Yannick, a long-time member of the team, has decided that he has "out-grown" crash compilations, GP4 videos and so on. As such, he has taken the decision to leave Team Shadica, a decision I have accepted. I've now created a "Former Members" section of the "Members" page, I've edited some references to his projects, and in a short while, at his request, I'll be deleting his blog.

You may have noticed my own apparent dwindling contributions to the team - less compilations and such - since my operation two years ago. However, I set this up first and foremost as a gaming clan, and I am still a gamer. As long as others continue to be interested in the team - and I still am, for the most part - I will keep it running. Our newer members - Joseph Willows, Josh Anderson, Matt Allington - have a few years left before they reach the stage Yannick and I are at, so the team has a while yet before it implodes. But that implosion is now an impending reality, I fear, and as this would be the first of my projects to collapse on a significant scale, the prospect scares me.


Fear not. There's plenty of life in the team yet.


I think.


~F1

There's about four hours left of 2014. Four hours left for me to make my final monthly post of the year. So, what awaits in 2014?

First of all, there's my visual novel Watashi Wa Nemutte Tokei, which I posted the trailer for on my channel on Christmas Day. The writing is almost done, and if all goes well it should be released at some point in 2014. I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully when it is released people will enjoy it as well.

Second, as far as videos go, I'll see if I can transfer Grand Prix 4 onto my laptop and get it running so I can start making more crash videos again. I also bought Grid 2 in the Steam sales, so I can perhaps make some crash videos with that as well. I wanted to do a Let's Play of BioShock Infinite as well, but sadly it won't run on my laptop as it doesn't have the right drivers or something. Matt and everyone else are apparently giving up with Hitler parodies and I might just do the same as well, but we'll see.

I have a few other things on the go as well, as ever. There's the various anime/manga series I'm planning; I hear Yannick is planning a manga as well, which is interesting. In late January/early February I'll be starting the second semester of my first year of university, working on a small video game project in a group among other things. I am excited.

I'm turning 19 in a week. Nearly in my twenties. Man, that's a scary thought. Ryan Nurse, 20 years of age. I'm an adult now. Balancing the running of this clan with a healthy adult life - and my thirty other projects - is gonna be fun, but I'll manage. Shadica have been going for at least five years now, with the last two years seeing rapid expansion and our first public projects. I hope we can continue this expansion in 2014, and continue to impress the world and show them what we're made of.


Let's make this Shadica's best year yet. Bring on 2014!


~F1

Sorry about the lack of activity from me lately. I'll probably remain inactive until the start of 2014 at least, but don't despair! My laptop seems like a more-than-capable gaming machine so once I get GP4 and Fraps installed on it my videos will be better than ever.

In the meantime, however, I've gone through and spruced up the site a little. I've put our three blogs under a separate "Blogs" tab, to save space in the navigation bar. I've also gone through and re-formatted various parts of the site, including centering things like page headers and so on, to make the place look a bit neater and prettier.

On the subject of pretty, check out this thing that I made in PowerPoint:

This is roughly what a Team Shadica 2014 F1 car would look like. Of course the exact appearance is subject to change, depending on what the 2014 cars actually look like, but this is the general idea. There's a couple of new sponsors; Western Digital (they made my wonderful 1TB external hard drive), and Relentless (because why the hell not). I actually make these every year (and have ones going back to '94), but this is the first I've posted here for various reasons.

Might as well add some personal stuff: university is going well, I'm really starting to get the hang of programming in C# and I've learned some pretty useful skills. I've also gotten to grips with the basics of the Unity engine. Who knows, maybe someday I'll create my own racing game for Shadica to dominate...I'm certainly, finally, on my way.

Oh, and the F1 season turned into a real anti-climax, huh? As much as you have to admire Vettel and Red Bull for winning eight in a row, it's bloody boring. The MotoGP championship looked a bit more exciting (20-year-old Marc Marquez winning in his rookie season - and in the final race, not with five to go). I haven't been able to watch any of the last few races (except Abu Dhabi) because my dorm room doesn't have a TV and Sky Go is shit, but hopefully next year I will, and things will be more unpredictable with all the rule changes and stuff. Roll on 2014!

~F1

Things are going fairly well so far. In addition to my new phone, and new laptop (which certainly seems much faster and more capable than my home PC) I also have a 1TB external hard drive for dumping all my crap onto, freeing up my laptop to run even faster. This weekend said crap will be arriving in the form of my home PC's hard drive, and all the precious files stored on it, which my dad will be bringing up with him when my family next visit. Then I can transfer everything from my old PC onto the external hard drive and I'll be back in business.

Let's get the big personal news out of the way first: I'm going to university! My results came through, so on 23rd September I'll be starting a course in Computer Gaming Development at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. I'll be moving there on the 18th, HOWEVER, with this comes the potential bad news: I dunno what kinda computer I'll have when I get there or what it'll have loaded on it, so I may not be able to make any videos for a while (not that I've been making that many lately anyway). I still refuse to draw a line in the sand and say "I'm not making any more videos ever", they'll just be a lot sparser.

Now, you may already have seen the announcement video on YouTube, but there will be a brand-new Team Shadica F1 series made in Grand Prix 4! It's a team effort, Yannick's doing the driving, Matt did the livery (and it's an awesome one:)

...and I came up with the rules, plot details and stuff like that. Me and Yannick will be the drivers, and Matt will also be driving in the series, for Jaguar. From the sounds of things Yannick will be using the hot-seat feature to drive as both him and me (and perhaps Matt as well), rather than just him and have me look inferior in comparison, like in previous series. Josh is insistent on helping out but we're not sure what there is for him to do so his involvement is to be determined.

The Formula One's back this weekend! Here's hoping victory goes to someone who isn't Vettel.

I've also got a new phone! It's a Sony Xperia L, it's a lot faster and more powerful than my old HTC with a LOT more storage space. So that's cool as well.

I'll see if I can get one last GP4CC out before I head off for Cambridge on September 18th. I hope so. See you guys later.

~F1

Yesterday, while playing Gran Turismo 4 I got extremely upset, lost my temper, and threw my controller. No biggie, this has happened before. What hasn't happened before - and will never happen again - is that the controller hit my TV and broke the screen. So yeah, I broke my TV.

My dad won't get me another one until I pay him £50, which I have, but that would be literally all my money gone. So for the time being, no TV, which means no Xbox 360, PS2 or PS3. This is bad. But it's the punishment I deserve and I accept it.

In other news, you may have been wondering what happened to my "game-changer". Well, I haven't had time to work on it, nor my GP4 crash compilations, so I'm thinking of passing the game-changer on to someone else to at least get the framework in place, or perhaps even do it for me. We'll see what happens.

So yeah, no console gaming for a while, no game-changer without outside help, and not much news probably until I start university in September. Sigh.

~F1

UPDATE: Josh Anderson will also be entering the same rFactor championship as Matt, but under the Team Shadica banner! What this means is, for the first time ever (as far as I'm aware) we have someone driving competitively under the Team Shadica banner. Awesome!

My exams will be over in a couple of weeks (I'm honestly bricking it over them), and then I'll have three months all to myself. Hopefully during that time I can finally start making videos again. As for racing, Matt's continuing to churn out awesome liveries, and his rFactor racing league thing will start up again soon, plus he might be joining another one. I recently completed PGR3 after goodness-knows-how-long, and I'll now look to complete Forza 3 and 4.

On that note, let's talk about the Xbox One. I wasn't that bothered about buying the Wii U straight away when that was announced, but with Sonic Lost World and Bayonetta 2 announced, and Super Smash Bros details coming soon, I need one. An Xbox One, however...well, we all know how badly that's been received. And if the games cost £90 each as is rumoured, then I probably won't be getting one anytime soon. Unless Forza 5 turns out to be orgasmically brilliant and an absolute must-have, I don't think I'll be getting one. HOWEVER - I will admit that I can't actually watch TV on my TV right now because the analogue signals got switched off, so that function could come in handy. I think.

Oh, and GRID 2 has been added to the "Games" list since that's been released now. I may re-structure that page into two separate pages to improve the look of it, right now it's just a long list and it'll just get longer over time (although is it me, or are there less and less racing games getting released these days?)

When I get to university in September things may change. We'll see what life throws at me.

~F1

Hopefully this one'll be a little happier than last month's >.>

I have received some upsetting news.

Now, you may not know this, I don't know if I ever talked about him to you guys, but for over eight years our family have owned a dog, a cocker spaniel named Dipstick. He was energetic, playful, but rather scatterbrained. He sometimes got on our nerves but he was a great companion.

Well, this morning my father had to take him to the vets, as he seemed poorly. After running some tests, they found that he had cancer of the spleen. Sadly, due to a mix-up he wasn't insured, and we couldn't afford the fees to pay for any operation that might have made him better. So, at about midday today, he was put down.

Naturally, this is a very sad time for me and my family. So forgive me if I'm not on much for the next few days. I have more important things on my mind.

R.I.P. Dipstick 10/2004-15/03/2013. You really were a man's best friend. Even if I wasn't a man when first we met.

I'm crying now.

As usual, I've been very busy with schoolwork, hence my lack of activity both here and on YouTube. I finally managed to finish my GP4 collaboration with Yannick, though, and that's been uploaded. My next video (which I'll hopefully start work on in March) will be a solo effort, though me and Josh do have an idea for another crossover video.