4-Month Update
Hello fellow gamers and readers!
Have you ever wanted something, but didn’t really know how to say it? That was me until now. The past few months have been interesting in that I’ve had to ask myself: “Where am I trying to get to?” I quit my job in Japan and returned to the United States to look after family while attempting to break into the video game industry, but it wasn’t until now that I realized how vague that goal was. What exactly is breaking into the video game industry?
At first I thought it was just YouTube. I began my YouTube career while in Tokyo, Japan as a creative outlet to make up for my trapped feelings at work. I also believed it would be a great entry point into the industry, and I’m pleased to say my hunch was correct. Thanks to my identity as a YouTuber and my passion for horror, I had the honor of joining a community surrounding Friday The 13th. Within that community I met YouTubers, livestreamers, voice actors, entertainers, news outlets, and developers each with a particular role to play in the development of Friday The 13th The Game. I had no idea how important communities were and how much of an ecosystem they have. Within this ecosystem there are rules, expectations, customs, and an entirely different world from my days studying to be a translator at graduate school.
I’ve only been a part of this gaming scene for four months, and while I’m still learning, I love almost every moment of it. I have seen how a game is developed and the challenges a company faces after launching, I’ve experienced fielding questions from disgruntled customers, I’ve witnessed the marketing strategies between developers and content creators, I’ve seen dozens of strangers gather in a voice chat room to listen to fan fiction surrounding a game, I’ve seen a fan of the game get hired by a game company due to his commitment and love for their upcoming game / product. I have had the privilege to interview a video game executive producer face-to-face and then play with him in the game his company made while being livestreamed to 100 people online.
After experiencing all of this for the past four months I can say that I broke into the industry and have become a part of it. But I had to keep asking myself, “what is my role in this industry and where do I want to go?” “If I walk down a certain path, am I going to be satisfied with it 20 or 30 years from now?” For the past couple of months this has been on my mind. While I kind of knew what I wanted, I couldn’t really put it in words. Three months ago, I used to solely focus on YouTube and I measured my success based on the number of subscribers I had, but now I realize my perspective was off. I was wrong for several reasons because it’s not subscriber numbers that determine success of a video, it’s watch time. Second, and most importantly viewing your subscribers as a number, is kind of rude. Each subscriber is a person with a name, a life and a dream. Long story short, YouTube subscriber numbers is not how I measure success anymore.
What’s Next?
As of now, I hope to take Mad-Eye Games to the point where I can provide marketing and consulting services and eventually make games people love and enjoy. If I could make this a success within 3-5 years, that would be amazing. There are several obstacles in the way. These range from learning game development software, to understanding marketing, mastering SEO, to building a client base, a good reputation, and knowing people in the industry. While I am still learning, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It just means I need to work my butt off, and that’s fine.
I’ve got some goals lined up for myself and hopefully by writing them, it will give me an accountability partner and a track for which I can proceed towards my goals as quickly as possible.
Goals in order to approach my dream of starting a company and making it a success:
- Learn game development software by taking lessons and then expanding upon those lessons by making free games for my subscribers and followers.
- Start a weekly or biweekly podcast
- Improve my video editing and content creation skills by making videos no one else has made on YouTube and separating it through high quality editing and putting a new spin on games old and new.
- Make a community
- Start livestreaming 1x a week and host events with the community
- Learn 3D modeling and coding well enough that I can start selling assets in online stores.
- Get my first client in the Boston area
- Start building my client list and earning a steady income
- Hire Staff
- Mission Accomplished -> Now it’s time to work work work
Wish me luck!
