The big GMTK update post (Patreon)

Hello everybody. Hope you’re doing well.

So it’s been four months since I dropped this update video on y’all. In it, I talked about feeling burned out by GMTK, and my plans to fix that. Namely: continuing my interview series On the Level, documenting the process of making a game, and creating a podcast series for Design Icons.

So, I wanted to check in, let you know what’s been happening, and tell you what’s next! This is a bit long, so I’ll chuck a TL;DR at the bottom.

On the Level

First up, On the Level. This is a series where I play great video game levels, alongside the designers who created them - and we chat about how the levels were made. I’ve done episodes on The Last of Us, Ori, Dishonored, and It Takes Two.

Now, I think these videos are pretty cool because it’s information directly from the designer’s mouth. And the format is quite unique - a mix of let’s play, interview, and video essay.

Sadly, this series is proving really hard to get traction on YouTube. The three episodes I’ve done in 2021 have had the slowest growth of my videos this year, as seen in this chart which shows how many views a video has had in its first two weeks of life. OTL episodes are in red.�

Now, I have a hunch why this is. Interviews can be a tough thing to get people to watch, especially compared to the tightly edited, heavily scripted, laser-focused scripts of normal GMTK videos. So I’m assuming that people just get a bit bored of the videos, and click off. That’s a signal for the YouTube algorithm that people aren’t into this video, so YouTube doesn’t recommend it any further.

I tested this, by looking at the engagement stats for the same set of 12 videos. How many people were still watching these videos after 30 seconds? 3 minutes? 10 minutes?

Well! That’s pretty telling. There’s a pretty dang strong correlation between a video’s engagement and its ability to rake in views.

Now, this is a little sad because I spend so much time making these videos more engaging and better paced. I take a 1 to 2 hour conversation and reduce it to about 20 minutes by removing fluff, repetition, and “uhm”s and “ah”s. I reorder the conversation to build a better narrative, and re-record my questions to make the whole thing flow better.

But! At the end of the day, people will watch what they want to watch. And people are clearly signalling to me that these videos just aren’t as interesting as my normal content.

Now, as I always say, the numbers don’t drive what content I make - I make what I think will be interesting, useful, or important . But they do help me decide where to prioritise my time and how to package or format the content.

So, I’ll put On the Level on break for a bit and rethink it.

I could perhaps do a different format - for example, the Hitman 2 episode did indeed involve me interviewing the designers, but I used the interview clips sparingly and the video was mostly just me talking. That one’s fared a bit better, engagement and views-wise. (In fact, as I write this, I realised that the video's received over 1 million views! Wow!)

So perhaps I should ditch the “let’s play” aspect? Or edit it down even more? Not sure - we’ll see!

Design Icons Podcast

Okay, so this was an idea to reboot the beleaguered Design Icons series as a narrative podcast. This can be a very quick update, because I haven’t started this. At all.

It might have been one of those ideas that sounded really fun and exciting in the moment, but I lost interest over time. Or it might just be that I’ve been busy with the thing I’ll be talking about next.

Either way, this is still just something bouncing around in the back of my brain. I’ll maybe revisit it when I’ve finished with…

Developing

Aha! Now this is the real deal. So Developing is my series where I make my first (proper) video game, and document the process as I go. It’s a very different series for me, because it’s not about analysing existing games, and because I’m on camera for the first time.

And… it has been going so well! Unbelievably well! My metrics for what makes a good project are 1) I enjoy the process of making it, followed (a little distantly) by 2) people enjoy consuming it. And Developing has absolutely smashed it on both counts.

So, it turns out that I absolutely love game development. It’s just a million creative decisions all the time, and it’s such a joy to put into practice everything I’ve been learning these last seven years. I get so much enjoyment out of working on the game in Unity - and when I’m not working on it, I can’t stop thinking about the game! I’ve got it bad, y’all. So that’s metric one ticked.

Now, as you’ve seen above, my little passion projects and spin-offs (like On the Level and Design Icons) don’t always translate into YouTube success. But, so far, Developing has bucked that trend. The first two episodes, on learning Unity and building prototypes, have exceeded expectations and are completely comparable to normal GMTK videos in terms of views. Metric two, ticked.

I’m really proud of this because I’ve been working so hard to make Developing successful. I decided early on that the series wouldn’t just be a typical dev log / dev diary of “here’s what I coded this month”. Instead, it should be a story, with a proper narrative arc. It should provide general advice about creative work. And it should show the real icky ins-and-outs of the development process - with no hiding my mistakes (and solutions).

Also, the feedback has been incredible. I’ve had so many emails, DMs, and comments saying how Developing has inspired people to make games themselves. And I’ve had so many professional designers reach out with offers of support, help, or just well wishes. It’s bonkers.

I’m also very proud of the game! It’s funny - I’m not sure what’s most important, I make a good video series or I make a good game. But the game is going very well.

You’ll have to trust me though: Developing, as a YouTube series, has quite a big lag behind the actual development of the game. In the next episode (releasing late this week or early next), I’m talking about what I did way back in September - so the actual game is much further along.

In fact, I want to give you a Patreon-exclusive sneak peek of what the game looks like as of November 16th. Here’s a level from the game with much more polished art assets and everything. I hope you’ll agree that it’s looking more and more like a real video game!

The only downside of Developing is that it takes a lot of time to make a game. So that is slowing me down. But I think it’s worth it. This is some of the best content I’ve ever made, I’m having an absolute blast doing it, and I’m 100% sure that this whole process will make me better at analysing games when I get back to GMTK.

It is wins all round, and as long as you’re okay supporting me while I work on this, we’ll be golden.

GMTK Burn out

So, in the original update video I explained that there are two aspects to my YouTube channel that keep it so engaging and enjoyable for me. One is learning (both video editing and game design) and the other is challenge (getting lots of views, subscribers). When I hit a million subscribers in late 2020, I felt like the challenge had gone. And the more I thought about it, I realised I wasn’t learning as much anymore, either about editing or game design.

So, have I fixed this? Emphatically: yes. And it’s 100% down to Developing.

I now have new challenges. I care about how these videos are doing because I know, from experience, how hard it is to get a new spin-off series to find success. So I’m having to work really hard to win people over, through my editing, my story-telling, and the quality of my game. It’s so satisfying when it works.

I also have a challenge to make a good video game! I’m not quite sure what targets I’ll set for that. I still don’t know if this thing will be a freebie on itch.io or be on sale on Steam. But I do have my own personal targets for the game’s quality, and its hitting them!

And in terms of learning - oh my god, it’s endless. On the one hand, I’m learning how to make videos where I’m on camera. I’ve learned so much about how cameras work, and about how to present without following a set script, and how to edit conversational footage. And on the other hand, I’m learning incredible amounts about game development. From specific things in Unity, to more abstract lessons about creativity and design. I have so much more to learn and I’m really excited.

Oh, and I guess there was actually a third aspect to job satisfaction that I maybe missed before, and that’s being proud of what I make. And I suppose that had dipped a bit too. It’s not like the videos got worse or anything, it’s just that I had gotten use to my own ability to make videos. I was no longer impressed or surprised by what I produced. I’ve made 100 episodes of GMTK, after all!

But with Developing, I get to feel immensely proud of the new video format. And proud of this game - because I genuinely didn’t know I could do it! Every new level, every new thing I code, every new sprite I draw gives me a fresh sense of “oh wow, I guess I can actually do this!”. And that feeling is potent.

And so, the short of it is that right now, I’m feeling like I did in the early years of GMTK. When I was at my most excited, engaged, and enthused about the channel. And that’s because I’m back to being challenged, back to learning, and back to feeling proud!

All in all, I think we can say that this was a success.

And a success for speaking out, I suppose. I was nervous to talk about my burn out. Part of me didn’t want people to know I was a bit bored of GMTK - why would you (financially) support a creator who wasn’t passionate about the stuff they were making? Maybe I should just keep quiet and hope no one notices?

But, of course, that’s not the right move. It was so much better to say “I have a problem with GMTK”, suggest some solutions, and try them. And, to my great delight, one has worked. That’s better for me and better for you.

Other videos

Like I said before, the only downside of this is that Developing doesn’t leave me much time for other videos…

Though, I am proud of how I was able to make the Metroid Dread video in the midst of it all. That video required a lot of work and analysis, and multiple playthroughs of the game, and I was able to release it just 20 days after the game was released.

Plus, it did give me a chance to take a break from developing the game, which is important. I know full well how I can get completely stuck into a new creative project and burn myself out fast by working every waking second. And so having to force myself to put Unity down for two weeks while I worked on Boss Keys was definitely a good thing.

As such, I’ll definitely still be doing other types of videos during this process. Besides, I feel excited to return to normal GMTK videos now, and that sense of boredom has gone. It’s almost like taking breaks from creative projects is a good thing! Who’d have thunk it! Someone tell the games industry!

And this is good timing, because December is when I do some annually recurring videos. There’s my “most innovative game of the year” series, which I’ve done every year since 2015. I’m not missing that! And we’ll see about a new instalment of my “how accessible were this year’s games?” series. I'm a bit behind on new releases, but that's always a fun video. No promises but I'll try.

So, anyway. I want to say a massive thank you for sticking with me during all this. I hope you're enjoying the new content! 

I plan to do some Patreon-exclusive content soon to reward you. I apologise that that stuff has also slowed down a bit because of Developing. If there’s any specific content you’d like to see, let me know. 

For now, though, I’ve got to get to work on episode three of Developing! See you soon.

TL;DR - On the Level is going on hiatus for a while and I haven’t started the Design Icons podcast. However, Developing has been going incredibly well and has single-handedly cured my GMTK burn out. Episode three is coming very soon, and then I’m working on at least one of December’s annual videos.