So, I wanted to kind of document my journey as I try to become a video game streamer online. I was thinking a blog/diary would be fun, but Voltra is the only place online I thought I would want to share this with. So here it goes.
Questions and comments welcome
Forums The Undercurrent Becoming A Streamer : A Blog
Getting Started
The first thing I had to do was research what I needed to do. XD
I read a lot of articles and blog about streaming. Specifically on YouTube and Twitch. Step one seemed to be making an account, and accounts for anything else you might need. So I made a gmail account, YouTube, twitch, Instagram, PayPal, and even a discord server. (Although I know nothing about discord)
Sigh, that was hard. Hope I’m not forgetting anything important.
What’s the difference between twitch and YouTube? Well, not too much. Twitch is all live streaming as far as I can tell, with a strong focus on gaming. But YouTube has a growing gaming audience and you can stream like to YouTube now too. The audience for YouTube seems more chill and casual though, which I feel like fits me better.
Why can’t you stream on both at once? Actually, you can. From what I can tell you just need to buy software for a computer and run the stream through that to get it to stream to both places at once. However, Twitch has some conditions to being an account that’s paid. Aside from reaching certain minimums to become a “partner” (what twitch calls accounts that can make money) they also want the exclusive rights to any stream for the first 24 hours. So if you become a partner you can’t stream directly to YouTube at the same time as twitch.
Ultimately we decided to stream on twitch and upload the stream to YouTube after. I’m still not sure if our audience is more YouTube and if we should skip twitch all together, but they have a more stream friendly setup.
Now that that was figured out, it’s back to researching! This time I need to figure out all the equipment I’ll need for the actual streaming. I most want to stream my Switch, but that requires a “capture card”. It’s an item that connects a computer to a gaming system. The Switch has no way to connect to YouTube or Twitch without the go between capture card.
On top of that, I now need software to collect the information from my Switch and stream it. Sadly it’s not just a straight connection to YouTube or twitch. This software is called an “OBS”, of which there are 2 popular free options. So that’s amazing!!
The biggest problem is my laptop won’t run the drivers for the capture card! Cry! I’m going to have to buy a new computer to stream my Switch!!
It to worry though, PlayStations are designed to be streamed with no issues at all. There’s even a convenient “stream” button on the controller! And it bypasses the need for a computer and connects directly to YouTube or twitch.
So for now I have a microphone: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XCKGLTP
And I can stream my games directly to twitch and talk to anyone who happens to come watch. (Which is no one yet)
But my only games for PlayStation are Kingdom Hearts. XD
The first thing I had to do was research what I needed to do. XD
I read a lot of articles and blog about streaming. Specifically on YouTube and Twitch. Step one seemed to be making an account, and accounts for anything else you might need. So I made a gmail account, YouTube, twitch, Instagram, PayPal, and even a discord server. (Although I know nothing about discord)
Sigh, that was hard. Hope I’m not forgetting anything important.
What’s the difference between twitch and YouTube? Well, not too much. Twitch is all live streaming as far as I can tell, with a strong focus on gaming. But YouTube has a growing gaming audience and you can stream like to YouTube now too. The audience for YouTube seems more chill and casual though, which I feel like fits me better.
Why can’t you stream on both at once? Actually, you can. From what I can tell you just need to buy software for a computer and run the stream through that to get it to stream to both places at once. However, Twitch has some conditions to being an account that’s paid. Aside from reaching certain minimums to become a “partner” (what twitch calls accounts that can make money) they also want the exclusive rights to any stream for the first 24 hours. So if you become a partner you can’t stream directly to YouTube at the same time as twitch.
Ultimately we decided to stream on twitch and upload the stream to YouTube after. I’m still not sure if our audience is more YouTube and if we should skip twitch all together, but they have a more stream friendly setup.
Now that that was figured out, it’s back to researching! This time I need to figure out all the equipment I’ll need for the actual streaming. I most want to stream my Switch, but that requires a “capture card”. It’s an item that connects a computer to a gaming system. The Switch has no way to connect to YouTube or Twitch without the go between capture card.
On top of that, I now need software to collect the information from my Switch and stream it. Sadly it’s not just a straight connection to YouTube or twitch. This software is called an “OBS”, of which there are 2 popular free options. So that’s amazing!!
The biggest problem is my laptop won’t run the drivers for the capture card! Cry! I’m going to have to buy a new computer to stream my Switch!!
It to worry though, PlayStations are designed to be streamed with no issues at all. There’s even a convenient “stream” button on the controller! And it bypasses the need for a computer and connects directly to YouTube or twitch.
So for now I have a microphone: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XCKGLTP
And I can stream my games directly to twitch and talk to anyone who happens to come watch. (Which is no one yet)
But my only games for PlayStation are Kingdom Hearts. XD
What’s Next?
So, I’m currently in the process of deciding on a camera so there can be a visual to go with the stream. I think whether or not there’s a camera active on screen may depend on the game (as some really fill the screen fully) but it seems like there isn’t as big of an audience if you don’t have a camera.
I’ve been hesitant to get one, but I think I just have to be confident in myself and go for it! We already plan to just be hanging on the couch in our pajamas for this, so my audience is just going to be chill people who like hanging out with us on weekend mornings.
Plus, I’ll have an excuse to own/buy cute stuffed animals if they’re behind me in the picture. And more cute pajamas!!
I’m also in the market for a computer. On the bright side, my brother-in-law has been planning to stream for some time now. He lives with us (or rather I live with my sister and her husband), so it wouldn’t be hard to share a streaming computer and camera! We now have to wait for him to make a decision about a computer, (sigh) but it will be a lot cheaper to share the cost.
He’s bad at making decisions but since he wants to also use the computer for playing games I think it’s best if he picks it out. The camera though, I might just have to pick out for us both because he’s too slow!
So, I’m currently in the process of deciding on a camera so there can be a visual to go with the stream. I think whether or not there’s a camera active on screen may depend on the game (as some really fill the screen fully) but it seems like there isn’t as big of an audience if you don’t have a camera.
I’ve been hesitant to get one, but I think I just have to be confident in myself and go for it! We already plan to just be hanging on the couch in our pajamas for this, so my audience is just going to be chill people who like hanging out with us on weekend mornings.
Plus, I’ll have an excuse to own/buy cute stuffed animals if they’re behind me in the picture. And more cute pajamas!!
I’m also in the market for a computer. On the bright side, my brother-in-law has been planning to stream for some time now. He lives with us (or rather I live with my sister and her husband), so it wouldn’t be hard to share a streaming computer and camera! We now have to wait for him to make a decision about a computer, (sigh) but it will be a lot cheaper to share the cost.
He’s bad at making decisions but since he wants to also use the computer for playing games I think it’s best if he picks it out. The camera though, I might just have to pick out for us both because he’s too slow!
Deciding on a Brand
Probably the hardest thing so far has been deciding what our image is. Both YouTube and Twitch have an avatar image, banners, emojis, and other graphics that need to be considered. Plus the channel name!
It was really hard to decide what we wanted to call ourselves and what we wanted our graphics to look like. A lot of people have their face all over their graphics, but neither my sister nor I are really that confident. (My sister may not even appear on camera, she hasn’t decided)
As we sat on the couch holding our stuffed animals, we decided to just make them our mascots! Although I hope to find a quality artist in the future, they’re simple enough I was able to make basic graphics with them. I don’t really like my own graphics, but it’s good for now.
And for the name we went with a play on a Pink Floyd song title. Comfortably Numb is a top song for both of us, and Comfortably Glum has the right feel to it. XD
Probably the hardest thing so far has been deciding what our image is. Both YouTube and Twitch have an avatar image, banners, emojis, and other graphics that need to be considered. Plus the channel name!
It was really hard to decide what we wanted to call ourselves and what we wanted our graphics to look like. A lot of people have their face all over their graphics, but neither my sister nor I are really that confident. (My sister may not even appear on camera, she hasn’t decided)
As we sat on the couch holding our stuffed animals, we decided to just make them our mascots! Although I hope to find a quality artist in the future, they’re simple enough I was able to make basic graphics with them. I don’t really like my own graphics, but it’s good for now.
And for the name we went with a play on a Pink Floyd song title. Comfortably Numb is a top song for both of us, and Comfortably Glum has the right feel to it. XD
Find me @ PlayWithErica on instagram, twitch, youtube, and discord.
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Having you as a Voltie would be awesome.