noclip

Noclip in 2023 - Adapting & Changing

Added 2022-12-31 16:56:13 +0000 UTC

YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0orRej5GZ8

Hey patrons - and non patrons!

It's the start of a new year and time to make some changes at Noclip. Over the past six years and change we've made over 100 documentaries on wide variety of games. But in those years we've changed, and the world of games development has changed too. People know who we are, studios are largely working from home, and most importantly - games development has become a lot more transparent than it was in 2016.

Our work here is done *walks into sunset*

No I'm not arrogant enough to take credit for the fact that gamers know more about development than they used to (well, if they want to) but the reality is that they demand more depth than ever before. More interesting stories, on different types of games, with more authenticity than ever before. The Noclip formula has become somewhat predictable, and the times when we've messed around with it (Black Mesa, Greatest Hits, Hades) have proven our most enjoyable and interesting work. So we want to do more of that.

We've also changed - we've learned so much about games development over the past six years. We've covered a broad range of franchises and studios and aspects of development. Largely we've followed the desires of our fans and patrons to to do that. I often talk to our patrons about painting the canvas - that each new doc and studio we cover is a new color and shape. After six years I feel like we've covered a lot of that canvas, and now I want to start a new painting. One that's a bit more selfish and a produces more interesting work.

So what does that look like? Well the video goes into a lot of the details but some of the main takeaways are;

Noclip Documentary Channel - youtube.com/noclipvideo

Less large scale (dozen interview) studio profiles
Focusing on stories we are interested in
More frequency on the main Noclip Channel
Longer Videos (> 2 Hours) and Shorter Videos (< 20 minutes)
More work put into script writing & filming
Investigations unearthing cancelled games
More retrospectives on beloved classics
More esoteric & interesting Indie games
In-person for docs for stories that require it.
More post-production on both remote & in person docs.
Motion graphics refresh

Noclip Crew - youtube.com/noclipcrewvideo

Continue to build this into an independent editorial channel
Video essays from Danny & Jeremy
Collaborations with other creators
More Let's Plays but with better production & scripts.
The Movie Review show we've been talking about for years
No more developer interviews (moving Breakdown concept to main channel)

Noclip Podcast - youtube.com/noclipcrewpodcast

Bonus developer interviews & spoiler-casts.

In short we're going to fuck around and find out a lot more this year.

We're still going to hit a wide variety of games from AAA studios, indies and retrospectives. But we're going to take a lot less pitches and focus on projects we are personally interested in. To get in front of camera more and hit the road on meaningful projects.

To give you an idea right now we are working on:

Dwarf Fortress Documentary (in person)
Recent AAA Game (in person, 4 interviews)
Unreal / UT99 Retrospectives (remote)
Wipeout Retrospective (remote)
Gloomwood Developer Breakdown (< 20 minute, remote)
Hyper Light Breaker Series - Episode 2 (in person)
Recently Released 1-Person Indie Game (in person)
We're currently pitching docs on a bunch of our favorite 2022 Games

The video goes into the details and motivations a bit more but I hope this write-up helps explain it too. Noclip is our home and will be as long as we can keep the lights on and we have so much more work to do.

We're excited to show you what we're all about in 2023.

Danny