Upgrading Noclip's Patreon (+ Call for Q&A Questions)

Spoiling us, Danny!

Ooooh exclusive stuff. Wouldn't that take too much out of your time, money and energy from the main docs?

Charalampos Koundourakis

We filmed a bunch but are basically waiting for them to get back to us on dates to get the rest of the story. We've been trying for a good while but they always seem too busy. Still working on it!

Noclip

With the GDC interviews and possibly the extended cuts coming back, will the pirate radio be making a return?

I see how noclip premium might be problematic but the prospect of new types of content is really exciting. I think the ideas you listed are great. I personally LOVED “The Point” and would be stoked to see a series in that vein come about. Q’s: -Are things still going well financially in terms of funding, gear, and quality of life for you guys personally? -What are your thoughts on the growing cadre of gaming news channels on YouTube? In my opinion, they tend to participate in outrage culture and drum up a daily dose of “here’s why you should hate/distrust the gaming industry.” -It would be interesting to see a BTS look at the life of a Twitch streamer or explore the live-streaming phenomena in general.

Mark Bilik

more Bonus Level / Danny's Disk Club type videos....also....didn't you all do a doc on AbleGamers awhile back? Is that still coming?

Nick Grugin

Director commentary of your docs would be really interesting and something I'd love to see. You guys spend so much time creating them, it would be nice to learn more about the nitty gritty details, challenges you faced in filming, your processes etc, which we might not otherwise see in the behind the scenes videos (which I enjoy! but are just different). Small side coversations with the people you interview for docs, whether it just be what they're playing atm, or just more about them as people and their lives. Let's plays with developers would be neat too, especially of the ones you do docs with.

I'm really glad to here that the old archive stuff and extended interview videos are rising up from ashes again. I was gutted when we couldn't find the 1st birthday stream VOD for all the cool commentary over year 1's video so would really like to see the directors commentary put out in the videos too. Best update from noclip in a while for me, no doubt about it.

Harribo

I like the idea of "directors commentary" if you will, in general extensions to stuff that are already going to the main channel, stuff that didn't make the cut and such. You started out by saying 'real time and effort' would be put into producing stuff for patreons, now that is of course a broad term but I would be sad to see formats like Bonus Level for example produced exclusively behind a paywall. I hate the ads-only model and would love for it to die tomorrow. I think your current balance of 0 monetization on youtube and entire funding off of a patreon is a good one. The 'free culture' of the internet isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it strongly incentivices click bait, while content like yours, paid for by those with the means to do so needs to show continous high quality. Look, it's late and I feel like I'm going in circles at this point, all I'm saying is, don't produce stuff exclusively for Patreon, unless it's addons to existing content on Youtube, I am happy to pay 10$/month for it to be free for everyone, a few freeloaders be damned. You do good work, keep it up :)

Lucas Schleicher

Hey Danny! Loving the GDC videos so far! They're bit sized and have just enough content to be a good watch. I was wondering if you have plans on releasing the full length videos though. (I agree with everyone here about the $5 tier thing :) )

Shell Comics

I agree with most others here in that I'd prefer that anything telling a substantive story should eventually be public. You're calling the things that would be paywalled not part of the core of noclip, but I have two problems with that: 1) What inspired me to be patron was the core of noclip. Why would you give me something you feel is unrelated as a reward? 2) The mission is yours to define, but in my view part of the core of noclip was the way you brought us all closer to the developers of the games we know and love, and made us feel like we got to, if not be a part of their process, at least sit and look at it through a wide, clear window. To then be hiding parts of your own process and output behind an opaque wall seems contrary to the very core of what you're bringing to the world, even if the surface content is a little different.

Couldn't agree more and we're actually gonna have something from the player's perspective soon. The next podcast is with a friend of Noclip who plays games with a prosthetic arm. We bought him Sekiro two weeks back. We should probably re-promote our accessibility video from 2 years ago too.

Noclip

Danny, I have to say I'm not a fan of patreon exclusive content. I'm supporting you so that you can get your content out to as many people as possible, and not only to a few behind a paywall.

Ronny Arild

I'm happy with the tiers the way they are. Only thing that concerns me at the moment is we're seeing more documentaries for games that don't exist yet, whereas I find myself more invested if it's a documentary on games that have made an impact in whatever fashion in the gaming zeitgeist

I'd prefer something like timed exclusive videos, becoming public 6 or 12 months later. Super early access. I'm generally not in favour of Noclip's content hidden behind a paywall.

James Osgood

I'm cool with whatever, but if we end up getting videos like that time Jonathan Blow visited Giant Bomb to talk about the game while playing it ( <a href="https://youtu.be/jhEDARvLf90" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/jhEDARvLf90</a> ), I would be very interested in that. Something casual that helps offer additional insight into production and design through thoughtful commentary and discussion.

Brandt Hughes

Hello As the toxic mess, this week, on accessibility and sekiro people need to get more information out to the gaming public about accessibility options. What they are and are not. How they affect games and the creative process. Show gamers how big of a group we are from ex-military to a lowly gaming geek like myself. Give us a face and maybe those who hate us so much will understand us a little better.

Troy Lindstrom

I absolutely love the monthly Q&amp;A and Patreon updates, so at $5 I'm already incredibly happy I get to fund NoClip and get a little bit extra. I mainly consume podcasts over videos, so I also appreciate the early access to the podcast feed too. Danny speaking candidly to the camera is always welcome since I greatly value his opinions. I'm always looking for ways I can creatively contribute to NoClip too, so the Q&amp;A videos are an awesome way to participate. No matter what you do, I'm always excited and thanks for constantly upgrading your operation! I was happy to pitch in on Day 1 and have never felt like I wasn't getting value out of it. As for a Q&amp;A question this month - I recently read The Art of Asking and loved it. Do you have any other essential self-help books or non-fiction recommendations? Also, do you have any favorite comics? I'm always looking for more to read! Thanks!

Frank Howley

I would love to see unedited (unless necessary for an "oops, we shouldn't have shared that" kind of reason). I get why you might not want to share this on the channel, but as a bonus for Patrons I think it would be great.

Appreciating all this feedback. It sounds like there is a good bit of resistance from the idea of having substantive stuff behind the paywall. This is really useful to know. I think for me there's a balance between making you feel like you're funding this work for everyone, and giving an incentive to others to become patrons. I wonder if that could be doing more fun stuff like my old show Random Encounter, or just doing different styles of Behind the Scenes stuff. Sounds like the and Director Commentary and maybe the Extended Interview cuts could work. Keep the feedback coming though, this is helping a lot! In any case we're going to have a tier "refresh".

Noclip

Yeah, not sure I understand the reasoning behind this. Is it hard to create enough behind the scenes "content" to justify the 5 dollar tier?

Everdred

Hey Danny! I'm sure this may be a little too early to ask, but I was wondering if Noclip has anything planned for E3 coverage this year. If so, will you be doing interviews or a full doc, or will it be more a "behind closed doors" meetings to set up potential future projects? Either way, thanks for taking my question if you do, all the videos coming through are great and insightful, and I hope you're doing well! Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Brandon K Gann

I was going to write pretty much the same question. What is the reasoning behind starting putting stuff behind a pay-wall? (Which is my interpretation of the premium tier) I support the patreon because I want to support the production of Noclip's content to be available to everybody, not because I want something exclusive. But perhaps that is a minority viewpoint, and this change would create more patreons, generating more resources, so the net total would be more content for the public?

Hey Danny (and Jeremy, even though he isn't there)! I am curious about your shooting days on the docs. When you go to a studio, how much do you shoot interviews in non-ideal locations VS taking charge and requesting to shoot in a specific spot? How much B-roll does Jeremy shoot? Does he begin filming immediately, or do you do interviews first to have an idea of what to shoot? On average, how many hours of royalty free music do you listen to before a track speaks to you?! Thank you for the work you do! (I would love to hear from both you, and Jeremy if that is somehow possible.)

Tory Thompson

More stuff to watch!! I am having a hard enough time keeping up with all the stuff being posted. :-) I am OK with whatever you want to do. I have viewed the $5 level as "just" a show of support for the documentaries being made. I wasn't expecting a lot of extras particularly if it took time away from documentaries themselves. Like some posters, I would like to see NoClip providing video to everyone. My $5/month contribution is towards making that happen! (I do like the Q and A though!) My questions for the Q and A, what is the future of AAA games development? We have seen a lot of high profile failures recently, Fallout 76, Anthem, etc... Outside of established franchises (FIFA), AAA game development seems to be very risky and perhaps destructive (particularly for the health of developers). Are we going to see a "pivot" towards "smaller" games from "smaller" studios with presumably smaller overhead? Keep up the great work!

It's probably been asked a million times before, but what studio(s)/game(s)/story(ies) would you like most to cover that you haven't yet, or haven't been able to? (Either just due to natural constraints of time/scheduling/cost, etc, or also stuff like the studio being dead, or devs/companies not wanting to cooperate, etc.) Are there any you think you'll be able to eventually, or are there some that might just never really be possible? Also any chance of more tech focused videos? Not analyses or anything, but say, interviews with graphics and tech engineers on certain challenges or games or engine jumps forward. IE.- Tiago Sousa (formerly of Crytek) &amp; co. from ID about idTech 6 and their huge amount of work on that engine after John Carmack left, creating/pushing forward what become an incredibly modern, forward-looking engine that was then used to great effect in Doom 2016, Wolfenstein TNC, and soon Doom Eternal, etc. Some really astounding technical and visual achievements there, especially while targeting 60fps on consoles and generally hitting it! Or some of the astounding things Guerrilla have done over the years with graphics, sound, procedural asset placement, on their games? Stuff/topics/stories like that?

MittenFacedLass

I trust your judgment on all things to do with noclip, but I don't like the idea of 'patron only' stuff. Especially if creating that content will take time and effort away from the public offerings. I would be happier with extended interviews or any other low time investment (ha!) clips.

Fragglerock

Just watch the first 10 minutes of Saving Private Ryan :D

I've mentioned this before. And maybe it's too, well, pop-y. But a day in the life of a dev - different roles inside a studio. Either throw a camera at a person. Or follow a specific role around for a day or to, digging into challenges for that role etc. etc. etc.

Anders Warming

Q: I really liked the live-streams over the GDC week, are you planning on doing them on a more regular basis? I think I remembered hearing you mentioned Doing them again for E3.

Q: Do you get approached by publishers to do an episode on an upcoming game? If so, do you worry they are using you for free marketing?

Would kinda' just love to see some low-key let's play sort of thing. Like the old Random Encounter but maybe featuring some developers or just Jeremy and Esteban. Excited to see what you come up with!

Marcel Hedemand

Honestly I think this is a terrible idea. The reason I support you is so that you can make great docs for the public, and now you want to take a portion of that money and your time (which would otherwise be spent on public docs) to make content that only some people can see? Patreon is meant to be a platform for people to support creators because they like what you do, not a premium subscription service for private content. I get that you have a lot of unused content that doesn't make the cut for public youtube because you want to uphold a standard of quality there, and if you want to dump some of that on patreon that's cool. But actively spending time and money to provide this extra content to patrons alone, calling it "Noclip Premium" and intensionally withholding *quality* content (not just the offcuts) from non-supporters is a bad move imo. If you have extra content on the side of a particular main (public) video that you think would water down your channel, I'd rather you upload it unlisted and just add cards or links to the description of the main video.

Poly Haven

I'm pretty curious what the bonus content for the tier would look like. I'm new here but am loving all the videos so far.

Five buck patron here. I would prefer that, where possible, videos produced out of Noclip remain available to the public. I'm happy that I'm funding stuff that everyone benefits from.

YesButSeriouslyTho

Really loving the bonus level content and hope to see more. I would love to see content on game reviewers: the process, headaches, joys, etc. Maybe some history about the big magazines and websites in the industry today (and yesterday...Cough cough Nintendo power).

While doing the GDC interviews, did any common threads develop that you found surprising or intriguing?

Josh Squires

I actually already upgraded to $10 tier as I just felt like you were overdelivering on content for the $5 I was putting in haha. This all sounds fantastic Danny, really looking forward to seeing what's next. I wanted to ask how are you taking time between filming, editing and the baby just now? Also with the release of the Astroneer documentary, do you think you will avoid something on No Man's Sky for the foreseeable future? Their trip into VR has got my interest peaked!

Christopher Kelly

Director's commentary would be an awesome way to enjoy the old docs again. Definitely love that! And never will say no to new content! Thanks Danny and crew!

Landon Robinson

Big yes to extended interviews. Exclusive shows sound fun too.

Paul

I've been asking for the Jonathan Blow extended interview ever since the Rediscovering Mystery series. You've mentioned the chat was over four hours! Love your work, best of luck.

Good ideas Danny, I feel the items you listed would be able to show value for patrons without going against the mission of noclip.

A+ transition out of the shot at the end. 😉