28th May 2013: Design Part 1

I get a horrible sinking feeling every time I see this. Literally, it happens every day.

The end is nigh. I kind of like the current channel layout but I really want to get the best out of the new layout regardless of if I like it or not... no point in complaining.

I've started work on a new design today that I'll just be able to fit straight onto my channel once the update is forced, it won't share many similarities to the previous design, I'm going for something fresh! I have a friend helping me with the visual elements and I've enrolled onto 'YouTube Creator Academy' (this makes me feel important) in the hope to learn more about new features YouTube has to offer!

27th May 2013: Format

Despite the length of time I've been Let's Playing, I still don't have a working format, so here's the plan:

We focus on two or three Let's Plays at a time.

Let's Play 1 and 2: Alternate between, 1 being priority and 2 being a second priority or a filler
Let's Play 3: For completion, or to be used as filler if 2 is not being used as one, otherwise left empty

Once Let's Play 1 or 2 is finished, it is replaced or swapped (depending on if it requires additional parts for completion purposes) by Let's Play 3 or a new Let's Play. A filler is not entirely necessary.

So our first line-up will look like this:

Let's Play 1 and 2: Tomb Raider III (priority, weekly, early week) and Kingdom Hearts (late week filler)
Let's Play 3: Silent Hill (for completion, background work)

Resident Evil Outbreak and Hitman: Blood Money are now in queue to replace Let's Play 1, and 2.

I would like to finally finish Resident Evil 2 before starting this new format so I'll do that this week and then begin the new format next week, of course this means more delays sadly, but hopefully there will be no more after this. As for Tomb Raider Legend, I've decided to cancel the last part because it seems to be more trouble than it's worth, I'll announce this all properly later this week with more details.

I apologize but there will be no more new Let's Plays until a slot becomes available, this means I definitely won't get around to doing all the Let's Plays I promised to do this year but I'll try to focus on the more desired ones.

I won't make any further posts on this, I will however use this format in future and display what my current focuses are on my channel and upload schedule like usual along with passing out the occasional detail on my social networking site pages, make sure to keep an eye on them all! Thanks for reading.

26th April 2013: Optimisation Part 3

In the previous post I identified three problems, and a potential solution and drawback for each. In the next couple of posts I'll be running over any processes I went through to producing the solution, and then measuring it's success.

Creating thumbnails (reminder)
Problem: Acquiring a screenshot for each individual parts thumbnail is incredibly time consuming
Solution: Have the same thumbnail for every part in a series
Drawback: Thumbnails won't be visual pinpoints of where abouts in the game the part takes place

I approached this by looking at a few different thumbnail designs by top Let's Players and from that, came up with a basis for my own. Here are some notes I made:

As a thumbnail, everything should be visible from a small size.
In the top left I'll have the game title, it'll vary from series to series of course. In the bottom left the part of the series will be displayed, numbers should be adjustable from image to image.
On the right, the games main character(s).
The background I will try and make as exciting as possible but it should not distract from the foreground... so a fairly simple design overall.

Using this method has resulted in thumbnails that look clearer, are more consistent, and are far far more professional than I had hoped for (I'd not done much image editing prior to this), it's also dramatically cut down on the time it takes to produce thumbnails as it'd take me approximately 20 to 40 minutes per each thumbnail with the previous method, and I've managed to have every thumbnail across all my videos done in pretty much 15 to 20 hours with this new method. The originally identified drawback is HUGELY outweighed by the advantages, enough said, next problem!

25th April 2013: Livestreaming Part 2

My previous post in regards to livestreaming sprung a few questions about using different clients or sites, I can confirm that I've already experimented with a variety of both in the past and was not quite as content with what I found in comparison to my short experience with YouTube! I feel it'd also be beneficial to stick to YouTube so I can keep everything in one place... as for the faults that YouTube carries with it's livestreaming system, I have noted them and consider them to be somewhat minor but hopefully they'll be fixed by the time I actually start to make use of it!

Watch this space for more updates on livestreaming, I certainly hope to start before this year is out at the very least and am slowly developing some very exciting plans! :D

24th April 2013: Sickness

It's not hard to identify that I get ill quite a bloody lot and of course it's a problem when it comes to Let's Playing because it brings everything to a halt. Now why does this happen? Well, most of the time whatever I come down with will effect my voice in some manner or form so recording is a no go, as for editing previously recorded stuff, I simply don't have the attention span for it in an ill state thus refuse to do any in fear that the result may be regrettable later.

So what can be done about this? Well, nothing sorry, aside perhaps take more vitamins and see the doctor more regularly. I do spend a lot of time moping around the concept that I'm unable to do Let's Playing when I could well be working on improving something related to it... so I just need to keep that in mind for whenever I do fall ill again?

12th April 2013: Livestreaming Part 1

The possibility of livestreaming through YouTube raised a number of months back and I've only just got around to looking into it. Before making anything official I've decided to run various tests and everything seems to be fine apart from one fatal flaw... it seems the client used to livestream is beyond the size of my laptops full resolution and the window is impossible to resize, scroll, or drag in a manner of which I'd be able to reach important features off-screen. I guess this is a feature to reconsider once I've acquired a new laptop.

11th April 2013: Optimisation Part 2

Following up yesterdays post, here are some measures I can take to optimise time spent on YouTube:

Creating thumbnails
Problem: Acquiring a screenshot for each individual parts thumbnail is incredibly time consuming
Solution: Have the same thumbnail for every part in a series
Drawback: Thumbnails won't be visual pinpoints of where abouts in the game the part takes place

Replying to comments
Problem: Responding to all comments and messages is becoming inhumanely possible
Solution: Read all comments, respond to most
Drawback: Won't be interacting with audience as much

Tagging videos, metadata
Problem: Inputting metadata for each video is labouring, often don't bother at all
Solution: Create a sheet of key words for each series that can possibly be modified for each video
Drawback: Possibly less unique metadata per video

Other things around video production shall have to wait, new opportunities with arise around that area once I've got my mits on a new laptop.

Okay so next up is actually trialling these ideas and then weighing their worth over previous methods, I've already began work on that since this is a process that's been in the works for as I said, the past couple of weeks.