…It’s been QUITE the year, hasn’t it?
For me personally, this was a year filled with incredible downs but equally majestic ups. And as I’ve been saying all across social media, one of them has been this very project, the first one to rise from the ashes of 2016.
This year was one small step for CORe, but one giant leap for Digital Era Entertainment as a whole as a result:
A very simple goal was laid out at the beginning of this first year of CORe, which was to be consistent with content and blast out at least one video of a certain level of quality. Judging by the releases we managed to get out as a two-man team dealing with massive life changes and a rollercoaster of opportunities (both successful and missed), we were able to make this first year meet the standard we initially set, right down to being able to deliver video content at the proverbial “eleventh hour”…content which has already proven, by way of feedback from the kind of people we definitely want seeing it, that we’re on the right track and presenting lifetimes worth of experience in this field in one compressed piece of media.
(Said video. Fun trivia: while the official runtime is listed by Youtube as “10:11”, the actual timecode reads as “00:10:10;10”…so “Perfect 10’s” all around, hahah. Good omen, considering it was meant to be a slightly longer video that we agreed to trim down once this particular element came into focus.)
Because of this feedback and going off our analysis of the year in relation to our goals, we have clearer focus and clearer purpose. We hope this will benefit all of you as friends, fans, and followers because this will also mean MORE content for you to enjoy as we move forward into next year.
As we step into the (next direction for) CORe in 2018, I wanted to briefly review the bullet points from our original manifesto last year and see how close to/off the mark we ended up being, and how our 2018 goals align with what we set up on that day one year ago:
– A new viewpoint in very prominent conversations across entertainment media
– Food for thought
Pretty sure we nailed these two with our very straightforward but sincere style across Kenneth’s reviews/script for “Best Games of 2017” and my open world gaming thinkpiece/input on our “Best Games of 2017” video.
– Impetus for discussion
I believe our presentation and willingness to do interactive content speaks for this, however being our first year and still building out our subscriber base for this particular brand of DEE (as well as beefing up the social media presence of DEE as a whole given how lackluster it’s been), I will designate this as something we were ultimately somewhat lacking in. With the new initiatives regarding our upcoming CORe streaming/podcast content (officially christened “DEE CODE” as of this writing) and Patreon page, I believe we’ll have new opportunities to expand on this engagement.
– The occasional video that will range from informative to silly, all in the style of DEE’s usual work, but operating just outside its usual norm
As mentioned before, we only got one video out for the year, but MAN if it didn’t cover a broad range of emotions given the content of each game discussed and how we were able to present it. Definitely a video that exists outside of the usual DEE roster, but still designed with a similiar aesthetic that can be seen in other content by DEE itself. Our goal in 2018 is to pump out at least 2-4 videos (so either semi-annually or, in a better case, quarterly) of that calibre for all of you to enjoy. Over time, and pending better overall cash flow (Patreon…again, hahah), we hope to expand the output to join the likes of our favorite channels that we’ve mentioned in the past (i.e. WhatCulture, WatchMojo, Film/Game Theorists, ScrewAttack, etc).
– Casual streaming content to occupy your brainspace in between and provide a forum for live interactions with our audience.
Kenneth was the MVP making sure we had both regularly released written content and video in the form of casual streams. We hope that some of you have joined our Destiny 2 Fireteam “The CORe Guardians” and gone questing with him in that time. He also had an entertaining “Doom Plays Doomfist” video for Overwatch, and also did a playthrough of our #2 Best Game of 2017 “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” (all of which are available on the DEE Youtube Channel).
Because of my own work with Kaiju Big Battel that became the defining part of my own 2017 experience, I expect to get into a better flow of that sort of stuff myself in 2018. More details about that should emerge via social media over time, so please do yourself a favor and follow us not just on social media but also Twitch since the main DEE Twitch channel will be hosting our respective channels as well.
The last thing I wanted to address is the new Patreon page, which was a thing I took a long time to pull the trigger on for a variety of reasons. Ultimately, I decided it would be best to set one up to help DEE finally grow in a way that I could expect the most consistency with outside of trying to take on or develop projects that have been more financially draining than anything else (despite how creatively and professionally satisfying they have been).
We hope that through this Patreon page we will be able to both achieve the goals laid out earlier in this Year End Review and ideally craft TONS of content (possibly even physical goods!) across both DEE proper and DEE CORe…with savings to the longest-time supporters ultimately being built into their contributions. Besides content I plan to pump out via my own individual branding (hence the “dual billing” on the page), I’ve still got a plethora of properties in my head to release independently, and I know Kenneth does as well. So between the two of us alone, we can promise you something that will hopefully continue to entertain you in exchange for your support.
(Plus, I have a TON of awesome creatives in my roster of DEE project veterans, so the possibility of content from them being rolled in is also a likelihood the farther this particular effort goes!)
Every great journey begins with a first step. 2017 was that first step. And for the first time in over five years, I’m prepared to take The Next Step…
…a step (deeper) into the CORe.
Thank you for helping us in Year One…We’ll see you at the dawn of Year Two!
