What I did on my holidays... (Patreon)

Hello all, I return from a brief break in proceedings which was part spent in the north of England, part in Greece. In the latter half I spent a couple of days writing up notes on the various hair-brained schemes I have underway, and ended up with over 20 pages of thoughts, ideas and general clutter that had been filling my head.

This might not sound like much of a break, but it's actually very helpful, particularly when one is as rapid-fire with ideas as I tend to be. Herself spent the week in the sun, I spent most of it sat at a table next to her alternating between writing, pondering and partaking in cocktails. Whether the final point interfered with the creative process is up for debate.

Anyone, I thought I'd share with you the fruits of my labours, in two forms.

The first is the New Schedule which will come into effect over the next few weeks as I wrap up what I've got on the go right now.

Those in Officers Club will be aware of the different series strategies I use, however these have now been codified. From here on (subject to change, obviously) I'll be working a 5 series approach to my channel.

A Series : The main game on my channel with 2-3 videos per weekB Series : The second game on my channel with 2-3 videos per weekC Series : A special 4 part series that is heavily edited, often high-concept, 1 per weekD Series : 1-shot videos, previews, tutorials etc. 1 per weekE Series : Brand new games that are time sensitive in their release

The A Series will be... Soviet Republic. The views don't lie! It will run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The B Series will be Transport Fever and will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The C Series will appear on Sundays.

D Series videos obviously won't be around every week, but when they are they will replace the Saturday B video. 

E Series will be even less common, but if I need to jump onto something fast these will appear on Fridays and Saturdays replacing both the A and B videos that week.

I'll run this approach on a  5 week basis with the 5th week being used as a wrap-up opportunity.  Soviet Republic will hold the A slot until Transport Fever 2, unless it drops off in popularity.

Confused? Don't be! I've been loosely using a similar approach for the past 2 months, but I now have something with some rules underpinning it that should make the channel a little more predictable.

The second major output from my brainstorming work was to put together a list of fundamentals that I want to accomplish in future videos. These are maybe less informative, but they're a statement of intent on my part. Read on, it'll make sense:

1. Do not waste a single episode2. Find the funny3. Nail the title4. Skip to the good bits5. Get a laugh before the intro5a. Get a wow before the intro6. Understand the theme of each episode7. Use your originals8. Quality9. Slower camera movement, speed ramp in editing if needed10. Eliminate umm and err unless deliberate or flavor-enhancing11. Record glamour shots 12. No rushing13. Not good enough? Do it again14. Consistency is king

Some of these are self-explanatory, but as I push toward higher view numbers and more subscribers I need to up my game in terms of video quality. This won't change what you like about the channel, but should knock off some of the rough edges.

An example of this is what will be the C Series. At present I'll record and edit each video within a day, usually only having 2 or 3 videos queued up online at most. The plan for the C Series is to record and edit all 4 parts then queue them for the following few weeks. These videos will be high-concept, like that odd wrestling video, or Descenders, or Software Inc. Lots of editing, more visual effects than usual and a greater focus on creating something viral - something that sells the channel personality more than any individual game.

This improvement in approach will also show up in the other series videos I'm recording. My aim is for less patchy videos that will hold attention better (for boring algorithm reasons) that have a better chance at attracting and retaining new viewers while continuing to amuse those who are already tuned into a series. You should see this approach in effect within the next half dozen videos.

I've got 3 C Series in mind already and you'll be invited to take part in some of them.

One last point for this summary. 

I've been working on concepts for Version 9 of the channel.

A channel version can be many different things, it can be a new logo, channel art, editing templates, thumbnails, intro, outro... any number of things really. Version 8 has been running for around 6 months now and is very much in-line with what I want my channel to look like. Version 9, therefore will be an evolution rather than revolution. The biggest changes will be in video descriptions, the chatty outro and the bombastic intro. I'm pretty sure you'll like the changes - if you notice them.

Final, final point... the store will be arriving in the next month. 

Right. Guess I'd better get back to work.-CF