I was talking with my family over dinner about my process for walkthrough creation, and it dawned on me that there are 3 very specific steps in the process.

Step 1: Exploration. The first time through a level or game, it’s all about figuring out HOW to beat it. Whether it is a tricky level late in a game or a point and click adventure, the first step towards showing others how to beat it is to do so yourself. This is not always easy, and I often find myself trying many different methods in an attempt to find the correct one. For point and clicks, this usually involves randomly clicking everywhere in the game with everything in my inventory, along with trying to combine anything with something else… whatever I can do to progress in the usually linear nature of the game. In level-based puzzle games, this means trying every route available or clicking pieces in every possible combination or firing a projectile at many different angles/strengths. The goal is always the same… find a way to solve the level/game.

Step 2: Memorization. Once you know how to beat a level or game, you need to do it in a way that clearly shows others how to do it as well. In a level-based game, you want the solution to each level to be fluid. You do not want pauses, mistakes, backtracks, misclicks, or extra moves shown… this will confuse someone trying to copy you. The same is true in a full-game video. To do this, you need to run through the game or level multiple times until you have it memorized and can do it without making a mistake. I will often record my memorization playthroughs, as I will do them without a break to keep the solutions fresh in my mind. Then, when I have it down, I easily transition from memorization into the 3rd step…

Step 3: Optimization. This goes hand in hand with memorization, but merits its own step. Memorization has no specified number of attempts to it, but when it is done correctly, it IS the Optimized run that I will upload. It is also during the memorization runs that I will look to fine-tune my method, so that the final optimized product is as flawless and close to optimal as possible. A walkthrough should not just show the solution, it should be of a level of success and mastery that people strive to match or surpass it. Anyone can record themselves beating a game; a walkthrough should be something you’re proud of… an accomplishment of your victory over that particular game.

Well, that’s at least how I do it.

So crazy to think… amazing really. For a walkthrough to have so many views. This is the only level’s walkthrough hit 3 million views today. Yay!

Use Boxmen will hit 2 million very shortly as well.

Don’t think I’ll have any new 7 digit milestone posts for a while. Oh well.

Bidding ended last week, and the game is now LIVE on GamesButler.com. Big thanks to Dom for the sponsorship, quick payment, and quick add to his site.

PLAY DITLOID.

And, of course, if you need help… here’s the walkthrough. But be warned, you may accidentally see the solutions to levels other than the one you want.

MrRubix is a very good friend of mine. We chat almost daily. I’ve had the good fortune to meet up with him on multiple occasions. There is even a very long Tass Tips that features him. He is probably the single smartest individual that I know, and when motivated, the best gamer. When I am stuck walkthroughing a game, I turn to Rubix first.

Unfortunately, the Rubix of old has disappeared. He graduated college a little over a year ago, then spent about 6 months figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. Eventually, he settled on a high paying corporate gig in NYC that is worthy of his intelligence and schooling. Ever since starting this job, he has been rife with cbf (a fun little acronym that stands for “can’t be f*cked”).

The little psychology that I know leads me to believe he’s lost his drive to dominate in flash games because his time is limited. Why spend 6 hours on a game when he was just at work for 8+? Add to it a new girlfriend… and those of us in Impossible is Nothing have lost the Bix we’ve come to know and love.

So this is an open challenge to him. He started a thread on Kong a while back, and it has 20 incomplete challenges already. Here is the thread. Feel free to add HARD challenges to it for Rubix via the comments. Perhaps we can work together and get him out of cbf mode.

The original list is from February. A lot has changed since then. There are 17 new videos in the Top 100. The 100th video viewcount increased from 58k to 93k. Total views from the Top 100 has increased from 22 mil to 33 mil. But other things remain the same… Armor is well in first, with BubbleBox still solidly second. Joey Betz is still my top dev, but John Cooney and Eugene Karataev are gaining. And the % of views from the Top 100 has decreased from 81% to 76%.

Here is the data from Feb, side by side with the data from now:

Views are viewcount in thousands, Count is number of videos in the Top 100.

Didn’t get a chance to post about it yet, but I hit 500 videos last week with my 2nd half walkthrough of Pipol Smasher. Not too shabby, although I had 410 on Jan 6th, which means I’ve only uploaded 91 videos in the past 6 months. This makes sense though, since in early 2009 I was uploading walkthroughs to any game I could find. Now, I’m only uploading walkthroughs where I can monetize them.

Also had a 5th video hit 1 million views, and a 6th that should hit 1 million today (999,000 as of midnight).

Here is a breakdown of my videos by views, of July 09 vs July 10:

Are there any statistics/data that you guys would like me to show? I plan to do an update of Top Sponsors / Devs by views later this month.

Finally have my desktop set up in Philly. Thankfully, nothing important broke. Just 2 bookshelves and a table. We’re also missing a box, but not sure what’s in it.

Bidding should close on Ditloid in the next week.

Have a few other small games in the design phase that should start being made this month. A satire game that will be kinda similar to Take Something Literally, a 1-screen platformer, and a upgrade-distance type game.

This also means that my walkthroughs will return to their 100% quality, as opposed to the 80-85% quality (my terms) that I was getting from Whorli’s laptop.

My first game is up for bid on FlashGameLicense.com (FGL). Ditloid is a word-based logic puzzle game where you are given a number and the 1st letter of each of the words in the problem, then you have to deduce what the puzzle is. Such as 60 S in a M would be 60 seconds in a minute. The game features 100 levels spread across 3 difficulties. There are 2 forms of in-game hints, plus a walkthrough. All 100 levels are open from the start, and you can freely skip from 1 to the next. The game IS hard; it’s not something you’re going to complete in 1 sitting… it’s a game where you take a few puzzles with you, and maybe the answer to one of them pops into your head 3 hours later with a sense of “ooooh! nice.” and accomplishment.

Anyway, hopefully it sells for some good money. Krayz did a great job on the programming and dealing with my never-ending list of bugs and changes.

Since tons of people want to know about FFR… I got an email from Synth last night that he was indisposed and would hopefully have the site up by Monday. So we’ll see.

I’m starting to get worried. All our stuff is leaving on a big truck on the 22nd. Need my desktop back before then, if only so we can get it on the truck. Don’t want to have to shell out hundreds of bucks in shipping.

Developing 2 small games in addition to the big one. One should be finished the week… it’s a popular type of word/logic puzzle, but I’ve never seen it ported to flash. So I’m doing it, and slapping 100 puzzles in it. Doubt it’ll do that well… but it’s the type of game I’d enjoy playing, so that’s why it’s being made.

The other is another satire game with Benologist. It’ll be less “omg complete joke” and more of obvious satire but still fun to play / challenging puzzles. Most of the puzzles are done… need to write the script still. And Beno is busy until July (as I am, sort of, with the move)… so that game will be made in early July.

Over the weekend, I had my 4th video hit 1 million views. This is the first video to hit 1+ mil that is not a fully self-contained walkthrough; instead, it is 50% of my Wake the Royalty walkthrough. The other half has 944k views and should hit 1 million sometime this summer.

Recently, the total viewcount on YouTube has been lagging. It seems to only update every few days. So I’ve been tracking my viewcount through TubeMogel instead, which is not QUITE as accurate on the short-term, but is fairly damn accurate long-term. All TubeMogel does is take a snapshot of the viewcount on each video at midnight, then sums them all together for your account total. This is dependent on YouTube updating the counts, which is why it’s often off in the short-term… but it evens out to be only a very small margin of error in the long-term. That explanation aside, My viewcount on TubeMogel as of Midnight this morning was 39,950,000… which means sometime today I hit 40 million total views. Yay!

My desktop is still in the shop, for exactly 1 week now. Going to call tomorrow to see what’s going on. Tass is starting to get the DTs from sexy computer withdraw. Sadly, I’m going to have to be without my desktop again in 2 weeks. The moving truck is taking all our stuff on June 22nd, and is not expected to arrive in Philly until June 29th. That means 1 more full week with the craptop. *sigh*.

Oh… and in other news. My big game project has basically been on hold the past week because of the desktop issue. Which sucks. Probably won’t hit FGL until July at this rate. However, I’m designing another quick satirical game with Benologist; but because of both of us being busy this month, that won’t see the light of day until July either.