#PastebinMonday 12/11/2023 Writer's Block Edition

'Sup, doods!

I am hitting a really bad run of writer's block right now. I spent weeks writing up a potential ruleset for future speedrun tournaments in order to encourage more regular community engagement, but with everything that had already been written down to come up with that ruleset, it should have taken days. Check out the League of Puzzle Speedrunners Discord server @PuzzleSpeedrun to see the rules and give your feedback if you feel like taking part in future tournaments!

My next order of business is to, once and for all, come up with a standard LPS broadcast stream layout that can be quickly adapted into whatever game the community wants to play next. I'm looking at whatever I made for the Kirby's Avalanche tournament and searching for a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement and... I have nothing. My creative energies are completely spent right now at a time when I am wanting to push through several sizable creative endeavors. I may need to just sleep extra to push through the brain fog, but the crunch is tight enough to the next community event that I can't sleep too soundly. I was also hoping to get to making certain changes with my own stream this month, but I'm gonna have to do something different to push through that objective.

For now, I think I'm going to use my downtime with some mindless casual games. Nowadays, I've been addicted to watching people play HoloParade, a new Hololive fangame that has officially partnered with Cover Corp to release as a paid game on Steam, the first partnership of its kind. If you've seen The Battle Cats, I'm sure you'll get flashbacks as you experience HoloParade. I've gotten so unwilling to drop the $4 on the game that I started playing Battle Cats for my fix. It's not quite the same so I don't know how long that will last.

Also, I see how y'all respond to my commentary on trending topics. I really should be trying to do more of that if I want followers. Perhaps the smaller blocks of text would help me overcome my writer's block. I'm even showering when I wake up instead of after breakfast. I'm desperate here, doods.

Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals (actual priority is in constant flux):

Goal #5: script and record footage for my Puzzle League tutorial series. I have some scripts left to touch up before feeling comfortable with moving on to recording gameplay. Then I will need to record my talking points and edit it all together. This is the big thing I hope to get done before the next tournament.
Goal #6: clean up my own stream layout. I am brainstorming how I want the final theming to be. I probably want to give people multiple options, maybe allow spending bits to change the look. I don't have anything written down yet. I don't expect to get to this anytime soon.
Goal #7: maybe make a universal LPS broadcast layout. I have been working on a base, but perhaps I should stylize one for the LPS brand. Let's just say I have plans. Hopefully I wouldn't over-homogenize it like SpeedGaming did. I think I actually need to focus on this ahead of next month's Super Puzzle Fighter tournament.
Goal #8: release the Puzzle League tutorial series YouTube shorts once a day until they're all done. I really do think I need to time the release of the series with a ramping up of my streaming schedule so that I can take advantage of whatever there is to gain from releasing the shorts.

Streams are on hold until I accomplish these goals. Anything I decide to do will be of the guerilla variety and have very little notice. There would probably have to be community races of some sort in order to get this to happen.

In case you missed the video schedule I posted before:

(all releases at 7pm EST unless otherwise indicated)
12/11 (TODAY) - Puzzle League Runner Improves in Puyo (Or: Speedrunning is Better With Friends) [Kirby's Avalanche]
12/14 - I'm Not Allowed to Chain - Hard Edition (Or: PPL Hard With Combos Only) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
12/18 - From One Lottery to Another (Or: From One Prison to Another) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
12/21 - I'm Not Allowed to Chain - V-Hard Edition (Or: PPL V-Hard With Combos Only) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
12/25 @ 1pm EST - I'm Not Allowed to Chain - S-Hard Edition (Or: PPL S-Hard With Combos Only) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
12/28 - Uncharted 3D Waters (Or: Cards Cleanup Crew Returns for Free World Records!) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/1 @ 1pm EST - An Easy Button (Or: I Expected This to Take Longer) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
1/4 - I Beat Easy Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: I Played More and Only Got Worse) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/8 - That Was Easy (Or: That Was Normal?) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
1/11 - I Beat Normal Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: A Normal 1P Stadium Experience) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/15 - Speedrunning Speed Golf is Really Hard (Or: Why I Can't Handle the Kong) [Mario Golf: Advance Tour]
1/18 - I Beat Hard Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: A Good First and Last Impression) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/22 - A Peachy Improvement (Or: Why I Can't Handle This Game Anymore) [Mario Golf: Advance Tour]
1/25 - I Beat V-Hard Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: Very Hard? More Like Very Mid) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/29 - Kaiba's Sub-5 Lottery (Or: Why This Side Might Be More Random) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
2/1 - A Proper 100% Speedrun of the Game I Love Most (Or: A Birthday Gift to Me) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
2/5 - The Marathon Sprint for 50K! (Or: You Can Finish This Speedrun with 2Chains) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
2/8 - A Time Barrier Defeated (Or: Why Speedrun Leaderboards Are NOT The End All) [Pokémon Puzzle League]


That’s my life story for the week. Later, doods!

--Cards