Exploring the Creative Universe of Donovan Scherer from Studio Moonfall

Speaker 2: 0:15

Ladies and gentlemen of the twitches and the YouTubes, the Spotify's and wherever else, I guess you listen to podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to bucket bites. We are the show where we have bite. We have bite size discussions about a menagerie of different topics, and on occasion we feature guests from all different types of content creation from Hollywood producers, video game developers, actors or just and more. But today, today, we are graced with a self-published author and illustrator and also bookstore owner. He is the leader of a bunch of out of this world interns. Everyone, please, welcome our guest today Donovan sharer from studio moonfall, do they? Well then, I feel I don't feel too bad then all different between every person it don't feel bad. I literally it happens every single time we have a guest on like post. I'll ask them beforehand like hey, how do I pronounce your name? I want to make sure I get it right. And then he'll give like two options. He'll be like oh, here's an example. He'll be like is it Anna or Anna? And they'll be like it's Anna. And they'll be like all right, here's Anna, don't feel bad this it's a term of adearment from him. Really, I'm trying to make the effort. It's, you know, half the battle's making the effort right.

Speaker 4: 1:55

The part of the book is charm, charm, right.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Yeah, well, donovan, thanks for coming aboard. It's. It's really exciting to have you on talk about things. I've actually I met you once in person before, actually at your store. Um, it was actually on my birthday of all days. I went down to your shop in Kenosha, wisconsin by the way, it's called studio moonfall um, and we, we, we got some books, I bought some d&d stuff. So I guess, before we get things started, if you want to talk a little bit about yourself, what it is you do, and then we'll start, we'll jump into the questions so yeah, I am.

Speaker 3: 2:36

I started as an author and illustrator doing upper elementary, middle school level chapter books think Harry Potter meets Dr Frankenstein with a little hippy girl running the show. That's the Fear and Sunshine series and um been doing that through uh, selling them at comic conventions and everything since 2009, and then in 2019 I opened a brick and mortar store in Kenosha and in there I'm I'm mostly doing coloring books now, but I'm also selling other local authors books and started doing the Kenosha book festival. We're starting the Kenosha Comic Con next year, so it's a lot of events that I've been running with it and just taking my own experience from doing the comic conventions over the last 14 years and I used to like run concerts back in the day, so this is kind of just bringing all that together- all right, well, thanks.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Thanks for the interview, donovan. That was all my questions, all right. You damn damn, you really just pop up, pop pop out, you're right, that was great. No, that's good, that's perfect. What? What was that about? Concerts, though?

Speaker 3: 3:48

uh yeah, that was my first entrepreneurial endeavor was um working with like. My friends were all in garage bands at the time, so I played in a few bands, but I wanted to go the administrative route, so I started running concerts and doing all-ages shows. We'd take over bars and kick out all the grown-ups so we could just have a bunch of kids in there to have a concert at a bar. Yeah, we had a few bars that we would work with for doing all-ages shows and we would do bigger halls. So, um, if you're familiar with, like Kemper Center down in Kenosha, we would set up shows there, which was cool because we'd get like a few hundred people would come through for our shows and it was just a bunch of rambunctious teenagers causing trouble and uh, but it was cool, it was a lot of fun. And then most of the kids in the bands got to the point where they all went off to colleges and bands broke up and things moved on as they do and then I just started doing my own thing, so making my own book, so I could be the rock star and do do all my stuff myself dang it.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Hell yeah, man. Well, look, look at you now, though, because you're you're doing a lot. You're doing a lot of good, I think, too, especially for your in your community there. You do a lot with the city of Kenosha yeah, yeah, um started doing the Kenosha coloring book.

Speaker 3: 5:11

Uh, in 2020, it's a coloring book featuring local businesses and places around town. Just, they drop all businesses and we end up, um, we do, we do a pretty big print run. So we're all cross promoting each other throughout the whole Kenosha county. So we go out west of the city too with it and we're starting up on 2024 right now awesome man, awesome.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Before I let josh your dom ask any questions. Do you have the interns with you right now? By chance I should have asked you to.

Speaker 3: 5:47

No, I don't have any of the interns with me.

Speaker 2: 5:51

They're all down in the shop where they live the the day I came to your shop down in Kenosha the first time you were actually thanking me for coming in, so I could stop you from making more videos with your interns oh yeah for the, for the shop. Uh, would you like to explain what the interns are?

Speaker 3: 6:10

uh the interns are little aliens that work for Studio Moonfall. For our there are kind of our social media team. They, yeah, you can find them on um, the youtube channel for Studio Moonfall. If you look up bookstore simulator dot com. That domain name just goes to their their playlist of okay, all their uh zany adventures around the store, plus like stuff promoting other authors and things like that. But, right, yeah, we were. We were at it for a while, I guess I'm. The shop isn't that busy during the winter so I just make weird videos.

Speaker 2: 6:55

I love this by the way, I just I just went there. This is amazing. I love it. I'm trying to get a picture. I was gonna throw it up on the stream here real quick, um, but uh where did that idea come from?

Speaker 3: 7:07

like oh I, they just popped up on amazon and I I hired a few interns, and then I hired a few more, and then I hired some more and then just started doing videos with them.

Speaker 2: 7:21

But how many do you have now?

Speaker 3: 7:24

I think it's like 10. Um, really well, they they started getting really expensive. Um, the here we go, the alien figures. I think somebody had bought some of them and then they started making like weird replicas like they were making molds of the figure and then that mold got bad so they made a mold of the other mold and it was like that multiplicity movie with Michael Keaton just started getting worse and worse and worse as it goes on right yeah, I just got a few new interns um last week or the week before, and they're gross compared to the ones, the original ones, the gen one interns those ones are good and then they got worse and then they got real weird. These ones are super veiny and scrawny and bizarre. They won't make it into the youtube channel and, uh, if I start shooting again this winter, you're just living their own island of misfit interns yeah, yeah, we, I do a uh missing. We have a missing intern hunt in the store. So, uh, every once in a while you come in and there's gonna be a missing intern sign, so you have to adventure around the store and try to find them.

Speaker 4: 8:37

I was just about to mention it because I was looking at it and I love the. Have you seen my intern with the missing sign with three different?

Speaker 3: 8:43

alien in there it's so funny looking. Yeah, sometimes we need help to hunt them down.

Speaker 2: 8:49

I'll put the. I'll put the interns up there. Uh, I'll put the interns up on the stream so they can hang out with us, so they don't feel left out. So I'll just put them right up there. Yeah, dude down down of it. I'm pretty sure, by the way that you looked, that you looked at my, um, all of my question lists, because you've literally been answering all of my questions before I've had the chance to even ask them what, well, well, that was. That was more so dumb because, uh, well, because you mentioned that you had a, uh, a hidden intern hunt, uh, but you, actually you were doing something slightly differently. Was it the bounty hunt? Was it the? Yeah, you were. Yeah, there was like a furry little like, yeah, I don't even know what the hell that thing was. You have a lot of freaking cool trinkets yeah, that's one of the uh critters.

Speaker 3: 9:39

Uh from the movie critters, so they asked the interns. They've got some videos where the critters bugging the interns and then, uh, the bounty hunts. If you come to the store during one of those, you have to track him down and then you have a duel and if you win the duel then you send the critter to jail gotcha.

Speaker 2: 10:01

Yeah, my kids, my kids absolutely love that. When we were there. So, uh, cool well. So all right. So you've got the shop and you said you and you actually just had four years right, celebrated four years there, yep yeah, uh, just uh a couple.

Speaker 3: 10:19

A couple weeks ago we had four years in the store.

Speaker 2: 10:23

I gotta ask what number one made you want to open a brick and mortar store, but we'll start there. What, what, what kind of made you want to get into that, because that's kind of not an easy thing to start it was kind of an accident.

Speaker 3: 10:41

Um, I didn't intentionally open a bookstore. I uh, I was gonna originally use it as more of a studio space for doing artwork and have kind of a little showroom for all the books and everything. Okay, like a like a really big comic convention booth with a permanent home. Um, I had been doing comic conventions for a long time and it was kind of like they just kept getting more and more expensive to get tables at the bigger shows and they were bringing in less and less of an audience for a lot of them and I didn't want to have to continue down that route. So I wanted, um there. There's also the a big issue with there's so much fan art at all the conventions and with, uh, certain companies buying out all the intellectual property of other companies and consolidating it all. They could send in like one lawyer with a stack of cease and desist letters and shut down an entire convention. So I needed a backup plan for something like that. Um, I was still doing shows and everything at the time, but it was. I opened the shop at the end of 2019 and I was still mainly focused on live events. So it really helped out that I had a backup plan already in place for 2020, because then there was no shows I could do. I do, uh like the local farmers market all summer long and other smaller conventions, and I got completely shut out of those in 2020. So with the store, I was able to keep the business going and then uh start doing, um, more locally focused stuff too, because with uh having a break and mortar store, I had some pretty cool leverage for that and then I just I shifted from being a work studio to more of a retail space so then I could showcase other local authors who were in the same boat as me and couldn't get their stuff out there. Um, that's awesome, aside from like going through amazon or selling online it's.

Speaker 2: 12:53

It's funny because I'm pretty sure we've had one of our bigger friends of the show. I'm pretty sure they started in 2019 too or maybe it was 2018, josh, I don't know if you remember with dark fusion systems.

Speaker 1: 13:05

I don't know, it was either 2018 or 2019. It was another one of those like right before pandemic yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah it was uh, it was a nice little fight for survival for businesses.

Speaker 2: 13:19

So if you're able to uh pivot in the right ways, you can come out yeah, I was gonna ask you on the other side if you think that helped in a way, because it kind of put that hardship on you right away. So now it's almost like downhill from here yeah, I think so.

Speaker 3: 13:34

I think, um, with being able to go harder in the local direction. I mean, I think things probably would have worked out regardless, um, but it forced me to change directions in a way that I think has been probably more beneficial for, like, even more people than just me. With, uh, showcasing all the authors and with the book festivals I'm doing now I'm bringing in a ton of authors and the book festival itself. That's um, like, whenever I do those, it's the biggest day I've ever had for the store. So those are.

Speaker 2: 14:13

Those are pretty cool now I now I don't like keep seeing you do. Oh yeah, no, it's awesome, though, is that in the parking lot right across the street from you? Yep, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 14:24

So, yeah, we're able to bring in like 20 authors and we have a couple food trucks set up and then we do a huge book sale with um. I ended up getting nine pallets of books from the library that they couldn't uh do the friends of the library sales. So I've been sitting on around 10,000 books for the last few years and just slowly chipping away at it, doing like free book Friday in my store and just selling them for dirt cheap. But then with the book festivals we'll sell a few hundred and all the money for the used book sales is going to our little library fund, which eventually we'll start actually building little libraries. But for now I want to just keep building it up so we can do a whole bunch all at once and, um, we'll be able to uh scale it up faster that way. Sure, do like I'd rather do like 200 little library books boxes all at once and part around with them at a time.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Yeah, you're talking about those little, oh god damn oh, when you said nine pallets of books.

Speaker 4: 15:25

How big are these pallets?

Speaker 3: 15:27

they were.

Speaker 2: 15:29

I mean no, but like like tall wife don't, don't tell him his dad's gonna come take him.

Speaker 3: 15:33

It's it was around like seven, eight feet tall for each one oh, wow, yeah, it's actually a lot of books, yeah, yeah. I ended up uh the the library had them in storage at the parks department and parks was about ready to throw them out. Right around the time I started doing used book sales in the store and, uh, one of my librarian friends was like, hey, do you need some books? So I started picking them up like a box or two at a time, and then they showed me the secret storage facility and I was like, hey, hey, you wait here, I'm gonna go get a u-haul. And I just came back and we I picked up all the books at once and then just put them in storage for, uh, we've, we've just downsized from a 10 by 10 storage to a five by 10, so we're chipping away so now we're on progress. I'm starting the Kenosha Comic Con next year, so I'm trying to source a whole bunch of old comic books to kind of do the same thing. I'm looking to get like 50 long boxes of comics, so we'll bring those out and sell them for a buck a piece and just use that fundraising too.

Speaker 2: 16:41

Does Kenosha not have already some kind of existing Comic Con like at all? I feel like it's kind of a we have a few.

Speaker 3: 16:47

We actually have two or three. They're more toy and collectible focused. I know we have there's like the K-Town Toy and Collectible show that's coming up in November I think he just posted and then there's another one. That one's at the Moose Lodge, and then we have another one at one of the hotels down off the interstate. Those are there's a lot of collectibles and things at those. The one I'm going to be doing is more creator focused. So we're doing a two day convention in February, february 17th and 18th, at the Wyndham right on the harbor, and we're only going to have a handful of vendors, but we're going to have two days worth of panels with local comic creators and we'll have a few authors. I just got Karen Johnson. She's a local she was the lead animator for the Fern Gully, so we're going to have some interviews with her. So, yeah, and there's a few other big ones. I want to try and oh, really cool. Oh, yeah, yeah, I think it'll be neat and it'll be something to like inspire kids to start making artwork and books and stuff, and then I can sell it in my store and get them set up at future conventions.

Speaker 2: 18:08

After they sell it to you.

Speaker 3: 18:09

Book them early. Yeah Right, build an army of creative geniuses in Kenosha, say that'd be cool.

Speaker 2: 18:16

Yeah, That'd be really slick. I do want to kind of go back just a little bit with more of what you do personally. Now I know you haven't really, as far as I can tell, published a book in a while. You've been obviously bigger picture stuff. You've been working on a lot of different things outside of the coloring books. Excuse me, but would you say that Fear and Sunshine is your biggest collection of?

Speaker 3: 18:47

books that you've written. Yeah, well, a lot of the other coloring books branch off the Fear and Sunshine series. It's been since 2014,. I believe that I wrote and published one of the chapter books. I do fully intend to get back to it, but it's been hard with just trying to get back to that sort of tap into the creative. Well, for a big project like that, the coloring books are simpler, for sure, because I didn't do a coloring book a month. I've been behind on that schedule. I've only done three books this year, but yeah, I think last year I think I hit 10 books for 22. But yeah, we'll get back to Fear and Sunshine. Until then, we'll keep making little side projects that branch out of it. Nothing too crazy, though. Nothing like the Zombies video game or anything like that. I'm sorry. What, oh, what? What? The Zombies? You know the Zombies. They're zombie beings. They love brains. They were originally from a video game that I made for iPhone and Android in what was this? 2011? Yeah, I know. So I came out with two Fear and Sunshine books in 2009, and then I didn't know how to promote the books. I jumped right into Comic Conventions because it was a little more akin to doing the live events like the concerts and everything. So I was just kind of used to that world so I just totally bypassed selling books through Amazon, like most self-polishing authors focus on. So I figured the most logical thing for me to do to sell my kids book would be to teach myself programming and make a little side story video game. That would drive traffic to the books online.

Speaker 2: 20:56

I absolutely love that mindset. Yeah, I'm not going to go Amazon. Yeah, I'm going to learn how to program and make a video game Launch a game.

Speaker 3: 21:06

Fantastic, that's awesome. The game was basically Angry Birds, except you're shooting brains with a cannon at the Zombies in the laboratory from the books. So I had little animated scenes of all of the characters and everything, and did you do the art for that too. I did all the artwork and animation. The music I bought out the music from just a stock audio company, me and some friends. We did record the voices. For the beans they only say brains.

Speaker 4: 21:47

So it was just us going brains.

Speaker 3: 21:50

And then I added some filters on it.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Sure.

Speaker 4: 21:52

But, yeah, that was. He also has a shirt with a zombie on it and I wanted post to see that earlier when I was mentioning this merch, and they're very adorable looking and I want to buy one.

Speaker 3: 22:05

Can I put a link in the chat in here Because I got a cool one?

Speaker 2: 22:09

to show you. Please feel free. So Donovan you. Oh no, I have to log in. Oh no, rookie mistake. All right. Windows closed Hold on.

Speaker 3: 22:23

I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how this crazy app works.

Speaker 2: 22:30

I just I love it because you're just. Anyways, josh, you were gonna say something. No, I was gonna say he could throw it in any of the chats, like our Discord or on.

Speaker 3: 22:39

I'm putting it in the next guest chat. There you go.

Speaker 2: 22:42

Oh sure.

Speaker 3: 22:42

Perfect, excellent, okay, so it's in there. Yeah, so, ryan, you were on my Patreon for a while. I was. One of the things that people get is drawn as a zombie. That's always.

Speaker 2: 22:59

Yeah, it's. I didn't get that. I don't think yet. No, it's up there, is it? Oh, I gotta go look, then I gotta go look. So I thought so. The way you started that sentence, ryan, you were on my Patreon, I was ready for the but you aren't anymore, but you're not anymore, I'm anymore, I stopped making cards.

Speaker 1: 23:19

Yeah, I was ready for the guilt trip so bad.

Speaker 3: 23:23

No, I'll just guilt you into buying a t-shirt with you as a bean. Honestly, I'll do it.

Speaker 2: 23:28

That's a fantastic perk for Patreon. It's really cool. It's really cool Describers. The drama is one of the things.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Well, it's not just that either.

Speaker 2: 23:34

There's it's not even just that either. Like you get like a little like like collection thing that you may allow too. Yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker 3: 23:43

All the tiers get drawn as a Zambine. There's a $8 tier. You get the monthly sticker sets and then the stickers are usually coming from artwork, from the coloring books, so that way I can kind of double dip on the production. And then the $15 tier you get the stickers and the newest coloring book and if I don't come out with the coloring book that month, I have $168 to pick from the backlog, or I do. I started doing Patreon gift certificates for the store or for September. I'm just doing like a bundle of 10 mystery stickers on top of it all Because I've got so many stickers.

Speaker 2: 24:25

You've. I have to give you a lot of credit because you've put a lot of thought and effort in ways to market something that I feel like is hard to market these days, which is physical reading material, just books, I mean. There's Barnes and Nobles closing all over the place and it's hard.

Speaker 1: 24:47

I can only imagine what you go through on the day to day.

Speaker 2: 24:51

And I hate to say this and I really hate Well, not that I hate to say it, I hate that it's a fact Like coloring books or even like on iPads now and stuff.

Speaker 1: 25:00

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2: 25:00

That kind of thing frustrates me. So one thing I wanted to ask is, like, because you make physical coloring books, which are obviously a timeless thing, like you're never going to be able to replace that with a tablet, no matter how hard you try. So I was wondering, like, do you think about that when you make the books, or is it just kind of inherent to the medium of coloring books? We're like this is going to be fun to color.

Speaker 3: 25:26

What do you mean? That it's going to be a prized cherish memory for people. Well, do you think about it?

Speaker 2: 25:30

like when you're coming up with the, when you're drawing the pictures that are going to be colored Like, do you think like this is going to be fun to color, or is that just kind of inherent to you know how you do it?

Speaker 3: 25:43

I think I probably didn't think a lot about that when I first started and it was more focused on doing a fun illustration that would work okay for coloring. I have been trying to go more with coloring, like the active coloring being the end game, so I probably started that with the what was it? Last November, I think, I did a furry woodling creature coloring book specifically for little kids. So I had to take my artwork, which is probably it's a bit more detailed than most little kid books would be, and I wanted to keep some of that. But I also needed to keep it as something that a little kid wouldn't be intimidated by to color. And then, I think before that, I did the adipothecary books, that one's way more adult coloring book style. So it's super complex. It's complex to the point that I did two versions of it, where I have an apprentice edition with no backgrounds and then the alchemist edition has these crazy hallucinogenics sort of backgrounds on them. Yeah, they're cool, though it's like magic potions for those books.

Speaker 2: 27:13

Yeah, and that's kind of what I was getting at of actually thinking about the act of somebody having to color it physically while you're drawing the art. That's kind of fascinating.

Speaker 3: 27:25

Yeah, I do. For most of my illustrations I try to keep all the lines are closed so people don't have to make a choice of. What do I do with this weird gap? How do I change the?

Speaker 4: 27:36

color. Oh, I used to hate that coloring books, the weird lines Like what's this supposed to mean? Would you just stop your color and make an imaginary line there, dom or?

Speaker 2: 27:44

what would you do? Would you like lead to the color I would like? Sometimes I'd mix it together.

Speaker 4: 27:51

Yeah, you'd gradient, Blend it and smudge it.

Speaker 2: 27:52

yeah, with your fingers and do some stibling, oh this will work. So another thing I wanted to ask, as we're talking about your art and even in the, doing the art for the video game, so I imagine, especially doing shows like I think I think that's a good thing, especially doing shows like for bands and stuff. Were you doing art for them? Were you always doing art? You know, growing up, like at what point did you start to draw and realize like, oh okay, this is something that I want to do?

Speaker 3: 28:25

Yeah, I, yeah. So I've always been drawing mostly like little characters and everything like that Forever, and even making like weird little movies and stuff like claymations, sort of things. And then with the concerts, I was must have been 18 when we started doing the shows 17, 18, around there and I was doing hand-drawn flyers for the concert. So we would make out little quarter-page flyers, print them up and then go like back like around 2000 with Tinseltown the movie theater in town there were huge movie releases. So we I mean Armageddon when that came out, that was selling out for like probably six weeks. Like every showtime was selling out. So we could go down there during the sellout movies and just hand out flyers to all these people to get them into the concerts. So I was designing a bunch of those flyers for those. Nothing too crazy, it was just the general info and throwing some characters and stuff, because that's just what I do. And then eventually I think it was probably like five years after that before I like actually went to school for graphic design. But I brought a lot of that artwork from the Flyers to School with me to like figure out how to make it better from a design standpoint, and then that was so. Yeah, it's so, it's always been. Things have carried over from each stage into Wherever we are now are going next.

Speaker 2: 30:10

Yeah, I don't know why, but when, when you said that you'd you know run shows, I immediately imagined you doing the art for them. And it's crazy, because flyering is a is a lost art. Yeah, it's these days.

Speaker 3: 30:20

So yeah, it was great. It's hard to. I don't imagine I don't really know how people would do it nowadays, for because With like the giant lines you would get at a movie theater is just so easy because you just walk through and then when security comes up, you could scurry away and they never catch on because they're dealing with like 800 people right there. And yeah, it was, and people were, like I don't know, generally open to it. Otherwise you could go to like I don't know if you're a kid in high school doing garage bands sort of stuff. You could just give it out through schools, and sure we used to do that too. Yeah, the movie theater crowds was where it was at that yeah, that's fascinating.

Speaker 2: 31:06

Can I ask what? What kind of advice do you have for people who you know they like drawing, maybe they like writing, maybe they like both? What? What would be your advice to somebody who wants to Maybe get to where you're you're at and doing what you're doing and publishing their work, whether it be a book or coloring books, like what? What's your advice to somebody that might be starting or wanting to do this?

Speaker 3: 31:35

I Think start small is the best way to do is start small but with a big enough project that it's challenging. With the fear and sunshine books I, before I started doing those books, I was making like little four or five page coloring book stories when sunshine would have to help Frankenstein find his brain or something, or help Chupacabra not eat the goats so she would just solve the problem by throwing candy at him. And they were just a little fun like activity books sort of things, kind of like door the explorer sort of like to him, and so those were real small but they they told the story and introduced the character. And then when I started working on the books I wanted to figure out who this character was and why a little hippie girl would be raising monsters. So I Kind of started just first two books at the same time but the, the prelude, fear and sunshine prelude, which you can get for fear, get for free at fear and sunshine, which I also made into an Audiobook movie on YouTube so you could just watch it. Look at that. That one is only like 60 pages. There's maybe like a dozen or so illustrations in it, but it was a short enough story that making it wasn't an overwhelming challenge and Once I wrote it, did a little bit of editing to it, I figured out how to go about actually producing a book. I was like graphic designer by trade at that point so I could really I had the Technical chops to at least figure out how to get going with actual production on it. But then, yeah, I put it together. At the time I was selling like t-shirt design, or I was attempting to sell t-shirt designs on cafe press who At the time they were also good at cafe printing and like CD printing and stuff like that. So I I first published my book on cafe press and it was terror. Like the price on it was terrible. So I learned the error of my ways and ended up going through the bigger printing companies with Ingram and I think I did Ingram before I started publishing on Amazon, which kind of Help me push me in the making a video game direction. But uh yeah. So, yeah, start small. And then I did that first book I published in like June or July of 2009 and then like six months later I came out with the next book and that was 250 pages because I already with the smaller book, I figured out the process for it and able to take on something bigger then. The next free and sunshine book was around 400 pages gotcha.

Speaker 2: 34:50

So get your toes wet and then just jump right in yeah, yeah, and just go after a media enough project.

Speaker 3: 34:58

Right now it's October, so you're you're a few days late, but if you can start up on inktober or drawlloween or something, those are good challenges. To just try to Do all the work for the daily Art prompts and then by the end of the month you have like 30 pictures, which I've got, was it? I have my breakfast doodle books that came out of inktober or drawlloween and so did the first Color of madness coloring book, which is a coloring book based on the fear and sunshine characters using prompts from those Art challenges. But it's like it's enough pages to put together a coloring book just off that, and then you just have to clean it up in a way that's Produce, reproducible for print.

Speaker 4: 35:44

So what was? I have a question about your character sunshine. What was the inspiration behind that character? Like, where'd you come up with that character?

Speaker 3: 35:53

so that character was originally just some like kind of like Cartoonie a little, a little anime kind of character I drew with Giant monster, rabbit and some weird little mad, mad science, these sort of monsters, for an art project, for while I was going to school and learning Photoshop. So I drew it up and then I was learning the coloring in Photoshop and then that picture, that was just that character. There wasn't a lot of story or anything, but I like the character design enough that I Kept drawn her for other little projects. And then I had a friend of mine who had this little kid who's probably like four at the time but all tie-dye and like little hippie kid, and then I put them together and and so I made the monster raising girl, made her seven years old and have just Hippie sort of attitude towards life, and then I had to figure out how this all works together.

Speaker 4: 37:03

That sounds really fun. I was very intrigued by it because it's a little hippie girl and I was like Inspiration from yeah, I mean her a little family yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:16

I love that it comes from reality.

Speaker 3: 37:19

I'm pretty sure parents all like crystals or something now.

Speaker 2: 37:27

Do you so many years ago. I'm not so much anymore, but I used to be. I used to love drawing all the time. I feel like everyone who's drawn and and spent the time to draw has always had like that one character that they always it's like their go-to character. Oh yeah, I was gonna say when I went to animation school that was. That was the one thing that the professor said was like everybody has their one character. Yeah, draw your one character. So, yeah, that's good, I think.

Speaker 3: 37:55

I've actually had a few one characters. Well, that's cheating. Yeah, they evolve over time.

Speaker 2: 38:03

Well, right, do you? Have you implemented that one character in any of your art works of art?

Speaker 3: 38:10

Well, Sun sunshine was one of the one characters, for sure. Long before that there was towel guy. He was this guy who had a towel. He just wore a towel. He had a little spoon-headed guy. He looked kind of like a not as creepy salad fingers.

Speaker 1: 38:30

So yeah, it was just like towel guy.

Speaker 3: 38:34

He was like a inner dimensional Traveling dude. Oh no, he was a kid that got sucked through a portal From bad cheese and had to go into some weird world. And, oh, he had gotten out of the shower. So he was just wearing a towel and became towel guy. Towel guy eventually got replaced with the snow worm. The snow worm was this he was kind of a earthworm gym sort of character and he him in his roommate had a Find rent money and so they had to go on a giant epic quest. It was the snow worms odyssey. That was for a creative writing class in high school and then that eventually got replaced with. I had a like switch to from the weird fun characters to the hot cartoon girl from Frout, so that that got replaced with Haley. Cameroon was a character I was doing for most of my college projects, so she was just a cool kind of Probably Dragon Ball inspired sort of cartoon. Cheryl and like a lot of the the world design, I think, was really inspired by Dragon Ball at the time and that was going to be Like a comic book series or something. But when I saw how much work went involved into making comic book series, as like, I'll just write, I'll just write words instead, and then and then I just like that's when sunshine became the main character, and now it's just a bunch of weird little monsters and interns running around.

Speaker 2: 40:18

And they're getting vane here.

Speaker 3: 40:20

Yeah, I'm afraid to see what the next generation looks like.

Speaker 2: 40:27

Josh, I only, I only want to ask you, just because you kind of brought it up but did you have that one care? What was your one character that you always drew? Me, yeah, you know. No, so this isn't, this is gonna be mean nothing to everybody else but me in post, but it was Max Poposkowitz On, a kid we knew in high school, whose real name I won't say, but it's pretty close and so yeah, so yes, I would, I would draw him. It's just a big guy he was. He was bald, big Big doing barely bald man. I almost forgot about your time, was it? Was it new? Not new grounds, it was new grounds.

Speaker 1: 41:13

Yeah, it was new grounds where you made your little flash videos. Yeah, I remember those. Those were. Those were good.

Speaker 2: 41:18

I had somewhat semi, maybe a little tiny bit successful new grounds animations back when I was in high school. And one of one of the characters was max. It was based on a guy we knew and when I went to animation school, so I know nothing about drawing. Like I can't draw, I can do it on, you know, on I could. I can make shapes on a computer into something that looks like a human being. When it comes to actually, you know drawing my hands. I guess it's useless, so I would just draw this little round guy. My favorite part is we took that character and put him in a machinima. We sure did okay, we did. So I'm sorry down, what were you gonna?

Speaker 3: 41:57

say, oh yeah, I think I like I was just getting into flash, kind of toward the end of new grounds time, mm-hmm, oh I was, I was doing a lot of work actually that Haley Cameroon character, I did a bunch of flash work that I think I just didn't get a chance to publish it onto new grounds. One of my last my, my big last project for college was doing a Hodag choose your own adventure flash game. So it was a point click and you would take a hodag who had to leave the north woods to because he was the last one, so he had to travel out to find a lady hodag, okay, species, but yeah, it was. It was all flash and I I think I my published it online but I don't think I ever made it through like, oh man, I'm going into new grounds now, that's sure. Oh, we're going pro, but it was. Yeah, that website was a big inspiration for a lot of the smaller like animated projects. I was doing and good training wheels for when I got into making the zombies game.

Speaker 2: 43:09

Yeah, absolutely, especially when it comes to like animation. Yeah, like and flash. I don't know how much you use flash, but flash was amazing For, like, just teaching you the basics of animation. Like that interface was perfect, yeah. Or for learning how to keyframe stuff.

Speaker 3: 43:25

I think I actually did that animations in flash for the zombies game and then Exported it out into the software I was using for programming it. Sure, the game is, it's all the codes all outdated and everything, so it's not available. But I have it on one of my older videos on the studio moonfall YouTube channel so you can see the gameplay footage and everything. It was good it was. I think the the quality was really nice. The game itself was basic, but it was, um, I'm I'm still proud of what I made with that thing, so it would have been so good on new grounds.

Speaker 2: 44:04

Dude. No, now these these days, just put it on steam. Yeah, you know 50 cents for it. Yeah, there you go, side revenue stream right there.

Speaker 3: 44:13

Yeah, yeah, I've been um, I've been wanting to get back to game programming, but it just kind of it always seems like it's Such a big thing that you have to put so much focus into sure. I had even, like, taught 3d design for a while One of the local colleges and did that for a bit, but it was just something like, if I want to get good at this, this is needs to be the thing I do.

Speaker 2: 44:40

And I want to do all sorts of other stuff. Yeah, I feel like that's a big problem with, like, digital art in general is like there's so many different avenues you can go and as a digital artist, you want to explore all of them. Yeah, but like you said, you can't just be a jack of all trades.

Speaker 3: 44:57

You got to kind of choose what you're gonna specialize in yeah, yeah, it's hard to even dip your toes into some of the other stuff I have. I Like three 3d printers I've never turned on.

Speaker 2: 45:12

I Know I got one in my basement, just sits in the corner.

Speaker 4: 45:21

Yeah, one of these days.

Speaker 3: 45:22

I gotta, I want to. I just got my first, the the cleric for my D&D group. He just printed up a I had outsourced 3d model of one of my creature of the week characters from the coloring the donkey corn. So we we actually have a 3d printed donkey corn. We still got, we got dial in the model, make it a little more printable or print friendly. But um, yeah, we'll, we'll see. I See if I can like find somebody for that. It's another one of those things right man, I don't want to get back into doing this again.

Speaker 2: 45:58

Yeah, this road. I was gonna say take a look at some maker spaces in the area, maybe you can, yeah, find somebody to help out.

Speaker 3: 46:05

Yeah, we don't have too much around here for it. I think I think gateway has some, but I Think I was the teacher for 3d there. I don't know if they replaced me? Well, for what?

Speaker 2: 46:17

it's worth if you're interested. I'm pretty sure we have a couple of bucket bites meet-ups Coming up, it's true.

Speaker 1: 46:25

We got, well, we got some game developers.

Speaker 2: 46:29

We got some game developers, very cool. It'll be joining us, so I'll I can shoot you some info if you're interested in that. I Did want to ask just two more business specific questions, real quick. Number one is your shop, like in all of your artwork and your everything, is that like your number one gig, like your number one job, or do you like have something you do you know as like your? It's like your day-to-day and then You're able to just work with your passion, the other half of it, or is it? No, it's all this.

Speaker 3: 47:03

Yeah, I've been doing just the store since that's impressive 2020. Yeah, my, my day job For 2020 went out of business the week before. Well, I got laid off from it because it was in the process of going out of business the week before all the COVID shutdowns, so I got to cut the line for unemployment. Sure, I wrote that out for a while, which helped because it kept the store afloat, and Now it's just been just doing this. But there's. There's this store, I, I still do Local markets and a few comic-cons here and there, and then the Kenosha coloring book is a big leg holding up the table.

Speaker 2: 47:48

Okay, the other question I had piggybacking off of that was you. I always laugh when I see him and just for the record for anybody listening, watching whatever you got to make sure you follow studio moonfall on Facebook Because I just I always get a good laugh at everything he posts, like all the time.

Speaker 3: 48:13

Yes, but desperate attempt to get people in the store. I absolutely, I absolutely.

Speaker 2: 48:19

Love your marketing because I know it's something that like, it's just like in line with how I think and what I like, but, yeah, something that you do. And now this is kind of a hard question you, you always post, oh, mystery hours this day, you know because of whatever reason. Now I want to ask you do you feel like something like that that does that hurt or benefit your business when you do that?

Speaker 3: 48:45

No man, I just I just dropped down. I dropped Thursdays to mystery hours too, so Monday through Thursday are all mystery hours, so I'm the only real hours I'm open is Friday, saturday, sunday, yeah and it. It doesn't help my business to have people guessing when the store is open for those days, but things have been so slow since, like Labor Day, so it doesn't really hurt either.

Speaker 2: 49:19

Right, you can spend your time doing things and making things and doing things that can further you and your business.

Speaker 3: 49:26

Most of those days I'll still be open, but I also have the flexibility in case I need to go out, to go door to door to get signups for the coloring books, or if I just want to sleep Right.

Speaker 2: 49:44

No, I mean like the one, the other, yeah, the other one the other day, I think you said I just started playing Starfield so like need my kind of face.

Speaker 3: 49:52

And then but yeah, the Friday. I'm also doing all the special guest author visits on Friday, saturdays and Sundays right now. So if I could concentrate all the business into those weekends then it helps. It'll bring more traffic to the guest authors too, and I think it's kind of fun that way. Right, Ideally I'd be open like six days a week, but there's just not the amount of foot traffic around for this time of year. So I'm going to keep with these three days on with the four day mystery hours through Thanksgiving, and then I'll crank it back up for December for holiday shopping.

Speaker 2: 50:33

But yeah, that's so I. The reason I asked that question is because somebody I'm, you know, I'm not in Kenosha, I'm, I'm in Milwaukee. So, like somebody like me, if I wanted to come and visit it would suck, yeah, Like I don't even know if he's open. But but I would normally come, probably a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So that's, that's fine.

Speaker 3: 50:55

Yeah, and then just message me, cause I live above the store so I could just go down and open it.

Speaker 2: 51:00

Perfect, I'm just from your doorbell and you'll come downstairs and stuff.

Speaker 3: 51:04

Yeah, just special appointment shopping. Yeah, oh, that's, that's all good. Yeah, I've done that multiple times for people, especially with people coming out of town. I'll make sure that if I know they're coming, I'll be open for them. It's. It's not really an issue to open it's. The issue is sitting in the store for nine hours and not having anybody come in. It's the closet.

Speaker 2: 51:28

I can do. I can only imagine. Well, that's why I wanted to ask. I'm like, because you could be spending those nine hours or whatever a day, yeah, Furthering your business in a way that's more beneficial than just sitting there waiting for someone to to come in and and and buy a book or or something, Right, yeah?

Speaker 3: 51:45

Yeah, and even with with not having people come in, it's hard to even do sort of creative work because it's just a bummer.

Speaker 2: 51:53

So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 51:55

I'd rather just be upstairs like throw on something on TV and draw a whole bunch of pictures. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 52:01

Well, mental health is a huge thing. Yeah, it's what helps drive you know, to keep you going.

Speaker 1: 52:06

And that's.

Speaker 2: 52:07

I want to make it very clear, if I didn't earlier in the show, that your, your shop is absolutely it's. It's really it's like fun just walking in and what you've, what you've done with it, how you treat people and interact with the people inside. It really is a treat, like I was, I think I made, I like I hopefully, when I don't know if this is back in January, so you probably don't even remember it.

Speaker 3: 52:32

Oh no, I remember.

Speaker 2: 52:33

Okay, good, good. Well, I'm glad, even if you're lying, no.

Speaker 3: 52:39

Hey, it's weird that somebody comes in and then immediately signs up for Patreon. So it's, yeah, a memorable experience.

Speaker 2: 52:46

I think I, I think I signed up actually like three days before that. No, it was that morning, I think. I said so, my, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the story. Just for just to give some background my, my, my daughter, we had Christmas at our house and my brother's girlfriend knows you, okay, and she came in your store and bought her one of your books and some of your like soaps and stuff that were in there and some other really cool stuff, um, and I'm like, oh, dude, this is really cool. And my wife recognized your last name and she's like I know a guy, I work with a guy with that same last name. I wonder, and it turns out she works with your dad, with my dad.

Speaker 3: 53:27

Yeah, yeah, she works with your dad. Small world.

Speaker 2: 53:31

So well. So I'm like, oh well, now we absolutely got to go check this place out and it was. it was a blast and it was really cool. You had I don't know if you still do it, but you had the little mystery packs underneath your your book collection there and we got some of that and some D and D stuff and um, but no, I, I, I was thoroughly impressed with the interaction that I had at your shop. It just sucks that I'm so far away from you. Yeah, I can't come more because I would. I would come much more frequently if it wasn't a half hour to 40 minute drive.

Speaker 1: 53:58

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 53:59

I was going to say I got to make a, I got to make a trip down there, yeah.

Speaker 3: 54:02

The big book festivals are the best best bang for your buck, for sure. We've got the book. A ween is coming up on the Sunday before Halloween, so that one, that one's going to be really cool. We've got like 16 authors. We're going to have a Renaissance fair garb swap. We've got a balloon balloon making clown out there. I think we're going to have a splatter paint bus set up too, and a couple of them.

Speaker 2: 54:30

What's a splatter? Paint bus real quick.

Speaker 3: 54:32

It's like a, it's a little um bus where you go in and you set up like canvases and then you just fling, paint all of them. That's actually awesome. Like you put on a tarp and the mess. That's really cool. I'm going to figure out like some sort of cleaning station for people to go from the bus to go look at independent authors books that they've just printed up.

Speaker 2: 54:58

Maybe, maybe don't want to get paint all over on your hands. Maybe I misunderstood, but did you say people go on the bus and splatter paint? Paint on canvases. Shut up Post.

Speaker 1: 55:08

Yeah, don't even keep you where you're going with that?

Speaker 2: 55:13

Do you drive the bus around? No, yeah, you know, I mean that would. That would only be helpful, I think right.

Speaker 3: 55:18

Yeah, oh, except for the, except for the insurance part of it.

Speaker 2: 55:22

Fair enough, wait, where did you think I was going?

Speaker 1: 55:26

I'm not even going to talk about it.

Speaker 2: 55:30

So my question is well, not my question, so just to all of those listening from around the world. So studio moonfall is based in Kenosha, wisconsin, which is, if you're familiar with the United States in the Midwest, it's like, but right between Milwaukee and Chicago. So I definitely recommend, if folks are in the area, if you have any reason to come up to the Chicago land or Milwaukee areas, hey, pop in on your way.

Speaker 3: 55:59

Oh yeah, absolutely, we're right on. Like Michigan too, I'm a block from the water, so we're we're in the downtown area.

Speaker 2: 56:06

Yeah, you mentioned you do stuff at the harbor, so that must be you know, you're actually in a really cool area where you could walk around and just kind of see a bunch of other businesses as well Just within that area, so it is really cool. As well as going by Lake. It's right on Lake Michigan almost, so that's really cool. So just before we change gears a little bit, we've got some more in store, so don't leave. Yet I said don't leave. I saw that go from 12 to 11. Josh left. Now it's at 10.

Speaker 4: 56:36

I realized Josh's name is Tom Cruise.

Speaker 2: 56:39

No, we're going to be playing some sound bites in a little bit, but before we kind of change gears from the the business side of things to the, you know maybe more games like what are you doing? Stuff, I do, god damn it, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Speaker 4: 56:57

I was on your website and I was messing around with the 3D model of your store. Yeah, isn't that really fun. It's hella cool.

Speaker 2: 57:06

Yeah, virtual reality. Oh, I did play with this, I did play with this, it's it's so neat.

Speaker 4: 57:11

I wanted to jump in earlier about it, but I couldn't. But it's so fucking cool.

Speaker 3: 57:16

That's a couple of years old. I will be updating that probably, gosh, I should really do that this month. I'll be updating it very soon, all right.

Speaker 2: 57:30

I think you did that. Well, no, I was going to say you did. You did that not too long before I came up there.

Speaker 3: 57:36

I thought I think I think I did it a couple of years ago, oh well, shit, nevermind.

Speaker 4: 57:42

I mean there's Halloween stuff in there so it kind of looks like recent, always Halloween stuff in the store.

Speaker 2: 57:47

Oh, that's what it was. You had just redid the store before I came like a couple of months, I think. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 57:54

Cause, yeah, this was before I had all the dungeons and oh wait, no, yeah, let's see. No, load it up, we're all going to learn together. So this 3D model of the store is super cool because you can link it together with other sort of things and if you so, if you go to moonfall360.com, that'll be a shortcut to go straight to this. But yeah, there's some of the little dots and there are links that go to deeper realms of virtual reality. So if you can find Mari Lude, she has a potion to offer you. Drink the potion If you want to see studio moonfall from a perspective.

Speaker 2: 58:35

Wait. So if I find the potion, you got to find Mari Lude.

Speaker 3: 58:39

She's the horse faced lady in the front of the store. Oh, damn it.

Speaker 1: 58:46

I'm not doing this right now. I can't, I'll get distracted.

Speaker 2: 58:51

Can I just say that I love how you are constantly thinking about how you can make things like applicable to your story. Yeah, right, yeah, like with the, with the mobile game, with even this, like it's super cool how you incorporate everything and make it fun, like Poe said.

Speaker 3: 59:12

Yeah, this is the beginning of some sort of weird theme park. Eventually we take over the building. We just eventually infect all of downtown Kenosha and yeah, it'll be really cool, and then hopefully start coming north Disney. Yeah, yeah, we're at Michigan, so we got to like build like our defense wall around the freshwater of the world. So, yeah, it'll just be a really cool themed war zone for the future.

Speaker 1: 59:48

But yeah the.

Speaker 3: 59:49

they're building that D&D tavern out and it's like a tavern hotel place in Lake Geneva. I want to, I want to do something like a small version of that with my store, but maybe, maybe a little, a little more horror, like family friendly or themed. It's what's it called, the the griffin and gargoyle. It's a dungeons and dragons themed Like like a mini amusement park that they're in the process of getting started out in Lake Geneva. It looks real cool.

Speaker 2: 1:00:26

All right, you're going to take me down tangent avenue, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:00:29

We can't afford that so okay, that's damn it.

Speaker 2: 1:00:35

We're going to have to talk about that after, after the show a little bit, but just just real quick before we kind of change gears just slightly. Obviously, donovan studio, moonfall really really cool local business Like I that's one of the big things is that I'm trying to do with bucket bites here is really like pump up, push up local artists and creators and whatever right. We I met a computer company actually back at Midwest gaming classic back about a year and a half ago now, named dark fusion systems, who we've since partnered with really good relationship with Henry there and I. I have to let it be known, if you haven't heard already, if you go to dark fusion systemscom and you mentioned bucket bites they're going to completely, 100% get rid of any kind of build fee. So and that's only until the end of next week actually shows like only one week left on that so you can get a custom built boutique mini ITX computer system to the specifications you want for, basically for literally cost and literally cost. And I told Henry that I would give you a bag of my nuclear coffee as well, oh my God. So, so if you guys didn't, yeah, so I don't really, even though bucket bites is like the main sponsor of the nuclear coffee is the main sponsor of the show that pays for everything. I never talk about it, but yeah, you'll get. You'll get a some coffee. Well, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 1:02:15

That's, that's, that's true, that's true.

Speaker 2: 1:02:16

I'll just go fuck myself, I know, but point being is so if you're looking to get a custom PC or build a PC and you don't know how to do it, you don't know how to even start building a PC and you're like man. I really want a good PC for gaming, because all these people talk about PC gaming hit up dark fusion systems because they're going to build you one for what it would cost you to do it and you don't even have to know how to do it. He's going to build it. He's going to make go ahead Post until next Friday. That's what I mean In this period of time. You need to jump on it because he will do it for you. You don't have to even know how to do it. Just tell him what you want, how you want it, what games you want to play, whatever, and Henry's going to work as hard as he can to make sure you get the PC you need for the budget you need and charge you zero. If you mentioned bucket bites, so get on that. Well, for the bill fee, you still got to pay for the components.

Speaker 1: 1:03:14

That's what I mean. He's going to charge you.

Speaker 2: 1:03:16

I just said the same. I appreciate it, but you're right. Yes, he will charge you zero to do all of the work for you, but he obviously you have to buy the components. By the way, official gearhead in the Twitch chat. You can go eat a bag of rocks, because I did tell you.

Speaker 4: 1:03:40

So anyways, never mind, keep going, go down please. And if you're looking for anything specific, the Dark Fusion people will help you find exactly what you need. They will they. They've emailed all of us, I think, at one point, and they're very nice to work with.

Speaker 2: 1:03:57

I have a Dark Fusion PC in my living room that I used today to play Starfield. So Starfield, that's right. So Starfield, just just. Just. Just just the last point If you don't get it by next Friday, if you don't get it by next Friday, it's okay, just mentioning bucket bites after next Friday you still get 150 bucks off, so just leave it at that. So Starfield, starfield. Josh was playing Starfield.

Speaker 1: 1:04:27

I know you got the watch.

Speaker 4: 1:04:29

Oh, he's got the watch. Oh shit, he's got the watch.

Speaker 3: 1:04:32

Whoa, Come on Make the moon thing. I don't know it works. I only did 3,154 steps today according to my Starfield Only 3,154.

Speaker 2: 1:04:48

I took the amount of steps to my living room, to my kitchen.

Speaker 3: 1:04:53

So I only went down to the store today. So that was all like me pacing, waiting for customers to show up, pacing back and forth. Still pretty impressive, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 2: 1:05:05

You got the collector's edition of that. Huh, I did. Was the watch pretty cool.

Speaker 3: 1:05:11

Yeah, it's good. I'm not a watch guy, but I'll wear it all the time because I spent so much money.

Speaker 2: 1:05:16

I was going to say because you paid for it.

Speaker 1: 1:05:19

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 1:05:20

Do you know what the case is? Pretty cool too, though, right the case is really cool.

Speaker 3: 1:05:25

Yeah, I actually. I did the same thing with the fallout for. So, I got the Pip Boy and the big case. Oh, I regret it, Josh did you do that.

Speaker 2: 1:05:33

No, no, I regret not getting it. I got the dumb fallout 76 terrible bag and helmet, but I did not get the Pip Boy for four. That's, that's okay, I you know it's. The worst part is I didn't even care about the watch. I almost got the collectors edition, just for the box, just for the case. Wow, wrong with that man. But yeah, what's with the box?

Speaker 1: 1:06:01

It's really cool.

Speaker 4: 1:06:02

Oh, it's really cool. I'm sorry it broke out.

Speaker 2: 1:06:04

It's right behind me. Yeah, bring it up. Yes, please. I want to see the locking mechanism because it looks so cool. All right, guys, we can clip this and use this as a Starfield unboxing. We can't speak yet.

Speaker 3: 1:06:19

So yeah, the box I have living on top of the Pip Boy box.

Speaker 2: 1:06:24

Ooh, that is cool. Oh yeah, you gotta flip it down.

Speaker 4: 1:06:29

Yeah, you flip it down and you twist it.

Speaker 2: 1:06:31

Yes.

Speaker 3: 1:06:33

And then you'll love it. And oh, it's got like an extra strap in there for the watch and you got a starfield.

Speaker 2: 1:06:39

Yeah, I'd rip all that other crap out of there, but I would love the box. You're going to patch anything or are you going to leave it there?

Speaker 3: 1:06:47

I might patch something. I have a couple other patches that I've never put to use. I don't want to put them on. I need, like, a cool denim jacket with no sleeves or something.

Speaker 4: 1:06:56

That would be sick yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:07:00

Josh, maybe you could help me out here. I think it was Halo Reach that had the really thick steelbook thing. They had the Jurnal, like Halsey's Journal in the patch.

Speaker 1: 1:07:09

Yeah, that was great.

Speaker 2: 1:07:11

Yeah, I regret putting my patch on something because that patch right now. When I looked it up it was like $75 just for the patch.

Speaker 1: 1:07:20

Oh, is it really Because?

Speaker 2: 1:07:21

I gave away all of the Halo Reach like their stuff because I ate that game. So like to a guy we worked with.

Speaker 4: 1:07:29

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 1:07:29

Yeah, I just gave them all this shit from the collect position. I was like I'll keep the game, I guess. But I hate this game so I don't want any of this shit. I had the full thing, except for the patch because I was stupid, except for how stupid? Because I had the dumb figures of Noble Six or like the. Oh, I didn't get that one.

Speaker 4: 1:07:51

I got that one. That was the next one. That was the next one.

Speaker 1: 1:07:53

That was Halo. Anyways, sorry, that's okay.

Speaker 2: 1:07:57

I hope it's time to go. You regret it. Open up the wound. So, donovan, you've been playing a lot of Starfield late. Well, hold on. Josh played Starfield. I need to talk about that first. Have you been enjoying it Like you haven't? Really, I have been so and I'm not. I don't know what it is. I think it's because I've been busy doing a lot of SG stuff. I've released two videos in the past two weeks and each were two hours long, so I've been pretty busy. So, like, literally, I will pop into Starfield, I will walk from one objective to the next and be like, wow, I've accomplished so much this week. It was like you know. So I'm very like, I'm still so. Like what's the first big place that you go to, like the main, like organization, like you go to the big building, constellations, constellations yes.

Speaker 3: 1:08:54

That's where I am. Oh, that's the very beginning.

Speaker 2: 1:08:57

Yes, I know, yeah, so literally that's what I did today is I talked to a bunch of people at Constellation, okay, I'm exactly at that part as well. Okay, good, that's where you stopped playing. You gave up on it.

Speaker 4: 1:09:07

That's also where I stopped playing.

Speaker 2: 1:09:08

Oh, I didn't stop, I'm just slowly playing. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:09:14

Yeah. I guess I'm I guess I've been playing a lot. I'm like married, that's good but you're enjoying it.

Speaker 1: 1:09:22

I didn't know you can girlfriend.

Speaker 2: 1:09:24

you're like, I got six kids, yep.

Speaker 3: 1:09:25

Yep, we have some houses and everything. Houses, you can have more than one. Well, you can build your outposts all over different planets.

Speaker 4: 1:09:36

Oh.

Speaker 3: 1:09:36

I'm enjoying it, I think so. I've been playing Fallout 76 since launch and I I'm just taking breaks on that. Yeah, no, it's To it. I love it and I have the best little house, a little haunted house over by a lake. It's wonderful. But yeah, this is a nice change of pace from that. So I mean, I was doing Baldur's Gate for like a couple hundred hours before this.

Speaker 2: 1:10:05

So you, you, you did the thing that I neglected to do, which is finish Baldur's Gate. I did before you played Starfield and now I can't get back into, so I had to take a break for Starfield. I can't get back into either right now. Right, yeah, you're in that limbo of I just can't both are such an investment. It's like which one it is.

Speaker 3: 1:10:26

Yeah, I. I think I got up to act three in Baldur's Gate when me too, our field went into the early access and Then I played Starfield For just a few hours. I got up to the point where you meet the constellation crew and then is like I gotta go back to Baldur's Gate. If I stopped on Baldur's Gate I wouldn't remember how to play it.

Speaker 1: 1:10:53

Sure, that's true.

Speaker 3: 1:10:56

Finished that off and then just jump. I ended up restarting Starfield from the beginning because, yeah, so much at you right at the beginning with like flying space.

Speaker 1: 1:11:09

Yes.

Speaker 3: 1:11:10

Yeah and so having just a little bit of experience is a lot to make a difference in that first playthrough. And I gave myself like I think like six hours to like jump back into it. So I could just sure, can I?

Speaker 2: 1:11:24

can I peek behind the curtain real quick? So in in this podcast, in our, in our like private discord post, asked out of curiosity Do you, are you a gamer at all? And then Donovan was like I don't play a lot of games. And here we are. You're like I played all of Baldur's Gate.

Speaker 3: 1:11:44

Yeah, well, I mean, I've only played like those. Two plus follow-up 76 are the only games I think I've played this Year. Sure, that's actually yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:11:58

Maybe even the last, like few years, like I really just fall at 76 see, that's cool though, because like, but that's a, that's a testament to like your dedication. Not only your dedication, but I will say like 76 started off pretty rough.

Speaker 3: 1:12:14

Oh yeah, yeah, I've been playing since the beta on that, but they must have added a lot over time if you're still around, yeah yeah, I just I play during when they do the seasons, so I'll play through the ends and that'll take like I don't know five or six weeks, and they're like five or six weeks off to either play something else or Do grown-up real life things, which is what I've been doing mostly up. No, baldur's Gate came out.

Speaker 2: 1:12:46

Then I was just yeah and then but that's what I wanted to get at is like so I still haven't played Baldur's Gate, which everybody is is talking about how it's, you know, one of the greatest games.

Speaker 1: 1:12:56

It's a year, if not, it's the game.

Speaker 2: 1:12:59

And I still haven't played it and it's my job. So, yeah, it's incredible that you're like I don't really play games, but yeah, a couple hundred hours of Baldur's Gate. Yeah that's a testament to how good that game is.

Speaker 3: 1:13:12

Yeah, yeah, most, most. My steam library doesn't doesn't get turned on though, but yeah, no, baldur's Gate was great. The I think the Starfield is lacking in the characters where Baldur's Gate had it like really dialed in.

Speaker 2: 1:13:29

Yeah, I've heard this I've heard that before. What did I say? Baldur's Gate spoiled me for character development and conversations. Well, that brings up the conversation of do you think if you hadn't played Baldur's Gate and you're going from Fallout 76 to Starfield?

Speaker 3: 1:13:49

Oh yeah, I think that would have been great. I do. I do think that, like the fallout four characters or were better than Starfield characters.

Speaker 4: 1:13:59

Yeah, I think so too.

Speaker 3: 1:14:00

You just have such Variety with those like I have a little bit of PTSD from Fallout 4. I don't think I'm gonna get that from Starfield like I. I played that so much back in the day. I have like memories that aren't mine that are stuck in my head. Sure, did you? Did you play three?

Speaker 2: 1:14:19

Yeah, okay, I'm surprised then, cuz I feel like and maybe it's nostalgia, but I feel like three had way more better characters than four. Hmm, yeah, I think there. Who's the robot guy in four?

Speaker 1: 1:14:33

Valentine what oh wait?

Speaker 3: 1:14:36

Nick Valentine.

Speaker 2: 1:14:37

He's the only one that stands out to me in four and I beat that game because so good. Yeah, but like follow three, I can name everybody yeah well, you all you also did a machinima in Fallout 3 and you know everything.

Speaker 1: 1:14:51

You know everybody's.

Speaker 2: 1:14:52

Code and everything.

Speaker 3: 1:14:53

Yeah, I could see OC, all those levels, but no, when I played Fallout 3, I didn't know there were companions and I think I just soloed it. Sure, entire time 76 like or not 76 new Vegas I. I love the characters from that. What's happening there?

Speaker 2: 1:15:11

I don't know I'm I'm getting warmed down here.

Speaker 3: 1:15:15

Sorry continue. But uh, yeah, no follow, for I um cuz I played through that a couple times and then I went heavy on modding it and everything, so sure.

Speaker 1: 1:15:26

I had.

Speaker 3: 1:15:26

Um, I think I probably had a couple thousand hours and follow for. I lived in that game Like it was, because it was all I played for that entire time period. I just don't bounce around from game to game. I think Bethesda, um, just the gameplay of it. I love how those games handle, like I. I really enjoy how Starfield plays more than Baldur's Gate, just for, like the the, the playing around I think in Baldur's Gate was just that style of game is clunkier to me.

Speaker 2: 1:16:02

Baldur's Gate felt a lot more. So. It's weird because Baldur's Gate there's not as much exploration as there is. It's so that it you're not left alone as much in Baldur's Gate to just kind of go around willy-nilly, there's always an objective, whereas Starfield you're just fucking left with a fucking universe. Yeah, exploration is a bigger part.

Speaker 3: 1:16:25

Yeah, yeah yeah, so I guess, yeah, well, I mean, like I think the combat and everything for Starfield is a lot of fun. Like just going through and blast in space pirates is, yeah, pretty awesome. I mean I usually play like a mouse and keyboard and then with Starfield I switched the Xbox controller because I got the fancy Starfield controller for, oh, of course, okay, and I've been really enjoying that, which is just a bit of a change for me. Yeah, but yeah, and yeah, I don't know the I'm playing through. I'm kind of focusing on the story. Now for Starfield, just to get to that like endgame point of it and see if I want to keep ours Probably like 70. I think that's it. Yeah, is that not a lot?

Speaker 2: 1:17:21

You put a thousand hours. I meant like put a thousand hours in the. Put a thousand hours in the fall. No, I, just, I never take off for games years, that's true, that's true. I, I, actually I don't take off for games ever. I actually took off for Starfield, yeah, I had five days of like I told my wife, don't talk to me.

Speaker 1: 1:17:41

Yeah, leaves me alone.

Speaker 2: 1:17:42

That's, that's how I'm gonna be with spider-man and almost nothing else. Yeah, yeah, but spider-man, you're only gonna get 20 hours, like. After that, then you're like, oh, I have to go back to life. I don't care, I'll take off.

Speaker 4: 1:17:54

With the like a dragon games. I think, yeah, come on in my room.

Speaker 2: 1:17:59

Before we stray too far away from Bethesda games. I Did hint that we were playing sound bites today. Yes, sound bites. So sound bites is a game that we play on our podcast. Does he have all of his arms? No, he lost both. Oh, my zero arms. So, mr Bucket, mr Armist, I said mr Arms. Okay, well, anyways, I'm not even gonna. Okay, where we already know we're playing, we're playing sound bites episode.

Speaker 4: 1:18:39

It's gonna be covered in dirt and blood.

Speaker 2: 1:18:44

Oh, that'd be great for a Halloween episode. Just give me, like Wilson from the from cast away. Just All you gotta do is take off his handle and then he's got Frankenstein bolts. Well, it's how it fell off when I just threw it, okay. Okay, so we're playing sound bites guys. It basically how sounds, but sound bites works. I'm gonna play some sounds. I don't have 15, but I have 12. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. I have 11, not 12. I lied, wow, wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna blame you for having 12, but then, when you lied about it, I did lie now we have a problem actually there is technically 12.

Speaker 1: 1:19:33

Oh, you didn't say the magic word.

Speaker 2: 1:19:35

Jurassic Park, okay, but that one doesn't count. That was a practice, okay, so don't even the way that this game works, I'm gonna play a sound, okay. Okay, I'm actually gonna open up the folder so I can actually Get the full name of the document here, but the way that this game works is I'm gonna play a sound. Today's theme is Bethesda games. Okay, I didn't know quite where to go with it, but I had a kind of a good idea, so there's a possible two points for each sound. Okay, number one is what's the game? Number two is what specifically is that sound? Oh boy, this is gonna be such a fair game.

Speaker 3: 1:20:32

Okay, all right was there no so you, just you're gonna have to yell it out.

Speaker 2: 1:20:41

So so how does it work? If somebody yells out the game, can somebody else yell out the what it is? So that's, that's a good, that's a good question. It's just the person who guesses the game correctly can then?

Speaker 1: 1:20:53

get a bonus.

Speaker 2: 1:20:54

That's what I think that's the way we got to do. It is, I think we do. The first person to name the game Can also then name what it is.

Speaker 3: 1:21:05

You know the sound, but you don't know which game. Can you only get one point first?

Speaker 2: 1:21:09

Yeah, correct, Get a bonus if you name the game. Second yes, yeah, I love that so either, or so some of these are just sounds, some of these are music. Oh Okay, now if you name the music, the bonus point is what's the the name of it, of the song?

Speaker 1: 1:21:32

right or.

Speaker 2: 1:21:34

The name of the song. One point is what game it's from. Correct, yeah, correct, all right, so I'm actually gonna pull up my notepad here, because I didn't my spreadsheet, you know it complicated. Yeah, I know we're going. We're going a little complicated on bucket bites today and my notepad didn't open. That's fun, hmm.

Speaker 4: 1:21:51

There's a Mac it did.

Speaker 2: 1:21:53

It did open, but I was not looking in the right place. All right, I should have got All right, here we go. Here's the first. By the way, I did not check the equalization of any of these, so if any are too loud I apologize. Fantastic. So here we go with number one. It's oblivion is that.

Speaker 4: 1:22:18

Sightseeing skate kites and skate or something like that.

Speaker 2: 1:22:24

I am going to give you one point. Oh, it is what's commonly known as the NPC theme. So if anybody before the end of this, before the end of the segment, wants to give me that's the one that I didn't know the actual name of the song, so if anybody, before the end of all the other ones, I do have the song name.

Speaker 4: 1:22:52

You don't know the name of that song, so I can write yeah, I was gonna say he could have been right.

Speaker 2: 1:22:59

Right, what did you say? Them?

Speaker 4: 1:23:00

I think it starts with K. It's like Kite and skate or something like that, or kithin skate, kithin skate.

Speaker 2: 1:23:09

All you had to do was get the name. Two points for the first one. Nice, right, congratulations.

Speaker 1: 1:23:18

All right, the rest of them I'm good on.

Speaker 2: 1:23:19

I only know that. I only know that song based off of the NPC theme right like meme of it. So, all right, here we go. Here is number two. I'm not gonna tell you okay, but the bonus, it's gone. Nobody got it. Okay, it was, it was well. All right, it was the level-up sound from Fallout 3 3 really, yes, yeah, I did. I. I'm not gonna go into it. All right, here we go. Here is the next. I'm gonna switch these two. All right, here is the next one.

Speaker 3: 1:24:27

I like defense.

Speaker 4: 1:24:35

Nope.

Speaker 2: 1:24:41

Nope, all right, dom, what's up to you?

Speaker 4: 1:24:47

Cancel me out. I have no clue. I don't even have a guess.

Speaker 3: 1:24:51

That's right. It sounds like a lot of them.

Speaker 2: 1:25:00

I'll stop it. There is your points being handed out. That was high-fi rush.

Speaker 4: 1:25:05

Oh.

Speaker 2: 1:25:12

That was the QA1 MIL boss introduction theme. Bethesda made it. Oh really no so so they may have just published it. I'm not sure if they made it so this is a Bethesda.

Speaker 1: 1:25:33

Yes, I had no idea they had correct.

Speaker 2: 1:25:37

Yes, yep, all right, so here's. Here's the next one that that might have been the Hardest or second hardest on the on the list? Okay, all right, so here we go. Here's the next one.

Speaker 4: 1:25:48

Skyrim. Wait, that's, no, oh it's. Can I still guess?

Speaker 2: 1:25:58

No, no, no, we, I did once. You guess you're out. Yes, you're done. Could.

Speaker 3: 1:26:04

I need to play it again I will, yeah, play it again.

Speaker 2: 1:26:05

All right, do you want me to make it louder? Yeah, I'll make it just a little bit louder, I know it, it's so sad. That's 76. Okay, I'm out. You know there's another audience here, so George says I will go insurance with definitive Hi Hello A, it's the only, is the only fallout game. Fuck, that's like this, sorry. I Vegas the other day and he's still there. Well, you just gave it away. And what, oh that? What's your guess? Fallout New Vegas. Yeah, what's what's the?

Speaker 3: 1:26:56

what's the thing? That's the song that they play when you go into the casino.

Speaker 2: 1:27:03

All right, I'll give you. I'll give you one point. It's the level up sound from New Vegas. I met New Vegas when I was like. Oh, that weird in between fallout.

Speaker 4: 1:27:15

It's like the quest marker thing you get in.

Speaker 2: 1:27:18

Skyrim, but yeah, but it's like it's the course. No, they are, they are all I checked. They are all very different. All right, here we go. Here is the next one Starfield. It is Starfield, what is it, I don't know. When you level up? Oh, no, it's that level up? No, I'll give you one point. It is the new quest. Sound, oh okay. That is the new quest sound you get when you get in. There's actually two different variants of that sound, but I would have yeah, so it is the new, that is the new quest sound and playing

Speaker 3: 1:28:06

too, much and all the noises have blurred together for me they for what it's worth.

Speaker 2: 1:28:11

Starfield sounds are very similar.

Speaker 4: 1:28:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:28:14

All right, here's the next one, and this one's worth five points. It is worth five points, two for naming the game. Three, for telling me what it is.

Speaker 1: 1:28:30

Welcome to Camp Navarro. So you're the new replacement. You are a uniform soldier. Where is your power? Armor? Don't have any. You expect me to believe that, Megan?

Speaker 2: 1:28:41

I'm gonna say brotherhood is steal.

Speaker 1: 1:28:43

You lost an expensive piece of army issue equipment. That suit is going to pay. And you will remain in this man's army until you are five hundred and ten years old, which is the number of years it will take for you to pay for a mark to power. Combat armor. You have lost, report to the army and have a new suit issue to you. Then report back to me. Private dismissed.

Speaker 3: 1:29:10

I don't know which one it is but that's the next one I play.

Speaker 4: 1:29:15

That's not brotherhood of steal, that's not like it. I mean, it's not like something.

Speaker 2: 1:29:20

I would. I'm gonna see if I want, if I'm gonna see if it's worth giving Josh at least I have a point for well, no follow. Brotherhood of steal is a video game, so, oh well, that is not what else. That's no right. So if it's not from that video game I'm wrong, then that you are wrong.

Speaker 3: 1:29:38

If it's one or two. I never played those ones. I mean, you get it, I can't figure it out.

Speaker 2: 1:29:43

None of it in down because still guess. So it's true, one of you can get it, thank you. Well, I won. It's fallout to.

Speaker 1: 1:29:51

Then I.

Speaker 2: 1:29:51

That is worth, that is worth two points nice and if you could tell me it, it's if you can tell me who is saying it that is, the captain of Camp Navarro. Oh my god, dude hell yes man, five points, man, what? How did you know, dude? How did you know Camp Navarro? He said it, he said it. Yeah, oh, I'll give it to you. It was still a really good guess. Yeah, I didn't know he said Camp Navarro, I'm gonna be two points for that If you could tell me who said it, I'll give you the last point. The captain yeah, you gotta give him the points. Captain Navarro, it is captain.

Speaker 3: 1:30:50

Navarro.

Speaker 2: 1:30:59

No, he did. He said captain of Navarro, Okay wait what is it? Oh no, it's actually captain Doran. I'm stupid of the ball.

Speaker 1: 1:31:07

But it's fun of Navarro. But that we're fine. All right, I'm gonna give him the five two.

Speaker 3: 1:31:12

I agree, all right here, here we go, here we go, but I feel obligated to play that game.

Speaker 2: 1:31:19

So Fallout 2 is the only. I did not play Fallout 1. I played Fallout 2 60% of the way and it is actually hilarious.

Speaker 1: 1:31:28

Yeah, good.

Speaker 2: 1:31:31

I'm watch some playthroughs on them, but it's the just just the, the conversations, the, the voice lines, the average it. It's hilarious, all right here's the next one. Here's the next one. All right, what's the song called?

Speaker 4: 1:31:58

oh, oh, it's too far.

Speaker 2: 1:32:02

My thinking is a rip and tear it is not rip and tear, it is the only thing they fear is you.

Speaker 4: 1:32:07

Only thing they fear is you Think about those two. That's all right with.

Speaker 2: 1:32:14

With one, two, three, four remaining, I had twelve. I gotta figure out which one I missed. But with five possibly remaining the score is down three Josh to Donovan, six. Okay, all right, here is the next sound.

Speaker 4: 1:32:43

But more wind. Tom cliff is a Cliff racer a.

Speaker 2: 1:32:51

What a cliff cliff racer. Yes, that is right, it is, it's a cliff racer from the Marowin Congratulations. Marowin, so that's actually impressive.

Speaker 4: 1:33:03

I know it's iconic, I don't know when you played Marowin 18, 18.

Speaker 2: 1:33:11

I played Marowin when I was like 12, so I Don't remember shit. All I remember is what like in the water area, anyways, whatever.

Speaker 1: 1:33:20

I.

Speaker 2: 1:33:21

Like I'm too old for Marowin, like you know, like Maro I would you know, on YouTube there's more wind session.

Speaker 4: 1:33:30

Sorry, too young for Marowin. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:33:32

So the only thing I remember from Marowin was the, the, the city with where it's everything's like on stilts.

Speaker 4: 1:33:39

Do you know what I'm?

Speaker 2: 1:33:39

talking about is?

Speaker 4: 1:33:40

I don't remember what it's called the Vex I.

Speaker 2: 1:33:45

That I was just like guys.

Speaker 3: 1:33:58

Like I was born no, 2003.

Speaker 2: 1:34:01

Maybe Wonder what I was playing at that time. What's the real? You're looking at 2002?.

Speaker 4: 1:34:09

Oh, I wasn't alive.

Speaker 2: 1:34:10

Okay, so I was 13 when I played it, excuse me, not 12 first All right, thank you, guys. Ready for the next sound? Yes, please worry, makes me feel older 20 when it came out.

Speaker 3: 1:34:27

I just I think I probably, oh, okay, yeah, okay, you know, at that time Dominic, make fun of him.

Speaker 2: 1:34:33

He's older than us, he's older than me and he has more hair than all of us. Still, yeah, damn it. All right, here we go. Here's the next one. It's Dom.

Speaker 4: 1:34:51

What is it was when you select the perk or level up in the perk menu it's the level up.

Speaker 2: 1:34:56

Yep, yeah, but I would have gone perk through down, so perk, level up. Whatever same thing works All right. So the score now is seven. Dom Josh to Donovan six. What a weird order to put that in. I put that in the order of the way I wrote it. All right, here we go is the next one. This is the widest sound I've ever heard. It is quiet, here we go. Wait what'd you say? Follow three is not oh.

Speaker 4: 1:35:39

It's uh. Is that fallout for when you discover a new location?

Speaker 2: 1:35:47

It's not the new location. Sound, one point, it is one point. It is the new mission.

Speaker 4: 1:35:53

Sound new mission, okay, oh.

Speaker 2: 1:35:56

I Mean donovan, am I disappointed?

Speaker 3: 1:35:59

that was extra quiet, I couldn't hear it 100%.

Speaker 2: 1:36:06

This is at 100%, by the way, in game it's quiet Something. You got to normalize your audio files. Listen, I can only illegally risk week audio from people's videos is. So this is the Technically the last, unless I can figure out which one is the actual. Last, here we go, starfield no, no, the mysterious stranger no, oh, nobody got it. That was death loop, death loop yes. And that was the new location. That was the sound you heard when you completed a new location. Oh, so nobody heard that sound ever.

Speaker 4: 1:37:05

I did. It doesn't sound like the mysterious stranger, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:37:08

No, I feel like they had more of a, like a stringy sound, I thought.

Speaker 4: 1:37:14

I thought I was like yeah, let's see here I.

Speaker 3: 1:37:17

Feel like you guys skipped one early. You'd flip flopped one.

Speaker 2: 1:37:22

Maybe that one no, I played by, did play both. Yeah, he played it after, like the first one he played. Oh, oh, I know which one it is. Oh, here it goes. Let me put it in the right. So this is the last one. This is the last one, and I apologize if it's loud. Here we go. It's car, all three, that is.

Speaker 4: 1:37:57

What's car it?

Speaker 2: 1:37:58

was, I was gonna yell that's the new quest. That is the new quest. Yeah, all right. So wow, dom, I don't have the, the I Don't have the standings for the rest of the year. I will update that later. So congratulations. Yeah, you did do a good job for how you don't even killed. Killed that fallout too, though. Whoo, oh, yeah, yeah, and what you got? One other one too, didn't you? Yeah, whatever his name was, sergeant Dorn, sergeant Dornan. Yeah but, you know, this he's the captain of the bar, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:38:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:38:42

Yeah, yeah, excellent, perfect, fantastic, great. Well, we all call him.

Speaker 3: 1:38:47

I'm so proud of the moral wind, one that's the most it was like that was fun.

Speaker 2: 1:38:53

Good, I'm glad we haven't played sound bites in quite a while actually it was fun.

Speaker 4: 1:38:56

So it was fun to play again. Great to be there.

Speaker 2: 1:38:59

So maybe I don't know, I still want to leave it with guests. Only then we can have more of them. Save them for a special occasion. So I guess At this point in the show Donovan I We've been asking you kind of a lot of questions. At this point I feel like it's fair for us to ask you if you have any questions for us.

Speaker 3: 1:39:27

Sure how long have you guys been doing this for?

Speaker 2: 1:39:32

Post. I'll let you answer that. Yeah, how long? Based on how this show has gone, do you think we've done this podcast?

Speaker 3: 1:39:40

That's a good question. Actually. I say I don't know, like a few years. Really yeah, I'll take that as well three and four years.

Speaker 4: 1:39:55

Oh, we'll definitely take that.

Speaker 1: 1:39:57

Okay so.

Speaker 3: 1:40:01

No, yes, no we've been dialed in.

Speaker 2: 1:40:05

I will dude. Okay, that is going in our promo, yeah that is going in our promo. No so bucket bites actually started last year, january of 20 well, technically December of 2021, but the first episode was January of 2022. We had another co-host. There was a completely different for not completely slightly different format. The previous co-host had some stuff come up. I had to decide whether or not I wanted to continue doing the show or not. Luckily, domino, I had dominant commands for some episodes. Josh, come on for some episodes. In our twitch chat, official gearhead was on a couple of episodes the end of the year. I really kind of thought about, hey, like, do I want to keep doing this? What I want to keep doing? Luckily, josh dumb, my buddy Logan and my other, my other buddy who is his MIA Crazy raise yeah, I was gonna say, but he had, he has, and we're not gonna go there. But we all Hopped on board. So Technically, this is the first year of the reboot of bucket bites, but this is my second year doing the show. Yeah, we've had we've had a lot of content creators on. We've had a bunch of twitch streamers. We've had a bunch of Like. We've had Hollywood producers, josh, you know. We've had, you know, computer makers, dark fusion. We've had actors. We've had rappers. We've had Game developers, multiple it's, it's been, it's been pretty freaking awesome so very Josh was that Josh was actually my first guest. Oh, yeah, yeah, yes, I was, and he made me prank. Call a restaurant.

Speaker 3: 1:42:07

And I did.

Speaker 2: 1:42:07

I did so you didn't have to do that, donovan. Yeah, there was. There was a part of the show where we'd have like a quote-unquote after hours part where there would be a challenge set from the previous guest. But because there was no previous guest before Josh it was, I could make it. And I mean, who knows Josh better than me? Yeah, that was the worst night of my life. And yet I came back. What's?

Speaker 1: 1:42:36

wrong with you. It was so good.

Speaker 2: 1:42:38

It was so good it was so good, so it was great, it was great, so that was a good question.

Speaker 4: 1:42:46

If you have any more questions about our little group of individuals.

Speaker 3: 1:42:51

Are you guys all local to this area?

Speaker 4: 1:42:54

I am not it's. I'm the only one that isn't.

Speaker 2: 1:42:56

Yeah, so both of us are both from Milwaukee. Dom is from.

Speaker 4: 1:43:00

California, southern California Not from. California, not from.

Speaker 3: 1:43:04

California and have you done more many other interviews with local sort of people? Or are you going for the international global organization?

Speaker 2: 1:43:17

It's funny. We've had a lot of UK people on the show. Ok, cool, We've had Josh was really. Josh has been actually pretty great about that. He was able to help us get Shura, who is a UK pop star. She does kind of. Yeah, yeah, she was great. We also had Steve of Oron, which Josh was unable to attend, but he was. He's a UK YouTuber, content creator, pretty, pretty decent size and he was. He was a good time, even though, even though, when he came on the show he's like, well, where's Josh? And I'm like he's not here. He's like well, fuck I guess I still got to do this then, but he was super. He was super cool I think it'd be fun to have him back on. Actually, with Josh, I was going to say, like we do a lot of like we like to do local stuff, like in the greater Milwaukee and you know, midwestern area, but at the same time, we like to branch out and get folks from all over the world. Of course, we just like to talk to creators and it creators of any kind, like people who, who just make stuff. Yeah, like, I think that you're a great like first in the world, like first intro into you know books, because we've never spoken to anybody who does books before Go ahead. It's perfect timing, by the way, because, just like in the last couple of weeks, oh, can I start this real quick, yeah, yeah. So I want to actually ask you a question, donovan, real quick. Ok, so you make books like, and you sell books like your. Your career is books, books. So your personal life do you still find time to enjoy reading, looking up new authors, new books Like? Where does that fit into your enjoyment?

Speaker 3: 1:45:15

I audio books most, for the most part. Yeah, I don't have a whole lot of time to actually sit down and read because I'm binging Baldur's Gate or Scott Sure, but yeah, I get a good bit of audio books in while I'm drawing and things like that, because I don't, I don't like to like watch TV or anything while I'm drawing. I think it just takes away too much, surely. But audio books work good.

Speaker 2: 1:45:42

So what's your go to, like genre, like what do you go to when you're looking for a book to listen to?

Speaker 3: 1:45:48

Mostly science fiction and a bit of fantasy too, but I think I just prefer science fiction. I am trying to read more of the or listen to more of the local authors, who I saw in the store too, who have audio books available. And yes, a question in the back.

Speaker 2: 1:46:08

Yeah, Mr Shearer, if I said that better. Hopefully this time.

Speaker 1: 1:46:15

Nailed it.

Speaker 2: 1:46:20

Sorry, that was visual. So, as we've kind of alluded to, we started talking about books kind of on buckets a little bit. I am really bad at reading books. I'm very much a visual person and it's not because I hate books but it's because I struggle focusing. But I've recently started, because of Josh reading a book which I'm reading, stephen King's Beg of Bones. Oh, ok, because, yeah, go ahead, don't chat. Well, I was going to say I thought we were waiting to announce the book we were going to read.

Speaker 1: 1:47:00

I told you, I told you I told you.

Speaker 2: 1:47:02

I told you on the last episode that I was reading, I would have started by now. No well, we weren't all reading the same book. It wasn't like a traditional.

Speaker 1: 1:47:11

No, I started reading my book, but yeah, well, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:47:14

Well, so anyways.

Speaker 1: 1:47:16

I want to ask you until today to start reading.

Speaker 2: 1:47:18

this whole thing is falling apart. Well, I've only read a chapter, so just you know, Dominic, have you started reading?

Speaker 4: 1:47:25

No, looking for a book, I'm sorry. All right, ok.

Speaker 2: 1:47:28

So, donovan, my question for you, my question for you is I know on your website you have listed all, like a bunch of different genres. Do you have a recommended? Like I love, psychological thrillers, do you have a recommended book from a local artist or local author that I could perhaps pick up, because I do?

Speaker 3: 1:47:55

My guest author in the store was and tonight was MP McDonald, and she does psychological thrillers. She's got her book no Good Deed and find you a link real quick for it. Yeah, send it my way. Yeah, so she does a psychological thriller about a guy who he finds like a camera that kind of gives him a glimpse into the future and he finds it right before 9-11. So he's got to deal with that. But yeah, it's, it's good. I have actually read a couple of her books because she has them on audience books. What's her name? It's MD MP McDonald and the book is no Good Deed. She's actually a Mark Taylor series. Yep, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:48:49

Her first books got over 10,000 reviews on Amazon, which is just wild 10,198 to be specific, not that I'm looking it up currently, so I just bought the whole series.

Speaker 3: 1:49:02

Hey, there you go. I actually I have a section on. I think I still have the featured authors set up. I run a bookshop shop on my website too. Yes, you do.

Speaker 2: 1:49:18

Well, that's what made me think of this kind of question and I'm like this is my genre, this is what I'll get into. Oh no, Tell me who's local that I can. I can start reading.

Speaker 3: 1:49:27

Looks like I'm going to need to add that one in here.

Speaker 2: 1:49:31

I'll add the link into the Discord here, so the reason is asking is we came up a couple of weeks ago that we want to do where each of us reads a book before the end of the year, and it was actually great that you came on, because this looks like a good candidate. Yes, yes, but the question is do we each read the same thing? Or, since Dom didn't have a book, does Dom read no Good Deed by MP.

Speaker 3: 1:50:03

McDonald. There we go. Oh, actually I wonder how that would be for somebody who didn't live through 9 11.

Speaker 2: 1:50:14

That's actually a very good point, because you didn't.

Speaker 4: 1:50:18

Well, no, I was dead. But what you weren't even born, yet I just weren't alive, I wasn't, I wasn't a thought.

Speaker 3: 1:50:25

That's what that means, right.

Speaker 2: 1:50:26

I guess I mean that's that's a good point.

Speaker 3: 1:50:30

Looks like she doesn't have it on the bookshop. Yeah, so yeah, that one could be cool. She also does the the Infection series, which is like COVID apocalypse, but she wrote it in 2017 because she's a respiratory therapist for her day job and that's just kind of like how she pictured the end of the world happening.

Speaker 2: 1:50:51

Wow. So in order to sell more books, she she created COVID.

Speaker 3: 1:50:58

Yeah, it's really brilliant marketing.

Speaker 2: 1:51:01

My God, good for her. You made a mobile app. She made a virus, yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:51:12

Oh, that's awesome, You'd imagine yeah the Infection series is cool.

Speaker 3: 1:51:17

It's like the Walking Dead without zombies, so it's just like kind of a post apocalyptic world, and she's got two trilogies that take place in that world, so OK, but yeah, she's a really good writer.

Speaker 2: 1:51:31

And she's, but she's local, right Like. She's like Milwaukee ish Kenosha area, yeah, yeah. She's, she's down here by me, wisconsin at least.

Speaker 3: 1:51:40

OK, yeah, she's, so she does. I think she's done all of the Kenosha book festivals this year and she'll be back at Book-A-Ween on the 29th.

Speaker 2: 1:51:50

Book-A-Ween on the 29th.

Speaker 3: 1:51:52

That's a for A fun day, a fun day, october 29th, from 10 to 3 at Studio Moonfall. Come many, many authors and have a fun time. So what time is she there? 4 to 7?

Speaker 2: 1:52:07

I saw a lot of those. Dates are 4 to 7.

Speaker 3: 1:52:11

That was for for these individual author days. The Book-A-Ween that one is going to be 10 to 3 Sunday All right, wait, what, what, what time? I'm sorry, 10 to 3 for Book-A-Ween. If you go to book-a-weencom that goes straight to the Facebook page for it. That's rough.

Speaker 2: 1:52:31

I just you should stay there till at least five or six, because the Packers play at noon. Oh, this is better. Yeah, I was going to say everybody was listening in the Chicagoland or Milwaukee area, take a look at what you're doing on that day and you know, yeah, drive on over, check it out. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:52:53

Yeah, and if that doesn't work, we got guest authors coming in every Friday, saturday and Sunday up until the day before Book-A-Ween, because I don't want to deal with that that night.

Speaker 2: 1:53:05

Yeah, I feel that I respect that. Excellent, so I think all of my questions have been answered. Josh, are you? Are you good? Well, my only thing was are we going to do the book picks today? Because you mentioned beg-a-bones? Dom didn't have anything, so we gave him one. I think I'm just going to read beg-a-bones on my own, just for fun, just because it's an inspiration. It's not actually an inspiration point for Alan Wake, but it's very similar.

Speaker 3: 1:53:41

For Dom I would recommend the infection book. I think more than no Good Deed. Okay, All right.

Speaker 2: 1:53:48

So Dom's writing infection. I'll read the no Good Deed. I noticed that it's her it says. So I have questions because I do. You said MP, right, is it what is okay? Who is Mark Taylor?

Speaker 3: 1:54:16

That's the character.

Speaker 4: 1:54:17

Mark Taylor is the character in that, oh okay, all right, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:54:21

All right, then we're good, we're golden. Okay, I'm not sure I'm further in that Post. Doesn't understand how books work? Well, I do it. I don't. I haven't read a real legitimate book in like we've talked about this and that's why yeah, that's why I did this. I wanted to bring this up, so okay.

Speaker 3: 1:54:40

Yeah, so thriller series will kind of do that for a lot of the taglines on the cover. All right.

Speaker 2: 1:54:48

Do you have her books in your store? I do, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:54:52

I carry all my stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:54:56

I think what I'll do personally, instead of like doing them on the Kindle, is I'll just, I'll just come down and buy some Roadtrip. Nice, are you going to be open on Sunday?

Speaker 3: 1:55:05

I will 10 to 3 on Sunday so yeah, perfect, right during the Packer game.

Speaker 2: 1:55:09

Okay, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'll drive on down with you. All right, hey, sounds good. Sounds good, dom, are you good? Any other questions?

Speaker 4: 1:55:21

I think I'm good All right, cool, anybody in chat?

Speaker 2: 1:55:27

Does anybody between Twitch or Suggestive Gaming's YouTube? Do you have any questions whatsoever? Spill them now or forever. Hold your peace. Oh, I have one question. Okay, can you make Bucket Bot a zombie?

Speaker 3: 1:55:52

Yeah, I think I could.

Speaker 2: 1:55:54

This guy right here. Yeah, yeah, I might commission you for some work. That would actually be awesome.

Speaker 3: 1:56:02

A Bucket Bot zombie? Yeah For sure. Easy, nothing to it. Awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:56:07

Well, Donovan, I know I told you about an hour and a half. We kind of went a little bit longer, but we were having fun, I think.

Speaker 3: 1:56:12

Yeah, good time Worth it.

Speaker 2: 1:56:15

So I'm glad you stuck around and had some fun with us. Official Gearhead doesn't have any user-friendly questions, whatever that means, so I think we're good to go. So, donovan, thanks for hanging out, as always. I'm Ryan Papapost with Josh Picard from Suggestive Gaming and Dominic, just Dominic, with special guest dominant shearer with Studio Moonfall. We will catch you on the flippy flop. See you later. Goodbye, goodbye, bye.

Speaker 4: 1:56:49

Goodbye.

Speaker 1: 1:56:50

Goodbye, goodbye.

Speaker 2: 1:57:02

Music Bucket. Why'd you say just Bucket? I don't know what that means. Just Bucket Spe, outrageous, not the expert. G'day by.