I not think it would be true at all, but this is a practice that should simply stop. I don't know of any wealth of games we would have lost if companies had planned to do SOMETHING for the players in the event they had to shut down the central server. -Now this is speculative, but it's entirely possible this practice could INCREASE sales if it was marketed properly. Letting players know they are GUARANTEED to always be able to play their game could be promoted as a feature, especially once we see more and more die.

Not really, but I think I was harsher on the fact that this was for $10 normally (10 Euros in Europe). I left out a line actually that I would have valued it at about $2 myself being a cheapass. I feel like it comes up short for a $10 game. For a lot of the older games, that's less of an issue. Plus I worked security. They got the most fundamental aspect of security work wrong.

I know, Youtube needs time to process it to 1080p. I post the video here unlisted as soon as it's processed at 360p early sometimes.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » Subtitles: English More Game Dungeon! This is an episode I didn't have planned at all until a couple weeks ago, but it fits in with having spookier games for October, so I decided to throw it in. I wasn't even sure this game was going to be proper Game Dungeon material, but after playing through it, it certainly seemed to fit the bill. I actually cut out a chunk of this episode since I felt like it was going on a little long considering the length of the game. The part I omitted was about me asking questions of the developer directly concerning the timer. It wasn't anything especially fascinating, so I'll probably include it when I eventually do a follow-up episode. In the meantime, I'll be working around the clock to have the Halloween episode out ASAP, there's still a lot left to do. This unfortunately means I'm going to have to neglect many messages and emails, but I'll try and make it up in November. = = = SCREENSHOT CONTEST = = = This is very short notice, but the developers gave me 3 extra copies of the game, so I'm having a small screenshot contest if you want to try and win a free copy! Here are the rules: -Post or submit a screenshot (up to a maximum of 3) from any game. -You can either post your entry in the forum thread to this episode here, or email it to me (rosswscott (at) gmail.com). If you email it, I highly prefer a link instead to an attachment. -Only one copy of the game can be won per person. -The deadline is roughly midnight of Oct. 29th PST. I will announce the winners the next day on the 30th. You can try and submit something late, but you risk not making it. -I'll pick the winners by whichever screenshots I like best. So whoever has the most interesting or funny ones will likely win a copy of the game. COMMENTS

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » Go to hell, everybody! This is a game I almost covered last year, but I think it fits especially well after Construction Bob. Some may be disappointed that this is just a casual game, but not only are the next episodes this month going to be more substantial games, but I think this might have one of my favorite endings for the Game Dungeon so far. I don't have much more to say other than that I'll be busy working on the next two episode to get done by Halloween. On that note, I have received a TON of emails and I'll try my best to respond to everyone, but you may have to wait until November for a lot of them just so I can get the videos done in time. More stuff coming! COMMENTS

Sorry, not this year. You'll get a little bit of Dagon this month though.

I'll tally the requests list at some point and make something based off that. Right now the most requests are probably for Fallout, Nox, VTM Bloodlines, or The Neverhood. Well maybe. I feel like me just repeating what everyone else is saying probably wouldn't be as popular as you might think. Additionally, I don't play these games until years later half the time, it would require me being ahead of the curve, for which there is a lot of competition. Plus, I think the extra numbers I got would evaporate more rapidly too, whereas I really appreciate long-term fans who come back to check in on the videos. It's more fun for me to cover games I have opinions about that not a lot of people have heard of. Ultimately, I'd most like to make just original videos and storylines, but that takes way more production work, so the videogame coverage is a more enjoyable balance.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » More Game Dungeon! I was hoping to have this out earlier in the month, but the whole last 2 months has been defined by me making things I meant to do weeks ago. This episode is pretty typical for Game Dungeon, though I'm going to do my best to get as many out as I can this month. I might be attempting too many, but I hope to get 3 more out this month. One short one, one similar to this, and one longer one. We'll see what happens! Also thanks again to everyone who has donated, it's been really fantastic. I'm still trying to respond to everyone, but I've been flooded with emails on top of everything else. It may take a little while to get back to you! COMMENTS

Look, I don't really want to get into this further, but I'll just say this much: -I already have a project manager who has been very helpful. -I've received many volunteer offers, whom I've been reviewing and my project manager is helping to take care of, however I'll ask for additional help as I need it. There's not a lot of sense in hunting for animators when you don't have any models for them to work with and may not for another year and a half or longer. -The way you talk suggests you don't understand all that's involved with an extensive machinima project. I think Unreal will be better, but Source was a nightmare. The engine had so many bugs that had no explanation, some were so devastating they almost tanked the episode until I could invent a workaround. Valve themselves INTRODUCED a bug between Episode 1 and 2 that they haven't fixed to this day. What percentage of done is fixing a bug that has no known cause and holds up the entire project? One bug like this may take 15 minutes to workaround. Another one may take 6 weeks. Source Filmmaker when it was released (and still not by default, best I know) doesn't support physics, sprites, or global map-light realtime shadows. Why accrue extra accountability for your percentages that were based off not knowing that information? I'd rather just not give a percentage, than state 10% for 6 months, then suddenly change the number to 1% because of previously unknown variables. Stuff like that is terrible for morale. -I simply can't afford to hire people except for specific jobs I can't do myself and there really is no substitute for from a volunteer pool. While I have raised a lot of money, I need to make it last a long time. Minimum wage comes to about 15k a year and specialized work is worth more than that. I couldn't even hire one person full time. -Volunteers are notorious for flaking out. I've received over 100 emails before of people offering to help, giving me their past experience, examples, I say great, ask them to help on a simple thing to start out, I never hear from them again (I call them "the suicide note"). I want to say the "flake out" ratio on volunteers is something close to 80% or higher. Typically, the more complex the skillset, the more likely the person is to disappear randomly. So much of what you're saying is more akin to what you would expect from EMPLOYEES, not volunteers. I think the attitude you're suggesting can be potentially disastrous the more complex a volunteer project you have. Imagine every person you're assigning something can leave anytime he or she feels like it, and you may not have a substitute for them. I don't mean this in an unfriendly way, but your planning sounds like the classic scenario of a mod that's started and announced, but never sees the light of day (which is the majority of them). Another way to look at it: Black Mesa has been in development since 2004, has had more interest and volunteer resources than practically any mod in the industry and STILL isn't done. They took 8 years to get the first portion out, I'm sure I'll be a lot faster than that for the whole project. -The thing to take away from this is I'm the last line of defense. I have enough experience with volunteers and planning that I'll be able to handle whatever help I do end up getting (stable or not), but if anyone leaves, the movie will still get made. I've produced over a dozen fully-animated machinimas, which were akin to making small mods. I can't promise speedy operations, but I will get it made eventually. I guess you'll just have to trust me (or not) when I say that I've likely already thought about everything you're talking about years ahead of time and do have a plan that I think has the highest odds for success for my budget / situation.

I can say that I pay about 1,034 zloty a month (little under $300, depending on exchange rate) in social security and health coverage in Poland each month. That's going to be the same for pretty much anyone self-employed. Beyond that, I don't think my girlfriend would be comfortable with me revealing everything else, plus some expenses fluctuate. Imagining project percentage updates is kind of meaningless. I'm years off. That's the best way to look at it. This is going to be the longest video I've made and in a different engine. I have a lot of experience making machinimas and I have done some things in Unreal, so I have an idea of what's needed, but trying to accurately assume projected deadlines just isn't very realistic right now. All numbers would have to get shifted every time I make a new Game Dungeon, or have to spend half the day downtown taking care of paperwork. Here's something worth keeping in mind: Out of successfully funded kickstarter games that come to market, virtually ALL are over deadline. You're talking like I've never planned anything out. I have lots of things planned already, but frequent status reports would only slow things down and be inaccurate. I really doubt the movie is going to come out before 2017 and it's highly possible it will be after that. I got setback a lot this year due to various things, but I'm going to keep working on the movie regardless. Sorry, but it won't happen, that would be an issue with copyright from Valve, you'll just have to live with being able to download them for free. Yeah, that's my main concern. Here's a good way to look at things: I ABSOLUTELY will try my best to get the movie done faster than Freeman's Mind was. Thanks, I have a bunch of stuff coming for this month. Thanks, but I really meant all I said in the video, I see this whole thing as pressing my luck, people have no OBLIGATION to watch the ads, if I really expected people to cough up money, I'd put it behind a paywall or something. I'd like as many people to see the videos as are interested and if I can find someway to stay afloat, then mission accomplished.

You wouldn't be the baby. His expression resembles my own to what you're saying. VTM Bloodlines is a longer game than Half-Life. It's possible, but I didn't like how it had to be done as a service, which affects my taxes, plus the additional fees + their recent public perception after being hacked didn't help either. Besides, if people really don't want to use Paypal, they can always email me or I have the bitcoin option too. It's like the video said, my heart really isn't into business stuff, I look at it as a means to an end. I only want money to the point I don't have to worry about it.

Prepare to be disappointed. I'm expecting there will be so many comments that I'll probably be 5-10 minutes behind what people are writing and I highly doubt I'll get to everyone for the first livestream. I haven't settled on what service I'll be using, but if you're expecting an answer as soon as you type it, you may be competing with thousands of others. This will be semi-anarchy at first, but I'm thinking over time we'll get a better semblance of order going.

Yes, so I get to keep more of $12 once a year than I do from $1 monthly. I didn't want to point that out in the video because I wanted to minimize the "look at all the ways you can pay me" infomercial crap. This was honestly a rough script for me to write since I was fighting a lot of my nature with it. Yeah, but wow, the timing sure worked in my favor. I'm not sure what people have in mind, but I think it would be pretty underwhelming. Not always, but a lot of the time it's mostly me going in with a list of notes of what kinds of shots I want to grab, screencapping them, then exiting and processing the clips for editing and repeating. Additionally, I try to free up all computer resources when recording higher resolution games to minimize the possibility of any stuttering. While I do have a multicore processor, I don't always have full faith in Windows' ability to manage things without any bottlenecking at all. That and I'm usually not giving any sort of performance while I'm doing this stuff, I'm typically trying to get the footage I need as fast I can and I don't think it would be very interesting to watch. Well I confess, even before the fundraiser, I've been holding out for Pascal next year. I usually only upgrade one part at a time and make it last as long as possible however. That and the Oculus Rift (or Vive, whichever ends up being better), since I look at that less as an upgrade and more of an escapism portal that I've been wanting for a decade or so. But yeah, I've actually never bought a full desktop system. I assembled my first one in high school (for $400 including monitor) and have only upgraded incrementally since. Even then, I never buy top-tier stuff since the premium is so high and it depreciates rapidly. I believe VoodooPC predates them.

Maybe, these both seem like things that sound easy in concept, but seem like they could get suspiciously longer. I tend to be more cautious the easier something to do is also, since I don't like the videos to dip below a certain quality level. Oh well thanks a bunch man. Again though, don't feel obligated if you're scraping by yourself. That's part of the reason I told everyone how much I make, so some people would certainly go "well damn, I'm making as much as that working the grill, I think I'll keep my money afterall". I don't want to exploit or deceive anyone. Besides, even if you never donate a dime, coming back after a long time to see more videos is always appreciated. No worries at all, it's not like I'm handing out donations myself. Again, I really look at the situation as me pressing my luck, so don't worry about it. No, it's all the same as far as I know. It might be less for directly from another Paypal account, but that's it. As for mod tracker, I talked about that in moon gaming actually, but edited it out since there was so much other stuff. Not that I know of, I think just cancel the old one and do a new one instead.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » New video! This one probably isn't what a lot of you were hoping for, but I admit this is one aimed at a real minority of the audience. I tried to make it as enjoyable to watch as I could. The short version is this is a fundraiser video and I'll be happy for any donations I can get. There's no obligation to donate anything however, you'll still get all the videos. This is another experiment of mine to stay afloat, like many others. If you are interested in helping out though, the donation page has been updated to make it a little easier to use + now includes stat tracking! Donation Page I was originally going to use Patreon for this, but for reasons discussed in the video, I decided against it (them being hacked recently reinforced the decision). For those wondering, I'm unfortunatley going to be pretty empty-handed regarded prizes, although if there's something you really want that doesn't take a lot of time, I can consider it. It's mostly an issue of time more than anything else. If you've ever wanted to know what my financial or work situation has been over the years, it's all in the video. Something I was considering saying that's not it the video is if anyone has alternative solutions to my situation also, they're free to suggest them. I was a little hesitant about saying that on Youtube since a lot of suggestions might not be so practical ("You should live in a dog house, it's much less expensive, woof!"). One big news item in the video that's worth repeating is I plan to be setting up monthly live video chats in the near future, so anyone can communicate with me and I can let everyone know what's going on. Ideally, I'd like to start this sometime late October, but realistically, it may not happen until early November. I'll have details posted here once things are worked out. For the time being, next up, regardless of how the fundraiser goes, is going to be as many Game Dungeons as I can cram in for October. There will be a bit of a delay, but expect several for late October and of course, a Halloween episode. While the overall future of my videos is a little like the Magic 8 ball answer "reply hazy, try again later", for the time being, there's a bunch more coming! - - - ADHD version: Did you know Ross accepts money? Also he'll be doing live video chats in the future! COMMENTS

Okay things DID go wrong, it will probably be within another 24 hours. There's barely any from FM, it's very robotic to record. There are some from CP, I'll get around to releasing them at some point.

The video will explain everything. If nothing goes wrong, I should have it up within 24 hours.

Hell, that'll get fixed ASAP.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here » Goodies! In anticipation of the fundraiser campaign I should have coming out soon (expect a video + more info in 1-2 days), as a good faith gesture, I'm releasing all the stuff I've been meaning to for months! DOTA 2 VOICE PACK RELEASED! While my original plan was to sell this in the Steam store, I've decided to release all the files to the Freeman's Mind Announcer Pack I was working on for DOTA 2 for free. The reason I didn't follow this thing through was because midway through its production, Valve changed the rules, which made about half my lines unusable. This was a huge morale killer and by that time I was able to resume work on the videos again, so this pack remained in limbo for a while. Truth be told, I'd rather just make more videos than spend another month or two working on this again. Ironically, I'm not even that big a MOBA fan (though I do like RTSs and action RPGs individually), this was more of a fan request thing that never quite made it. Still, I put a whole bunch of effort into this and I'm sure you'll find some lines entertaining. DOTA 2 Freeman's Mind Announcer Pack (51MB) You're allowed to use these files for anything you want, under the following conditions: 1. Don't sell this as a voice pack. 2. If you make something substantial with this, please credit me (Ross Scott) for the lines if possible. While this pack is free, donations are still welcome! ALL WEBSITE LINKS UPDATED! Besides the DOTA 2 files, all the links to the videos on the site should now be updated, making it easy to find anything you may have missed. In the future I hope to have an overhaul of the site to make everything easier to access, but in the meantime, info on all the videos can be found here in the movies section. Additionally, all Freeman's Mind episodes are now available to download from the episode pages, and I've also updated the archive of all my isolated voice tracks for Freeman's Mind. You can download the updated pack HERE (680MB). That's it for now, the fundraising video is next, followed by as many Game Dungeons as I can get done for October! - - - ADHD version: Dota 2 files released! Freeman's Mind voice files + downloads released! Web links all updated! Ross is having a fundraising campaign soon, donations are appreciated! COMMENTS