June 2020 Newsletter (Patreon)

Hi Patrons! Thanks so much for your support again! The support I get on Patron is phenominal. The support level is so high now I can dedicate even more time to bringing you guys things you like. Coming this month you have an updated windows 10 Kadjar City map download as part of the sticky download post. I will be making another schematic download pack - you can comment below what you would like in it (trad houses, modern houses or medieval). What else would you like to see? We will probably finish Kadjar City this month and so that entire city will be yours! 

In this month's Newsletter:

1. Server News

2. Building News (Kadjar City)

3. Push for Partner on Twitch

4. Personal News

5. Youtube Tips

1. Server News

Our server added a Patreon only survival server. Unfortunately we have run into problems with our hosting company running updates across their network. This has meant some downtime in the last few days. We have a few issues with rubber banding lag too. As a result I  am actively looking into hiring a dedicated box. This would let us be the only ones on the network - currently other customers can cause lag on their server and it affects ours. Once I get a dedicated server up and running we should be good.  So, there might be some downtime ahead but the long term result should be a good server experience.

2. Building News (Kadjar City)

Kadjar City (picture below) is fast becoming my best ever project. We have taken a blank, hand-drawn dungeons and dragons map and turned it into an epic city on my twitch livestreams.  The result so far is outstanding. Thanks so much to all the patrons who have been helping me build in it. I am streaming this Wed to Sun at 4pm uk time.  If you have any ideas of how we should build the city then please comment! Also, I am looking for a new D&D map for our next project  - the search starts here! If you find a good one please put it in the photos section of discord.

3. Push for Partner on Twitch

My live streams have been so much fun lately on http://twitch.tv/andyisyoda

We have been building the amazing Kadjar City. You can find the original map below as drawn by @treadwell_360 on twitter. This city has been such fun to build - it has a shopping area, middle class, rich class, poor peoples and even a mystical island with a mystical tower next to a mystical ruin. It is very mystical. This month we will be building the palace, city chambers, military district and mining area.

I am pushing for partner on twitch. If I get partner then there will be many more emotes in the chat for subs and I get a shiny purple tick to be proud of and a much higher revenue share. You can help me become partner by simply watching on twitch. I need a 30 day rolling average of 75 viewers. Currently I have an average of 60 - tantalisingly close! Even if you just open a tab and have it on in the background that will help a lot! 

Sneak Preview of Episode 5:

 4. Personal News 

Well this month I have very little personal news! It is hard to get much done in lockdown! I have been out in the backyard of my apartment cutting down the world's supply of ivy that had been spilling down a wall and creeping across the yard! I have discovered that ivy is a very aggressive plant that sends shoots in all directions! It can get bad in minecraft but real life vines are ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :O :(

before and after

5. Youtube Tips

Quite a few of my patrons are aspiring YouTubers. Here are some tips!

Thumbnails and Titles are still the most important thing to get right.

An hour of time spent perfecting a thumbnail is time well spent. If you spend an hour on meta tags you just wasted 59 minutes. Tags can help with long term searches but the main traction a video gains will come from the initial clicks. Thumbnails that do well feature large faces (not something everyone is comfortable with), emotion, bright colour (especially yellow) and very little (if any) text.  Most of your viewers will be on mobile so text is hard to read as it will appear very small.  Keep thumbnails simple and make sure they reflect the topic of your video.  Titles should be consistent across your channel so your audience can get used to them. You can separate parts of a title with - or {  or { or |   for example:

 Minecraft Kingdoms Season 4 - Kadjar City [#04 - Poor District] 

Hope this helps!!

Thanks again to all Patrons - without you I could not bring you the content in the amount and format I do. I am super stoked to continue the Kadjar City project and once it is finished move onto an even bigger build!!

Andy.