Why It's So Hard to Understand the World | TUNIC Analysis & Review 

Haha, you're absolutely right. Let's chock that mistake up to just being tired while editing.

Yes, thank you. I initially planned for a spoiler-filled section at the end that covered the whole second-half and the important parts of the fully-translated manual, but I instead opted for a basic interpretation of purpose that still allows new players to enjoy the game (and perhaps gives them enough of a hint of how to think through their experience). I'm glad you think I handled that balance well.

Thanks for the kind words! Much appreciated.

Thank you very much! Comments like these are a huge motivator.

Hmm, I don't think I've seen Joseph Anderson before. Thanks for mentioning that channel! And thanks for wanting to stick around to see our stuff! Tunic is magic in many ways. In our latest vid on Outer Wilds I describe it as a 'discovery-translation' game, in that so much of the experience is bent around discerning one's world via interpretation of layered elements. The mental act of interpretation is so much of the engagement, even more than the more prominent gameplay aspects like combat and movement. I'm glad you enjoyed the game.

@@ToGamesItMayConcern Yes! Tunic and Outer Wilds really know not to show the player everything but how to pace the sense of discovery. If you like Hollow Knight you have to watch mossbag as well: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0XDiWYFGGqY.html You might also like lorerunner when he does his ruminations: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gQKzHWiRvk8.html I can also recommend two games to you: "Death's Door" & "Death's Gambit: Afterlife" Hollow Knight of course but you've probably played that one. Good luck on the channel! :)

That's more than enough. Thank you!

​@@ToGamesItMayConcern I had to come back to the video. I really enjoy the writing, apart from the occasional stutter the voiceover is done really well too. The audio sounds good. The visuals of what you're talking about generally seem to fit with what's being said. The one thing I'm less certain about are how the words are briefly flashed on the screen. It happens often, it happens quickly, sometimes it feels a bit arbitrary which words are and aren't picked for display. Off the top of my head, Mark Brown from Game Makers Toolkit also highlights words but it's used more sparingly and he pauses to give the big words some breathing room. Though, the way in which he displays such terminology has an educational purpose and it might come off as pretentious were you to do it in a context like this video. I don't know, I do think something is there with the way you're doing it. Maybe it's just something I should get used to. It's easier to critique than to praise, these many words don't actually mean it's a big problem, just found it noteworthy. Overall I think it's a really well put together video, and it could've come from a far larger channel when it comes to production quality. It deserves many more views than it has!

Thank you. I really appreciate the detailed feedback. We agree with every criticism you have. We reduced the frequency of words on-screen in our latest videos (on Norco and Steam Next Fest) and will have fewer words in the upcoming vid (Genesis Noir). Initially, the words on-screen were to help increase watch time (because RU-vid's algorithm seems to care about that a lot), but we agree that it can feel overdone. We're a young enough channel that we're still trying to figure things out, how best to present our ideas. We hope you stick around to see how we grow and change.

Thank you so much! Your kindness is appreciated. We have a new video coming out in a couple days-Neon White-then a video on Stray and then an Omori prologue reaction. We hope you stick around. :)

@@ToGamesItMayConcern Oh great! I've been playing both Neon White and Stray, so I'll be interested to hear your take. Your kind of thoughtful in-depth analysis definitely deserves a wider audience... while I know it takes a while for momentum to build for a RU-vid channel, I hope you keep plugging away at it and eventually end up with the success you deserve. Check out Veritasium's 'Quality vs Quantity' video, I think it's a good discussion on the topic of approaches to long-term channel growth.

I was recently talking to my girlfriend about this, about delivering a steady stream of content for viewers and yet also wanting to devote more time toward individual projects. It's a hard balance to maintain. I have in my mind the goal of attracting an audience with weekly videos-and each week I vie to improve in some subtle yet vital way-until over time I can have enough support to take longer on each video, to really devote deep consideration toward every moment. I do the best I can with the current schedule. I work every day, without exception, on these videos. It's a kind of practice toward improving a skill. There are big ideas I've written down, scripts I've started, that will require better editing skills than I currently have. I'm pushing to improve those skills. But, of course, spending more time on each video, spreading the releases out, could pay off in wholly new ways. The higher standard per video could set the right expectation among viewers, and maybe that's a better road toward this channel being sustainable. It's tough to know what's best. I have a lot to say about just about every game I play, but then not releasing weekly removes that chance to say it all: fewer videos means fewer topics. Right now, my preliminary solution is to work hard on these videos and aim to release weekly, but to put enough work into each so that viewers feel as if I had taken more than one week on them. And if a particular video needs longer than a week, so be it (that may be the case with the one I'm working on right now, actually). In some cases I've gotten close to that goal of quality matching the weekly release schedule: Citizen Sleeper, maybe, or the Genesis Noir one, the Steam Next Fest one, perhaps, who knows. The next vid, the one I'm editing the audio for now, I'm really liking so far. It's for Stray. I feel like the analysis will venture in directions viewers won't expect, and that excites me. That also makes me nervous, which is a sort of excitement, too, which I have to remember. Your Veritasium video recommendation sounds perfect for me. I will watch it during lunch tomorrow. Your comment is hugely helpful and considerate. So thank you. I'm sure this applies to every small channel, but small words of kindness from viewers truly makes the droning hours-upon-hours of work feel worthwhile. It really does. Thank you.

@@ToGamesItMayConcern "The higher standard per video could set the right expectation among viewers, and maybe that's a better road toward this channel being sustainable." - my personal intuition is that this is true... but then again I know from experience that my personal opinions don't tend to reflect broader public opinion, so take that with a grain of salt! Perhaps you could take the 'second channel' approach to balance your goals; release shorter and rapidly produced stream-of-consciousness videos on a second channel. That way you can say something on every topic you want to talk about, without building up an intimidating backlog and without dooming each video essay to a lengthy delay after the associated game's release (which means missing the main surge of interest for content related to that game). It's also possible that a second channel could act as a more interactive and creatively generative outlet, by directly encouraging audience discussion and feedback, that may then inform works on the main channels.

Thank you for taking the time to offer such considerate feedback. Did you end up watching the Stray video we released? We spent a bit more time on it. Many watched it, but I worry the significance of the back-half of the video doesn't arrive soon enough. You'll notice a break in content after that Stray vid: I've been allowing myself more time on the next video. It will cover a broad range of games-Sable, Death Stranding, Journey, and light mentions of others-in order to discuss boredom, ambiguity, and seeking in games. Finding purpose in games that wander. It'll be out this coming Friday. I hope you see it. It was partly inspired by your comment.

I haven't heard of that game. Sounds fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

@@ToGamesItMayConcern Giving that that game relies so much on the player having an understanding of how Chinese characters are created (rather than just what they mean), I doubt it would be that popular in English speaking communities. Though I guess if it ended up being the one reason someone got interested in learning Chinese (as a foreign language), it would be a rather cool thing.