Update 09/25 - And we're back!
AY
We're back!
And with an ACTUAL RELEASE, to boot.
Wow, wow, wow...
A few important things to go over, though.
Get ready, this is a pretty heavy one.
First off, this new video took a good while to make not because it actually normally would've taken this many months to make, but instead because of a variety of different reasons that you have likely already read about if you've been following these Updates during this The Great Lull.
I do want to talk about how this has come to a head as of last week, however.
First off, as you may notice when watching the latest video, there is kind of like an integrated sponsorship ad in the first few minutes? Kind of?
Okay, so, it's not actually a sponsorship at all, we weren't paid for it, its entirely just a shoutout to my local HobbyShop and its owners because I felt they deserve it, especially in light of this channel simply not existing without them.
They lead me down this path by simply existing so it was a way of paying dues to these legends who have of the past few years become very dear friends.
But, it's also something slightly more.
We are going to have to do sponsorship stuff in our Audiologs going forward, and this was a way of telling you that before it actually happens.
Only in Audiologs though, as we are hopeful that will be enough...
It's not a choice I would've come to naturally, but I've been told by multiple people, as well as the economy itself, to get the fuck over myself.
In these the current times, our little studio needs everything it can get to stay afloat. Google Adsense is fickle and fleeting, and the income from donations is not exactly easy to maintain. And, what's more, the reason we're going ahead with it is simply because of the consequences that have revealed themselves as of late.
The last months have had our budget suffer and has created this big lull in our creation process due to disease, vacations, staff spreading themselves thin, spending much of our budget on freelancers, and, for me, being on parental leave and trying and failing to work in my son's sleeping windows.
This all in the middle of a recession, rising prices on everything, falling Swedish krona value (fun fact: the swedish krona is currently at an all-time low!), and a very worrying winter prognosis with electricity bills that can reach $2000 where I live....
This entire rotten potato sack of an ordeal has, suffice to say, had consequences, and I'll be transparent about exactly how.
We have, as of last week, hads to lay off half our staff (three people, to make it sound slightly less dramatic) because of this entire thing, two fantastic illustrators in Inktooth and Ironirocal, as well as the person who brought you the fantastic melodies that HTP was blessed with, Mackeerre, all simply because, as my bookkeepers strictly informed me A BIT TOO LATE... if they now stay a few more months, Alfabusa is dead. Simple as.
Having to lay people off, especially such powerful artists, was about the worst thing ever, loathed it to my core, and the primary goal is now to GET THEM BACK AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.
And to do that we need to just... simply EARN MORE.
And the only way to do that is to release MORE VIDEOS again, as well as offer some better incentives to you regarding tiers and stuff like that, and, of course.... yeah, sponsorships.
It's just how it is, and with hope, these sponsorship integrations will not actually, like, affect viewership or your experience in any dramatically negative degree.
I am fully aware just how annoying sponsored ads can be, so we want to try to make them at least somewhat entertaining by presenting them in the same kind of light that we have in our latest video. We also want to try and present stuff that we are actually interesting in if we can, but we don't know how picky we can truly be.
So, yeah, all of this is HORRIBLY boring and disgusting, but at least we're going to be stable, and while this will obviously affect our work speed when they actually have left, we who remain will still try our best to release quality stuff for you.
Next up is going to be the first episode of our Half-Life project.
We're also going to start work on yet another Audiolog, as well as a special video essay type of deal starring Speaker that shall try explain to you the setting and the franchise that is World of Darkness, for those who join this niche alongside us.
We will try our very best.
That will be that for today.
Until next time, have a good one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comments (52)
I don't think the girls are Cliche, but their trouped personalities do just exist to tell us how massive of nerds Kitten and Markus are, and also that Kitten and Markus are the kinds of dudes who have more female friends than male friends, which is nice imo. nay, they are not but mere nerds. they are WEEABOOS. so the one male friend who is Just a Normal Guy who watches dubsnotsubs is a needed contrast. I think its subtle, but intentional. also subtle: the insinuation that if the bully KNEW Markus was engaged to another man, the bully would almost with 99% certainty unleash a can of homophobia expired enough to give a hyena botulism. but the authors cleverly side-stepped this. why? because ain't no one wanna see that. this is a light-hearted universe where vampires turn into sparkle dust in the morning sunlight and found family go on midnight ghost walks in double decker busses for funzies. real world dark shit has no place here. but also I mean if it had happened i would have been into it. I just think this was a conscious decision and a wise and kind one. I liked this episode is what I'm trying to say . I like all the writing on all the shows.
I'll be honest - you always deliver nice, developped characters. These 2 girls are a bit too cliche by your standards
I moved up the tiers not only because I’ve fully fallen in love with the new series, but also becuase I want you to know that ad was goddamn hilarious to the point I didn’t realize it was an ad until I read this. So please, don’t beat yourself up, as long as I get the content, and you can keep going, whatever you do is fine by me
Clearly Herkness Dragonblade's glue ad was better.
Or just go back to TTS and fuck the consequences. Don’t get me wrong man, I will continue to contribute via Patreon to keep you going but I don’t watch this series. It holds no interest to me. It’s a shame.
To be fair, as a 40k nut myself, I dearly miss TTS from the bottom of my heart, but until GW gets their heads out of their bums, HTP is a top notch series.
Honestly amazing character building in this one, put in like eight new characters and made them all memorable :) Nice to give Markus some time to shine as a social butterfly and smooth operator as well as being a big meatwall, and I actually thought Brok was voiced by SuperAnchors at first, didn't know Haven's voice could even get that deep! And as for the Hobbyshop bit, it was great to hear your voice again, do you read bedtime stories to your son with that voice?
Honestly the sponsorship you've included in this audiolog was so fun to listen to. If you present ads like that into your future videos I feel like they wouldn't detract so much from the experience.
I found this episode fresh. It was it's own story and gave nice new perspective to Murckus. New characters were hilarious! I was also happy to see progression in plot/world building.
While ads may not be ideal, The alternative is far, far worse. Bring forth the Raid Shadow Legends!
It's been a while since I've become so quickly and strongly attached to a set of characters as I have for Murckus's friends. Amazing work as always and I really hope they show up again
I just had the worst nightmare the day after reading this post. In my dream Alfa dropped a new video and it was just a half an hour of Big D playing Raid Shadow Legends :P. Jokes aside I trust Alfa to pick good sponsors and look forward to seeing them on a regular production schedule
I would watch that, lol
Zoran the Bear as a Bartender is charming.
The intro radio ad worked seamlessly!! I love it! I'm grateful for the content y'all put on here, and if sponsors are what help keep y'all going and get back your guys then I certainly don't mind at all!
Aaah, I figured the donation-explosion from GW's bullshit wouldn't last forever. Yeah man, you do whatever you need to stay above water. Sponsors, ads, whatever.
Upped my patron status after hearing of the Troubles! Hope all goes well for y'all! The sponsorship was also pretty funny! So long as they're like that (hell, even if not) it's fine! Better that than no Alfabusa content at all - and then were would we be?
Look. Sponsorships give YOU money and cost ME only three seconds of time in skipping over them. I perfectly understand that you need the money. Go ahead
It was fun meeting Kitten’s ex
Amazing work All! I think this one might be my favorite episode so far, everyone has so much personality! And as usual I love Karl’s end credit bits!
I enjoyed the fake ad, but I kept wondering "How is Big D listening to a Miami radio station from the UK?"
A shame about Inktooth Ironirocal and mackerre, hope to see them back at some point! If HobbyShop can help you survive this winter of discontent then I’m grateful for it, and can’t wait for half-life! (Wonder if Valve could lend a hand too, put some Alfabusa stuff on steam for TF2)
Would I like it for things to exist without ads? Yes. But would I like it more if things continued to exist at the high standards of quality they currently have, even if some ads have to exist to do it? YES. So do what you have to do, and in the meantime, take my money.
As the others have said, we don't give a flying fuck. You need sponsors, you put as many ads in as you need to, it's all good, mate! Also, Grimal is fantastic, hope to see more of her and Harry. But mostly Grimal.
Will the "MORE VIDEOS", be in the form of audio logs? They are great to have in the background, and can be used to flesh out the world you all are building.
Oi mate, no worries. Heretics have to make a living as the rest of us meatsacks here on this lousy, wet, dirt ball. I hope you boys get enough sleep, dreaming of Karl's spaghetti or of something less desecrated. Tell Karl to make an album, 1. add Rattling bog in there, 2. ????, 3. profit. Love ya gits, bye!
Along as it helps u guys stay afloat,most people don't care if u gotta throw some sponsors in
Yeah, sponsorships suck, but what can one do. Economy is crap and that's that. Hole you can get the people you had to let go, back at some point. Anyway, this audiolog was amazing and I need more of "Big Red"'s friends, especially Grimal. So funny and great VA too, props to her/them!
If ads keep content coming, then ads are good imo!
Also watch me refresh the video and ads one billion times for revenue
Losing employees always sucks, hope this winter isn't too cold
Grimal. Love her. Please keep her.
if you need sponsors then you need sponsors. no need to apologize
Dude, if you need sponsors, cram two in a video at the beginning and end. Life's a shit slide these days! Winter's coming! You guys stock up on cash as much as you can to keep things rolling, and if anyone complains, just ask if they'd be so kind as to fund the studio. Edit: Marckus' circle of friends is so much like my old pack of pals it's eerie. We had the normal guy, the goth chick, the anime nut and the oddball too. I loved them and hope to see more of them someday!
nothing like a cozy pub in haunted england.
I'm honestly extremely happy that you guys are even still doing anything. When GW pulled their crap I was absolutely ready for the worst, so if you are able to get sponsors, go balls to the wall! It's really not a big deal on our end, so don't leave money on the table
as long as they are sponsors you believe deserve your time, by all means. if it means we keep getting quality content, im not opposed to you championing companies you approve of
100% okay with ads! Slap them in there if it gets you guys through this
Just joined your Patreon!
Putting in ads is perfectly fine, it keeps the lights on and allows you guys to keep making stuff.
I am perfectly fine with the ads/sponsorships because I understand what it's like to need to scrimp and save. I know it's hit hard times for a lot of people and you got to do what you got to do.
oi
Hey, you guys do what you need to do to. If you need to throw in sponsorships, then so be it. A little bit of time for that is very little to ask in the grand scheme of all your projects. Ads are the least of our worries, or mine anyways. Keep up the good work!
Figured I'd drop in and say that I fully support you guys doing sponsorships.
Hey holmes people gotta eat, I don't mind a sponsership in a vid. Go ham.
Listen man, the intro absolutely sent me before I could truly realize what was going on. If you can manage to make the official sponsorships even party as hilarious as that was, there is nothing for you to worry about. Hope that the sponsors help to clear the financial situation up a bit!
Man no one cares about ads, love the work you all do its worth to keep seeing it!
To be honest, I'm excited for the VPN ads if we ever get them, just to have Father explain whilst also calling everything daemonic.
Do what you need to do guys! Fully support whatever you need to keep moving forward
It was a smart decision to include Herknes Dragonblade in the ad. From what I've observed, people are more likely to tolerate ads if they add a degree of entertainment to the video they are already a part of. Also, an idea that popped into my head: Perhaps Big D could have a back-and-forth with the next sponsor over the radio, asking questions that are answered mere seconds later.
As long as they are as fun as e.g. those from Terrible Writing Advice, and I'm sure you'll manage, sponsor away!
Sponsorships are fine as long as they stay contained and don't start popping up all over the video. A good blurb at the beginning or end isn't a problem. Honestly I prefer sponsored ads like this to the random crap that web services spam at you. Hope things pick up soon.