Ryan Bloom

Patreon Party People - December 2020

This year, huh? Another late podcast, this time with a very good reason. I talk about the Jurassic Park video under performing, continue to ruminate on what I'm doing wrong with my Youtube channel (a frequent topic lately, especially over on my blog) and as always, plans on what to do next, including getting back in to the Let's Play game. In media, I talk James Bond, The Prince of Darkness, an...

Thumbnail vs. Thumbnail poll

It may be entirely too late at night for any of you to weigh in on this before the finalized video goes public tomorrow morning, but I'm having trouble figuring out the Youtube thumbnail for the Jurassic Park video. Which one do you prefer?

So far opinions I've solicited from friends seem to he divided right down the middle. 

BLTN: Jurassic Park (Draft Quality Early Access)

Here's the whole Jurassic Park video! If you've seen my early access previews of complete videos, you should know what to expect: this is 97% identical to the version that will be going out publicly. This is the version I rendered and uploaded to make sure everything looked right, and it was almost, but not quite, there. 

What's new is that this version, uh, unfortunately ki...

The First Three Minutes of BLTN: Jurassic Park

Here's a test render for the first three minutes of the next video review. I use a lot of movie footage here, but usually putting a border around (especially an animated border) will foil the detection algorithm. Not so, here.

Most of the film footage was fine and did not get claimed, but the one scene of Jurassic Park where it cuts to movie audio was giving me trouble. I flipped the vide...

Patreon Party People - November 2020

Welcome to the Halloween Hangover edition of the Patreon Party People Podcast. The back half is stuffed full of movie discussion! The front half talks about the sudden resurfacing of creative juices, perhaps related to a certain event happening in America. Also: failing to fix a SNES, and yes, more Fortnite. Just a little, though.

Relevant Links

• 2020-11-17 06:29:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Dare to Scare: Alien Isolation (Uncut)

At 2 hours long, I think this counts as the longest Dare to Scare yet, though I guess I also don't pay super close attention to that kind of stuff, outside of the MASSIVE amounts of HDD space things like this take up. 

Be Sure to Check Out

http://www.eyesineverything.com/

Dare to Scare: Indie Horror 2020 (Uncut)

Four indie games, one video. Ranging from pretty cool style pieces, to... well, you're just going to have to see for yourself.

Games Featured

• Inside https://andries-benade.itch.io/inside  
• Dispatch 2020-10-19 22:30:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Dare to Scare Photos (Good Wallpapers!)

Here's a bunch of high-res photos I took while I was setting up the lighting and the cold-steam humidifier (my makeshift smoke machine) for the new Dare to Scare intro. They probably make good wallpapers, but if you use them on your desktop, depending on how your icons are arranged, you might have to flip the pictures horizontally. 

I wish the last image in the gallery wasn't out of ...

Patreon Party People - October 2020

Halloween is upon us! Things kick off with talking about the newest episode of Dare to Scare, including lost footage and even an entire lost episode! Then it's getting back in to gear on the Jurassic Park video, and continuing to find footing on the Sonic Forces video. The back half of the podcast dives in to Antebellum, Hollow Man, the blandness of Super Mario 35, "emulator syndrome" and falli...

Dare to Scare: They Hunger (Uncut)

Kicking off the Halloween season by going back to an old, slightly unbalanced friend.

Early Access: Super Mario Sunshine Re-Review (2020)

Just click here, because Patreon refuses to let me post this as a "Link" article. 

This is a bit short notice, but as I mentioned on the podcast, I was more or less requested to re-review Super Mario Sunshine. That's done now! It'll go up ...

Patreon Party People - September 2020

Sorry for the late podcast. To give you an idea of how things have been for me, I had like, 17 posts queued up for my Tumblr ask blog -- which got as low as 3 posts in the tank. We'll blame SAGE. Which doesn't really get talked about too much in this podcast, actually! Instead, it's more about the upcoming structure of Dare to Scare, a long rant about a potential video featuring fan games, a Re...

Experimenting with new Dare to Scare branding

Patreon Party People - August 2020

Whoops! A bit later than I would've liked on this one. Covered in this video is discussing my next video project, more status updates on Bubsy, adventures in buying a Retrotink, the struggle of the redesigned bltn.net, and what to do about approaching 25,000 Youtube subscribers. Then it's on to talking about documentaries, rewatching Beetlejuice, and being grumpy about Fall Guys. Plus: Avengers...

That Other Sonic the Hedgehog Writing Experiment

I may as well throw this in here, too. Here's something I started writing on a whim -- on the subject on whether Sega's "Sonic Mania Adventures" shorts could ever be adapted for anything else, I tried imagining the story to the original Sonic Adventure in that style. 

This is a full-beans script. I went out of my way to write it like real, actual movie scripts are written. I don't sk...

That Sonic the Hedgehog Writing Experiment

You may recall on the podcast I mentioned somehow stumbling in to what I guess I'm now calling a "writing experiment." The long and short of it is that sometimes, conversations with friends happen and you start spitballing ideas for a thing as a joke.  It usually never goes on longer than, say, a few lines of dialog.

I ended up doing something vaguely similar regarding "Ghostbusters ...

Patreon Party People - July 2020

Another year older but never any wiser. Work continues on the usual suspects, I pick back up on the Sonic Forces video script (and the direction it's drifting towards), future plans for BLTN.net, the difficulty behind proof reading, and fixing a laptop. Then, Steam summer demos, rounding the ending to Crash 2 and Halo 2, Kero Blaster, the Super Mario 64 PC port, and the weird way Fortnite Seaso...

The State of Bubsy

So here's what "Better Bubsy" looks like right now. It may not look like that much when you look at the zoom out at the end, but a lot of "testing" goes in to making sure everything flows and feels correct. I tend to polish as I go. I also had to fix some really weird bugs, like enemy collisions with semisolid platforms broke at some point and I spent like three days fixing that. 

It...

Patreon Party People - June 2020

It's... been a month, folks. In this here podcast, I talk about TSSZ's closure, the fact I'll probably be moving soon, possibly opening a Discord, and more. Then, spoilers on Scoob!, Rick & Morty Season 4, and a ton of games: Crash Bandicoot, Halo 2, Streets of Rage 4, and why I've stalled out on Final Fantasy VII Remake. 

Relevant Links

• 2020-06-11 22:03:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Artwork: Classic Shadow the Hedgehog (With PSD)

So, almost ten years ago, I did a piece of artwork for my Sonic Generations video review of Classic-styled Shadow the Hedgehog. It was partially me tracing-over official Sonic artwork (possibly by Kazuyuki Hoshino), but I wanted it to look official. 

That artwork has since gone on to be featured in al...

Dare to Scare? - The House in the Woods

I have no good excuse for this, and I debated on even posting it. I recently bought a light panel for the ease of shooting video, and I got it in my head to test an impromptu Dare to Scare setup along with the new webcam I was gifted for Christmas.

And so here we are: a short video. I'll tell you right now, there's two problems. 

• I forgot to re-adjust my volume levels aft...
  2020-05-07 14:33:22 +0000 UTC View Post

Patreon Party People - April 2020

Hey, what happened to that Bubsy game I talked about a month ago? Also: mulling over upcoming videos, as per usual. Including a sneak preview of the script for one! Then, upcoming written reviews. And I'm basically starting to write fanfiction? Spooky. Things close out with discussion about Panzer Dragoon Remake, More Half-Life Alyx, Super Mario Odyssey, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Steamworld Dig...

Development Compilation

In the March podcast I outlined my plans for April Fools this year. I don't know if I'll be ready for today, but I threw this video together for you patrons showcasing the development of the game, mostly over the last six weeks or so. 

A lot of these clips were shared with a private discord p...

Patreon Party People - March 2020

April Fools is coming. What's on the docket? A joke that isn't really a joke. You'll understand once you listen to it. We also talk more (yes, more) about my philosophy behind the "Definitive Way to Play" videos, given recent events I've witnessed. Podcast wraps up with discussion of seeing the Sonic the Hedgehog movie in the theaters, and TWO Star Wars movies. Including... that one. 2020-03-25 03:58:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Patreon Party People - February 2020

Behold as I try to scrape this podcast back on to a regular schedule again. Featured here: I've got reviews coming out of my ears, and there's a bit of a talk about reviewer "culture" and expectations for that. I also talk about things I forgot to talk about last podcast, and debating on whether or not I should go see the Sonic movie. Middle segment is reading a tumblr ask, and the podcast clos...

Patreon Party People - January 2020

After having recorded this podcast all I can think of are the things I forgot to talk about. But when it's been nearly three months since the last podcast, that's what's expected, I suppose. So what's been going on? Video deadlines, medical problems, and holiday madness. Expect inside baseball on the performance of my Youtube channel, plans for 2020, and in the second "half" (read: 75% of the p...

The Definitive Way to Play Sonic 3 (Supplemental Podcast - Just Audio)

I'd actually planned on releasing this here as an MP3 on the day I produced it, but in all the chaos of getting promos set up and whatever else, I kind of spaced it out. So here it is, belatedly.

It also technically counts as November's podcast, unfortunately. I was in such a mad dash to get my Sonic 3 video out the door that it didn't feel like there was time to squeeze in the podcast. G...

The Definitive Way to Play Sonic 3 (Early Access)

I always have to re-render these videos because even in the "final" render I find little imperfections. But since I have a complete version of this video here and now, I figured if you guys wanted to watch it early, you can do that! There's a dozen or so minor changes I'll be making to the version that premieres tomorrow morning. 

6 Minute Preview of an Upcoming Video

I hit the ground running today on editing together the Sonic 3 video, so here's a six and a half minute preview of that. It's missing some finishing touches (pop-ups to point out game names, and the standard blue scrolling dot background) but this is a solid idea of where the first, uh, eighth of the video goes. 

Yeah, it's kind of a long one, and it goes a lot of different ...

Dare to Scare: Baldi's Basics (Uncut)

This game feels like a prank, and I fell for it.