Category: Updates

Patch Notes – August 2026

Noob.exe 2.0.09.01

Hi all! Unfortunately this month was a heavy month with the loss of my rabbit, Bonny. Those in the community may have known her singular radar ear and sassy attitude, as she had been with me since long before I started streaming. I have never lived without pets, so the adjustment has been understandably difficult. I miss her so much, her one-of-a-kind and comforting presence, and the support, structure and purpose that she couldn’t even possibly know she gave me.

What is wonderful about video games is that there is something suitable for every different mood, occasion and era. I have played numerous games about grief in the past, and I have those experiences with me through these times when I know I am currently too delicate to actively seek out the theme. Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice and Spiritfarer are two that stand out to me a lot right now. Equally, I have my own personal grief games regularly cropping up in my mind that helped me through previous losses. Games like House Flipper, Powerwash Sim and My Time at Portia.

I have once again escaped into the digital realm for respite as often as I can, but this time, rather than the ‘keeping your hands busy’ kind of games, the gargantuan task of Baldurs Gate 3 is what is getting my by. Don’t get me wrong, there is so much more to dealing with grief than playing video games, and I don’t recommend it as a singular coping mechanism, but I do think if there is any time that you can allow yourself a break, it is during times like these.

So, with the sad news out of the way, onto the round up. This month was lighter on the extra activities, but the extra time at home allowed for some quality demo time, as I am still making my way through those Summer Game Fest demos (and a few others too).

Video Games

Games played

Valheim [playing]: We have done so much in just a month, expanding Ravenhall at the start of the month feels like child’s play comparatively. We upgraded Pigtown, mapped a couple of continents, killed two more bosses and discovered 2 more, tamed some Lox and welcomed a baby (love you Turnip), who grew up and welcomed another baby, trapped some wolves for taming, found a food vendor, built the Forge of Souls, the start of a leisure complex in a new location including a harbour, theatre and fight pit, unlocked iron and most recently entered the Silver Age. We have explored the mountains, gathered lots of things we have no idea what to do with, and have our sights set on building a food hall.

Baldurs Gate 3 [playing]: I have been exploring Act 3 and feel like I have made pretty good progress! Apparently I have put in 50 hours in this save file just this month… I do know I have left the game running a bit a few times but wow. I have explored the suburbs and the Lower City, with a bunch of quests to follow up on and the sewers still to explore. I have finished Astarians questline and think I am going to make special focus to finish character quests next. We aren’t quite level 12 yet but level 11 was nice to unlock the final spell level. I would love to get this finished this month but who knows really, the game just keeps going!

Demos played

This month I played 10 demos, of which I wrote 3 impressions posts.

Follow my Instagram account or Bluesky thread to see which I recommend in my Demo Highlights!

Starting a thread to highlight some demos!This won’t be all of the demos I play but a curated list of the ones that I enjoy the most or want to shout about.Old and new games, if there’s a demo then it’s fair game!At the start of this thread I have 91 demos on my spreadsheet to play. Lets gooo.

— CtrlAltNoob (@ctrlaltnoob.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T23:44:27.843Z

Content corner

FOMO corner

I completely missed the Gamescom opening show as well as the GTA 6 showcase. I will likely watch them sometime soon but I am definitely starting to feel the GTA 6 fomo and it is not even out yet!

New to the Backlog

Game Services
  • Ps Plus
    • Big Walk
    • Two Point Museum
  • Epic Games
    • Caravan Sandwitch

Backlog Progress

This month: ❌
Total: 5 of 31 complete ✅
It is crazy to think how many other games I could have completed in nearly 150 hours of BG3. 59 hours of Valheim was also utterly unprecedented.

Noob life

Other media | playing | watching | listening

Tabletop

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion [ongoing]: We graduated from the intro book and have been released into the freedom of decision making. We have done a few more scenarios including 2 bosses, with both butt-clenching and smooth moments allowing us to feel the tension, the heroism and even the narrative satisfaction that we hoped for. We are now level 2 and are slowly kitting ourselves out with my friends helmet (negating crits) coming in clutch more than a few times in one session.

Sky Team [ongoing]: I haven’t talked about Sky Team yet here, but it is not my first time playing. It is a co-op dice rolling strategy game where you attempt to land a plane safely, taking into account all of the variables of the scenareo. It plays very quickly and can get quite stressful, but we played the fourth scenareo and it turned out to be our smoothest flight yet.

DnD [new/ongoing]: We are still in the dungeon and remember when I introduced Ulrich, explaining that he can hopefully make, and take, a hit? Well.. one thing he is definitely good at is exchanging misses with enemies and keeping them busy while we deal with the rest. We made.. friends?.. with a wraith and a guard monster robot guy, and last session we walked into a boss room that looks 100% more deadly than anything we are prepared for (especially without all of our spell slots). I predict TPK next session.

Movies

The Odyssey [cinema]: Horrific, grim, all my favourite things. Appropriately epic, surprisingly resonant. Not knowing the original story was a bonus in the thrilling journey of wondering what was going to happen next, and knowing there would be reading to do after. And read I did. I am so relieved that I’ve now had two movies in a row give me that feeling of awe in a way that I thought I had grown out of. There are nitpicks but I am choosing to ignore them in favour of the immediate enjoyment I had.

Birdbox [netflix]: Birdbox wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I didn’t know what to expect other than Sandra Bullock in a blindfold. I thought the overarching premise is horrifying and a rich theme to explore, but in the end it did just feel like a B movie to eat popcorn to. It was 100% more fun to watch with a friend and trade theories along the way than it would have been to watch alone.

Podcasts

Critical Role [ongoing]: I have listened to so much of this this month that I have to shout it out here. I have neglected all of my regular listening as my push to finish listening to Campaign 2 has been ongoing. I am currently at episode 117 and it remains good background listening for me. I miss loads of the macro plot but get really engaged in micro moments and particular situations or battles. I don’t imagine that I will get it finished next month either, especially if I take a break to catch up with other pods, but I do feel locked in for now and ready to see the end.

Other hobbies | achievements

Sunflowers: It has been on my bucket list to go to a sunflower field for a while. Last year they didn’t manage to open due to the weather, but this year they had a good yield! Unfortunately it wasn’t the magical experience that I hoped as there were a million children all with no concept of personal space. But it was incredible to be within an ocean of flowers in bloom, some of them over my head in height.

Crochet: I finally finished the bag that I was making! I am super happy with how it turned out. It is not perfect by any means but I managed to work around mistakes and complete my first bigger project to make a functional item.

Next up I would like to make the same bag but smaller, in reverse colours. I also have a smaller project that I am beginning but it is a secret until October.

What’s Next?

Other than the grief I mentioned earlier, I have quite a few things going on, including ADHD titration and a busy calender, that are requiring my attention. I am going to try to use the gaps in the chaos to take some time for myself to escape with games, in whatever form that might take. Cracking on with BG3 and CR c2 are my highest focus at the moment, I would love to be able to write about the end of either or both of these things in the next monthly log, so that I can start looking to what is next! I know better than to plan too far ahead but I am pretty sure some shorter backlog games will be in order.

I may have some time for a project later in the month but I haven’t decided where my focus is going to go just yet, so I am not going to announce anything. I have a few gaming/content related options, but they may end up being trumped by IRL necessities. We will see!

I did not end up listening to The Prestige audiobook like I mentioned last month as got too deep into CR, or seeing Spider-Man as I decided to wait until the schools were back. I am hoping I don’t miss its theatre run!

Happy gaming everyone, have a cozy September ✌🏻

Patch Notes Archive

Patch Notes – July 2026

Noob.exe 2.0.08.02

Happy August everyone! As July has come to a close I am taking a moment to reflect on the games – and the other things – that filled up my time and mind during this hot, hot summer month.

Video Games

Games played

Chants of Sennaar [finished]: I love this game. Chants of Sennaar is complete and I enjoyed the entire process – playing a game that felt so especially made for my brain, and recording it too. I didn’t expect to almost shed a tear at the end but it managed to come together nicely. It took a rare spot in my favourite games of all time list, and I am trying to be grateful for the experience rather than sad it is over, because I feel like I could have climbed another 100 levels of that tower if they were available to me.

Valheim [playing]: We spent this month expanding our operations. After successfully setting up a mining production line and securing our pigs with only a minor mishap (the great boar escape of 2026), we have ventured beyond the homely Midsummer and trekked over swamp, ocean and plains to settle into an abandoned village. Upcycling complete in the settlement dubbed Ravenhall, we now are neighbours with some merchants and are in the process of taming some Lox. After mistaking a tar pit for a hot spring, I aquired some new building materials and we have a few leads on what we would like to do next.

Baba is You [playing]: I solved one puzzle this month. I am stuck on around four more. I am very tempted to drop this one as I feel the only way I will progress is with a guide, and that isn’t really the vibe that I wanted for the game. I hoped it would be the type of game that would give me that hit of dopamine upon puzzle revelations, but more often it makes me feel dumb for not understanding why what feels like my perfectly reasonable logic is denied. I will give it one more shot and see how I feel.

Baldur’s Gate 3 [playing]: I have reached Act 3! I have 97 hours on my save file and I have heard that Act 3 is as big as the other two acts combined 😅. This remains probably the biggest game I have ever played. I hit an enjoyment wall near the end of Act 2 but now that is out of the way and I have made it to the outskirts of the city, I am eager to see wat Act 3 is all about. I just need a chunk of time with enough energy to completely immerse into the new, denser area now that I have a clearer understanding of what we are working towards.

Demos played

This month I only played 1 demo.

  • Sovereign Tower

Content corner

FOMO corner

Six One Indie Demo Days happened on 31 July and I have yet to have a chance to take a look. Considering I still have so many demos from Summer Game Fest season to check out and beyond, I still have a hard time accepting that I can’t cover everything the way I wish I could.

New to the Backlog

Game Services
  • Ps Plus
    • Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
    • Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
  • Steam Giveaway
    • The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante

Backlog 2026 Progress

This month: ❌
Total: 5 of 31 complete ✅

Noob life

Other media | playing | watching | listening

Tabletop

Obsession [new]: I haven’t played many 4 player board games but Obsession is the latest. It is complex enough that we had a session specifically for learning the game, and during that session with only 3 playing and one teaching, we only made it half way through the game. You play as a stately family balancing your finances, reputation and staff to be the most enviable in Derbyshire. Unfortunately, I was playing the long game and got absolutely thrashed on points, but I like to think I could have made a comeback… This feels like the perfect game for a summers day, with breaks to step outside for a BBQ and a spot of Pimm’s.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion [ongoing]: We have reached scenario 5 of Gloomhaven with a success by the absolute skin of our teeth. It was clutch session and I believe it graduates us from the tutorial book of the campaign. I am playing the demolitionist and I named her Atom. I am still finding the game thoroughly enjoyable, deck building has just been introduced, and I really look forward to playing more.

DnD [ongoing]: DnD continues and we are making our way through a dungeon, likely approaching the climax of part 1 of the campaign. We now have a Dwarf Fighter named Ulrich that has joined the crew that we share, giving us a bit of balance to our party with someone who can make, and take, a hit.

Movies

The Prestige [prime]: I simply don’t know how I got this far in life without seeing this movie. Rivalry, more ‘oh shit’ moments than I can count, low key tragedy, beautiful pacing, twists and turns, irony, lingering on my mind. Just everything that I could want from a movie. I put it off because I wasn’t sold on the concept of rival magicians, but it is so much more than that. I urge you to watch it if you haven’t already and want to be absorbed for an evening. It is one of the good ones.

Books

The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga [audiobook/finished]: I really did not enjoy this book, at all. I wanted to finish it just in case there was some lesson in there that was going to change my life, but so much about it rubbed me so much the wrong way that I would honestly find it hard to recommend to anyone.

Happy by Derren Brown [audiobook/ongoing]: I am only an hour or 2 into this one so far but it feels really promising. I already am onboard with a few of the ideas being talked about, and Derren reading the audiobook himself is the icing on the cake as his voice is so soothing and easy to listen to.

Events

Derren Brown – Only Human: Unfortunately I can’t say the same about this show as I did about the book. It was the first time I have seen Derren live on stage and my expectations were, maybe unfairly, high. He absolutely is the charismatic showman, but the tricks didn’t impress me, the theme didn’t feel cohesive and the squishy, overpriced venue didn’t compliment the experience at all. I went in expecting awe, but left feeling an unprecedented underwhelm.

Other hobbies | achievements

Farne Islands: If you are ever in the North East of England and you love nature, you absolutely must take a trip to The Farne Islands. If it is May-July (nesting season) then a landing trip to Inner Farne is an absolute must. You can see the puffins, guillemots and razorbills up close, and experience the fierce protective dive bombing of the wonderful Arctic Terns. It is a beautiful, special place.

Crochet: My bag is still ongoing.. it is taking a WHILE. But I did reach the colour change and I am hoping to get it finished next month so that I can begin making my smaller bag, so that I can finally start some other projects.

BJJ: I recieved my first stripe on my purple belt!

What’s Next?

I haven’t got anything else cooking currently, content wise, except the shorts series that I mentioned in last months post. I am going to try to prioritise that before I start recording anything else, as well as catching up on some IRL admin that I had been putting off. I wouldn’t expect anything ready to go by the time Chants of Sennaar finishes. However, I do think that my next Let’s Play could be Cocoon, provided that I can get the recording to work from the PlayStation.

Within games, I would love to make some good progress on Baldur’s Gate 3 now that I am in Act 3, which I would also like to balance with playing more demos. I am also going to aim for playing a shorter game each month, this month being Crow Country.

Finally also anticipating 2 cinema trips, for The Odyssey and Spider-Man, and have rented The Prestige audiobook from the library!

Stay safe and have a wonderful August ✌🏻

Patch Notes – June 2026

Noob.exe 2.0.07.01

Hi all! Let’s jump straight in shall we?

What is this?

I used to write monthly updates about my content and gaming, which I named Patch Notes, on my Buy Me a Coffee page. Creating these posts was always an interesting exercise for me. It encouraged me to be more mindful of my time and my progress, and often surprise myself at how much I did either get done, experience, or sometimes overestimate that I would get done in a month. Sometimes I find that I can blink and months have passed me by and the older that I get, time has become an unfathomable blur. Tangibly gathering what I have been up to helps with combating that feeling and reminding me what I did do in that time.

I have noticed that I really enjoy consuming monthly catch-ups myself, that is another reason that I started my Patch Notes in the first place. More recently, seeing Luna’s Monthly Logs and listening to No Small Games Indie Game Round Ups has stirred something in me that I want to join in too, so it makes sense to bring Patch Notes back, directly to the blog.

Although my streaming/video content is on (if I am honest, a pretty much indefinite) hiatus, I have still been getting up to plenty within the game space lately, and outside of it too. While I used to use these posts to share plans and set goals, the new format is just going to serve as record of the past and present. For now at least.

The first one is a little tricky because I don’t generally keep track of weeks, never mind months. So this post will likely be longer than average, but I am treating it as a bit of a start marker, then I know exactly where I am starting from next time!

Video Games

Games played

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden [playing] : I can’t say I am loving Banishers, but I am making my way through. The story and hauntings feel interrupted by traversing the sprawling world and repetative combat, rather than complimented by it. I have had to kill off my compulsive exploration in favour of getting through the game as quickly as I can before I lose interest. There have been some lovely plot twist moments, but I am currently not convinced that the narrative is going to make up for the lack of fun that I am having doing everything else. So far I am commited to seeing it through, I believe I am over half way so I should hopefully finish it off next month.

Valheim [playing]: Me and a friend are playing on a passive enemy, no build cost world of Valheim. My prior experience of Valheim was not complimentary, but I was always curious of the fun my friends were having in their shared server. Playing in this way is suiting me a lot better, having creative freedom to dive into stupid projects, while still having elements of progression through exploration, tools and upgrades.

This month we expanded our home base, creating a Central Portal Station to make our future travels easier, and a lovely homely tavern for all of our cooking, brewing and chilling needs.

Baba is You [started/playing]: I bought and started Baba is You on a bit of a whim, I am not sure if it was this month or last but I will include it anyway. It was supposed to serve as the game that you pick up when you have 10 minutes before you need to do something. And I can see it serving that purpose once I stop having this newly developed aversion to my PC. So far it is cool. It is difficult, as promised, and I am going to try to step away when I get stuck rather than jumping immediatly to guides. I currently have 32 dandelions. Wish me luck!

Chants of Sennaar [started/playing]: Gratefully recieved in the Tales from the Backlog Summer Swap. Chants of Sennaar has been at the top of my Wishlist since 2023 when I originally played the demo. I am now 2 hours in and absolutely thriving. I am certain that I would have finished it by now if I hadn’t made the spontaneous decision to record it. This is one of those legendary anticipatory status games, and seemed so made for me that it felt illegal not to share it in some capacity. More on that later.

Demos played

This month I played 8 demos, of which I wrote 4 impressions posts.

Content corner

All of the content that I have created recently has been on the blog. As well as the demo impressions above, here all of the posts I have published since dusting off my keyboard:

I also have 2 series cooking for YT. A shorts series named Backlog Log, where I do a quick video for every game that I tick off of my Backlog Resolutions 2026 list. And the Chants of Sennaar Let’s Play which will start going out once I have finished the full series! They are in the slow cooker on low, so I wouldn’t expect anything anytime soon.

New to the backlog

I have always been a low budget gamer, mostly due to life circumstances, but recently I have been dabbling in a few purchases!

Purchases
  • The Complete Inkle Library [Humble Bundle]
  • Baba is You
  • Summer Game Swap [Thanks to Dave Jackson for organising and Yorkie for my gifts!]
Game Services

One of the ways I managed to continue playing games through low budget times were through game services. Ps Plus, Game Pass, Epic Games free games, Prime Games etc. For the monthly logs I will just include any games that I gain access to that I am interested in playing.

Backlog resolution 2026 Progress

This month: ❌
Total: 5 of 31 complete ✅

Noob life

Other media | playing | watching | listening

Tabletop

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion: My first foray into Gloomhaven. It has been a long time coming. It is probably the most classic board game that I have had the most curiosity about, and I am so impressed! From what I am told, Jaws of the Lion is a much more condensed, accessible campaign compared to the big one, and it feels like the perfect entry point. Mechanics feel intuitive, the system for difficulty scaling is impressive, and I look forward to seeing how it unfolds.

DnD: We have an ongoing campaign where I play a Sun Elf Wizard named Pandora. She is very magically competent, less so with people. Many accidental shenanigans later and we are level 4, divination subclass and I love her very dearly. We also have a Dwarf War Cleric named Hafthor, who finds Pandora as irritating as you would expect from a straight laced veteran, and a Dragonborn Druid named Akra, who turned into a giant badger and castrated a hobgoblin.

Movies

Disclosure Day: Oh no. This was a dissapointment. For the first third I was enjoying it, despite feeling like I was watching two different movies at once. Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russel together were great and I could have watched a movie just about them. But as it progressed, my dissapointment became so strong that I could write a full post in itself. To spare you that, I will just say that it was not for me.

TV/YT

I have picked back up the WoolieVersus Disco Elysium playthrough as some lovely background shenanigans while I crochet. I have been watching the playthrough for years at this point. I am 74 episodes in and it is nice to watch others enjoying the pace at as slow of a pace as I did, giving me a lovely comfort show to watch in the process.

Books

Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things?: A Comedian’s Guide to Autism by Pierre Novellie [audiobook/finished] : I have become quite partial to non-fiction audiobooks. For context, I am diagnosed ADHD and on a waiting list for an Autism assessment. I was having a particularly strugglesome week and had a browse on my librarys Borrowbox in the self help section. While I often relate to neurodivergant stories, I don’t particularly enjoy learning about the topic and have avoided a deep dive for the longest time. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon this book. I have never ever heard my thought process explained so perfectly, in a way that I wouldn’t have even been put into words myself. I was in the midst of what I can now recognise as an autistic burnout and my new insight on the topic helped me not only name it but accept it and get through it. I highly recommend to anyone who is autistic, suspects they may be, or to anyone who knows anyone that is autistic. So, basically what I am saying is, everyone should give this a read/listen. The relatable commentary and dry humour was exactly the format that I needed to finally pursue the topic.

The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams [paperback/ongoing]: I am 5 chapters in trying to read a chapter a week. Having dabbled in graphic design, both in my game content work and my day job, I have always been hyper aware of the gap in my knowledge of having no formal training. I stumbled upon this book and decided that it will be a nice entry into further studies that I hope to incorporate into my life. What I am loving about this book is how visual it is [insert surprised pikachu]. Each concept has multiple examples, compares and contrasts why one design is instantly more readable/attractive than another, and revisits the same designs in different context as further principles are explained.

Podcasts

I listen to a lot of Podcasts. I am only going to use this section to shout out new ones that I get into in the future, as I do listen to a lot of the same ones. But for the first post I might as well shout out my current regular rotation!

Current regular rotation:

  • Date with Us: A Dating Sim Podcast
  • Geeks & Grounds
  • No Small Games
  • Nostalgium Arcanum
  • Play Along Podcast
  • Tales from the Backlog
  • Underplayed
  • Watch Out for Fireballs!
  • There are more but some I have to dip out on for a while if I haven’t played the games!

New this month:

The Good, the Bad, and the Backlog: Unfortunataly no longer active, I have absolutely powered through the backlog of this show and they kept my spirits up through a tough month! Great fun, great banter between hosts and I am sad to have caught up with the episodes of the games that I have played.

Events

This won’t be a regular section but I have been to a few gaming adjacent events over the last few years and this will be a good space to talk about them!

BAFTA Games in Concert: I saw Disco Elysium and Ori on the line-up and knew immediatly that I had to go to this show. Whilst I was slightly distracted by the conductor being the doppelgänger of one of my training partners, to the point that I wondered how the heck I had missed that he moonlights as an orchestra man, the show was a wonderful environment to just sit back, relax and be absorbed in the sounds.

Slide 6 on the Instagram post shows the most goosebump inducing moment of the night for me and easily my favourite live music moment of my life so far.

I continue to find it jarring and, I hate to admit it but slightly unpleasant, when game music shows interweave gameplay footage and theming with live action footage of musicians. But other than that, it was absolutely worth going to and I hope to see more in the future (GIVE ME SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, PLEASEEEE).

Other hobbies | achievements

Crochet: I made my first free hand/patternless crochet project, which was a pouch for my crochet hooks. I don’t quite have enough experience to know how to finish that neatly yet but it is fit for purpose! After a few small projects I wanted to try my hand at something bigger, so I am making myself a project bag. This will store my ongoing large projects, the next of which will be a smaller project bag, to store my ongoing smaller projects. It is coming along well!

Cycling: This month I bought a bike that actually fits me, did my first 9 mile bike ride, and my first gym commute (which is the reason I started learning, yay for reaching goals). I am still not great on the roads (or the paths really) but I don’t know how else I am going to learn other than just getting stuck into doing the commute. Considering I couldn’t even ride a bike in March and I am just learning at 32 years old, I am really happy with my progress! I have already seen more bikes I want to purchase…

What’s Next?

As I mentioned up top, I want to steer clear of turning this into a goal setting post, because everything I do now-a-days is subject to change and I am trying to be more flexible with my time. However, I would certainly like my Patch Notes to become a regular thing. I will continue to spruce up the format as I go to keep it as readable and digestible, yet scannable as possible. So if you have enjoyed this, thank you for reading and keep an eye out for a post at the start of each month!

Noob Blog 2.0

There have been some changes around here so I thought I would write a little summary.

In my effort to simplify my website, I have added many pages. Originally, the idea was to add filter functions to pages so that you can easily find the posts that interest you within the correct section. Unfortunataly that is not allowed on the plan that I am on so I did the next best thing, which was make some new categories and organised them myself!

So what’s new?

Navigation

The biggest change is the updated menu across the top of the site (or using the little menu box on mobile). Categories now make a lot more sense and have subsections to allow you to find exactly what you are looking for. 

Impressions

Impressions is an entire new section dedicated to demos and first looks at games. Now, anytime that a game enters my radar I have a place to shout about it straight away.

Features

Features is a place for a lot of the content that I was already making that aren’t reviews or impressions.

Indie Gaming

Anything across the site that contains any indie content will be gathered here, as well as easy access to past game festival coverage.

Other Content

This is for all of the posts that I make relating to my non-written content like Twitch and YouTube.

Blog Archive

Blog Archive contains every post in one place, plus sub-sections of retired series so that I don’t completely erase them from existance

Home Page

I have simplified the home page so that content is the first thing you see. The plan is to add in temporary segments whenever there is a special occasion like the Steam Next Fest.

Game Service section has gone

Because the new categories collectively cover everything I make, I re-distributed all of my Game Service posts into the relevent places.

Search Bar

I have added the search bar as the best compromise to the filter issue I mentioned earlier. Search for a game title, genre, service etc and you should be able to find any coverage that I have done easily.

Sign up now to stay up to date with the latest posts!

2022 Reflections and 2023 Goals

I wasn’t going to make a New Year post this year, but upon reflection it almost feels necessary. Instead of publicly reflecting on what has been a particularly difficult year for me, I think it will be a lot more useful and enjoyable to think of what comes next.  

A constant in my life is my resistance to consistency. Give me 6 months of anything and I need change, it is just the way of the Noob. With that in mind, these are the latest thoughts in the everchanging realm that is my brain. 

Twitch

I am really enjoying my current schedule on Twitch. Two consecutive days and a seperate third is pleasing for me, allowing me to get into a zone and then let it go to work on other things. I recognise that a day stream can be inconvenient for many and I wish that I could change that, but it is the only way this structure fits together with my other commitments for the time being.

When it comes to game choice, I am going to continue to alternate longer games with shorter ones. This year we played a few games that were the start of a series. For now, I am going to continue to prioritise new games over sequels. This is because there are still so many games that I have no experience in. I’d rather spread the limited time I have around to new experiences wherever I can. That doesn’t mean we won’t be playing sequels, but do expect the potential of years between them.

I am going to continue to balance older and newer games in the same way, but all of this is really dictated by whatever I have access to at the time. Anything with limited access is probably going to take priority.

YouTube

Something that I have learned this year is that I need recording time to balance out stream time. Both are great but they are entirely different experiences that I love for their own reasons. A YouTube playthrough is entirely about the game. For this reason, I am really looking forward to bringing Let’s Plays back. I am unsure about the distant future but I have a list of games that may end up lasting the entire year without any further planning, so that is one possibility.

The current plan is Let’s Plays 3x a week, Indie Showcase Saturdays forever, and I have some other ideas. Depending on my workload, a potential I have been considering is Repentance Sundays. I haven’t played any of the Repentance DLC for The Binding of Isaac yet. It could be fun to put out a run or two a week as I get to know the new content. I will see how my schedule is in a few weeks.

YouTube is such a strange thing for me. I have been doing it for much longer than Twitch but can’t say I have ever found what anyone would call success. It is wonderful to hear when people enjoy my videos, or the rare occasion I see my series is being binged. But when you look at my overall time, I can’t help but think there is a problem. The trouble is, it is hard to figure out what the problem is. Is it just oversaturation, or is it my content? Occasionally an Indie Showcase video will get more viewers than normal because it gets in the algorithm, but it rarely ever translates into more subscribers. I have tried to make my intros as short as I can while including all of the information. I kind of like my thumbnails how they are. My channel is clearly organised. I have tried calls to action but I just can’t do it. I can’t help question whether I am just not entertaining enough. My philosophy is that I make the content that I would want to watch. The thing is, I can have weird and different tastes that potentially others don’t. All of this is to say – I would LOVE for my YouTube to become something. I am not a fool and know it wont, which even makes it difficult to admit my aspiration. But man, I love what I do and just wish it had more appeal. I think the only actionable thing that I can do towards that at the moment is to keep creating.

Just to be clear, I didn’t used to care about numbers, but since trying to make my content a sustainable career it makes it especially sad to think about. Unless something drastic happens, it is not going to work out long term, which sucks but I do need to start coming to terms with.

Blog

I go through phases with my writing. Blog time has been wonderful in a year when I haven’t always felt up to speaking or being around folks. Having said that, if I am not in ‘the mood’ then what I write can be just terrible. When I started using my Blog more regularly this year I hoped that I would do some more thought pieces, a hope that I will bring forward into 2023. The amount of half written pieces and pages of notes that I have that just need a little more time in the oven is excessive. I want to write things worth reading, but I also have to work on finishing them.

I have really enjoyed writing reviews this year and I hope to continue. I have found a format that clicks very well with my thought process that I also believe is good and reader friendly. It has been a great outlet, particularly for games that I didn’t play on stream. What I would like to do going forward is take this to the next level. I would like my reviews and my blog in general to be visually friendly and interesting too. While I don’t have specific ideas yet, I am taking inspiration from the magazine I made.

I’m making it a goal this year to try out a monthly game service recap post, as well as finally figuring out my own way of covering the Indie Festivals. These things are the type that need to develop over time, but I hope to make a start on them relatively soon.

Others

Game Dev – I am in a place in my life where I need to seriously consider my future. I have worked so hard since I lost my job, trying out different things and seeing if I can find a place. Unfortunately, I am still struggling with that. I want to work in games, but I am not skilled enough to write or design anything professionally. Once my schedule has settled down, I would really like to look into Game Development. It is a little difficult because I don’t know what areas I could be good at, so I would like to dip into a bit of everything and see what calls to me. I find self learning incredibly difficult but in my current situation, I have to use all of the time that I can right now to develop a skill that can help me be self sufficient in the future. The great thing about this is that I am surrounded by talented, creative and motivated people. I would like to join that group too!

Podcast – Finally, I have been wanting this for so long that I am writing it here for my own benefit if nothing else. I have so much on my plate currently, no matter how much I wish I could make a Podcast, the circumstances just aren’t right. I still have hope for the future but for now, I have to eliminate this from my current goals. The strange part about doing that is that Podcasts are probably my favourite form of entertainment. I really enjoy and respect them, but as a result of that, I don’t want to do it until I can do it right and that unfortunately just isn’t now.

While this has been a little back and forth on past reflection vs the future plans, I believe they go hand in hand and I do like to let everyone know where I stand every once in a while. It is an unfortunate fact that I don’t know what the state of my content will be in a few months time, let alone a year. Realistically, at the current rate, I will have to be seeking other employment before then. The thing is, I desperately need that to be something that I enjoy. So this year is really going to be a juggling act between trying to grow my current content while also learning new skills. There was a time in my past that I found the unknown exciting more than scary, that is how I would like to be again. I am going to do everything in my power to make 2023 a great year.

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Channel Update – December 2022

Hey guys, it is that time again for a channel update!

Some personal issues that I am having are seriously impacting my ability to provide the content that I have promised and I hate it so much. I think my schedule needs to be a fluid thing untill I figure out something that works for both me and everyone who supports me.

Streams

I am going to try going back to 3 set streams a week. I feel like I am currently cancelling more than I am doing. Through the nature of the current flexible schedule they were always going to change, but I can’t get my head around feeling like every time slot that I don’t stream is a failure (even though I know it is not) so obviously the system isn’t working for me.

So the new schedule trial is going to be –

  • Monday – 1pm GMT
  • Thursday – 4pm GMT
  • Sunday – 5pm GMT

These are the days that fit the best around my other commitments. It does mean that there will only be 2 evening streams, I apologise for that.

When it comes to my Evening/Day stream games, I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I would like a name for my day stream concept, then we can just do them whenever. The biggest concern is that if I play an evening game on a day stream then people may miss chunks of the game. I will open this up to discussion in Discord.

YouTube

There will be no change with Indie Showcase, they will continue to release weekly.

I would like to bring back Let’s Plays. I miss making them. Regardless of how well they do, I think having a balance of solo recording time and live streaming time brings out the best of both – quality wise. I haven’t decided on any games yet but I am going to take a look in the coming days.

So the new YT schedule should be –

  • Monday – Let’s Play
  • Tuesday – VOD
  • Wednesday – Let’s Play
  • Thursday – VOD
  • Friday – Let’s Play
  • Saturday – Indie Showcase
  • Sunday – VOD 

Blog

I would really like to make this into something. I spent some time last week intending to upgrade it but deciding I like it the way it is. It is a fun outlet for me and I have some ideas to make the individual posts a lot cooler if I can figure it out. Sort of like taking elements from the design of my Magazine and incorporating them into the posts here. These are only in the early idea phase so I have a lot of playing to do.

I plan to continue with reviews, eventually finish some of the thought pieces I started and most importantly to me, cover the Indie Game Festivals. I would love to do some sort of monthly round up of the game services and some other stuff but these are eventualities.

I would also love to get back to weekly Tuesday posts but I have no guarantees, I need to see how the above scheduling goes first.

I designed my (previous) new schedule to make sure I had 2 days off while maximising conent. What ended up happening is that I only saw my fixed Saturday as my day off. I would then burn out during the week and have accidental days off, which lead to the spiral of working on my scheduled days off to make up for it. With this new more fixed schedule I have 2 days off, as well as time to focus on Streams, YouTube and the Blog respectively. I am going to try this out for the rest of the year. I still have other projects that I would love to work on but first, I need to go back to basics.

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Enooble Me – A Membership Update

Hey everyone! I started the year with the introduction of Enoobler Memberships and honestly, they have been fundamental to the amount of time I am able to currently spend creating content. When I first set them up I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted or needed them to be, so now – 10 months later – it is finally time for a revamp. I am happy with the content that I’m posting but I wanted to make it more appealing outside of the platform too. So if you would like to get regular updates, first looks, credit in my videos, first dibs of in game characters, a chance to maybe very slightly sway the games that I play, and of course to help me out, please consider a membership.

What is a Membership?

It is a way to support me financially on a monthly basis and getting some perks back in return.

Why would I become a Member?

  • If you enjoy my non-monetised content and would like to support it.
  • I get a bigger cut from Buy Me a Coffee than I do from Twitch (95/5 vs 50/50) so if you would like more of what you spend to reach me this is one way.
  • For extra Noob content including updates and previews.

What do I get?

There are three tiers of membership –

Enoobling The Noob Level 1 – £5 per month

  • Fortnightly Noob.exe Patch Notes – This is a summary of what I have been doing for the last two weeks, the content I have made, the games I have played, how things are going etc.
  • Indie Showcase – A monthly post of all of the games I am going to play for the next month of Indie Showcase in advance.
  • Blog – A monthly post of how my writing is going and what to expect on my blog.
  • Behind the Scenes – Occasional posts of things that I am working on like emote previews, clips from videos, thumbnails, stream updates, miscellaneous projects etc.
  • Announcements and First Looks – These aren’t all that often but members are the first to know.
  • *New* First Dibs on Game Characters – If I am going to play a game that allows the naming of characters and you are at the stream, you get priority.
  • *Updated* Discord – There is a Discord channel for members where I intend to post more real-time updates about the things I am working on and where we can talk about secrets 👀 Members also have access to my Twitch sub channel.
  • *Updated* Credit – Be in the Members list at the end of my streams and videos (ordered based on Membership Level).
  • Eternal Gratitude.

Enoobling The Noob Level 2 – £10 per month

  • Everything from Level 1
  • *New* Super Star – I have a system in Discord that allows me to gauge interest in the games that I have lined up to play. Everyone can put one star on as many games as they like in the list. A star acts as a tally mark and the games with the most are at the top of the list. As a Level 2+ Enoobler, you can have a Super Star for one game on the ‘Day Streams’ list, and a Super Star for one game on the ‘Evening Streams’ list. A Super Star is worth 2 stars, so if you have a strong preference for a game, you can vote for it and it will get an extra point. Once I have played the game that you put your Super Star on, you will be able to put it on a new game. (Disclaimer: I am not guaranteed to play games in any order, these are just to show me where interest is. I do however seem to be prioritising games with 2 or more stars at the moment)

Enoobling The Noob Level 3 – £69 per month

  • Everything from Levels 1 + 2.
  • Memes.

Donations

If you do not want or are unable to commit to a monthly donation, it is also possible to do a one off tip via the ‘Buy Me a Game‘ button. Buy Me a Coffee allows me to offer rewards in return for a donation sum. I am going to get my thinking cap on to see if I can come up with anything fun, and in the meantime, Alien: Isolation has moved from being a Membership to being an Extra.

Non-Monetary Support

It is understandable that not everyone is able to support financially, but there are other ways that you can help. If you enjoy my content, sharing it with a friend (or stranger) could help me grow to new audiences. Liking and commenting on my videos lets me know that you have enjoyed it and gives the video a boost. Even letting me know if there is a specific piece of content that you like can be a huge morale boost and help shape the channel.

Making posts like this is hard. I don’t like asking for things, whether it is time, money or anything else. It is just, at this time I am going all in on my content and I have to know that I tried everything that I could to make it work long term. What that looks like right now is trying to sustain myself financially, while also trying to help my content grow to a wider audience. The story/exploration based, semi-indie, semi-old, not too serious long-plays that I do feels like a very niche area, but based on the amazing times we have I am sure that if I can get the word out, there will be more people out there that would enjoy my content.

And that is that! All that is left to thank everyone for their continued support. I am very lucky. If anyone would like to join my membership, make a one off donation or check out my page, you can do so here.

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Channel Update – August 2022

Guys, I have hit a video block. Remember when I had all of those ideas? Reviews.. Guides.. all of that? I have put substantial time into both of those things but I haven’t finished either, and what I have made.. well.. it’s just bad.

My style just doesn’t suit edited content. I can’t read a script. I mean, technically I can, but it sounds stiffer than my neck after a bad nights sleep. Something I tried to combat this was making notes and free styling. This definitely helps me to get my point across but the videos end up far longer than I would like, even once I have edited them down. I made the decision to stop making Let’s Plays so that I could focus on other things when truthfully, they are the only video content that I am good at. That doesn’t mean this was wasted, I have learned a lot. It also doesn’t mean I am jumping straight back into making them because I still have other things to try.

There are more things on my list that I have still yet to try, and given the results of my experiments so far, these might be much better suited to the way that I think and how I like to make content.

Podcasting | I like long form conversation and I generally have a lot to say about games. If I try to condense things too much like I have in the videos I’ve tried to make, I end up losing my point and my personality. What I love about podcasts is that they can be whatever you want them to be, and as long as you stay relatively on topic then there is plenty of unscripted time to say what you want to say. The only trouble with podcasting is that I really do think they are their best when they are a conversation. I can’t imagine anyone would like to listen to me talking to myself in that way. I thought about solving this by having guests, but I’m not even sure that would work. I have been listening to a bunch of Duckfeed TV and Gary and Kole have a great thing going. They listen to eachother, they support eachother, their subtle communication works so well and ultimately, they are both passionate about what they do. Having another person feels not only essential for the quality of the end result, but also for the support along the way, bouncing ideas back and forth and sharing the workload.

Writing | Writing doesn’t often come naturally to me. I usually need to be in a specific mood at a specific time. I have no idea how professionals manage to make magic with their words every day, on demand. But, the advantage of writing is that I can take all of the time that I need to shape my words into sentences that actually make sense, without the worry of having to do that on the spot or how I sound. I don’t have the most diverse vocabulary, I dont have the best spelling or understanding of punctuation, but I also don’t have the best speaking or reading skills and that didnt stop be from becoming a streamer. What I do think I have is my own unique tone that is easy to read and who knows, maybe with practice I will get better at those other parts too. The drawback is that there is probably even less of a demand for my writing than there is for anything else I could do. I’m not sure anyone will be interested in reading. Having said that, my videos aren’t popular either so it seems worth a try. At worst, I get the idea off my mind, discover I hate it or develop my skills. At best though, people enjoy it and something comes of it.

The reason I am writing this is becasue I need to let go of the video ideas. Despite everything I have written and the want to let it go, I clutch onto the hope that maybe I can make something good. The ideas constantly circle around my head, half formed, taking up space as a fog that never takes form, clouding the way for anything else. No matter how much I want it, I have to accept that I suck at scripts, I find editing a chore and the glimpses in my head of what could be are not translating into the actual content. Let’s Plays and Streaming suit me well because there is no script, minimal editing down, just pure thoughts. Perhaps the things above will too. So it is time for me to move on and try new things. I’m just sorry there is nothing to show to everyone that is supporting me.

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Future Project Ideas

As you guys probably know, I find juggling everything I do hard, but I always want to do more. The update on Sunday talked about regular YouTube plans but I have a craving to make more content about games I love. I’m just not sure in what format or when I would do it, so consider this just me throwing my ideas out there without any plans of actually doing them yet. I guess I’ll chat about them in the order I have been thinking about them.

Idea 1 | The first – and the closest to almost having come to fruition – is a Podcast. I love talking about games, and I love listening to podcasts. I don’t really listen to variety podcasts or news or anything like that, I like game club Podcasts, where a group of people play the game and then talk about it together. Everytime I finish a game I do a search on the Podcasts I listen to (Left Behind Game Club, Watch out for Fireballs and Cane & Rinse currently) to see if they have an episode and listen straight away. I enjoy being taken through the game via another’s eyes and experiences in another medium. A problem that I run into, however, is that often the games I am looking for have not been covered. When I am not done with a game and I can’t find anything to listen – as daft as this sounds – I struggle to move on. I would love to be able to take my favourite elements from my favourite podcasts and reshape them into my own, so that I have a place to celebrate the games I love. I would like it to be long form with a heavy focus on the narrative of the game and the different elements of the game that help to create that. I would like a spoiler free section at the start to sell the game to anyone who is curious, then dive deep into the spoilers and what they mean. I would like to talk about a lot of the games that I maybe have a different perspective on that others, with guests who also love the games. I have put a lot of thought into this one and don’t know why I don’t take the plunge. The worst thing that can happen is that no-one listens but you know.. that is no reason not to try!

+ Already did quite a chunk of planning

+ Closure for the games that I have a lot of thoughts about

+/- Quite a bit of work

– I’m not convinced that anyone at all will be interested in listening

– These are much better with more than one host, it should be a conversation, not a monologue

Idea 2 | The second thing that I have spent some time thinking about is a YouTube series called something like ‘A Noob Guide’ (except there is already Noob’s Guide on YT 🙃). A lot of my YouTube views come from some little walkthroughs of Overcooked that I made years ago. What I would love to do (but has probably already been done) is do a series of short videos helping people either new to a game or new to a genre or whatever. The game in mind being The Binding of Isaac, but then with other games being options in the future. Part of the whole point of my channel was because I was very new to games and exploring what type of things exist and experiencing them for the first time. To this day I am still finding new genres that I love. It is undeniable that I have noobish qualities, so it just feels like a nice fit to do a series for noobs, from a noob. Because I am such a noob, I may be able to explain things in a way that would help other noobs that may be overlooked by veteran gamers. This would be something heavily edited and informative rather than for entertainment.

+ Did a bit of planning

+/- No idea if there is a demand for it on the internet

– Isn’t necessarily for the current community

– A tonne of work

Idea 3 | The most recent thought I have had is some sort of review series. Not for new games though. I haven’t thought of a name because I have barely thought of a format yet but some sort of backlog review series, or a look back in time, something of that sort. Again, the purpose of this one would be to celebrate the games that I like and show off why I like them (while also being critical). At first I was thinking three minute reviews but someone already does that too. Then I was thinking maybe something a bit longer. Then I realised I have been watching a lot of Skill Up I just wish I could make content like him 🤣. So yeah, not a lot of thought has been put into this one except some sort of highly edited thought pieces on some games I have played. Way shorter than a podcast but probably the same amount of work when it comes to editing a video.

+ Doesn’t need to be on a specific schedule

+ Could use a +/- format that I enjoy

– No planning done

– Lots of work gathering footage and editing

– I suck at reading a script

So, there is a little look into my somehow both over and under productive brain! If anything comes of any of these is yet to be seen, if anyone has any opinions please do let me know. Putting things out there is scary because little interest = probably shouldn’t bother and interest = pressure. On the other hand though, neither of those things would just be ignorance and I think it is better for me to know what others think, if anyone does, and if not then I guess I can take that as freedom to try anything!

Ideally I would like to try all of these but I have to budget my time in accordance to where I make my money, so streaming has to come first. In that sense, Let’s Plays and Indie Showcase would go into the same category as the ideas above, which means I really have to be choosey about what I do. But while I am on a roll with streaming and recording I cant get these ideas out of my head!

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Streaming Schedule

While I am still figuring out a schedule that works for me, I am going to be trying something out. Sometimes my three evening streams per week works fine, sometimes I can’t manage them all, and sometimes I would like to do more. I am going to trial some daytime streams.

I like my evening streams in general to be narrative focused, single player games that I can get immersed in and transfer to YouTube as Let’s Plays, so I like them to be somewhat coherent etc. I adore this structure but sometimes life doesn’t allow for me to be in the right frame of mind to do my best work. Having a daytime stream as an option will allow me to do my minimum of three streams per week, so if I have to cancel an evening for whatever reason I will still have plenty of opportunity to stream.

These daytime streams will be extras, their own separate thing. Instead of my evening games it will allow me to do shorter streams of other types of games. Ideas I have in mind are my endless games like Isaac, management games, life sims, puzzle games, other indies, one offs and game photography. Games to just chill with where I don’t feel like I have to be at 100% all of the time, as I am not doing a ‘proper’ playthrough. This may not be a permanent thing, but it is a nice for me to have a little flexibility if I need to skip an evening. We will see how it goes!

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