BlazBits and what needs to be done to make it to happen

[tataki]

(Copy pasted from the GB thread since the BB players this would be for are here and not there.)

As I said in the comments already, a similar series for BBCP is not planned right now, but I'd like to share some more detailed reasoning, and do it in here where people can voice their opinions on the situation:

The time it takes to produce an episode for a single character from scratch, considering the hard work of picking the right content, presenting it in the right way, and then creating a video that looks good, rather than some cheap looking windows movie maker things you usually see on youtube, takes between 20 to 30 hours. 20-30 hours is relatively fine for a one time project, but multiply that with 25 characters and this turns into another full time job on top of your actual job, all which you do for free, during your free time. Back then when we put up an episode per week, I had no life outside of it. All my free time after work and during weekends went on that, which burned me out and eventually forced me to take a 2 month break between episodes 7 and 8 -- and you can look at each video's date yourself to confirm that. This is also why we switched to bi-weekly format. Having an episode ready every week was literally impossible.

While we do intent to finish what we started, we also had to accept that projects like this are too much effort for not much reward. So from now on the focus will be on projects that don't force you to commit to 20+ episodes from the very beginning, only on projects of smaller scale -- but not of smaller importance! (You'd be excited for what we DO have planned, but that's a topic for another day.)

So now there are 2 options:

1. You accept that the scope of what we can give you is limited, mainly because of time constraints, and settle with just getting that. This is what usually happens with free internet content, and that's what we are prepared for.

2. You decide that those "extra" projects, like BlazBits, are important to you. Important enough that you'd be willing to pitch in with 1$, or 2$, or 5$ to make it happen, i.e. Kickstarter the shit out of it. If time equals money and our scale is measured in minimum wage, then think about Guilty Bits as a 7000$ present from us to the community. We hope you enjoyed your present, but we really can't afford to commit to another 7000$ worth of hours to make another 25 part series. Making compromises on the quality of the content is not an option, because ending up with a sub-par guide is a waste of time, and making compromises on the production values is also not an option, because it's vital to leave an impression of "holy shit this is awesome" that attracts new people to the game, and that's something you simply can't do with windows movie maker quickies.

So either you help make it happen, or you somehow convince the publisher @Aksysgames or @ArcSystemWorksU even to help make it happen, or we settle with option #1.

Your choice, and we'll be fine with whatever you decide. No hard feelings.

Edited November 23, 2013 by tataki

[mAceOfHearts]

I'd be willing to pledge a bit to get a BlazBit series going, but I don't know if enough people will pledge to get you up to 7000.

I'll still be watching no matter which option you go with.

[Airk]

I'm known to be pretty free with my wallet in small increments when it comes to BB. :P

That said, maybe you should try to do this in 'pieces'. Maybe do the -new- characters as your first project, try to fund and put that together, and then see if support continues/improves/declines/whatever afterward?

[OmegaDivider]

I'm known to be pretty free with my wallet in small increments when it comes to BB. :P

That said, maybe you should try to do this in 'pieces'. Maybe do the -new- characters as your first project, try to fund and put that together, and then see if support continues/improves/declines/whatever afterward?

I agree with this.

That said, you'd definitely have my support (and money)

[Obiyer]

My bad, if this is not the right place to post this, but I had no idea that the Bits series took that much work. Thanks for taking the time to continue to do them. If someone where to do a kickstarter I wouldn't mind dropping some bucks to see it happen for Blazblu, but I don't know if we can reach 7k.

[Nihzlet]

I love the Guilty Bits series but BB is my preferred game, so I'd definitely be willing to chip in some for a Kickstarter or the like.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Nihzlet

[tataki]

Ok how about this- Instead of a kickstarter of 7000$ or bust, how about a kickstarter of 250$ (Edit: 300$, because of indiegogo and paypal fees) for a single episode, with additional stretch goals for more episodes (300$ each) and people can vote for which characters where each dollar counts for a vote, or something.

That way at least we don't commit to a whole year worth's of hard work, and we can continue the donation after paypal ends and more people get to see the videos.

Edited November 29, 2013 by tataki

[mAceOfHearts]

Yeah, that could work.

I'd love to see an Azrael episode first, but anything's fine.

[Airk]

Ok how about this- Instead of a kickstarter of 7000$ or bust, how about a kickstarter of 250$ for a single episode, with additional stretch goals for more episodes (250$ each) and people can vote for which characters where each dollar counts for a vote, or something.

That way at least we don't commit to a whole year worth's of hard work, and we can continue the donation after paypal ends and more people get to see the videos.

Sure, I'm in. You're 10% of the way just from me, most likely. :P

[tataki]

Edit:

Here's a teaser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCXSzRRRPY

Edited November 29, 2013 by tataki

[tataki]

I'll try posting the poll in other places. I think my channel is mostly GG lovers and not many BB lovers.

[tataki]

So far according to the poll- Some people really want to throw money at the screen, but not enough. Also the main amount most people are willing to pay is 5$.

What I think we'd be better off doing at this point is to redesign the series, to cut the production time but to still try to keep most of the quality i.e. Pareto that shit down!

Edited November 29, 2013 by tataki

[Airk]

You might want to give it another day or two; Lots of people are probably not surfing the net as much as they otherwise might due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

[OmegaDivider]

Well, I sent in my vote.

I wish you much luck if you decide to take the project on!

[tataki]

People are willing to donate but it's in the ambiguous "can or cannot happen" area right now.

At this point we need 1 BB character expert to help us create a "beta" episode, so we can test the new time saving approach for the production we were working on. Obviously if the project is funded he'll get paid for his time when the episode is published like all the rest of the people who will help.

Edited December 3, 2013 by tataki

[Raektis]

Shared this with my local BB community, hoping for others to do the same.

[tataki]

So suggestions for the higher level perks have been that the character experts will watch matches of donors or play against them online and give them feedback. I don't think anybody who offers their help (and getting payed for their work) will be objecting to this, right?

[Veteru]

Option 1. Don't make BlazBits.

If it reaches a point where you're asking for crowd funding, I feel the quality of content present in Guilty Bits is insufficient for the amount you've listed.

I'm strongly opposed to the solicitation of funding via Dustloop forum/community, including the request that people contact ASWU or Aksys on your behalf, for this purpose.

For clarification, it's not my intention to say your work isn't appreciated or worthwhile. just that I don't think it's appropriate to solicit donations for it in this way.

[mAceOfHearts]

Oh? And why is that? What exactly do you mean when you say ´´insufficient``?

I can understand why you'd be opposed to using Dustloop for funding purposes, but I don't see how you can be opposed to it being crowd-funded in general.

If people are willing to pay for it, I don't see a problem with them paying for it, especially not if it's one of the only options available. Just let people judge for themselves whether or not something is worth putting money into.

This is all just my opinion, of course.

[Meiga]

Is this idea still going on? I'm willing to help out with the project. I'm a Jin player and I'm not a pro but I can still give you great tips. I'm also willing to donate a large amount.

[tataki]

Is this idea still going on? I'm willing to help out with the project. I'm a Jin player and I'm not a pro but I can still give you great tips. I'm also willing to donate a large amount.

It's still planned but we got other stuff we want to put on the channel first.

[tataki]

We are designing a completely new & improved format for BlazBits. Every thing you think Guilty Bits was missing please let us know ASAP.

[muerto]

the only thing i i dint like about guilty bits is that the "demonstrative" screen was a tad too tin, i think i saw some other people complaint about the same thing more than once and its not like the space was really needed most of the time

[mAceOfHearts]

I'd be nice if you could write what combos were being shown on the screen. Aside from that, no compaints.

[tataki]

Next question: Let's say you classify the content in Guilty Bits as purely "beginner" content. Other than combos, what type of content would be added as "intermediate" content?