Colonel Failure

Behind the scenes - considering thumbnails (Patreon)

Published:

2024-03-30 15:36:38

Imported:

2024-03

Tags:

behind the scenes

Content

I'm looking at how I can (finally) improve on the quality of my video thumbnails. The first step here is to actually look at some trends, consider what works and what doesn't and see if an idea (and I already have one) comes to the fore. You won't see any results in this video, it's just the thought process. How interesting you find it... well, that's where your mileage is going to vary significantly.

-CF

Files

Behind the scenes - thumbnails

The problem with thumbnails for games on YouTube is that with management-style games it's very difficult to pull an image that will really pop. To that end you rely heavily on drawing attention to your video by adding text to what otherwise could be a pretty mundane image. I've known for *years* that my own video thumbnails are subjectively mediocre. I shy away from meta or obvious bait tactics - not because I don't approve of "baity" thumbnails, more because I'd sooner lean on artistry than psychology. Right now, I do neither :) Not that the humble thumbnail is the sole bearer of responsibility for my channel's stagnation, far from it, more that a dozen small changes that push things in the right direction should have a force-multiplying effect. Or not. Ultimately this is as much about being able to take pride in work done. Anyway, in this video I'm looking through a couple of games channels to see what sort of trends are out there right now - and to be snarky about other people's struggles with the same issue.