Welcome to the 3rd topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submissions are selected based on a random lottery system and each tier gets its own number of slots. The Gentry get 3 topic slots, the Illuminati get 2, ...
2025-03-15 01:33:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Beautiful Patrons!
Today's podcast episode is going to be a fun one! I am joined by friend of the channel, Boghog, to discuss a lot of really cool topics surrounding games as an artform such as creating a refined palate as a player beyond our usual comfort zone (delicacy of taste as Hume calls it). How confining discussion and understanding of game design into strict genre labels will stagnate dee...
2025-03-13 06:25:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Esteemed members of the Gentry!
Today, I have decided to try out a new exclusive content format for you guys I'm calling Cutting Room Floor. Yesterday I was recording the Director's Commentary for the month when I realized that it would probably be a good idea to add more variety to the Gentry exclusive content, since Director's Commentary is probably going to get a bit repetitive each month, so I should introduce an additional format to swap out when inspir...
2025-02-25 14:58:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Everyone!
It's time for the monthly Patreon Exclusive Podcast! Today I think is an interesting discussion where I share my thoughts on the importance of game developers, especially indie devs, being more active and vocal in the game design conversation in terms of elevating and defending the more challenging artistic choices to general audiences, and not using consensus as a metric of quality (as so many people do, consciously or not) and instead just use general feedback as an oppor...
2025-02-14 05:18:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Everyone!
Thank you so much for supporting the channel! This month's vote was fun because there were so many close contenders (P.N.03, Urban Reign, Devil's 3rd, and Sekiro) but the winner for the patreon review vote was a sleeper pick that ended up showing up super strong, Rabi-Ribi!! This has been a game I've heard about a lot over the years so it will be really cool to check it out and see what I think, especially given that it is a fusion between Metroidvania and Bullet Hell (to ...
2025-02-06 17:42:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the delay on getting this post up, I have been playing ALL of the versions of Ninja Gaiden 2 for days now for the big review of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. I saw the game was on the nomination list, but since I'm already working on the review now, I went ahead and removed it.
So, we'll have the voting take place this week and end 2/2/25 :-)
For the new patrons, the...
2025-01-28 11:10:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Beautiful Patrons!
Today it's time for Topic Zone #2. It's slightly later than planned because of the surprise stream from NG2B and NG4 I had to jump on yesterday, but I think this is a really fun episode.
Today's topics are:
1. Best NES Game? [Vrenna - Gentry]
2. Beat Em' Up Fundamentals [SegFault - Gentry]
3. My Most Desired Arcade Port [Fisken - Gentry]
<...
2025-01-25 02:54:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone!!
It's time to write your nominations for the next Patreon voted review. The way it works, in case this is your first time, is that you just write down in the comments here what game or piece of media you would like to be included in the voting phase, and then all the nominations will be included for the voting phase. The vote will start on 1/17 and close on 1/24. All tiers can nom...
2025-01-10 23:30:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone!
It's time for the December Patreon Podcast episode! Sorry for the slight delay, was doing the holiday break thang. In today's packed episode, I talk about my love for the show Succession (watched it during the holiday) -- my feelings on some 2024 films, Dune Part 2 and A Complete Unknown, the role of television as the new premiere story telling medium (even though I'd prefer Lit and Film) due to AA economics and my absurd pity for successful artists that seem to have no mor...
2025-01-02 04:51:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Gentry of the Underground!
In today's 2nd episode of director's commentary (which is 3 hours) I recap my Tekken 8 Authenticity Crisis episode, but in the process I end up spending a lot of time going down memory lane of my relationship with the Tekken series over the years, the difference between making "community content" vs making critical content and all kinds of other interesting subjects (I hope they are interesting anyway). I really enjoyed recording this commentary and I th...
2024-12-28 08:58:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
Welcome to the 2nd topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submissions are selected based on a random lottery system a...
2024-12-17 17:25:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Welcome to the 2nd topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submissions are selected based on a random lottery system a...
2024-12-17 17:21:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
Welcome to the 2nd topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submissions are selected based on a random lottery system a...
2024-12-17 17:17:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Patrons!
Today is the pilot episode of TOPIC ZONE, the patreon exclusive show where I give my thoughts on topics submitted by the patrons. Because this is the pilot episode, this ep will be for free members as well, but moving forward the future eps will be for the paid patreon tiers. The way the show works is that each tier gets a certain amount of submission slots and then I randomly choose from the submissions in the dedicated posts of each tier. This ep is a bit unique in that...
2024-12-06 06:05:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
Greetings Patrons! On this month's Patreon podcast ep I am joined by Boghog to discuss our feelings about UFO 50 and the guiding philosophies and concepts around the release that we feel end up stifling retro gaming as an art form, despite the clearly effective BIGNESS philosophy that the game utilizes. So put on your berets and turtlenecks because this podcast is not a review of the game, but rather a discussion of the philosophy behind the game's design that is only really suited to be hea...
2024-11-28 03:55:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
The winner for the Patreon Voted Review is IN! Viewtiful Joe has arrived ha.
Thank you so much for supporting the channel everyone! The review will be posted in December :-)
Sincerely,
Mark
2024-11-27 00:09:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone!
It's time for the review vote! For the new members of the patreon, the way it works is that as a Homie you get 1 vote, an Illuminati gets 2, and Gentry get 3. For the Illuminati and Gentry you can use all your votes on the same game, or you can spread them across different games.
Here are the nominees:
==========================================================
<...
2024-11-18 21:35:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Delightful Homies of the Underground,
Welcome to the first topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submiss...
2024-11-11 20:38:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Powerful Members of the Illuminati,
Welcome to the first topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submissio...
2024-11-11 20:35:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Lords and Ladies of the Gentry,
Welcome to the first topic submission post for the Patreon Exclusive series, TOPIC ZONE, where I give my thoughts on topics and games you'd like to hear me discuss in a more freeform fashion. Each patreon tier will get its own post for you all to submit your topics too. TOPIC ZONE isn't voting based like the patreon voted review. Instead, the submissions a...
2024-11-11 20:32:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone! I'm excited for this month because we are now settling into the new and expanded era of the patreon and so I thought it would be great to get things kicked off with the classic patreon review nomination post! So the way this works for those new to the patreon is that all you have to do is write down the game (or film or bit of media) you'd like to nominate here in the comments. There's no restrictions or anything other than just one nomination per person. This process will last f...
2024-11-11 20:07:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone!
It's time for the big Patreon Update! Where now I have added the $8 tier which will have access to an exclusive show called "Director's Commentary" the pilot episode has been posted and made public for everyone just to give an example of what the show is like :-) Also for all the patrons I have added a new exclusive monthly video series called "Topic Zone" where you all get to select topics that I will then discuss in the video. 6 topics will be chosen from a lottery proces...
2024-11-01 08:42:30 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Everyone!
This is the pilot episode of the Monthly Patreon-Exclusive video series, Director's Commentary! Where I go through some vids from the month, as well as a legacy older vid of mine, and provide commentary to my work, like directors used to do on DVDs.
This episode's selections are Messenger Vs. CyberShadow, Donpachi, and Silent Hill 2 Remake! And since this is the pilot episode to give everyone an idea what the show is like, it will be freely accessible to the publi...
2024-11-01 08:34:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
In today's episode I discuss my ever-growing frustration with the current state of commercial art critique and how I think critics these days, in both film and video games, are fundamentally diverging away from their roles as a counterbalancing force against basic mass appeal as the driving incentive for commercial art and helping to shape and elevate appreciation for more unique and abstracted creations. Instead film and games all seem to be only assessed on the basis of how likely they are ...
2024-10-22 06:50:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone! Huge patreon podcast ep today! I cover the new upgrades to the patreon content that are coming next month and the new Gentry $8 tier, and I cover my trip to the Portland Retro Gaing Expo, my thoughts on graded mass-produced video games and why they are not the same as hand created art (like paintings), and also my realization born from my time in Portland that I instinctively want to view and present myself primarily as a writer/video creator and not as an E-Celeb.
I think ...
2024-10-05 06:56:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Everyone!
The winner of the Patreon Review Vote for this month is F-Zero GX! It's crazy it came down to a tiebreaker, but F-Zero pulled ahead in the end :-)
Thank you again for supporting the channel everyone!
Cheers,
Mark
2024-09-09 03:06:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone,
Interesting update, we have a tie for this month's voting between F-Zero GX and Viewtiful Joe! So we're gonna do a quick tiebreaker where in the next 48 hours cast your vote between these two, and then on Thursday I'll count the tiebreaker votes for the winning game :-)
Here is the link: TIEBREAKER
2024-09-03 22:53:53 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the slight delay, it's voting time! For those new to the patreon, the way it works is that you follow the link and cast your vote from the list of nominated games. Shmup Homies have 1 vote and Illuminati have two (you can split or vote for the same game twice), so be sure to list your name and tier on the vote :-)
Nominations:
==================================================================
Devil's Third
2024-08-26 07:17:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello Patrons! On today's episode of the Patreon Podcast I talk about my experience with getting stonewalled while trying to give feedback during the early days of Cygni's Development (and how LAME NDA's are) and then I also talk about my new idea of Young Sega Energy, where I feel the retro gaming scene has become kinda stale as of late and it's time to try to approach classic gaming with a fresh perspective and energy that I hope connects with the classic gaming audience in a fun way. I'm a...
2024-08-21 20:27:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone!
It's time to write your nominations for the monthly voted review :-) For people new to the patreon, all you have to do is write your nomination in the comments of this post, and then they'll be listed for the voting process. Nominations end 8/22/24 and we'll start voting that day :-)
Thank you so much everyone for supporting the channel!
Sincerely,
Mark
2024-08-15 22:08:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
