August 2025 Channel Update – Hornet Cutting The Line

Hi all,

Hope you are doing well!!! I can’t  believe summer is almost over…. where did the time go!?!?!?! 😭

This is a bit of a long one so let’s cut to the chase!!

TL;DR

• Finished: Unpacking, Death Stranding 2, OFF

• Ongoing: The Roottrees Are Dead

• Next Up: See Picasso Welonz below, Hollow Knight: Silksong

• A heads up about videos in early "members only" access on YouTube

Finished Stuff

Unpacking: A meditative (?) game about packing up your stuff and moving to new places as you grow up and live life. Surprisingly a nice little story told via the mechanics and environment! I think this series is by a fair margin the one where I talked about myself the most (there is only so much in-game commentary I can derive from looking at a toothbrush for fifth time...) I've learned it’s also likely to infuriate viewers the most by how I am not putting Object in Location It’s Supposed To Be At 😂.

Death Stranding 2: There’s a lot of “here’s a bizarre yet visually cool cutscene” but I’d like to have seen the narrative evolve beyond that. A lot of story beats were (too) reminiscent of DS1 and the majority of the cast were static and underdeveloped. These issues were less of a thing with the shorter 10-15 hour MGS games but really pronounced in a longer open-world title. It’s hard to recommend for the story though I still loved paving roads and the general gameplay.

OFF: An updated/remaster/remake of an 2008 RPGMaker title of an entity called The Batter on a mission to purify the world. The surreal and cryptic stuff comes together by the end in a fascinating way ripe for speculation. I don’t have the original to compare against but this version is OK - they’ve updated some things that may not be considered straight upgrades (ie. they couldn't get the much beloved old soundtrack for this release). The age shows but it's still an intriguing story.

We also took quick looks at:

Date Everything!: A visual novel about household objects turning into Real People, all eager to get to know you! I felt like it leans more on the comedy/absurdity of the situation more so than... actually being a Hardcore Romantic Dating Sim where you’re intended to fall irrevocably in love, I guess? The voice cast is prolific and sells the experience very well!

Is This Seat Taken?: A seating optimization puzzle game where you’re given a bunch of people who have preferences for where they want to sit/who they want to hang with and your goal is to make everyone happy. Low on the mental load with an adorable mini-story to go with it too!

Herdling: From the devs of FAR: Lone Sails and FAR: Changing Tides is a shepherding adventure of a young boy leading mystical creatures called Calicorns from the urban city to the mountains. The herding is an interesting mechanic where we have to lead from behind Beautiful and atmospheric. It’s without dialogue and beautifully atmospheric.

Current Stuff

The Roottrees are Dead: We’re back with Roottrees! This was ranked second back in the March poll. I know it’s been a while… apologies! TBH I found it difficult to record this one since it’s puzzle-heavy, requires high focus, and is easy to forget details for between sessions. We’re set to complete the base game so far - while the detectiving is fun, I’m not sure I want to fully commit to the extended Roottreemania puzzle, which I’ve heard is significantly harder 💦

Upcoming Stuff

I’m sure everyone has seen the Hollow Knight: Silksong release announcement. Confirming here that that yess I will be getting to this on release!

Roottrees will just be 2-3 longer videos so I’ll start something else very soon too. Here’s a World Premiere™ Picasso Welonz:

(The next few months after this look absolutely insane so I’m going to pretend I don’t know about it and just take it as it comes 🥹)

Early Access to Videos

Since the whole DELTARUNE thing last month I’ve been wanting to test YouTube’s early access feature more, and I wanted to share the details with you first. TL;DR I’m going to make videos available sliightly earlier to YouTube channel members before the “actual” public release time.

What this means:

• If I plan to publish a video on Monday morning and have it ready & uploaded by Sunday night, I will make it available to YouTube members on Sunday night.

• The public publish dates aren’t changing, so nothing is changing/being taken away for Patreon members

• The advanced access period isn't set and just from when I’m done a video to when I plan for it to be out, which historically has been anywhere from a few days to just a few hours beforehand. (I’m going to say right now it leans “a few hours beforehand” often lol)

I’d love to offer this on Patreon too but the function is integrated into YouTube’s membership system which makes that not possible. While I could technically mirror the upload here, Patreon isn’t a video site and has too many limitations, the worst of which being lower video quality and a lack of 1440p/4K support. It's just not ideal and I wouldn’t want to offer you a worse viewing experience.

If this perk sounds interesting, you’re more than welcome to switch over to supporting me on YouTube at the $5 USD tier. I prefer Patreon and do get a bigger cut here but please feel free to pick what works best for you. (Note that these update posts are on YouTube too but not the voting and polls, mainly b/c there hasn’t been a good way for me to offer them on both sites while keeping the process transparent.)

Not much is changing really, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time so you’re not caught off guard with members-only videos popping up on the channel. I’m endlessly appreciative of your support in whatever form it comes in - thank you always for making all this possible for me!

Whew, this was a long one and reminded me why I’m a video creator and not a writer 🗿  I'm happy for your thoughts, comments, and suggestions if any. Otherwise, I’m gonna get ready for bug kingdom next month. See you then!!!!!! 🐛🐛🐛

Welonz