From The Desk of Nerd³ - December 2023 Edition

Dearest Patreons,

Welcome to a new monthly update post, the purpose of which is to have a single place where everyone can receive the latest updates from the world of the Cube Meister, without you having to listen to me witter on in a podcast that’s about as focused as a massive telescope in the desert pointing directly down at the earth. And yes, before we start the updates, I promise to never call myself the Cube Meister ever again.

Return of the King (Of Editing)

The first and arguably biggest update is that I am returning to the world of video editing. From the Christmas Day special onward, I will be editing almost all Plays/Challenge videos moving forwards. My biggest regret of 2023, (aside from that thing I did with that Belgian bun) was that I released just nine videos. Nine! I used to release nine before breakfast, and that was on a bad day.

There’s a reason why, aside from the fact I spent most of the year writing a silly book, and his name is Matt. Now, it’s not that Matt isn’t as good or as fast as me at editing, he bloody well is, it’s just that he’s editing a video he never saw recorded. Before editing, he has to watch the footage, sometimes 2-3 hours of me jabbering on, making notes as he goes, trying to find the narrative path, and then he can start the edit. Me? I’m editing while I record. I know what’s going to work, where I’m going, what ideas I’m dropping. Yesterday I recorded ninety minutes of footage and edited it in sixty. So, I’m taking that mantle back in an attempt to return to some god damn uploads. The plan is one a week, but I’ll be honest, I won’t be happy until it’s two.

RIP Shorts, Yay TikTok

The Fab Game Friday experiment is essentially over, and it’s time to look at the results. Firstly, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Whatever’s are rubbish. About four people watched them, and they’re all mad. While the concept of short recommendations is popular, these platforms just aren’t. So, they’re done, dead, finito.

However, TikTok has been wildly successful, with some of our videos reaching close to a million views, which is crazy for a new channel. I’d be a silly billy to let that slide, so TikTok will continue… but with a change. As we’re no longer held down by the single minute time limit of YouTube Shorts and Instagram Thingys, going forward the recommendations portions of Fab Game Friday videos are going to become longer. I’m thinking 2 – 3 minutes per game, giving the words time to breath, and myself the same blessing. The plan for these is to release one Fab Game Friday every three weeks, with the TikToks going up weekly.

Dad³: Endgame

Since the very start of 2018, Dad³ has been documenting his lovely little life on a weekly basis to a solid group of fans. You’ve seen thousands of dinners, hundreds of beach walks, a car crash, several weddings, and that one time he was actually arrested. After all of this, today we’re announcing that, on the 31st December 2023, after exactly six years of vlogging to the second, Dad³ is hanging up his camera and entering a well-deserved retirement.

He’ll still pop up from time to time, (Father and Son-Days Forever!), but this will bring his channel to a close after over a decade of videos. As spin-offs go, he was the Fraiser to my Cheers and, as we all know, Fraiser was better.

I think I speak for all of us when I say…. YAAAAAAHHHHOOOOOO!!!

Advent-ures

Ah, Advent. A time of year I now dread, and rightly so. Today, on the main channel, my yearly awards begin, with a cozy, casual vibe this year, mostly because I didn’t have the time to write them, and slightly to see if I could get all loved up and excited for my favourites. (Spoilers: I can) Then, over on Ashens’ channel, A table breaks my spirit, Ashens dabs something on my tongue, and… they… return. It’s our traditional, nightmare filled calendar openings! Abandon hope all ye who open up the little cardboard doors, and enjoy the part where I slightly blind myself.

Paradox Paradox Paradox Paradox

The Paradox Paradox is still moving, with Unbound currently in the process of performing what’s know in the biz (business) as a structure edit. Basically, it’s the edit that makes sure that the reader can read and understand the book, and that characters act consistently. I’ll have those changes returned to me in a couple of weeks, rewrite where I deem fit, and will be handing in Draft 4 in January 2024. There’s still a bunch left to do, fine edits/design/cover etc, but it’s still moving, and I thought you should know!

Prints!

Prints are again moving, with a set having just slapped themselves onto whatever part of your house you keep under your letterbox. The next set are signed, packaged and will be shipping soon, with the next two after that about to go to the printers. We are catching up! Sorry that these have been remarkably inconsistent this year, but worry not. If you’ve paid for them, they will arrive! Slowly, sure, but still…

YouTube’s Done a Stupid

YouTube has recently changed it’s monetisation system from a simple set of choices that gave you control over the adverts that appeared on your videos, to… *sigh*… a single button that doesn’t.

On the old system you could could choose exactly the monetisation settings you wanted. For example, you could keep YouTube Premium (which is apparently not called YouTube Red anymore?!) revenue on, but turn off pre, mid and post-roll ads. This meant that the video would be equally promoted (videos with monetisation off aren’t recommended as much), you’ll get a little slice of that YouTube Premium pie, but you won’t have irritating adverts all over your videos.

Now, because this system worked, YouTube have decided to ruin it. You have one choice. Monetisation on, or off. Actually, two choices, you can also thankfully keep mid-rolls off, but that is it. That’s the entirety of the settings. Essentially, you now have to choose between adverts and a video that is promoted, or no money at all and no external viewers. While we’re not exactly chasing views, we do know that around 30 – 40% of our views come from external sources, so it’ll be nice to not lose that.

The current plan is… we don’t know. Matt’s having a tinker right now, tweaking some videos to see what happens. We’re hoping that a video that receives limited ads might still be promoted, (yay for swearing) but we’re not sure. There might be a future where we need to turn on the adverts button just to keep the channel alive, which would suck, especially as one of the reasons we started a Patreon was to turn the bloody things off. I’ll keep you in the loop, but if you see any ads on our videos, let Matt know on BlueSky.

Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon

Finally, you may be thinking that this seems like quite a bit of movement for this tiny group of weirdos that I love and, you’d be right. To keep out of the boring money side, a very nice pile of money that we were expecting has failed to materialise, and that’s sodded us right up. For the first time in twelve years, I’m actually having to run the company as a company. We all have weekly and monthly tasks, I made a Trello to track them, I’m even up in the mornings like a barbarian. We can’t afford to bugger about anymore, aside from in the allotted buggering about times.

Short term, we’ll be mostly okay. Medium term, we’ll probably be okay. Long term… we’ll see. I’m hoping that with more videos and consistent streams (which we’ll start when everything else is in place), we’ll be able to bring more people over here to support us and get back on track. This year, my focus on the book dented that, and I need to un-dent it as quick as possible. More stuff, more reason to support, more supporters. That’s the plan, and I think it’ll work.

That’s all from me for today. Thanks for all the support you lovely lot. It means the world to us.

Love and monsters,

Daniel

xx