A Game Developer’s bittersweet experience of being an Animal Crossing Streamer (Part 1 of 3)
Hi there! My name is Timothi Ellim, and I am a video game developer who is currently the acting Creative Director of The Doodle People studio in Singapore. Daily, I work with a diverse team of awesome developers from all walks of life to create interactive experiences that connect generations.
This is a three-part story of my attempt at being an Animal Crossing Streamer during the first month and a half of my work-from-home life due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Every day, I played Animal Crossing for a month live on the internet. Because of that continuous playing and live streaming, I connected to players across the world, and found a community of both lofi music and animal crossing lovers. In the end, the “Lofi beats to play games with by Timothi Ellim” Facebook page reached a following of 2000+ with a total of 1900+ likes. Yet after a month, it all felt bittersweet. Why? Read on!
Part 1 of 3 — New Horizons!
So why did I try to be an Animal Crossing Streamer?
Most of all, I wondered if people could connect to the way I played games.
When I made the decision to become a game developer three years ago, I had a continuous thought about how it would feel like to be a video game streamer. To be live on the internet, video streaming gameplay for hours, while continuously being active enough to hold a viewer’s attention — that felt like a whole new world to me. Video game streaming opened my eyes to an authentic, communal, and totally contemporary way to play games with others across the world. I wanted in. I desired to understand how it felt like to be a video game streamer. Most of all, I wondered if people could connect to the way I played games.
I knew little about how to connect with others across the internet. I considered myself to be somewhat dull when it came to social sharing. What I knew of digital connection came from developing video games. Games are interactive and need players to function. Without players, without external input, a game becomes lifeless, inactive. This is why considering the player is a pivotal element of designing a video game. Who will play our game? What will they want to play? Why would they even want to play? I thought it wouldn’t be too different for streamers. From what I’ve watched on Youtube and Twitch, it seemed like the popular streamers all knew who their audience were, like the audience was their best friend.
To me, the top streamers created an experience that reminded me of my childhood, playing games with great friends on a couch, taking turns, watching, and cheering. Yet, the streamers were comfortable and seemed to continue playing games in the way they’ve always like to play it.
Perhaps I too could find an audience that could connect to the way I played.
Connecting to a digital audience through video streaming
I didn’t even know myself that well. How could I know who I wanted to connect with online? The answer didn’t lie with any customer demographic or psychographic analysis. No, the answer was within me. I had to make something of myself and share that with others.
To get started, I had to find a livestreaming platform and navigate the multiple tools available. With quick searches, here was my list.
For livestreaming platforms, the following felt accessible to me:
- Twitch
- YouTube Live
- Facebook live
- Mixer
And for live streaming tools, I had:
- OBS
- Yeti Microphone
- Elgato video capture card — for the Nintendo Switch
To begin, I choose Twitch to start with and fired up OBS. With about an hour of playing around, referencing both Google searches and Youtube tutorials, the stream worked with the microphone and the Elgato video capture card. I was nervous and I decided to jump right in.
How would people react to me playing?
Turns out that I didn’t need to worry, because there wasn’t anyone watching!
A user or two popped into the stream but left quickly. I realized I had told no one about the stream. There was no effort made to share it on my social media accounts. I relied too much on the notion that users would naturally gravitate to watch my stream. I had rushed straight into streaming and didn’t spend enough time thinking about my audience or my persona.
The rush made me dip my toes into streaming and I wasn’t scared anymore.
Browsing through the streams on Twitch, I searched for streamers based on currently active viewers and found that the larger the audience, the more well crafted a streamer was. It reminded me of watching a theatre play. From their personality, the games they played, and the visual design of both themselves and their stream page, everything about the top streams felt “whole”. To me, the streams felt like one of those super curated instagram pages that is just so aesthetically on point that it feels surreal. Like life goals.
I didn’t even know myself that well. How could I know who I wanted to connect with online? The answer didn’t lie with any customer demographic or psychographic analysis. No, the answer was within me. I had to make something of myself and share that with others.
So I wrote down all the things I loved to do while playing games. I didn’t have a webcam at that time and didn’t have a budget for a lighting set, so all of the human visual persona wasn’t an immediate option. I had to find a way to connect to others without using my face.
Crafting Lofigames and finding the right platform for me
Lofi, though it meant Low-Fidelity, felt more like luxury.
I found the answer in music, specifically Lofi music. Lofi music allowed me to destress and to focus. Lofi music also afforded me the opportunity to connect to the millions of people who listen to hours of Youtube Lofi playlists like I did!
With that in mind, I crafted a lofi-esque logo out of pink and gold:
Pink because I wanted the visuals of the stream to evoke a softer, yet sweet feeling, like cotton candy on a autumn evening. I felt this would match the relaxing nature of Lofi.
Gold because listening to Lofi felt like the smooth touch of satin and silk. Lofi, though it meant Low-Fidelity, felt more like luxury.
To complete the twitch page, I added the popular Lofi graphics.
and I even put together a spotify playlist of Lofi songs here —
Yet even with all of my updates. I still did not manage to find an audience on Twitch after five days of streaming. Perhaps Twitch was not for me?
So then I set out to test out the other platforms! Yet five days was just a taster of Twitch. Perhaps it could work out in time? To make sure, I decided to multistream!
Multistreaming felt to me like being in many places at once. With one stream, I could be on Twitch, Youtube Live, and Facebook Live, which became the primary platforms for me.
Could this work out for me?
