The ShadyParadox Files #7 - Project Red Pants
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- Опубликовано: 12 июл 2024
- "Project Red Pants" is the cryptic label I gave to a secret project I worked on in the early to middle part of the last decade. It is perhaps both the best and worst idea for a project I ever came up with. It was the best for its unique concept and extraordinary potential, and the worst because it almost killed the channel.
Now, I'm coming clean and explaining everything because it's important to me that you finally have a way to understand what truly happened. Once you see what it is, perhaps you'll see why I'd like to believe I can finish it one day.
I'm not saying my past decisions were right or wrong, just that this is what they were, and I cannot change the past.
This is what actually happens when you follow your dreams I guess.
BREAKDOWN
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0:00 - A Secret Project
4:41 - King's Quest VI
7:31 - Choose Your Own Adventure!
9:53 - Project Sample
14:27 - Choice Tree Breakdown
21:07 - Reality Hits Home
24:41 - Project Salvage
28:56 - Evaluation
32:51 - Conclusion
34:43 - Accidental Black Screen
MUSIC
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0;10 - Pillar of Light: johntorkington.bandcamp.com/t...
4;42 - City of the Winged Ones: www.midimusicadventures.com/q...
3;05 - Sync: music.disasterpeace.com/track...
11;05 - The Village: www.midimusicadventures.com/q...
14;14 - Temple 2.4: mogigrumbles.bandcamp.com/tra...
21;07 - Lamancha Sub - Crushed: • Lamancha Sub - Crushed
22;02 - Temple gate: • Temple Gate
24;45 - Phatt Island: • MI2SE Soundtrack #14 -...
28;58 - The Search: / the-search
32;54 - Talking Limbo: • Video
OTHER REFERENCE
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Accursed Farms 2015 Announcements: • Accursed Farms 2015 An...
ABOUT ME
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Twitch:
/ shadyparadox
Livestream Archive:
/ @shadylive
Discord:
/ discord
Project Progress:
trello.com/b/DC0bZTZp/shadys-...
Shadyblog:
shadyparadox.wordpress.com/ 
Игры
The reveal that Project Red Pants just comes from the Red Pants in the window somehow is just funny to me.
who actually remembers project redpants first appearing as an upcoming project on the sidebar of the old youtube layout?
Wow, I've waited what, over 10 years for this? Can't believe the mystery is over! The first thing I typed in chat when I saw you were back to livestreaming on RUclips was "what is red pants" and the hearty chuckle you gave made the wait well worth it :D
Some comments on design questions off the top of my head:
1. If you are hosting the videos on your website, creating a solution to have button overlays shouldn't be too hard but it would have to be custom-built (and someone would obviously need to input where and when buttons should appear and where should they lead to). That's pretty simple as far as programming goes but when you start talking logins and saved progress or achievements and all that, now you need a live database to handle all those as they come in and now that's a lot more time put into setting things up, programming and particularly testing it all to make sure it works well (also possibly hosting fees). It woudl also break if you move hosting providers. A subset of these features could be made with browser storage (aka "cookies", no database) but those carry their own limitations as well.
2. You can release it in segments, if not episodes: all you need to do is have chokepoints throughout the choice tree. If the branching closes in on itself two or three times throughout the whole thing, it means you get to release three or four segments that have an end-point in common. Maybe this is too much of a move away from the original goals of the project but not only it helps curb overall design complexity but... if that's the difference between the project ever being made or not, for real, is it really that much of a tradeoff in the end? It's also an excuse for people to replay previous segments when a new one gets released!
And 3 (and I'm sorry if I'm out of line here but as someone waiting a decade to hear about this... I'm going to be bold): is it worth all the trouble? That's a huge project and are people really going to play it through more than once, really? How many people do watch let's plays series more than once? How many people rather play an interactive let's play than boot up Steam or they consoles? I know I counf on both accounts but I'd never expect anyone to put this much work into making a series this rewatch-heavy for the benefit of me being able to play through it, maybe twice...?
The amount of work you're putting into this is starting to get comparable to making a brand-new point-and-click game that you could pair up with an artist for, is all I'm saying. Sure it's not quite on the same level but it's starting to blur the line if we're being honest. How much work did you put into those 9 hours of content, 90 maybe? And that's just a fraction of the total workload, I must imagine.
As a creator myself, I fully understand needing to do something for the sake of doing it and that feeling you were destined to do exactly that - and often, those are the projects that pay off the most, in ways you don't even predict, much later down the road... I'm not trying to gatekeep your dreams, I'm really not, just trying to offer the chance for a reality-check that this is really worth the effort.
Red Pants would be huge in 2010 but nowadays in the era of livestreaming and TikTok, when RUclips's algorithm is going to brutally murder anything that isn't daily, episodic, low-effort clickbait content? It bears thinking twice and thrice over, I'm afraid.
Thank you for showing the red pant reference at the end by the way :D that really gave me a weird sense of closure lol
Hey tukkek, thanks for the feedback!
1) Right now, it looks to me like the best implementation would be some sort of standalone downloadable program rather than an interactive website, which would solve all the hosting issues (other than where to host the program of course). Yes, this would mean all the video content would have to be included in the download. But if it was possible to implement the ZMBV codec into the program's custom video player, then it looks like I could fit 30 hours of video content into about 10 GB without sacrificing video quality. That ultimately wouldn't be too bad, I think.
2) I've considered this possibility down the road, although I would at least try to avoid it at first. If I went that route, there's no doubt people would explore all choice threads as they become available. However, the goal of the project is to immerse the viewer into one particular timeline, because each one embodies a unique story revolving around a different version of the Character. If the viewer followed all timelines at once, this would likely result in them losing track of which character had which personality and what information he was acting on. I understand the pragmatic benefits though, so it's not completely off the table.
3) As I said in the video, this project was inspired by the fact people were already telling me they were in fact watching my RealMyst and Exile series multiple times. Besides, as I also explained the video, the choices basically split into two different series right from the start, so you wouldn't even be rewatching much of anything upon taking the other path.
The key to keep people watching is to make the content as high quality as possible. That's why I'm trying to move away from the standard "Let's Play" tagline, because that's not really what this is. It's a derivative work with it's own specialized Character tailored to simulate a maximal experience playing the game.
So I consider it more of an art form than anything else. I have no ambition to become some kind of internet celebrity or anything, because I have no interest in winning that attention economy game that you so aptly described as a short-attention-span TikTok reality. However, I do believe there is a niche for more deliberate derivative works on the internet somewhere. After all, Ross Scott has continued to make a name for himself without caving to the recent winds.
Still, I understand your concerns, and I have them too. That's why it's on the back burner until at least I complete some smaller project, and I'm not actually certain I ultimately want to pursue this project at all. Whatever I do next though, I want it to be something worthy of being considered art, because sacrificing quality for attention would kill my soul. This is ultimately just a hobby to me, so if it isn't fun and rewarding to make, I'd rather just move on and pursue something else.
@shadyparadox Thanks for the detailed reply, I just binge-watched the whole Paradox Files series today so to top it off with a reply from you makes it special :D (Actually I lied I'm going to finish with #6 just now before bed).
What I meant about the attention-economy was less about getting any fame or recognition out of it and just... people seeing the final work? I know you're not the average "content creator" because let's be honest if you were at least one of us wouldn't be here all these years later after the birth of Let's Play series on RUclips...
I was talking more about... people actually getting to see and appreciate your finished work. Only you can do that math and decide where the cut is but not one of the algorithms is gonna have your back into showing this to people, it just doesn't fit the format. If you're OK with only your old/current fans seeing it come to life despite the massive effort, then that's your call to make and I will be one of them... it just seems that you could reach more people for a fraction of the work, doing other video projects you've mentioned?
Or likewise, put the same (or loosely comparable) amount of effort into another project, like an actual game or all-original content? I'd love to see that at some point!
To knot some loose ties:
- If you distribute it as a program, don't worry about size too much. 10GB or 50GB is the same thing for most consumer hardware and Internet services these days. People might be hesitant to download stuff in 2022+ when everything is online and it will definitely cut some of your audience off so you should probably have a hybrid technology where people can download a copy or watch it online. Now it's extremely common, with Steam and Discord being two examples of things that work in both ways. Same goes for a lot of mobile-first viewers.
- I have never been a fan of discussing semantics. A Let's Play is a Let's Play by any means, even if yours happen to be unique to you. I appreciate the distinction you make, I guess I just don't care about the name itself. For example: I've watched "Let's roleplays" before, love them but wouldn't hesitate to call them just Let's Plays either, by nature.
Have a good one mate! Was sad to hear Ross say his content will slow down massively as he picks up on the movie, here's to maybe getting some shady food to eat instead during the Farms drought :D
So good to finally learn what Project Red Pants has been about for all these years. It certainly is very ambitious and I certainly hope the project can one day see the light of day!
Can’t wait to hear about the new projects and future of the channel in the next video!
Shady, I am so glad that you got that off your chest. I hope it gives you lightness to move on to whatever your energy takes you this year!
I hope we can see it finished someday :)
Other than not having and idea of what game you would choose, I was able to guess the nature of Red Pants basically spot on! The big clues being it had to be released all at once and your Exile menu screen video.
You did! Although I always thought it was kind of obvious really for those same reasons. I only kept it "secret" for the reasons I put at the start of the video, which boil down to I basically just didn't want to bring too much attention to it.
This is such a cool idea, I hope you'll be able to find a way to do all that, I believe ya can!
I hope this project can surface in some way.
It seems like the videos could be hosted on youtube, but operated through a website's interface. I'm not entirely sure, but depending on what my life is like at the time you started it, I could help with doing that and there might be others also up for it. There is the option to just put links in the description though too, but that would mean sacrificing the ability to click on random things like you wanted.
I can definitely relate to an extremely ambitious project feeling both like a dream that you NEED to make happen, and a weight on your shoulders that keeps you from accomplishing anything. And the decision to cut your losses and move on from it is super painful. Hope your upcoming projects are more achievable, and you find them rewarding to complete!
Yep, I still think there's a chance I can go back and make it, but there's also I chance I won't be able to. I'll just have to keep an open mind.
This would have been so cool. I've often wondered how possible it would be to recreate a game like Myst in this fashion. Or even via DVD video menus (that'd probably be way too much work and I doubt there's enough space on a DVD disc).
Hey Brandon! I meant to reply to this much sooner, but thanks for your help getting my MIDI setup working. The music library I made for the game is really cool. I wish people could see it; it has loopable files that can simulate any track played in the game for any length of time. Who knows if I'll ever actually use it again, but at least it's there if I need it.
Yeah, the DVD idea sounds cool on the surface, but it doesn't really work. Besides the disk space constraint, there's also the issue of whether your player will automatically save your place if where you were is considered a "menu". You can also typically pull up the scenes by number which would reveal anything hidden. It's a shame that any video with buttons on it at this point is all on outdated tech.
@@shadyparadox Very true.
And you're welcome. Glad I could help! 🙂 Sounds like a nice setup!
I miss annotations.
Although I don't know how hosting would be provided, I feel like I could make a custom video player like that with HTML/JS fairly easily - though I am busy with other stuff a lot of the time.
A login system would be more complex - that would require having a database, server side code, and an email server for signups which is a lot of hassle. However, if you want a simpler workaround to accomplish the same thing, you could just save that stuff in a browser cookie - the same cheap solution that Flash games would use to save back in the day.
My recommendation though, if you do go for the custom video player idea, would be to just keep it simple at first. Unlike the series itself, it doesn't need to be fully fleshed out to get the series out there. It can have the bare minimum functionality at first, and as time goes on if you really like the series, you can upgrade and tweak the player to have new features.
Hey Tomy, thanks for your ideas! I didn't want to commit to any specific solution until I got other people thinking about it, so I appreciate whatever brainstorming you have to offer. The point of that section of the video was just to posit examples of how far outside the box I'm willing to go.
I've always liked the idea of making a smaller CYOA project to test whatever implementation I come up with before attempting Red Pants again, but I haven't found the right story idea for it yet. Ah well. Like you, I've also been busy with other things (such as just getting people up to speed with this series).
I do hope this project gets off the ground :D Sounds coool