# Languished Hesitation – Memory Card #65 👋🏻 Okay. I continued to play *Alan Wake*, beat it and its DLC just a couple days ago. I promise I am not diving into *American Nightmare* or *Quantum Break*...yet. Instead, I have jumped into another game off my goal list for 2025—*Tunic*. This is an extremely Max-coded game and I am *very* into its premise. Of course, I am recording all of this gameplay for any potential future use. Who needs save data when you have 12~ hours of footage? At my usual 4K60, *Alan Wake* was beefy, taking up nearly half a terabyte. I can't sustain these files sizes. So I decided to run a test with Apple's Compressor. I kept the format, bit-depth, frame rate all the same. All I changed was the bit-rate from 80~ Mbit/s to 25Mbit/s. Wouldn't you know it? Cutting the bit rate by two-thirds cuts the file size by two-thirds! ![[251103_Alan Wake File Size Comp_b.jpg]] A part of me feels like I should do this to all my footage and free up space on my 20TB drive. Maybe that can be a bit by bit project... As for *Ragnarök*, this week I am staring down the draft and finishing it. I think it is okay to have a little gaming tangent. *Alan Wake* came at the right time for me. But I can't really let this script languish anymore. I think part of my hesitation is that I think my original perspective is...wrong. Not so wrong that I have to scrap the essay or rewrite the entire thing, but my perspective has to shift. I wanted this to be more general game design talk about how Sony Santa Monica structured *Ragnarök*, but I think I need more of my perspective and experience in it than I anticipated. Maybe this will make for a better video in the end. I want to wrap this draft up this week and poke my head around in my other outline for *Memento* and *The Last of Us Part II*. No ideas from *Alan Wake*...yet. Until next time... > [!email]+ Memory Card Newsletter > This letter is one block from the newsletter **[Memory Card](https://buttondown.com/MaxFrequency)** by [Max Roberts](https://www.maxfrequency.net/about). Thoughts? Send *me* an email at [email protected]. > > Max is the writer and producer behind [Max Frequency](https://www.maxfrequency.net), a place where he cultivates and curates curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings. > > He's written a [[Chasing the Stick - The History of Naughty Dog during the PS4 Era|rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II]], celebrated the [[MFP23 - “A Passion for Smash” – Celebrating 15 Years of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with Peter Spezia|15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype]], and examined how [Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic](https://youtu.be/kc2l_9Fdpek). > > **Memory Card** is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s *how* The Thing™ gets made. You can sign up below. (Look down) > > It's all powered by [Max Frequency](https://www.maxfrequency.net) and [patrons](https://www.patreon.com/maxfrequency). > > Wanna see The Thing™? [Check it out on YouTube](https://youtube.com/MaxRobertsEssays). Read it on [The Blog](https://www.maxfrequency.net). > <iframe scrolling="no" style="width:100%!important;height:220px;border:1px #ccc solid !important" src="https://buttondown.com/MaxFrequency?as_embed=true"></iframe>