The TL;DR is that I've been playing a lot of *really* cool indie games lately, but you wouldn't know it from looking at this channel. So I've been looking for a means of getting smaller, shorter, quicker to produce videos out the door, and this is experiment #1 with that. I managed to put the post and video together basically over a weekend, which is really really fast for me considering *gestures to recent videos*. So if the response is positive I'd like to keep doing it for other neat games I've played - but I have no idea how short five-to-ten minute videos are gonna play on the modern YouTube scene, so I have the Medium post as a fallback outlet.
Anyways, Artic Eggs is pretty rad! As is Venba and Umurangi Generation which both get shout outs in this video. Check them out!
00:00 System Shock 2 36:13 Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament 44:56 Kingpin 52:07 Requiem: Avenging Angel 58:10 Medal of Honor 1:02:53 SWAT 3 1:09:37 Alien vs Predator 1:13:49 Wheel of Time 1:19:56 OutroThe Lethal Comedy of Zeekerss Lethal CompanyErrant Signal2024-01-14 | Lethal Company is the latest viral internet multiplayer sensation popular among streamers and kids! But also... it's kind of rad?
00:00 Intro 00:54 Lethal Company 08:13 Learning about Zeekerss 09:47 It Steals 14:49 Dead Seater 19:46 The Upturned 24:45 ConclusionTaking Calls Live on the Scarewaves in Killer FrequencyErrant Signal2023-10-31 | A short, spooky (but not that spooky!) Halloween video for this year. Let's go to the lines, shall we? Caller one, you're on.How System Shocks Reboot Wrestles With Adapting Its LegacyErrant Signal2023-10-02 | How much of a game's identity is tied up in its rough edges? What do you gain by smoothing those edges away? What do you lose? System Shock (1994) and System Shock (2023) serve as a nice case study for this line of thought. While 1994's System Shock is a seminal work whose impact echoes through to today it's also a game a lot of people simply refuse to play given its archaic input systems and low-fi graphics. Meanwhile, 2023's System Shock wants to bring the game to The People - but that means hammering a game that's full of awkward-but-interesting choices into something a bit more conventional. Does that smooth out the game's problems, or erase its identity? Let's take a look!Children of Doom 1998: Half-LifeErrant Signal2023-06-13 | 1998 sure did happen! And there were video games all up in it! So let's talk about way too many of them!
It's weird to have watched this series change: what started as a time filler in between "bigger" essays has itself become one of the biggest projects in scope I've ever done. And what started as talking about one game each year has slowly become more and more about looking about each year in context and cross-comparing what was going on. I think this is more useful and interesting, but it is also undeniably more resource and time intensive to produce. Hopefully the results continue to bear fruit, though.
00:00 Half-Life 22:38 Unreal 30:35 SiN 38:16 Thief 41:12 Tribes 45:16 Jurassic Park: Trespasser 53:06 Klingon Honor Guard 57:11 Shogo: Mobile Armor Division 1:00:32 Blood 2: The Chosen 1:04:09 Xtreme Paintbrawl & Nam 1:07:36 Delta Force & Rainbow Six 1:11:34 OutroOf Fops and Flops: Cheating the Aristocracy in Card SharkErrant Signal2023-03-07 | Yeah, I know "fop" traditionally refers to an English or American dandy and not specifically eighteenth century French aristocracy, but you try writing an eye-grabbing title for a YouTube video about cheating Voltaire out of five bucks in today's economy.
A Little to the Left is also available on the Switch!Sometimes The Bodies Talk Back: The Mortuary AssistantErrant Signal2022-10-31 | The Mortuary Assistant is a scary game: store.steampowered.com/app/1295920/The_Mortuary_AssistantExploring Nightmares in HypnagogiaErrant Signal2022-10-30 | The first Halloween episode is out, if very belatedly!
This is the less scary one! It's about Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams, and some of the cool spooky scenes there in!
Check out Soda Raptor's stuff: sodaraptor.itch.ioTikTok: Life on the AlgorithmErrant Signal2022-08-07 | Let's talk about the hottest platform people over 35 don't seem to use.
00:00 Intro 03:00 What the heckin' heck is TikTok 08:25 Life on the Algorithm 19:04 Content One TikTok At A Time 31:04 Immoderate Moderation 35:59 Monetization 39:42 Warhol's Curse 47:41 Why Should We Care?A Silent Film Horror Game!?Errant Signal2022-06-01 | Cool rendering styles?! Slow burn dramatic horror that eschews jump scares?! That's right! We're looking at another Christoph Frey game!
I wanted to do an experiment in short form/rapid production video making. Still not sure of the results~~GoldenEye 007 (Children of Doom 1997)Errant Signal2022-03-15 | This is less of a video essay and more of a plea for an editor.
Also it's a video essay.
About GoldenEye 007. And, I guess, game inputs. And James Bond. And 1997. It's about a lot of things. Because again, I am a man in desperate need of someone to edit him.
00:00 GoldenEye 04:12 GoldenEye 007 37:18 Elsewhere in 1997...Androids, Fires, and Spooky Subway Trains - Blips 9Errant Signal2022-01-06 | Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Anyways, now that I'm back let's talk about some cool indie games!
I also listened to but did not directly cite (though previous versions of the script did) the Dad and Sons podcast episode featuring Veselekov: https://nebula.app/dad-and-sons/dad-sons-168-apolitical-podcast-power-fantasy-feat-veselekov-umurangi-generation
If you wanna play some of the games in this video, here are some links!
And yes, I used "Spartan" instead of "Sparse" at one point in this video. It wouldn't be an Errant Signal video without a ridiculous vocabulary screwup.Riffin On An Old Universal Promotional Video Because I Need A New Creative OutletErrant Signal2021-07-06 | This was probably a mistake but look I needed to get it out of my system.
I decided to try to be funny, which is always, always, always a mistake. But also it isn't me talking about a video game, which is really what this is about.Of Shamblers, Shades, and Sectors: Children of Doom Episode 6Errant Signal2021-05-10 | Did you know: Duke Nukem 3D and Quake are both video games? Learn about this and more at your local library.
Chapters: 0:00 An Intro 1:17 A Brief Look Back At Quake 11:10 A Too Long Look Back At Duke Nukem 3D 27:09 Elsewhere in 1996(ish)...Gaming In the Quarantine YearsErrant Signal2021-03-30 | This one's less of a video essay and more of a kinda meandering raw nerve; an attempt to work through (or at least put words to) a phenomenon I've been wrestling with for a while now. It may also just be a pretentious scribble, but it's one I worked real hard on.Bad Bosses, Beautiful Vistas, and Baffling Mysteries: Blips Episode 8Errant Signal2021-02-17 | Pixel A Day: Channel: youtube.com/channel/UCRmZM0WpKzSu_27unPuyEZA Video on The Sublime: youtube.com/watch?v=rlj0JK-CDuQ
Jumpscare times for people looking to avoid them (thanks Skulduggery Peasant!): 10:54-10:59 has the Pocong fly into the camera suddenly, but has no audio sting.
13:48-13:52 has Pocong appear suddenly with an audio sting.
17:39 - 17:42 Ghost pop up while the presenter is talking, but with no audio accompaniment due to aforementioned talking.
19:18-19:27 has some creepy sounds followed by the toyol jumping at the screen with an audio sting.
20:46-20:50 has an audio sting, but nothing visibly scary
0:00 Intro 0:06 Necrobarista 7:50 Cloud Gardens 12:36 Post Void 16:28 Spirits Abyss 21:31 Fatum BetulaMarathon: Children of Doom Episode 4Errant Signal2020-08-07 | Going into this series I had never played Marathon, so let's take a look at it together!
Also, for the love of god, please let us not get into a debate about how to pronounce "Durandal."
Support the show! patreon.com/errantsignal Watch me make regretful statements in real time! http://twitter.com/campsterFortnite: The Party Thats a PlatformErrant Signal2020-07-08 | So I started playing Fortnite again, and that got me thinking about Fortnite again, and then... well, this happened.
Support the show! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignalWolfenstein 3-D: Children of DOOM Episode 2Errant Signal2020-04-03 | We're doing another one of these things because we have a lot of years to cover between Catacomb 3-D and now. This time it's 1992, and Wolfenstein 3-D is trying to be a modern adaptation of a retro title but with modern sensibilities. IT'S ALMOST LIKE TIME IS CYCLICAL
Anyways, support the show on Patreon because I'm sure the imagery in this video will get it demonetized soon enough! www.patreon.com/errantsignalCatacomb 3-D: Children of DOOM Episode 1Errant Signal2020-03-03 | So I put most of the description in the actual script this time, but: I thought I'd try my hand at something new. Let me me know if this is something you'd like to see more of!
Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/errantsignalBlips 5: Kings, Robocops, and Clay Comedy GamesErrant Signal2020-01-31 | Today we look at.... "comedy" games, kind of? Or at least, a series of games that all have a humorous bent to them, to one degree or another. Look, y'all want themed episodes and I'm meeting you halfway.
Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/errantsignalBlips: Minesweeper Roguelikes, Soccer Coaching, and Ecological Disaster!Errant Signal2019-12-04 | Here are a bunch of little vignettes, most of which involve hex-based spheres in some way!
Scanline: The Power of VHS: youtube.com/watch?v=xbZMqS-fW-8Blips 3: Cyberpunk Stealth, Digital Therapy, and Road Trips!Errant Signal2019-10-01 | It's an extra chunky Blips episode, featuring... 7-ish games, instead of the usual four! Hooray! Featured games:
As always, if you liked this (or want to get access to the next one a few days early!), please consider supporting the show on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignalOuter Wilds Part 2: Being There (Spoilers)Errant Signal2019-09-06 | This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignal
Let's talk about The Outer Wilds in detail!Rage 2 and Game FeelErrant Signal2019-08-02 | This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignal
RAGE 2 is a really great shooter! But maybe there's more to playing games than being really, really, ridiculously good to play?Blips 2: Making Friends, Circling Enemies, and More!Errant Signal2019-07-10 | So here's four more weird games (and game-adjacent applications) to look at! If you want to skip the flashy bits, fast forward to 3:43.
The Outer Wilds is a game that is difficult to talk about, because it's a game about discovering itself. Which means the more I talk about it, the more I take the game away from you. And that's a difficult position to be in when this game makes me want to talk about it *so badly!*
Anyways I was halfway through a script that tried to navigated this issue by having a front half that was largely spoiler free and a back half that was spoiler city, and I realized it made the whole thing lumpy and awkward (and also required most people to drop off halfway through the video). So I figured I'd cut it in half, release a spoiler free version (or as spoiler free as you can when talking about this game), and then next time we'll *really* dig in to what's going on here.Blips: Pastel Doodles, Blazing Speed, And Lite Horror PlatformersErrant Signal2019-05-31 | This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignal
It's here! The first attempt to look at some maybe less-than-well-known indie games! Let's see if it is bad or not!
If you've followed this channel for any amount of time you know that I like small, weird, quirky games. And there are so many out there! And you would think that would mean we'd have coverage of small games for days, but... we don't. And so I wanted to take some time to talk about why!
Here's the list of all the small games from the video! It's... long! Remember, these aren't really endorsements - there's a mishmash of stuff in here at various price points/levels of fidelity and polish/amount of stuff going on thematically, and not all of it is gonna resonate with everyone. But hopefully *some* of it will resonate with you. Check them out!
I was trying to ape the Best of the Worst format but without the comradery and spontaneity of that show nor the meaningful discussions that are more my wheelhouse. The result is mostly a boring, awkward mush. There are parts that really should have been scripted that were improvised, and parts that should have been improvised that were scripted. The purely random game selection is good for getting a wide swath of titles, but it leads to a lot of boring duds, phone ports, and also possibly some accidentally some super offensive stuff (that first game is *sucks in air through teeth*). It was a shot in the dark to break from the constrained format of video essays, and it was clear as soon as it was finished that it wasn't the way forward.
Additionally, as discussed in the other video I released today, I don't know if this is even the right approach to take? I think a personal curation effort that espouses the positives would probably be more beneficial.
I still think there's value in lovingly riffing on bad games, and I still advocate for the birth of a "videogame shlock" discourse that's sorely missing. Like, Blowy Fish is terrible, but there's also something undeniably charming and absurd about its inept aping of phone monetization strategies without remotely understanding them and ridiculous fish outfit unlockables. Bad games can be fun! And in their own, z-grade movie way, good!
But this format? This wasn't really working either as a way to champion small games or to push for a canon of videogame schlock. It's mostly just a snooze that neither promotes nor lovingly mocks, so it doesn't achieve any of my goals. Still, I'm happy I took the jump and tried something new, and I intend to explore other new ways of covering this material going forward. And if you want to help fund those attempts:
This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignalWhat Does It Mean To Player Character?Errant Signal2019-04-04 | I wanted to talk about player characters, so... here is entirely too many words about player characters!
---- This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignal ----Broken Reality, Vaporwave, and IronyErrant Signal2019-02-01 | Broken Reality is a game about a futuristic virtual chatroom that borrows most of its aesthetics from the 90's! You'll almost feel like you're back in 2045!
It's also deeply tied up in the vaporwave subculture for good and for ill, and we talk a bit (as much as I can bear to, anyways) about what that means and how it impacts the game.
---- This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignal ----DUSK and the Design of 90s FPS GamesErrant Signal2019-01-01 | DUSK is a game that hearkens back to FPS games from 20 years ago. Is it just a warmed over collection of old hat tropes, or does the game make a case for something like this being made today?
---- This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/errantsignal ----Thanksgiving Leftovers: Fallout 76Errant Signal2018-12-03 | You don't need me to tell you that Fallout 76 is a mess; there are plenty of angry internet people out there doing that already. So instead I'm gonna hypothesize about the game that could have been, and then do my soapbox thing about game dev transparency. I'm nothing if not predictable, and my box of tricks is extremely limited.