As some of you are aware, I've decided to make a Youtube channel. Though I was going to make it purely promotional material for my games, over time I've grown to appreciate it as its own productive outlet.
In this post, I hope to divulge some tips and tricks to aid you in running your own Youtube channel alongside your other creative pursuits.
The most obvious of these tips is to make your Youtube channel about something you're very passionate about. I believe that under normal circumstances you can get away with making a Youtube channel on something that you don't really care about, at least a hobby project. However, if you're splitting your attention between your channel (which you're not really passionate about) and say game development (which of course you are), you're going to be fighting an up-hill battle.
The easiest way to do this is to simply make your Youtube channel about games and game development if you're making a game. Make your Youtube channel about books and literature if you want to be a writer. I'm sure you get the formula, make your Youtube channel about your main pursuit.
It's possible to do something crazy like make your Youtube channel about Doctor Who instead, but that's significantly more difficult if you're also trying to follow another creative path at the same time. Also, subscribe to my alternate Youtube channel where I post all my Doctor Who videos so they don't clutter my main channel. Eventually you'll even see some collaborative work with Magos, the most wall-crawling Youtuber of the 21st Century.
Another helpful tip might be to direct your Youtube channel's strengths to what you're good at. If you're a great musician, you can play one of your songs as background music to the rest of the video. For example, I'm best at the writing aspect of Youtube rather than the graphical or musical aspects. This is why a lot of my videos on Youtube are effectively narrated essays over stock footage.
One more tip is to make a habit of trying to keep up with a consistent upload schedule. I try to keep my uploads to every 3-4 days. This keeps your channel fresh in your mind, and it keeps you in the mindset of working at it. Somewhat related to this is to try to work on either your game or your Youtube channel at least a little bit each day. Anything is better than nothing, since in my experience doing nothing in a day is a sure-fire way to make sure I waste the week.
My final tip is to make tutorials. People really, really love tutorials. That is all.
However, there is one caveat to creating a Youtube channel alongside other work. It's not going to be easy. Hell, creating a successful Youtube channel on its own isn't easy, and some people simply aren't cut out for this kind of task. If you're not that kind of person, then that's perfectly fine! Focus on your game and play the world to your strengths, rather than what some weirdo on the Internet told you to.
I suspect that very few people choose indie game development because they want an easy life. The people reading this are likely to be the people who have a desire to pursue their creative visions above all else. If you are one of those people, go for it. If you aren't sure if you're one of those people, still go for it. You might be surprised!
Either way, thanks for watching. As usual, stay tuned for more posts on game development, creativity and anything else I feel like posting.
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