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panchambro · 4 months

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YouTube 2023 Year in Review

Welp! Guess it's that time of year again. I'm sure 2023 has been a...pretty interesting year to say for quite a few people. And for me personally, it's also been a weird little year that's great in some parts and could be better in others.

What have I been up to?

My life right now is kinda divided into three parts:

A) the "IRL" stuff, as in working on my editing day job and spending time with family.

B) working on YouTube videos which I still have the passion for,

and C) playing video games, collecting cool things and socializing with my online friends.

I've always felt that it's difficult for me to put equal attention to all three, and lately, it definitely feels like I'm focusing on 'A' and 'C' more. Of course, my day job is kinda how I make a living at the moment so that obviously gets priority, but that doesn't mean I want to ignore my YouTube stuff! It's just hard to sneak in a few lines of script-writing while multitasking at a day job, and only being able to freely spend time on 'B' and 'C' during night isn't the most productive way to go about things, especially with other things that aren't YouTube production. I also have games I want to play, art I want to draw, folks I'd like to hang out with etc.

And that's a fine, healthy way of going about things online for regular folks! But I don't want my YouTube channel to stagnate as a result of this, because I still love making videos! I have support from folks on Patreon, and I still hope to continue growing the channel so that it becomes more sustainable to do frequent updates.

Part of me has always thought about just quitting my day job once I have a decent amount of money saved up and just try doing YouTube full-time and rely on Patreon, even if there's a very low chance it'd be sustainable. Of course, that's a big gamble, and I'm not truly sure if that's really the best way to go about things. But those are just my inner thoughts and I've rambled long enough...

So, I apologize for the above situation sort of being the root cause of the recent slower pace of my YouTube channel! The pace of the channel this year is about the same as in 2022, if not a little slower. I didn't really get a lot of dormant scripts from 2020-2021 off the ground, but being true to what I said in last year's Year in Review, I did end up working on a lot of spontaneous ideas even if there wasn't a "big" core video! In fact, I think almost every video released in 2023 that we'll discuss below were spontaneous ideas.

I'll talk more about what's to come for the channel in the end of the post, but for now, as usual, we'll take a look at each video I made during 2023 and I'll share my thoughts and some fun facts about each!

A Trip to the Hong Kong Kirby Pop-Up Store

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Various things were put up on the channel from January to March, including a funny little short for Mario Day and a new trailer for a revamped Patreon, but the major thing I put out was a look at the Kirby Pop-Up Store in Hong Kong! This was my first time doing a scripted documentation of an in-person event, and Nintendo Hong Kong would eventually do more events like Nintendo Live 2023 Hong Kong, and I'll definitely be talking about them on my channel eventually!

As for fun facts...uhh...I suppose Patreon patrons get to see the full unedited raw footage I took from the event lol

Top 10 Nintendo Trivia You NEVER Knew

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This year's April Fools video...was also a last-minute sort of idea, if I recall correctly! The concept is simple: it's a parody of generic Top 10 trivia videos in terms of presentation, but the curveball is instead of just doing other blatantly obvious fun facts, the facts would actually be super obscure, inconsequential Nintendo facts that barely anyone would've known about, so in the end it's kind of a legit trivia video in a twisted way. The facts in the video were sourced from new research, me asking friends for suggestions and some of my old posts on Twitter, so there were a few 'fun' facts that were left on the cutting room floor, and here's a good place to share them!

In an early version of the GameCube instruction manual, Mario 64 was used as a placeholder game

The infamous 'black box' in Super Mario 64 DS is not a visual glitch as commonly believed, and briefly appears in E3 2004 footage

Prototype screenshots of Mario 64 have appeared in an early print of the game's box art...and on a Nintendo Monopoly board in 2006 (next to the ? Block on the right side of the board if you're looking)

The Onion in Hey! Pikmin has white and purple in its colors, even though white and purple Pikmin never appear in the game

The original 3DS had two separate sets of black & white colors, for some reason

And to finally come clean...yes, around 30% of the video's script was generated using ChatGPT, as part of the joke. Mostly the introductory bits at the beginning of each segment, since it definitely did not give me the results I wanted when I asked it to describe the specific details of each fact, so y'know, hopefully that's a sign it's not coming for my job of talking about obscure Nintendo things! And don't worry, this will probably be the only time I ever use AI in my videos.

The Better N64 Wavebird Experience

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This is a follow-up to a 2021 video where I also used the N64 Switch Online controller on an original N64, albeit with a different adapter! This actually isn't a case where I received a free product to do a review on, I just happened to read about a better alternative, pre-ordered it online, it arrived in April and I decided to knock out a quick review/comparison video in 2 days!

As such, this is more of standard informative review video, but in all honesty, I still really like this setup, and it's in my opinion still one of the best controller options for original N64 games. So much so, that I recently completed my NSO controller collection by picking up a Sega Mega Drive 6-button NSO controller to eventually use with my original Mega Drive! I'm still looking for the compatible 8bitDo adapter though, so maybe when I eventually do, that can be a quick little video on the Plus channel for patrons!

The Most Expensive amiibo

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This is my favorite video I put out this year! The Qbby amiibo has always been in my sights for a while, and I've gone on record saying that I'd make a video on it if I got my hands on one.

Back in 2019, I once saw a Qbby amiibo being offered on Yahoo Auctions for a relatively cheap price, but to afford it I asked for extra donations via Ko-fi. Looking back on it now there were probably better options I could've taken, but either way the listing got cancelled and I refunded everyone who donated for that. Then sometime later I saw another relatively cheap BOXBOY package in a local listing, but then the seller never replied and deleted the listing, so the amiibo has eluded me until now, and there seems to be no signs of Qbby stock going down any time soon. My hope for a Qbby reprint continues, and hopefully this video still serve as a little awareness boost for folks who are wondering why he's one of the most expensive amiibo around!

Some of the gag editing on this one got spruced up a little bit which I enjoyed doing, but you also probably noticed that I got a turntable specifically for those glamour shots! ...yeah, I'll probably get more use of that thing later on as well.

The Kirby Battle Royale online joke wasn't exaggeration: I couldn't find anyone to play online with! I suppose that is to be expected for, y'know, playing a mid 3DS game in 2023, but it's a shame that Kirby Battle Royale doesn't at least offer a option to play with friends, and from some experimentation, it seems that two of my US-based friends were able to match with each other online while I couldn't, which also suggested some region-based matchmaking was at play. Oh well! There are some better 3DS games out there that I'd still like to play online one last time before their servers shut down this April.

Tetris...on a McDonald's Nugget

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Continuing the trend of 'make video on a recent find' for the third video in a row, it's the China-exclusive McDonald's Tetris Chicken McNugget! For an unscripted Things of Interest video, it turned out pretty well, kinda like the Rhythm Tengoku arcade video in 2022! Compared to the first unscripted TOI back in like 2018, I've definitely gotten a bit better at rambling since.

I was kind of a few days late to the party, and some other videos about the Tetris Nugget from larger channels have racked up more views since, but that's not really the point! As a casual Tetris fan that happens to be in proximity to mainland China, something as bizarre as this is totally right up my alley. Covering China-exclusive gaming stuff just kinda reminds me that I have yet to do a video on the iQue Player though, which I really want to...

FlashBoy Plus: The $95 Virtual Boy Flashcart

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I haven't really taken a YouTube sponsorship deal yet, but I do get emails about doing reviews or ad reads of items on occasion, like new Switch gaming accessories from different third parties and whatnot. Unfortunately, that's not really the type of stuff I do regularly on the channel unless I find a great angle to tackle it from, so the only review offer I've done on the channel until now is a limited Switch physical release in 2020.

When I was offered to review the FlashBoy Plus, I was definitely intrigued despite having already previously covered the HyperFlash 32, a technically better option! Virtual Boy flashcarts are already a very niche thing, so I gladly took the opportunity to take a look at any new option out there, and even if it's not a mainstream topic at all it does kinda appeal to me specifically.

In the video, I mentioned the (very cool looking) clear cartridge shell was not a publicly available option yet at the time of the review, but looking at the order site now, it has been added since! So hey, good for them! It is honestly pretty sick to have a transparent Virtual Boy cartridge.

Playing PC Games with the SNES Mouse & Famicom Keyboard

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I started work on the next core video right after the FlashBoy Plus video (more on that in the last section), but getting sick during early December forced me to delay it, so for that month I decided to do one last spontaneous idea: a followup to the 2021 video where I used the Famicom keyboard and SNES Mouse on a computer...but this time on a proper PC!

A thing that was brought up in the comments was one setting in particular: when I was changing the mouse settings in the Control Panel, there was a 'Enhance pointer precision' option that I didn't uncheck, which presumably slows down the mouse for precise movements. There wasn't a super noticeable difference when I unchecked it during further testing, but when I coupled it with further increasing the mouse sensitivity in games that allow you to change it in-game, I was actually able to get the SNES Mouse to move at a decent pace in some games! Of course, that requires tweaking with additional settings that would normally be overkill for a regular mouse, so it's still not practical, but at least there was a setup that would alleviate some of my complaints in the video.

Akfamilyhome Plus videos

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Over on my second channel Akfamilyhome Plus, once again there's a variety of stuff! There's Mario Wonder memes, a new high quality video game rip album, archival footage and more. If there's one thing you should check out though, it's the supercuts of me playing Everybody 1-2-Switch with my Discord server. It's the best kind of chaos. Long live Kitchen Timer 4.

This year, 8 new unscripted bonus videos were released publicly! You can enjoy watching me:

Visit the 3DS eShop on its final day of operation

Check out the Nintendo DSi XL Demo Video carts

Look through gaming goodies on a Chinese second-hand market

Unseal Captain Toad Treasure Tracker for the 3DS

Read through the 2010 Nintendo Anti-Piracy Manual

Unbox a complete copy of the original GBA Play-Yan

Compare the two popular 3DS capture card models

And check out the Nintendo Power...rewritable cartridge!

And over on Patreon, 8 more exclusive videos are also available, featuring things like a slew of Nintendo cleaning kits, iQue DS games, the Chinese Mario Movie DVD and more! As always if you don't want to wait till some of them rotate into public availability, they're all available on Patreon for just $1 USD a month!

The fuuuuture

Okay, so what's next for 2023?

I mean 2024. Oh god the typos are already starting.

Right before the FlashBoy Plus video came out, in late June 2023, I did a video topic poll on Patreon, asking what idea I should do next. Out of the four options given, one of them is a continuation of a limbo project from 2021, and the other three were spontaneous new core video ideas I came up with and wanted to do.

Well, one of the spontaneous new ideas won the poll, so the next core video is...

A look at the camera and sound apps on both the Nintendo DSi and 3DS! I originally wanted to get this out in December, and you all know what happened to that plan, BUT the script is done, the VO recording is done, footage recording is well underway and I am confident I'll be able to get it out this January. I really like how the script for this one shaped up and am commissioning some banger thumbnail art for it (🐦), so I REALLY hope you'll look forward to it!

Afterwards, there are a few in-progress ideas that I also want to work on for quick videos afterwards. As mentioned above, I visited Nintendo Live 2023 Hong Kong which was hosted on November, and ALSO the Nintendo Hong Kong Pop-Up Store which is running from December to January, so both of those would make for a perfect video in a similar vein as the Kirby Pop-Up Store video last year!

I also went on a trip to Japan last August, and took quite a bit of photos and footage. I still want to share my findings and experiences of being in Tokyo for the first time that I could remember, so there will be a fun little piece about that going on the Plus channel in the future!

And don't forget, I'm making a video about every game I beat during 2023, continuing the thing I started last year!

And after ALL of the above is done, I still have the remaining core video ideas from the June Patreon poll I did, since I did say I'd eventually love to do all of them, and that desire still hasn't gone away. I don't know how the rest of 2024 will go for this channel but I'd say this is a fantastic starting point, and I hope it'll all go up from there, since I'd really love to be more productive on here, while trying to keep that A-B-C balance in check!

So yeah! That's it for the 2023 Year in Review. If you've made it all the way to the bottom, thank you for reading! Here's a 25-use invite link to my Discord server as a little something! Thank you to all of you who've supported me this past year, whether you're a viewer or a patron, and I hope to keep up the work this year and try to strive for better!

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panchambro · 4 months

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My 2023 Art Summary review

ngl it was pretty fun making this chart and all with how much I've grown to like doing art.

Some bonus facts btw:

#art #panchambrodraws #digital art #art summary #art summary 2023 #2023 art summary #i did a lot of art #damn

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panchambro · 4 months

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Happy New Years!

Here is that drawing piece that I drew for the last scene in my 2023 year in review video.

Happy New Years everyone!

List of OCs featured below:

Ray the Sylveon - gigasylveon (on Twitter)

Tikara the Mew - @tikara

Windslash the Sandshrew - Windslash

Akfamilyhome - @akfamilyhome

Skweeb - @summmeister

Porynaz - @glitchypsi

Chiro - @danillustraties

Oreo the Stepswitcher - @oreostepswitcher

Twix - @towelbun

John Dickard - @johndickardofficial

ChocoMingo - @chocomingo

Yellow Quip - Quiplash (Jackbox Games), representing MxFreggers

Devil Mom - The Devils and the Details (Jackbox Games), representing Nxptuniaa

Roo the Kangaroo - @bro3256

Aeron - @blizzblu

And of course, me :3

#art #panchambrodraws #digital art #panchambro #pokemon #oc #new years #2024 #let's be honest if I wanted to fit everyone in these tags #i would #but there are a lot of people that fitting them all is too much

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panchambro · 4 months

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My thoughts on 2023, seen below:

In my 2022 summary, I mentioned before how I thought 2022 was "the beginning for many eras", sorta hinting that it could have also been the year of change and all. But 2022 boiled down to breeding grounds for 2023, and most of my decisions and choices made in 2023 that was of the reaction of the previous.

I failed to elaborate many key issues from 2022 in my summary, mostly because talking about them was not of my interest for the sake of my mental health. But they're very important when taking into account the wreck that is 2023. Right around the time when I was taking interest in Minecraft again partially because of the shutdown of the Akfamilycord Minecraft server, me and my older sibling had a falling out. It placed me in a emotional state where I would try my best to pretend my older sibling didn't exist either by locking myself inside my room and not coming out until everyone has calmed down, or taking a rideshare to avoid having my older sibling drop me off to my train station. I ultimately stopped this behavior by the time 2023 started partially to apologize to them for making them mad, but the damage had been done and they would end up packing up bags in June and leaving me alone to live with my parents and our two dogs. My terrible reaction meant I had to live alone for the most part, only keeping myself stable by being on the internet.

Not to mention several other problems that propped up that would also affect me negatively. I also failed to mentioned wiki-related drama that started in April 2022 which while I won't elaborate was enough to kickstart a chain of events that would ultimately lead to one moment in December 2022 where NIWA has to expel its first member in its history. By the time January 2023 started, I knew I was starting rough.

But on to the mediums that defined this period. When January started, there were a ton of time I had my eyes set on. Of course, something from the late 2022 gets to spread over to 2023, so I was heavily into Matilda the Musical on Netflix. CBS has a redesign for their local stations that was more or so more interesting than what they had before. And by the end of the month, I was into PowerWash Simulator.

PowerWash Simulator is a phenomenal relaxing experience. Using a variety of nozzles, extenders, and soaps, you take on vehicles and building left dirty for unknown reasons to…give them a "shine". Well according to what Green Gills wants us to do. I played this with friends, there were difficulties due to internet issues, but most of the time, playing PowerWash was an experience I could never forget. There's also lore, but I wasn't paying attention. Lore was the last thing on my mind. What helped was that PowerWash kept getting special DLC packs themed around pop culture stuff, like Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, SpongeBob, and even Back to the Future. There's more on the horizon, but one thing's certain: you better watch out if you're dirty, 'cuz I'm gonna clean you up hard.

It was now February, and I celebrated this month, especially on the 17th, with a special comic to mark the occasion. It marked 10 years since I had established my presence on the internet, and given that I was still heavy with TV-related stuff, I chose a WJZ-TV ad to represent those thoughts. French fries?

Also around this time were the Annies, with awards going out particularly to Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. I was surprised to see the latter win over Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Turning Red (especially in those damn Oscars), which I did see the latter (the former will be way later) but I honestly did felt a bit disappointed when The Bad Guys didn't show up for a nomination. After the ceremony though, I decided to take my chance, watch both Marcel and Guillermo's Pinocchio and both films were sat with me well.

Some other important stuff that happened in February, a Nintendo Direct where I lost a bet and had to draw twelve headshots, the Eagles disappointing me in this year's Super Bowl festivities, I played The Jackbox Party Pack 3 with a friend and their friend group (foreshadowing!) and…some personal stuff with friends. I should say that trying to keep my image stable was starting to become tough, which bled into next month that combined with other related issues caused me to withdraw from the internet for at least a couple of days.

During my internet break in March, I went through Steam…and brought myself a little treat to play for my own sake: Night in the Woods. I've heard some things about this game, but not enough to have a clean experience. And I'd say this was a pleasant experience as an adventure game. To say that while I haven't had my own sense of a town worn by age and decline, I feel bad for Possum Springs and how each of the main characters struggle to some degree. I went into this hours going through dialogue and voice acting each and every one of them. It was wearing on my vocal chords and I had to step out for constant water breaks. But for what its worth given I took the game in for the entire weekend, this was a nice experience. I don't like the dream sequences of having to find the band performers though, that shit can stop being such a drag to complete. But this game took me by surprise, and I should probably complete every achivement one day. Oh and GREGG RULZ OKAY!

Upon my return, I was able to fulfill @bro3256's wish of having a Famicom-centric wiki named FamiWiki. Years of consistent mislabeling of terms distinguishing the Famicom from the NES led to me and Brenden to kickstart a new wiki with the help of OpenWiki, the wiki host of WiKirby, Fire Emblem Wiki, and MiiWiki. The wiki has already reached its goal of filing a lot of pages dedicated to Famicom games, systems, and cultural influence. For a wiki being started this year, this is pretty amazing of an accomplishment. I'm hopeful you can help my friend out and contribute to FamiWiki. :3

Entering April…was hard. Some unpleasant friendship-related problems cropped up and ultimately killed my spirits for a while until they were properly resolved. For the sake of everyone I won't elaborate further, but if you know me you probably know what I'm talking about.

Alas, I spent my April craving a variety of movies and TV shows, some old like JoJo and The Good Place, and two new stuff that I watched. The Tetris movie was nice to watch, fun to see someone like Howard Lincoln, an important figure of Nintendo who once said that "Night Trap will never appear on a Nintendo system" (it did) running away from Soviet agents working to get Tetris rights, and I really like the inclusion of "Holding Out for a Hero" in this movie. The Super Mario Bros. Movie I did get to see with my older sibling, just before they left. This was a fun and referenced-packed film despite some problems and I really like the inclusion of "Holding Out for a Hero" in this movie. Wait…what the fuc-

And just when April had enough stuff to feed my mind with…I started playing VRChat. I've been hesitant to join the platform as I was very much not a big social person, in a game (or hell application) where you communicate to others. I've been on this with Discord calls…but never in an instance where we had interactive elements involved. So my time playing felt…awkward, but I managed to grow past that. VRChat somehow took the spot as my most played Steam game this year, primarily due to hang-outs with friends on the service. I will say that the people I chose to hang out with is very selective at best, but fuck it, I enjoyed my time with VRChat especially with people like Christ Fratz and @bro3256 being awesome buds to hang out with. And hell, we made a lot of dumb memories just screwing around and such.

But by far the biggest force in April and into May…was Minecraft. Shocker, I know, but my re-engagement with Minecraft came as a result of playing on a Minecraft server owned by @blizzblu. Though my survival experience had some plugins that Blizz installed, my entire game experience with Minecraft…changed. No longer was I playing on a Peaceful or Creative world, I was now on a Survival server (set to Easy difficulty but still) tackling with monsters, left and right. My early days were tough, yeah, but it mellowed down as I got better equipment and some head-starters. I used to had a large storage compartment which I later scrapped in favor of a giant storage network thanks to Slimefun. I never once played Minecraft in this state before, and I'll be clear here, I kinda want more of this. At the time of writing this however, the server has been offline, but I hope one day I can revisit the server and all the memories.

Of course, May was a period of inactivity partially because of a several week long vacation in the Philippines. I spent this time doing sketches and improving how I did my art so I wasn't wasting my art hand for weeks on end.

It was also the location where I watched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which released early in the country on May 31. Coming out years after the excellent Into the Spider-Verse, this one was impressive, if not more wonderful to watch than the original. A story about wanting to escape fate, and how several story traits define a character. Though it is only the first part of a two part story, I am interested to know the fate of Miles, his friends, and especially how his battle with his fated nemesis The Spot and Miguel O'Hara will go. That however is a problem, with it being in two parts leaving the story unsolved as of yet that I can't judge Across the Spider-Verse fully until I've seen both parts. Hopefully though, I'll be able to see the conclusion sometime next year, and in part thanks to the strikes the movie has been given some delay to at least have some polish.

When I arrived back home in June, my art skills went to work for the entirety of the month. While my mind was also on VRChat and the reveal of the Super Mario RPG remake for Switch and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I was mostly preparing to partake in the annual Art Fight event that took place during July. It was my first time too, and with loads of drawing experience built over the past couple of months. Thought I had rarely an attacked launched against me, I enjoyed attacking other folks based on their OC alone. Though this year's Art Fight had a rough one given the issues with management, by the end of it, I enjoyed the art event for what it gave me an insight in. Will I participate again? Hopefully. I do hope that the new organizers pull their act together to tackle the issues with the previous Art Fight.

During this period, I was busy indulging in my watch habits to witness both Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Nimona. I never watched the original Puss in Boots, in fact I never really bothered with the character when he was introduced in Shrek 2 (I thought very little of him). But Puss in Boots: The Last Wish became my formal introduction to this character, and man was he stunning. I wasn't aware much of The Last Wish, perhaps only getting a glimpse of Death, but nothing much even the whole infamous "panic attack" scene which I didn't know blew up on social media. I really enjoyed Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, you'd think a movie cramming at least three antagonist would be a mess, but the movie does well to make them actually enjoyable and to give them equal amounts of awesome. Goldilocks and the bear thieves had fun family chemistry going around with them, Jack Horner was a piece of shit and I'm glad we get a villain who is irredeemable for once (looking at you Disney), and Death? He's straight up gay. Errr…let's just say that Death is more than just hunting down pussies…err…cats. Fuck.

Nimona on the other hand was what I was expecting to watch the most. Originally supposed to come out by Blue Sky Studios, it was cancelled because Disney closed down Blue Sky, but Annapurna Pictures was able to salvage the work and release it on Netflix right at the end of June. I was there to watch it, and I was estastic to see how marvelous this movie was. I had seen the comic before but it was a long time since, but I knew much about the characters, including gay protagonist Ballister Boldheart and his gay lover knight Ambrosius Goldenloin. Yes, there was a reason I was up and available for that. I definitely felt the movie's message of wanting to be a part of something that society holds a prejudice against, even to where Nimona tries to let it all go before Ballister stops them. It might be because of this year's theme for me, that feeling of wanting to belong…

But right around Nimona's release, Akfamilyhome spurred a little event to playtest a new game he got: Everybody 1-2 Switch! Though our first session is mostly lost in history, AK recorded a second session where we had the most memorable moment playing this…game. There were plenty of good minigames, such as Color Shoot where you try to match the color in accordance to your camera, Quiz Show with simultaneous mode where anyone can add their own quiz questions, uhh…Statues…no that was bad. Uhhh….urm….oh Auction was a good minigame, it really causes all of us to battle over auction items. And…uhh…that's about it. We couldn't really play most of the games since they were either difficult to play cough cough Statues, or they require motion controls which not every phone support, or they weren't fun to begin with.

The point is, Everybody 1-2 Switch! was Nintendo's attempt to try to be like The Jackbox Party Pack series of games, and the thing is, what makes Jackbox fun is that anyone can play most of these games anywhere they could go with issues of latency or unplayability. With Everybody 1-2 Switch!, if you had a cell phone with no gyro, you're out of luck for the majority of the games. Good luck playing these games on desktop too; that's a novelty that Jackbox games have as well. And don't get me started with streaming this game over the internet. Yes, AK was able to stream Everybody 1-2 Switch! over Discord, but he had the advantage of being able to see the gameplay in-real time; everyone who was playing had latency issues. This was especially the case with the Quiz Show since they allocate a bonus if you are quick to answer the question on time, something you will not be able to do over a stream. So while this was a fun time, it wasn't certainly one that we could routinely play on a week by week basis. At that point, we might as well play Jackbox games instead…

...and that's what we did. We (or in fact, I) played Jackbox games throughout the second half of 2023. I mentioned earlier about playing Jackbox Party Pack 3 with a group back in February, but this was the true return after 5 years of not caring for Jackbox. To understand, back in the early days of 2018, I was invested in two games called Quiplash 2 and Tee K.O., which still hold my heart to this day. Right around April 2018, I started to feel a bit annoyed with how I was performing in Jackbox, while simultaneously playing these games over and over again got really boring fast, especially as my interest grew more and more into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But after June 2018 when I attended @monadolaguz's Twitch stream to play Earwax, Survive the Internet, and Drawful 2, I was not doing Jackbox as frequently as I did. I did one in December 2019 and (as I mentioned before) February this year, but they were restricted mostly to Pack 3.

With my return came a lot of games post Party Pack 3 that I missed. The first post-Pack 4 game I played was Talking Points, which grew to be one of my favorite Jackbox games to play, followed up by Job Job, my favorite Jackbox game of all time. As I routinely joining the Jackbox sessions, first with Akfamilycord, than with /r/RhythmHeaven Discord, and then to various other related servers, I grew to love, appreciate, and then hate on some Jackbox titles. Because I wasn't around when these Packs were released, every game felt like a new experience for me. From chaotic yelling in Push the Button, Quixort, and The Poll Mine, to trivia-bluffing with YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, The Wheel of Enormous Proportions, Fibbage, and Trivia Murder Party, and drawing games like Patently Stupid, Drawful: Animate, Bidiots, and Nonsensory. I hit many lows with Jackbox, especially the disappointment of getting last place in my first playthrough of Roomerang, but I grew to get to understand these games more, with my finally winning my first game of Roomerang just a couple of weeks ago. So hey, keep trying I guess. And if it's not working out...maybe you shouldn't play that Jackbox game.

If it wasn't for Jackbox, I wouldn't be able to engage with the members of /r/RhythmHeaven Discord or any other community for that matter. I met so many players in my trips to playing all the Jackbox games, and everyone has given me an experience I will never forget. It was good timing too, as Jackbox reached its tenth Jackbox Party Pack with Tee K.O. 2, Timejinx, Hypnotorious, and Dodo Re Mi, all fantastic and outstanding games. Though that is debatable by some, Jackbox 10 proved to be the culumination of all my love for Jackbox games. While there's still improvements left to build, I still do love this Pack, and if it wasn't dragged by its high retail price, I would've had it higher. Alas, Pack 9 remains my favorite Jackbox Party Pack of all time.

Although Jackbox had its priority overall for the rest of the year, I took my time to watch many other movies and shows, stemming from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (which I saw in VRChat), Barbie (which I did see in a cinema), and the FNAF Movie (which I also saw in VRChat). Guardians Vol. 3 especailly nailed the ending for the Guardians series of films within the MCU for me personally, and with this being the ending for the Guardians after roughly 10 years in cinema, this might be the last time I care about the MCU. From my morbid curiousity at the height of No Way Home's reveal, and to now…where I don't see this franchise with any hopeful future. I'm sorry Feige, you gotta knock yourself out for this one. Barbie was also a nice film, some problems with the Mattel sideplot handling, but overall, the messaging was pretty neat to witness, and I really like what Greta put into this film. Lastly, the FNAF Movie was fine. It does require prior knowledge of the games, but I think this movie was okay at best, but not really horror if you ask me. Though, I still can't believe they pulled that MatPat cameo.

August was pretty quiet, but heading into September, we did get more info on Super Mario RPG, and the announcement of…oh a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door? Huh. Given how miffed people were with the latest Paper Mario entries (though The Origami King was better received apparently), I'm surprised that Nintendo would go out of their way to remake a game that would "violate Miyamoto standards for character designs". In all seriousness, I am excited for this remake. It was also during this time that Minecraft Wiki finally did the thing and moved away from terrible ass garbage web host Fandom to be independently hosted by Weird Gloop. After years of back-and-forth between will they and won't they, it was after the "Grimace incident" that Minecraft Wiki had the courage to move off a platform so hostile to their ideals. I'm pretty happy with this arrangement, even if by then my interests in wikis had dimished.

October had the interesting clown show come to play. See after watching Minecraft Live with people in /r/RhythmHeaven Discord, they subjected me (and @johndickardofficial for that matter) to The Amazing Digital Circus, which had a pilot on YouTube. That pilot really took off and placed a lot of eyes on gooseworx, which made me feel really bad for her overall as her passion project is being taken over by bad and terrible content farms, but I won't indulge. What I'm saying is that…this was an amazing, digital cirus. My favorite part of the animation boiled down to animation. Kevin Temmer showed loads of work off with his amazing digital animation skills! Gooseworx did a fantastic job overall for her scoring the project, and not to mention the voice actors who did their absolute best to voice the characters of Pomni, Caine, Jax, Gangle, Ragatha, and more. I am curious as to how the rest of the story will go…but I'm holding up high for now that the conclusion will definitely be worth it.

It was during this time too that Suika Game exploded in popularity. Same with how Among Us went for being unknown for two years, Suika Game was merely released without anything noteworthy to talk about. That was until VTuber caught on that the rest of the internet…felt pain with getting the watermelon. I didn't play the original until December, I was mostly on the VRChat clone that was pretty good to play ngl. But with the real deal, it took 21 tries to get the watermelon. And I still haven't gotten over 3000 points yet. There's a lot to be said about this being like Tetris: easy to play, hard to master. Physics can make or break the game, and on occasion merging fruits together will cause a single fruit to be shot up and ending your progress. Despite this, this was an enjoyable puzzle game and for being a game under $5, it was worth it.

And this brings us to this month. The Game Awards…they didn't even try. Them trying to get people to rush their acceptance speech was so uncalled for. And there was absolutely zero regards to the people who worked in that industry who have lost their jobs. I really think Geoff pulled off more than he can chew, and this is just…bad. I cleansed my mind by watching The Boy and the Heron, which is a fantastic movie of the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. I can't say much for the plot, other than the fact that the movie is out and I'd recommend seeing it if you haven't in 2024.

Finally, with all the Jackbox talk that has happened this year, I figured it was a good time to call in a bunch of friends to play a Jackbox tournament. Calling in some other favorites (FairPlay137 and Textop) and mixing them with some new faces (Brenden, MxFreggers, John Dickard, YSB, and Triple S). I had a blast playing with all of ya. It was especially comforting knowing my last Jackbox of the year will be with people who absolutely are the bestest of friends.

2023 didn't go as I want it to. But, I can say that this year brought the biggest impact for me in terms of friendship and all, and I really, really appreciate everyone who has either played with me or has shared my art or works to the world. You all help me a little fill a hole that has been bothering me for years now. I'm still hesitant as to what next year will bring, hell I have no idea if I will ever find a boyfriend, or someone who I fall very closely with. But, it's nice to look back at this year with optimism and hope for what could be done next year. Or perhaps I'm jinxing myself here.

With that in mind, I would like to thank the following people who have done so much for me.

@akfamilyhome

@bro3256

@chocomingo

@danillustraties

FairPlay137

Datenegassie

@daztoons

@blizzblu

@fareydonch501

@glitchypsi

@hillelart

@thelamenamejero

Jesse4060

@johndickardofficial

JoyousArtur

SuperHamster

@killerawesome

@kiylospooks

@kornyea-broth

LinkyYoshi19

Matt Burb

@minuy600

MxFreggers

nkrs200

N_Enders

@ambxrryy

@oreostepswitcher

Ray (gigasylveon)

@softgalaxii

Sanic27

SleepyPlant

@summmeister

Tango

@tikara

Triple S

@towelbun

Vice

Windslash

@yoshmo1991

@ysb573

@zememerr

And thank you, for reading this. See you in the next year!

It means a lot to say that 2023 was a big and significant year for many reasons.

So in a 5-year tradition, a recap of everything that has happened in 2023.

Happy new years!

#panchambro #2023 #my thoughts #summary #recap #man that was a long summary to go over...

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panchambro · 4 months

Text

It means a lot to say that 2023 was a big and significant year for many reasons.

So in a 5-year tradition, a recap of everything that has happened in 2023.

Happy new years!

#new years #panchambro #2023 #montage

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panchambro · 4 months

Text

A Look Over the Art I Made in 2023

2023 has come and gone, with a sizeable improvement on my art skills. Once again, I am VERY proud of the work I managed to accomplish this year. I'll be going over some of the highlights month by month in this post, being sure to point out anything of note.

JANUARY

Starting off the year, I made some new artwork of Skweeb! I consider this fairly outdated now, but it did start a few trends with the character, mainly how I draw shine on him. His eyes bulge outwards, they're not holes! I also drew @akfamilyhome's character, Leddy.

FEBRUARY

This was a BIG month for me! I tried a lot of new things, and most of them worked out! This month also contains what I consider to be one of my best drawings this year, a celebration of Hollow Knight's 6th anniversary. Other highlights include a dashing tribute to Dangeresque and an entirely new reference sheet for Skweeb!

MARCH

March was not a particularly noteworthy month. These are the only two drawings from it! That said, I am quite happy getting any drawings out this month at all! As you'll see later on, this wasn't actually my most dry month.

APRIL

A VERY full month! I can't even fit everything I wanted to! Lots of Skweeb here, some Lucy too! Also a fitting send-off to Courtney (very sad Dead End got cancelled). Tried some big things here, like with the parody Album art, but for the most part I was just doing what I was good at: simple character full-bodies.

MAY

VERY dry month for art. This is the only piece from May! I participated in @some-fool-fp's aRtPG collab this month. Skweeb joins the party!!!!! Made my own custom logo for him, too.

I had a LOT of college work this month. I was working on a game!!! I got the highest grade possible on it, very proud of that. If you would like to play it, you can do so here. Just a warning though, it's very short and VERY jank at times.

JUNE

Another big month!! Some proper reference of Winslow, another Jevil drawing, and my FAVORITE piece of Skweeb art to date!!! The pose and the shading is just so good on it, I love it.

JULY

...Well this is awkward.

Art Fight was this month, and with all of my effort going towards that, I kinda... didn't draw any of my own art this month. Whoops.

Let's press fast forward, shall we?

AUGUST

A NEW OC WAS CREATED THIS MONTH!!!! Meet Chao. He helps out at the circus. He babby. I put a TON of effort into getting his design just right and ensuring he had the proper referencing before working on anything else. I love this 'lil guy.

Also some of my favorite art from this year!!! Inspired by Lemon Demon's "One Weird Tip", I made some art that takes place on a ficticous desktop! Getting the shapes and text right was hard, but I am so glad I put the time and effort in.

SEPTEMBER

Always Watching.

WOW, I am so so proud of what I accomplished with this CoTL piece. Everything from the pose to the composition and the use of colour is just PERFECT. This is up there in my favourite pieces of art from this year.

Skweeb and Jack Frost are here too... wait, it's not December yet!

OCTOBER

A certain someone turned 2 this month! My baby boy, now 2 years old... how time flies...

It was halloween this month too... but Skweeb isn't dressing up this year. It's Lucy in his place! Got some nice Jax art here too, I love that asshole.

NOVEMBER

I was never the most content with my previous Jevil artwork. I never felt like I was giving it my all, which is why I'm happy to say that this month, I did!

I also took a second shot at drawing Jax; this time, featuring Pomni! I used thinner lines and taught myself how to draw hands a whole lot better, I think it helped, haha.

Lastly, (part of) my piece for @hillelart's 10th Anniversary FNAF collab! The full thing is staying secret for now. Keep an eye out for January 15th!

DECEMBER

Finally, we arrive at December.

Funnily enough, I didn't actually draw for half the month. But when I got back into it, I got BACK in. I'm very proud of both of these pieces, and the shading and blending I used in them! This certainly feels like a new era of my art, and I'm looking forward to continuing it!

And that's it. You made it to the end! Most people just together a simple image for their art recap, and while that certainly works just fine, I like to go into the nitty gritty, write down my entire year in art, y'know?

I'm not sure if this year contains as much progress as 2022, but it certainly contains a BOATLOAD of progress! Look back at the start of the post and compare it to the end of the post, the difference is insane!

Lastly, I've got just one more thing to show, once again, redrawing my first ever piece to mark off yet another year. I hope you like it, you'll only have to wait another 365 days for the next one!

Bring on 2024!

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