Pixel Eyes Productions are the creators of the well known Shelf Life machinima, using the Source engine. Recently, they’ve gone through some of the same issues we had in terms of trying to monetize their (hour intensive) hobby, and came up with similar results. We just assumed not talk about the problems we had, but it seems they have done so. This includes their issues with trying to become YouTube sponsors, where they were denied, just like us, since they don’t own the rights to the Source machinima they produced. Naturally, Valve owns those.

More interestingly than the YouTube dilemma, though, was that they (like us) pursued the securing of these rights from Valve, via a commercial machinima license of some kind. And, they have posted the official response. Which, just as we insisted all those many months ago, was simply that Valve is not interested in machinima.

If you don’t feel like clicking on the link, here’s the short of Valve’s response.

We are not interested in licensing our technology or IP for machinima. This includes providing copyright approvals.

I have to say, I really feel for Pixel Eyes, having been in their shoes just last year. If you are a young filmmaker trying to use Valve’s excellent Source tools, they have essentially shut the door with statements just like that. While I don’t blame Valve for trying to protect their property in the slightest, it certainly is a shame to see them take such a hard line stance when it comes to something their community produces so readily and in many cases excellently.

To me, it’s stances like these that will keep machinima in kind of a stale flux for many years to come. What you are starting to see is that the more talented individuals get snatched out of making machinima and onto other things, because machinima runs into more dead ends than it does opportunities. While it’s a nice low-budget way to practice something you love doing, making money off of it is often times the exception and not the rule. And this extends beyond machinima even, to any kind of derivative content.

My advice for any hobbyists out there that like to dabble in machinima or other forms of derivative content (fan fiction, stories based on popular games or movies, comic strips that do the same, etc) is that if you want to do this stuff for a living, don’t spend all your time on something you don’t own. By all means, practice your craft with machinima and use it to gain a fanbase, but let that be only a supplement to a project that you own completely, and let that be where you sink most of your time into.

Trust me, in the long run, it’ll be worth it. You don’t want to spend years of your life working on something only to be told that it doesn’t really belong to you in the end. Sure, you gained lots of experience and you had fun doing what you loved, but if you can do all that and then use it to pay the bills, it’s a double bonus. And believe me, if you’re good, somebody somewhere will want to pay for what it is that you’re kicking ass on.

So go out there and make it happen.

Writing has officially begun on Web Zeroes, Season 2. We had an awesome planning session recently and I must say, this season gets meta as all hell. I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully you guys are, too.

In other news, we are considering picking up the podcast-ing again. You guys should submit some topics you’d like to hear us discuss or things you’re curious about in our world of content creation. Maybe we’ll talk about them. Or not. Either way, let us know!

Also, I’m not sure how many of you have seen the Source filmmaker tests that have been leaked from the TF2 beta. From what I hear, it could really change the way Source machinima is done. It eliminates the need for actors and renders some pretty cool effects in real-time. That sure would have been helpful a few years ago, Valve, but maybe it’ll see the light of day at some point. I doubt it, but folks can dream, can’t they? Anyway, here’s a cool Team Fortress 2 test I saw the other day:

Season 2 will be the last season of The Leet World.

I know this comes as a shock to a few of you, but there are quite a few good reasons that the show we all know and love will draw to a close over the next few months. And amidst all of that, there is even some good news that I think you can all be extremely excited about, but more on that later.

We started working on The Leet World back in May of 2007. To be honest, we thought we would only ever make a couple of episodes of it and then we’d give up on the thing altogether. We’ve been called a lot of things over the course of our lives, and motivated typically wasn’t one of them. But then something really awesome and shocking happened — people wanted more of it.

So around Episode 3 or 4 of the first season, we mapped out where we wanted the show to go. Over the course of a few weeks, we brainstormed, hashed some things out, and then came up with a really exciting story that would cover three full seasons worth of episodes. From that point on, we have been committed to that idea for the entire show.

So why is Season 2 the last, then? Read on for the text wall explanation, as well as a really awesome announcement.

There are two main reasons for this (and a few smaller ones), and both of them kind of tie together, so bear with me. Many of you are aware that we just do this as a part-time hobby. In reality, it can be called a part-time job. We work about 15-20 hours a week on The Leet World in addition to our 40 hour-a-week jobs. We’ve now given the last 2 years of our lives to this show.

The thing about machinima is that it can’t be sold. We can’t charge anybody for DVD’s, or any other merchandise that has the characters on it, because they belong to Valve, makers of Counter-Strike: Source. In fact, we can’t even really capitalize on our Web site traffic or our YouTube subscribers because of this.

I know that many of you have kindly suggested that we just ask Valve, but this is a complicated process that goes beyond just sending a friendly e-mail. While I can’t go into the details of this claim, the fact of the matter is that Valve is not interested in commercial machinima at all. To put it simply, we will never make a dime on The Leet World, ever.

That being said, money isn’t the reason we’re ending the show. While it was always a cool dream to make a living doing something that we loved, it was never the priority. But in the real world, as much as it sucks, you’ve got pay the bills.

This brings us to the second reason. All three of us have made some pretty hefty sacrifices financially, socially, etc, in order to keep this show going as long as it has. Daniel in particular has put some really promising career opportunities on hold in order to wait and see what the developments would be for Smooth Few Films. After all, if you can make a living doing something awesome with your friends, wouldn’t you wait and see how it worked out?

However, in recent months, Daniel has started to make plans to pursue some of his career options that lie elsewhere, especially after the recent confirmation that TLW could never net us any income. This means he’s going to be moving to another city later this year, where he can no longer participate in The Leet World. And if that’s the case, Nick and I would rather wrap it up than continue on without him. We fully support him in this. It makes no sense for him to continue putting his life on hold for a show that can’t support us, as fun as it is to make.

The three of us got into this thing together, and we want to end it that way, too. I know that some of you will want to volunteer to step in, but this isn’t a matter of manpower or having enough people to continue. As our director and friend, Daniel is irreplaceable. We’ve been best friends for years, and truthfully, I wouldn’t be able to stand to work with anybody else as much as Daniel and Nick over the course of each week. And if one of us has to go and do what’s best for him, we don’t want to make the show without him. It really is as simple as that.

So… what’s the good news?

The good news is that even though the series is ending with Season 2, we are committed to finish what we started. We love these characters and this story too much to simply let it fizzle out like damn near every other machinima on the Internet. After all, we had 3 seasons we wanted to make.

That’s why, after Season 2 is over, TLW: The Movie will release this Winter, and wrap up the story and the show. It will pretty much be a condensed version of what Season 3 would have been, put into an epic action packed conclusion. And believe me, from the stuff we’re already planning for this thing — it is going to have face melting potential. It essentially gets to the good stuff without all the fluff that an episodic show is bound to have. We plan on having a lot of fun with it, and pushing Counter-Strike:Source as far as we can.

I know that some of you are going to be bummed by this news. Hell, some of you might even be angry, and I suppose that’s kind of understandable. But really, there’s nothing in particular that you can blame for the end of TLW. It’s nobody’s “fault”. These things just happen, and a fact of life is that good things don’t always last forever.

Besides, it’s just better that we end it on our terms, rather than because we got burned out or sick of making the show in a year or so. The Leet World really is a labor of love, and I for one would like to send it out with a blaze of glory while we still love making it, rather than just abruptly ending it in a half-assed way somewhere down the line.

Beyond that, Nick and I will continue to do smaller productions (including TLW shorts), so this isn’t an end to SFF as we know it, or even your favorite characters… well, the ones that make it, anyway. You’ve still got half a season and an awesome movie left, so enjoy it while it lasts, and be glad that you got to be a part of it while it was still around.

We really appreciate all you fans. Thanks for (hopefully) taking the time to read this, and feel free to leave a comment. Episode 8 should be out early next week.

Just to prevent any unnecessary craziness, all comments will have to be approved to go up on the site.

Introducing: The Leet World Store, where you can get your first ever TLW shirts!

Right now the selection is pretty limited, but this is just a trial run. Currently, the only colors we can offer are red, white, military green, brown and charcoal for the guys, blue, pink and yellow for the ladies. I’m partial to the green and brown, myself.

It should be noted that since we’re going through Cafepress (for now), any issues you have with ordering, delivery, etc, should be taken up with them.

A quick note about the price/selection of the shirts… Our available merch is going to be limited at first until we get an idea of the demand. If it turns out that there is a big enough demand for these shirts, we should be able to offer a wider selection of shirts (catch phrases, etc) and have more flexibility on pricing. At the moment, we are limited as to what kinds of products we can offer and the pricing points we can set. This is step one in a several step process. Happy browsing!

In other news, Jace is hard at work on the Season One soundtrack, and what I’ve heard is exceptional. In addition, the first episode commentary should be up within a couple of days.

Screenshots are below.

Video game news from the webz: LitFuse Films releases their new short, Valve shows off Left 4 Dead, the April Fools “Lego Halo” game, Team Fortress 2 is updated, and the coolest website ever- a list of the top 100 NES games- click on one and you can play it in your browser!

We try to deliver when we say that there are going to be some nice extras, so I bring a gift: a trailer for Episode Ten of The Leet World. Work on the episode is going well, with the bulk of shooting now complete. It should be out at some point next week, barring some calamity of the heavens. Which, if you’ve been around our “studio”, can (and frequently does) happen. In the meantime, there will be plenty of treats for you guys between now and then- our new short is on its way rather soon.

In addition, here’s some gaming news from the week: Is BioWare making a new KOTOR game, Zero Punctuation assembles some SimCity stuff, Pandemic supposedly making a Battlefield/LOTR style game, a ridiculous MGS 3 video, and a huge TF2 Valentine from Valve.

City 7: Toronto Conflict