majuular
patreon
An update that doesn't contain a ton of new information, but sometimes you just gotta drop an update!
🕑 Added 2025-09-09 21:44:41 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
I don't have a ton of new stuff to update you on, but I just wanted to touch base and let you know that I'm still chugging away on the next video. I initially thought Serpent Isle would be a fairly simple project, since I covered most of the engine nuances in the Ultima VII video. WOW I was wrong. It's looking like this is going to be my longest video ever, and that's after some pretty extensive script editing. It's turned out to be a true emotional rollercoaster.
That said, I'm well into the video editing stage at this point. If you enjoy the historical bookends of these videos, I think you're really going to like this one. All in all there's about 45-50 minutes discussing history and context, which is always the most challenging part to edit. Suffice to say the involvement of a certain evil corporation has made things more complicated and more interesting in the story of Origin Systems. As we move through the 90s, more of the company history is preserved in documents, photographs & videos, which doesn't necessarily make writing & editing faster (especially considering the volume of research to comb through), but it makes the work more straightforward and the final product more fascinating IMO.
While this has been going on, the Majuular clan has been house hunting. It's tough out there but the basement exodus is happening one way or another, hopefully before winter. These days I feel like I'm spending just as much time driving around looking at places and talking to agents, brokers, and advisors as I am working. But I've been trying to make up for lost time editing in the evenings too. I know most of you understand that life happens, but I try to avoid taking this long between videos unless I have to for several reasons. YouTube being the way it is these days, I really appreciate having you guys here to help the channel. Frankly I would be completely screwed without the support. That or I'd just have to start compromising on my videos to get them out faster, which is also something I like to avoid when I can help it. You can't always live and die by your principles when your hustle is making youtube videos about video games. But the more you CAN, the better the videos are... I think anyway.
After sitting on the idea for a while, I've decided I'll probably shelve the idea of a System Shock video for the foreseeable future. I was already concerned that the games had been covered to death, and shortly after my post talking about it, SS2 remastered was released which led to a new wave of System Shock video essays. I got a good variety of feedback on the idea in the last update post, which gave me some perspective as well. It's definitely a concept worth revisiting, but I like to dig into things that haven't been sufficiently dug-into already... or at the very least armed with something unique to offer the subject. I know some people really liked the idea, but I hope you get where I'm coming from with the sober second thought. The good news is there's no shortage of people talking about System Shock on YouTube and there's probably some that are even cooler and more handsome than me. But probably not though... yeah definitely not I would say.
On the docket we've got Two Worlds (undecided whether I'm doing both in one video or splitting them... a megavideo might be a bit ambitious, but we'll see), then Ultima VIII which should be a fun one even if you don't particularly care about Ultima, and finally we're going back to Golden Sun. Remember Golden Sun? I remember Golden Sun. It's time to finish what I started with Golden Sun. Also have some short bonus videos written/recorded but not edited yet. Sometimes it's kind of cathartic to do those, but much like the history of power rangers, Patreon content has no set schedule. For those of you who enjoy the game music podcast, I'll in all likelihood be MUCH closer to my cohosts (and with a room that I can actually record in), so it'll be considerably easier to just casually have a conversation with them on air. But like I said, all of that stuff is secondary to the main channel videos, which are presumably the reason that you're here.
I won't venture a guess as to when any of the videos will be out, but I wanted to give you an idea of the channel's immediate future. Of course as I start chipping away at those projects I'll keep you all apprised of the details.
Anyway, just wanted to give an update to end the radio silence. Thank you again sincerely. Especially in light of what's going on with YouTube views and age restrictions these days, the baseline security of Patreon is a boon which I am very grateful to have. I hope you've all had a great summer, and I'm looking forward to sharing the next video with you! It's a doozy!
Comments
Marcin Zagrodzki
I'll be fully honest dude - I'm okay with waiting as much as necessary for your videos. Do them entirely at your own pace - I've just finished watching the Serpent Isle vid last night and it was another easy home run. So from my POV when you do stuff at your own pace magic happens. Btw, I adore the Majulaar Extended Universe™ with Darkseed showing up all the time. All that I need from life is the "Do you have the flask of Tefnut?" dude also being a recurring character, mostly because he lives in my rent head free ever since the 3DO video. Interestingly enough, even though I'm old enough to have been able to play Ultima's from around the early 90s it was never a series that interested me. I remember being thrown off by the graphics of the mainline series - something about the view just wasn't appealing to my young brain [plus I was playing on the Amiga until like '94, and Ultima wasn't that big on that platform from my memory]. I still adore your Ultima series videos as it teaches me about a part of the videogame history that I was not participating in, but I have vague memories of articles and walkthroughs in my favourite magazines. So it's a very neat experience for me Plus, as someone who's working in the gamedev industry for years now I also _really_ appreciate you going into more nuance when discussing business matters around EA and Origin, and the issues with the projects. While the default position on the internet seems to be to always go after the big publishers guns blazing, you managed to not only pinpoint exactly the dirty work that EA did, you also weaved in the cold realities of the business, of mismanaged projects from the developer's side, and show that the truth isn't always so black and white with the blame being squarely on one side of the equation - my sincere thanks for that! On a private note I _just_ finished my own apartment hunt, took me and my fiancee 1.5 years to find a proper place so I fully sympathize with how much it sucks. I'll keep my fingers crossed you can also find a nice place for yourselves
John Smith
Great to get the update Majuular, take your time good videos are worth waiting for. I'm very keen on seeing you return to the Golden Sun series because it's a personal favourite of mine. Have a good one. Do you have any plans to ever look at the Xenosaga games?
Majuular
Yes I would definitely consider doing that!
Steve Gorman
Hey Maj! Would you ever consider doing a behind the scenes on how you plan out and organize your videos? Besides writing the script out, I can't imagine the process of organizing all of that captured video. I'd imagine your process has improved as you do each one, I think some of us would be interested to hear about it
