Today’s post is a celebration! I finished a project which was (no joke) five years in the making. Actually, it was more like six years, with 2025 sneaking up. And…It's a 40 minute video essay on Rain World!
I’d like to use this blog post to detail how I made it. As it turns out, making a video essay isn’t quite as easy as I imagined it would be… I’ve been watching gaming essayists since I was probably 14 years old, with some favs being Jacob Geller, Noah Caldwell-Gervais, and HBomberguy. I sometimes caught myself copying their inflections during recording, which was a little bit embarrassing… But they gave me the inspiration to try this.
I started writing it two months ago, right after I initially finished my five-year-long savefile. The essay was actually the quickest part of the production, with only two or three days of writing and another day of editing. In fact, it was actually the audio recording which took me the longest. I began by using a mic on my headset, which didn’t last long before kicking the bucket on me (To be fair, I’ve had that ol thing for a few years).
My back-up was Voice Memos on my phone, which sounded passable, but to avoid echoes I had to set up a makeshift recording booth in my closet. I’m 6’3 and my closet is probably 6’1 so it was more than a little uncomfortable. I also had to record at night to avoid background noise from outside. All in all, it took around a month to get through the whole essay, and I’m still not 100% satisfied with the audio quality. But I’ve done what I can.
Editing was the part which was the most fun for me! It necessitated a bunch of background footage of the game and ripped music tracks. Timing the music, visuals, and speech tracks was very satisfying, but my poor little laptop could barely handle it! I think that in the process of making this video, I’ve taken months off her lifespan.
All that to say: I’m proud of the video, and I really tried to put my best into it. It’d be cool if you checked it out, especially if you’re a fan of the game. On to more essays!