britdan

[britdan]

12 Maps Of Christmas Epilogue - OUT NOW!

The final entry in the 12moc pentalogy is here!

[britdan]

need to ask for help one more time – i have a job offer but i haven't started work, and i need gas money to help me run some final important errands before i begin. really hoping this is the last time i have to ask 🙇‍♀️

https://cash.app/$skysometric

https://paypal.me/skysometric

[britdan]

The Three Susketeers are BACK!

Me and my friends Joe and Kiyan made a 2nd video after so long!

[britdan]

My departure from Mari0.

After 6 and a half years of making mappacks I am officially announcing my plans to depart from making mari0 mappacks, enemies and content within the game (not on the game, we'll get to that)

I'll also still be a part of the community, I'll still be lurking the forums, playing mappacks, moderating and contributing to the discord and not maintaining the fandom wiki :).

The heartfelt guff

I can't start this post without thanking everyone who has been a part of the journey, I truly wouldn't be here without everyone giving support or just playing my mappacks.

Maurice Guegan and Sašo Smolej, for making the game in the first place an above giving me a platform to express myself creatively, doing so for so many other people and fostering a community which I can call nothing but my second home.

Alesan99, for making the mod that I used throughout the years and for being such a funny and caring person, I wish nothing for the best for you now you're stepping away from mari0 AE as well.

Williamfrog, who's been a major help for myself as well as creating the modern mari0 meta with everything he's discovered since 2020, and also being such a good friend. And thanks for kickstarting my love for Terraria, I'll get you to like Minecraft at some point ;).

Skysometric, who fostered the community discord server where I found so many likeminded creators, and where a lot of my motivation came through over the years, it's not always been easy for you and I know that but you've always given 110% even on the bad days and I appreciate that and you.

All of my fellow collaborators for projects like Psnes and Mari0 AECE, Critfish, NH1507, Hexi Hertzgame, Dekainone, BetterDonutGalaxy, and yes, even you too Frazzdude and Mushrunt despite what happened between us.

And above all else, to everyone who has played my mappacks, or used my enemies, or didn't use my characters /j. I truly do appreciate it, it always kept me motivated.

Why have I come to this decision:

Now it's important to realise that this isn't something that I magically decided, and not something I'm going to drop either. This has been a series of thoughts built up since 2021. The short version is work, lack of validation and constant quota changes. The long version are these bullet points:

Work

I've was unemployed for a while, I was meant to leave collage in August 2020 but something really weird happened and all of a sudden I was doing collage from home, for all of 2020 and 2021 I had all the free time in the world but soon things changed and I could (and basically had to) get a job.

I was working 25 hours a week so still had a decent amount of time to work on mappacks, this worked well for me but I was only on a 6 month contract which became 12 months, and finally 18 months. But then mine ran out and I had to find a new job.

I was able to find a new job at a local shop which was good to have but I went down to 12 hours a week which was too little for me, I was also making less. I was also working stupid hours like from 5 AM. It was such a kick to my moral and my output dried out over the 5 months I worked there.

But finally I got a call back from my old workplace looking to bring me back on full time and permanently, with an added wage increase. 37 Hours a week. And that is where I have been since the end of 2023, on 37 hours a week I don't have nearly as much time to work on mari0.

Lack of validation

Being a mari0 creator in 2024 is very niche, if you're lucky a half dozen people will appreciate what you do, and the best you can do is get BTG to feature something you've made on his channel. But still you're not going to get much out of it.

2020 gave us who have made content for a while a taste of what true validation felt like, so many players fled to mari0 AE and I could see it in my downloads and views.

I know this sounds like "Manchild crying about his mappack not getting 100 downloads" but It's really not, never cared about views at all but with the hundreds of hours I spend on some mappacks I feel like I'm throwing my time into a black hole, you can make money but you can't make time, and I wanna use my time on things I feel good for, mappacks don't do that for me anymore

Constant quota changes

Do you remember the days where the only custom enemies would be... enemies? I don't. It's not a bad thing that we have so many new things we can make with all the exploits found by Williamfrog but it makes it so hard to top what's been made, and knowing that what you make now could become 10x easier in a week.

Overall I love the evolution of the games limits, so many amazing things that couldn't have been made in 2018 when I started. But it makes everything I do feel so small, I don't have the skills or time to make some of the things people are making now, I've fallen too far behind.

I could learn and adapt but I don't want to spend years on one mappack... except for one (We'll get to that later). I miss when I could throw together a mappack in a month and call it a day, yes they we're bad but not because I didn't spend time on it, mainly because I was just young and unexperienced.

When am I quitting:

It's hard to tell at this point but I'm looking at 2025, I have 3 major things I want done before I go, things I have dreamed about for years that would feel wrong not to do.

Finish my never ending secret mappack

I've been working on a mappack with a fellow creator for almost 2 years, the delays are not due to just me or them, but a bit of both.

Anyway we have plans to kickstart development soon and get some serious work done. and I'm hoping to show it off as soon as possible. I'm hoping that by going public it would give us the motivation to keep going now we'll have people looking at what we're working on.

Finish already (partially started) planned mappacks

I have a few mappacks planned and two that have had some amount of work done. Not going to beat around the bush the two are 12 maps of Christmas 5 and a HIM collection, being a remake of all 4 mappacks.

Both of these exist as mappacks but still haven't officially been started.

Create one last update for my SMM2 enemy pack

The pack is years out of date and really needs an update, I'll be working with Williamfrog to rebuild the majority of the pack from the ground up and also adding a few new enemies but not too much. This will almost purely be a quality of life update.

What does the future hold for me?

Well, mostly 3 things:

Game Development

It's been more of a secondary love for a while but I really want to go full force with it, I love game development, I love making game, I love programming games, I love documenting games. Making games will give me a whole new world to open.

I won't have to worry about pleasing a niche community as indie game development is such a major industry with low entry barriers.

And I'll never have to work with complicated, unintelligent formats like enemies. Everything I want I can make myself.

I've already made 3 games for game jams, but nothing major. So after I bid farewell I am going to go full force on my first major game.

I'm aiming for an hour of gameplay, and tons of extras. Nothing is planned yet but I'm super hyped to get started.

And above all else, I can have the option to monetize through itch.io by allowing people to pay for my games, I want my games to be enjoyed by all so there will be no only paid games, at least for a while, but having the option to allow people to support me will be so nice.

Youtube channel

Above that I will also be continuing my videos, making videos about games I'm working on (Showcases, playthroughs, devlogs, game jams) but also regular gaming videos.

And I'll also still be making mari0 mappack showcases. I still love the game and want to put more of the community in the spotlight, seeing how other people react to how I play their mappacks is always so rewarding, especially when I rage lol.

And I'll also be starting some tutorials on how I made my mappacks, talking about planning, creation and advertising. I'll be showing off the tools I used, providing all the templates I've made over the years, making a mod to help with quality of life when making mappacks and just general tutorials on making specific things.

And general life

I'm going to be 22 in August 2024, I'm an adult.

I've been working on getting my drivers licence so I can look into moving out of my parents house and closer to where I'll be working as at my current job they're in the middle of planning to move to a bigger city (Not hundreds of miles away, like 12), infact the plans went through this Thursday so it is happening. I'm looking to pass by the end of the year.

When I move out i'll have to spend more of my time doing things like my own laundry and shopping which will suck slightly but hey, I'll have my own place and i'll be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want!

And who knows, maybe I'll find someone who loves me for who I am and not the way I look or the number in my bank account. And maybe I'll have a mini Aidan who I can talk to about how bad slopes used to be in the retirement home.

Departing words

Thank you for reading this...I know it's a lot and as someone who is really bad at reading and writing this was so hard, my back hurts.

But I needed to get things right, and make sure people knew everything.

And yeah, that's about it, thank you all for an amazing 6 and a half years, I've still got lots of time left to work on mari0 and be of help.

Thank you all so much, I love you, kiss kiss, UwU.

Ok that's too weird, thanks, I appreciate it.

Kind regards, - Aidan The Mapper, Aid0n, Britdan

And most importantly, Aidan

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - May 2024

SOB SOB SOB SOB SOB SOB SOB SOB SOB SO-

The Three Susketeers Channel Launch!

After almost a year of planning, me Joe Joseph and Kiyan The Blue Penguin have launched our new Group channel. You can watch the first video right now below. This project is something completely different from the kind of content I make on my main channel and I'll be putting more effort into it over the year so expect a little less out of my main channel.

Pip0n's Palace turns 3 Years Old!

I still can't believe that my server has been around for that long, It still feels like yesterday I was setting up all the channels and my discord bot and preparing for the launch, and on the launch day how my Wifi kept dying and my bot kept going offline. But it has been 3 years, 30th April 2021. And even though the server is no where near as full of life as it used to be it's still an integral part of my journey. If it wasn't for the server I would have never focused more on my channel, or met people like Kiyan who I'd end up being really good friends with. I have a lot planned for the server this year so please join if you want to see what I have cooking, speaking of which...

The Pip0n's Palace SMP Launch Date!

I am launching an SMP for my discord server, This will be a short time event running over 3 weeks where we will work together to build and explore but on the final day pvp is enabled and everyone must fight to be the last standing. The first season will be launching MAY 18TH and will end on JUNE 9TH! The IP will be shared on launch day at an unconfirmed time, this will be shared on the smp-news tab on my server when announced. There will be a prize for the last standing on the final day where you will get a custom role and a free steam game under $10 (or a month of nitro if you don't use steam) For more information (And to find the IP when it begins) you can join my server.

The End Of Aidanbot...

Aidanbot had his farewell today as he is shut down after being around for over 3 Years. It started as a project on Replit being run privately on a small server with a few friends I knew from the Scratch Community. I remember working on the earliest builds, back when I was using the on_message functions to read commands. What's funny is the tutorial I was using used $ as the prefix and even on late builds just before slash commands I was still using $. Also how when I made my test versions I used the % sign because it was next to $. It's a sad end to this era and Aidanbot will be missed by the older Pip0n's Palace community as a fundamental building block of the early server days alongside events like one word story. Rest in peace Aidanbot.

[britdan]

Help me decide what to stream for my birthday!

This Saturday I'll be doing a big birthday bash stream, and while I have tons of ideas, I only have so many hours in the day to stream them – and only a week to prepare!

Help me out by picking an option from the poll at the bottom: What would you be most interested in seeing this weekend? Read on and I'll explain our options...

All of my ideas loosely fall into three categories – I could play something multiplayer with friends, I could reminisce on old levels and creations I made long ago, or I could stream something that's a completely new and unique experience. Out of those categories, I've got five standout ideas:

New: Fortune Cookie - If you've ever watched ProtonJon stream, you know what this is. I've collected my entire game library on Backloggery and we'll choose 3-5 random games, then chat votes on which one they want to see. I'll play each game for about half an hour before we pick another set of games for another chat vote. Rinse and repeat! 🥠

Reminisce: WarioWare DIY Showcase - "Showcase" is the WiiWare version of DIY... and I've never played it! This would be a hybrid of new and old, where I'd try out all of the microgames I've never played before, as well as importing and showcasing all of my old microgames from DIY on the DS. Did you know DIY is the game that got me into programming? 👩‍💻

Reminisce: Zeta - At this point I've streamed all of my old Mari0 level packs, except one: Zeta, which was supposed to be the magnum opus of my early Mari0 days. It sits about halfway between New Super Mario World and Retrush in terms of quality, scope, and ideas. Should be a LOT of fun to unpack after ten years~ 🌅

Multiplayer: Tabletop Simulator / Cardé - I made a board game when I was twelve years old that's essentially "extreme chutes and ladders," a race around the board trying to get chain reactions of movement. This would be a hybrid of reminiscing and multiplayer, since I would get to recreate it in Tabletop Simulator... and subject my friends to it! 🎲

Multiplayer: Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed - Transformed is genuinely one of my favorite kart racers of all time, right next to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I've been dying to play it with friends for a while now – it would make for an excellent birthday party game! I'd have to check in on who owns it and wants to play, but otherwise, it'd be the easiest to set up. 🏎️

So with all of that out of the way...

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - April 2024

It has come to my attention that the previous SOB was posted too early, oops.

Pip0n's Palace SMP: Coming Soon?

I've recently released a poll on my server to gauge how people would feel about a Minecraft SMP for the server, I wanted to do mine differently to stop it dying after a month. The main idea is, server will open, run for a few weeks and then close. The server could just be for fun or have a common goal, I like the idea of having the last day be an all out war so while people play the game casually they could prepare for the last day in secret. I'm still working on all the details and looking for a server host that fits my needs but this is already gaining some positive comments so a debut season is 100% on the table.

New channel launch!

I'm soon going to be launching a new Youtube channel, this isn't going to be based on mari0 and instead will focus on many other games and in fact, isn't just going to be hosted by myself. More details to come soon, we're going to be filming the first video very shortly and the channel could launch as soon as this month! The first few videos will be very important and we'll need feedback to see what to change and what to keep going forward.

I'm Adulting!

I've just started driving lessons, and it took long enough really, but it is very crucial to me considering how much I rely on getting around. This will cut down my already really short weekend much shorter. But it will be well worth it at the end.

It won't be long until I start looking at moving into my own place, for now however this is taking priority.

A Serious Note.

On a more serious note, I wanted to talk regarding my output for mari0, it's been nothing, I'm finding it really hard to work on the game right now both regarding my general free time and general vibes around the game.

The game just takes up so much time, it requires a lot of creative energy, and all that for less than 100 downloads in a month, I'm not a numbers guy but it's hard to ignore how low that is. I'm going to prioritise my own enjoyment temporarily and put most mari0 projects on hold, videos are still ongoing as that's less to do with creating in the game which is my biggest deterrent.

This isn't permanent (Hopefully) but I'm sure I'll have more to say given time.

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - April 2079

Good Morning entities, it's time for more SOBing! (For legal security I must confirm that this is satire as per the /s riot of 2045)

Pip0n's Palace Season 6 has begun!

After the death of mute.io we have moved to the newest platform Y by Elon musk. Just like our move from Discord to Guilded 55 years ago all activity will go live in 3 days, please give me and our admins time to adapt to the new environment.

Williamfrog's Birthday coming soon!

Just like every year we have to celebrate his birthday as our supreme overlord, just be mindful to not eat ANY FRUIT during the day or you will be shot dead on the spot. We love your lord.

Mari0 AE V14 releases in 2 YEARS!

It's so close to being in our hands but AI-lsan99 (His AI replacement after the fatal "Users with numbers in their name's burst into flames" incident of 2067) has just annouced the release in 2081! The features planned include:

Power-Up Mushroom Dispenser

Warp Pipe Network

Coin Block Generator

Mini-Boss Generator

As an AI language model I can not discuss the existence of balloon goomba as it can be deemed offensive to some species.

My robot arm now has crowd control!

Thanks to my good friend Lexi you can now spend all your bitcoin to move my arm and use all it's abilities, just please do not buy the self destruct one again, I felt like I was involved in the "Users with numbers in their name's burst into flames" incident of 2067.

Anyway that is all, see you all at the Mars annual furry convention.

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - March 2024

I took a month off but we are SOBack!... get it? because State Of Bri-

Britdan+ is being retired, kind of...

I loved working on bonus videos for the channel and having it be more than it was but I want to put all my effort into the channel that actually has a path to grow, so Britdan+ will now return to it's former state, being just a channel to throw my less editing, less important videos on.

Major Mari0 project(s) in the works?

Yes, there are two. Both these projects still have ages on the clock and will take some time but both will be worth it, I'm hoping to have one revealed by JUNE! I can't say much about either but lets just say one spans multiple maps and one spans multiple creators.

AidanBot's final day is on the horizon.

I've mentioned this already about 2 months ago but AidanBot will be turning off soon and I have the date. May 1st, this will be the day after my discord server's 3rd anniversary! It'll be a sad day but also a good one, poor AidanBot has been running on the most god awful code, he is living in pain... After this who knows, I may bring him back with a new purpose but it will be under a new infrastructure... his code is le bad.

[britdan]

Announcing my biggest stream yet:

SUPER SCUFFED 64

A Super Mario 64 (16 Star) tournament between the world's most average, unpracticed players

Sunday, Feb. 4 @ 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - January 2024

New Year, new... year??? SOB!

New Year Goals

I mentioned this in my last post but here are my major goals for 2024: - 12-18 Main Channel Videos - At least 6 streams (throughout the year) - Figure out what short content I want to make - Partake in 2 gamejams - Make one non gamejam game - Make at least 2 multi-world mari0 mappacks - Reach 1,000 subscribers on youtube

It's time to stop! (Too many showcase videos)

After the enormous number of videos of me showcasing mine/others mappacks I decided it's time to take a chill pill, so to start off the new year I'm doing a video I've had on my list since the beginning... Have you ever wondered what you could make if you couldn't erase anything? Well you'll see how I cope when I take it on later this year and lets just say i'm not exactly one to not make misrakes.

I'm now open to collabs!

One of my goals this year is to collab more with others, like how earlier last year I did some voice acting for my good friend Kiyan.

Of course I'm going to be picky on what I want to help with but I'm down to do some so if you are interested at all drop me a message on discord (username: britdan) and we'll see what I can do. Just keep in mind I've still got a lot to do myself so I can be a bit slow.

[britdan]

Britdan's 2023 Recap

It's been one of the years of all time! It's been a first for a lot of things, first year making monthly uploads for my YouTube, first year streaming and first year I took a step back from mari0. But I still have a lot of juicy info to share so lets get into it!

YouTube Recap + Plans

almost 100% more views than 2022 and 250% more watch time than 2022. Plus an overall gain in subscribers despite the substantial amount of unsubs from people moving on. 18 Videos came out this year and I plan to match that for 2024, 4 streams but none in the second half of the year so for next year I want to make at least 6 and throughout the year.

And above all, I want to hit 1,000 subs, it'll take a lot of time and I might not even reach it but If I can it'll be great!

Mari0 Recap + Plans

Despite not doing much in mari0 this year I did release 2 mappacks with an overall 290 downloads from new content, it's not really a fair test as one was a 1 level mappack for a video and one released a month ago.

In 2024 I want to come back to mari0 with a vengence, I plan to make at least 2 multi world mappacks with 3 being the target! As well as a massive project on top of that I plan to announce in March/April.

Gamedev Recap + Plans

This year I partook in the love2d gamejam for the 2nd year and got 17th place, I'm very proud of this given how little time I had to work on it. But this year I did not make any other games which is upsetting but I've had more on my mind.

Next Year I will 100% be taking part in the love2d gamejam again but I also want to take part in another, as well as that I will be making a regular game, I haven't got any ideas yet but I've had a list that i've jotted ideas on throughout 2023.

Misc Plans

On top of all of this I want to do a few more things in 2024: - I want to collab more, maybe on a video or stream. - I want to learn how to make retro music for my games and mappacks.

Sucking Up

To end off I just wanted to thank everyone for another fantastic year, It's been so long since I've had a year without major drama and I'm so glad I got one. You all are the reason I'm still making mappacks for this game 6 years on and even if I know It wont be forever I know for a fact in 2024 I don't want to stop. Enjoy your new years and I'll see you all in 2024, Chears! - Aidan (Britdan)

[britdan]

You know how some people have DNI for people they don't want on their page? I think mine would be for people who call mari0 mappacks "Mods", there is a special place in hell for you... /j

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - December 2023

The last SOB of 2023, and a lot is happening.

City In Shadows has released!

My latest mappack "City In Shadows" has released, you can download it here! Feedback so far has been really positive and fellow youtuber Darby from Blue Television Games has already played it, if you wanna watch that first to see if it's worth playing then here ya go!

Name Change

The first phase of my name change has been actioned, everything has been changed to say britdan asside from my name which still has Aidan in it. This will be dissapearing on the 1st of January!

Pip0n's Palace Remodal Date

I've been finalising the changes to Pip0n's Palace and it's almost ready to go live, the change will be happening on the 26th December, I chose this because it's when the server will be least active but I wanted to keep it open on Christmas. Most things will be staying the same but there will be some new changes and channels and a reshuffle in rules and structure. It'll be a masive change but I'm hoping you will all not tottaly hate it, I know it'll take time to get used to but I promise it'll be worth it. Later today I'll be sharing my progress so far and asking for one last round of feedback.

January Break

Traditionaly I have a break every few months but I've been too busy to do that since... July, so from the 1st - 7th of January I'll be taking a break from social media. This'll be the same as usual where I'll say I'll not be active but still come on every day. But It really does help.

[britdan]

I should be finishing my mappack rn

[britdan]

My 2024 Commitments

In 2024 I want to do so much and to hold myself accountable I've decided to share my commitments for 2024, by the same time next year I hope to achieve most but hopefully all of these things!

Make 2 full multi-world mappacks

I was very light on mappacks this year due to work and my channel and so many other things, so next year I want to release 2 full mappacks.

Partake in 2 game jams

I usually just partake in the love game jam but this year I want to do another, whether it's using love2d or maybe Python or Godot, I don't know yet.

Make a non gamejam game and release it

I want to make a small scale non gamejam game, I was so sad I didn't get to in 2023 so this is going to be the year! I don't want to make something large, maybe on the same scale as seismic shakeup or reverse polarity but without the time crunch.

Reach 1000 subscribers

It's very likely to happen in 2024 already but anything to get me to put more effort into the channel

[britdan]

State Of Britdan - November 2023

There is good news and bad news, mostly bad

Spooky Mappack delayed to late November

October has been a busy month, lots has been going on with work, activity nights and well, wonder. So I've had less time to work on the mappack, I could have rushed it out for October but I decided delaying for a month would give me time to make something good. Planned date is the 26th but I'm not going to confirm or deny.

Pip0n's Palace remodel planned for start of 2024

My server has never really found its footing and its topics have changed a lot over the last 2 years, so plans have started for a full scale remodel of how the server runs and its features, long story short the server will switch to focusing on my projects and videos.

Streaming moving to Twitch

I loved streaming on YouTube but my plan was never to stick to it, so for the next few streams starting in December I'll be hosting my streams there, just to see which I prefer. Since Twitch now allows streams to happen on multiple platforms I may end up using both but it's early days.