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This Week at the Crumb Club - March 5th, 2023
- Authors
- Name
- BallisticToaster
- @ballistictoasty
This week at the Crumb Club, we're Marching forward.
With the second month of 2023 firmly behind us, it's time to discuss the state of stream as this week comes to a close and a new one looms over the horizon. As Dead Space Remake and Metroid Prime Remastered slowly near completion, Bioshock 1 was reintroduced (thankfully with no errors or issues!) and we also began Donkey Kong Country 2 with FamiliarDan. But aside from underwater dystopias and monke related hijinks, the question remains: "What else is new, Toasty?"
So, let's talk about what new features and things you can expect from the stream going forward.
But FIRST!
What better way to start things off then by discussing this Meme Redeem first and foremost? While a lot of streams make use of a "FIRST!" redeem of some kind, the goal with this award's implementation on the channel was to reward those quick enough to redeem the award with a boastful, airhorn worthy entrance that demanded celebration and recognition on-stream. As streams became more frequent and operated on a set schedule, the timing for when it was redeemed changed from "First to notice it two hours into stream" to "First to see it in chat early" as more frequent streams allowed for people to become familiar with available rewards, commands, etc.
While the length of this particular meme redeem hasn't changed, there are other ways we're looking to making this redeem more interesting by introducing more variety with what viewers get every time they redeem the "FIRST!" award, as an MLG remix of "We Are Number One" is bound to get old after some time. Despite that, the scene itself is too good to completely remove and there's still a subset of people who want a way to exchange their crumbs to be a villain number one. So, what are some changes you can come to expect?
Starting April, the FIRST! meme redeem will rotate scenes on a monthly basis.
During months when the current "We Are Number One!" scene isn't the First meme redeem; it will show up as a redeemable "SUPER AIRHORN" meme redeem that will cost 3,000 points to activate at a shorter
This will be ten times the cost of a new, yet similar looking and sounding Meme Redeem coming *very* soon at 300 points. (I'm sure most of you know what it is already.)
While the meme redeem can be redeemed an infinite number of times during stream, viewers are granted only ONE redeem per stream and recharges on a five-minute timer. This change is to better balance
Changes to its duration will be considered to better match the pacing of games that are being played on stream.
Redemption Arcs
Last time we discussed redeems, a few problem areas were identified with cooldowns and reward cost scaling for both new and long-time followers. As new commands were being added, the initial cooldowns and limits were too aggressive, discouraging people from redeeming stream rewards. What adjustments have been made since then?
Raised the cost of redeems according to length of redeem/visual prominence.
Less expensive redeems corresponded to lower cost redeems.
Full-screen meme redeems were more expensive, as were longer meme redeems.
- A notable exception to this is "FIRST!" which is only ever redeemed once per stream.
Raised viewer-specific redeem limits to allow for viewers to interact with.
Removed stream-specific redeem limits.
Reduced cooldowns across the board for all rewards.
Following these changes, the results have been incredibly promising with notably higher uses of stream rewards across every pricing tier. As more stream rewards and meme redeems are being added, a concerted effort will take place to shuffle them out every week to better introduce variety with rewards and to call more attention to more expensive redeems. We're still watching this closely and with other projects in the pipeline, it's likely that the way meme redeems work will change based on what's being streamed or whether footage will need to be pulled from the VOD for other projects.
State of the Rotation
Last post, we briefly discussed the Rotation- the list of games being played on stream - and the role it has in shaping how weekly schedules are put together. As schedules became more regular occurrences, one difficulty encountered with making them is figuring out what games to play, when, and how much progress needs to be made to clear space in the rotation. While there's still room to add more games, others have been languishing for far too long even if they're still being actively played on stream. In recognizing this problem, it's clear that I never thoroughly tracked the progress of any game currently in the rotation up until now. With new games coming out and others I want to highlight down the line, it's time to sort what's currently in the rotation according to progress and priority.
Dead Space Remake
- Currently at Chapter 7, little over halfway into the game without accounting for side quests.
- This will be prioritized more as Resident Evil 4 remake is coming out very soon and not enough space (heh) exists for two survival horror remakes at the same time.
- Currently at Chapter 7, little over halfway into the game without accounting for side quests.
Super Mario Sunshine
- Still in the early game but with March 10th (AKA: Mario Day) coming up, expect to see this come back very soon!
Metroid Prime Remastered
- In collecting the Gravity Suit, only seven upgrades and the remaining Chozo Artifacts are left before the end, putting us quite close to endgame.
- Thankfully there's just enough room in the rotation for at least one more Metroid game that happened to come out around when Prime 1 released...
- In collecting the Gravity Suit, only seven upgrades and the remaining Chozo Artifacts are left before the end, putting us quite close to endgame.
Resident Evil 5 (featuring Stormhowl_FGC)
- On hold, but arrangements are being made to continue this!
- While RE5 is a horror game, this occupies the same space as Donkey Kong Country 1/2 since it's also a co-op game and they're treated differently due to scheduling with co-op partners + co-streaming arrangements.
- On hold, but arrangements are being made to continue this!
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Featuring FamiliarDan)
- Just started, three worlds in.
Hi-Fi Rush
- Currently at Track 5, near the half-way point.
- Most Hi-Fi Rush streams barely hit the two-hour mark which isn't enough compared to what Dead Space Remake or Spider-Man get. Expect future Hi-Fi Rush streams to be longer.
- Currently at Track 5, near the half-way point.
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
Currently at the very end of Act 2 with one more mission left before Act 3 properly begins in the main game.
Playthroughs of the City That Never Sleeps DLC trilogy are being planned.
100% Completion is NOT being aimed for either the main game or DLC.
- Because of how long the base game is and the additional hours of content the DLC adds, scheduling around this game has proven to be tricky and has been deprioritized to make way for other, shorter games to clear out.
Next week at the Crumb Club...
And with that progress report comes the end of our weekly update! For this week, things are going to be a little lighter at only three streams this week. You can expect to see an update of how schedules will be changed in the next edition of This Week at the Crumb Club, alongside timer messages and migrating bots but till then: here's a look at the week ahead!
Stay toasty everyone!
-BallisticToaster