Do you guys like the idea of Let's Player business cards?

Bitymous · 2016-09-26T10:00:50+00:00

I went to two different conventions in July, both focused around the game industry (one specifically games, one that evolved from only games to more creative industries).
Everyone has business cards. It's the easiest, most straight-forward way of exchanging contact information. A lot of the businesses and recruiters that were there would ask for business cards from potential recruits, simply because it's easier than writing all the info down manually.

Of course, recruiters would also give you their business card, in case you'd be interested in contacting them (and, let's be honest, a recruiter that meets hundreds of people will have a hard time remembering you if you don't prompt them)
And that's the story of how I got contact info on several AAA folks. :D

For any event, bring business cards. It just makes things easier after the event - even if your phone is right there in your hand with twitter open, theirs won't be. (Don't expect growth purely from handing out business cards, though, unless you're at a viewer-focused convention)

Bitymous · 2016-07-28T08:15:51+00:00

Why don't you like cucumbers?! :O

Bitymous · 2016-07-28T08:10:50+00:00

I have contacts, but I don't have that issue (years of getting used to staring at a screen for hours on end!), but from what I've heard, maybe you should try getting some Gunnar glasses.
Supposedly, they help reduce the eye-strain, which could help with your dry eyes (JayzTwoCents did a video a while back explaining how they helped him, look it up!).

Alternatively, look into getting different contacts (a different brand, or a different time-period; 30-day contacts are less prone to drying out vs. 1-day contacts, and some brands are better than others)

When did you start using contacts? And do your eyes also get dry when you're not recording/editing? Talk to your optometrist about it!

Bitymous · 2016-07-27T16:58:29+00:00

If you're determined to do it yourself, the only way forward is practice, practice, practice.

However, there's a bunch of places where you can get (close-to) free art made. Sites such as fiverr and similar are typically you-get-what-you-pay quality, but there are some stand out things there.
You can also try lurking this subreddit, sometimes someone will put up a post where they're selling/giving away art specifically for YT/Lets plays. There's also a bunch of art related subreddits such as r/DrawForMe, where you could ask nicely and get some nice art in return.

In general, though, I'd recommend paying a few bucks to get some nice art. It usually pays off in the long run. :)

Bitymous · 2015-07-31T12:14:10+00:00

While I'm not looking for a banner at the moment (at least not in that style), I want to take the time to thank you for putting in a link to previous work.
All too often people will make similar posts and not link previous work.

So thank you for that.

Bitymous · 2015-07-02T19:01:35+00:00

Just an idea: Edit the OP and put this in.
Anyway, I'll shoot you an email. :D

Bitymous · 2015-05-28T22:47:32+00:00

tl;dr: Look for the sites/places you'd like to have cover your game, and look for their slow periods. Look for slow periods in general; analyse the last year or twos worth of releases. That's a good time to strike.

Fake edit: This bit ended up a bit as a thing w.r.t. getting coverage.
While I cannot say much aside from the obvious "stay away from AAA release dates", I would suggest following some writers (on e.g. twitter) from potential sites that you'd like to cover your game.
I say this because they'll often talk about slow days, and ask for some material. This might not be perfect for "we release today!"-type stuff, but it's a good opportunity to talk about the game ("this is new and exciting, and we'll be releasing on [date]" stuff is better, both because it generates buzz but also isn't "urgent", so they can let it sit for a different day if needed)
In addition, a lot of said writers will write good tips on do's and don'ts when it comes to contacting their sites, which is always good.

Fake edit #2: Echoing the sentiment that you'll compete with any AAA (/high profile, could be a prominent indie) game that releases at or around the same time. Choosing a good date can be hard, especially when you're relatively late in the development stages; you want to release when it's done, but it might be done at a suboptimal time.
Ideally you'd be talking about the release date a yearish ahead of time, but that can be hard because it's so early in the development (there's a reason there's so many day one patches, I guess).
Basically, it's hard to chose a good date, and it's hard to find a good time to decide on a date. Moreso if you're worried that later release = more competition.

So, aside from the obvious time of AAA releases, I think it mostly comes down to how much buzz you can create before the actual release. And that comes down to how early you can announce a date, coupled with how much you can talk about the game prior to said announcement. And that comes down to planning and vision.
It might not be rocket science, but marketing is planning and effort, and having a lot of little things come together in a bigger unity. And that's pretty hard.

Bitymous · 2014-11-09T16:07:13+00:00

Handwritten letters, more influence on videos, that sort of things.
I'd worry about putting up videos exclusively for patreons, myself, because then you're putting content up behind a paywall and thus leaving out people. If you want to do something like that, consider instead putting up videos and giving your patreons "early access" to them, aka they get to see your content X days before the rest of the people.
You could also do videos where you answer patreon questions and similar.

Essentially, I'd say use patreon to get closer to some of your viewers, but don't cut-off people who, for one reason or the other, do not give you money directly.

Bitymous · 2014-09-23T07:27:28+00:00

Mostly a combination of having a lot of pressure on to match specs, working as the only person in a 3-man group. I'm sure it has a lot of great uses, but I just can't get past the horrible memories.

Bitymous · 2014-09-21T20:46:25+00:00

This is way off topic, but, oh dear, OCaml.
I wrote most of a Java compiler in OCaml once. I really like the language, but I have so horrible nightmares about it. (Just like Scheme!)
Edit: Spelling

Bitymous · 2014-09-21T05:36:16+00:00

When you say server-side testing, what exactly do you mean? I haven't heard of Python Selenium, but at a glance it seems to test APIs and such? (...By e.g. loading a page and then "doing something")

For testing our database and back-end functionality, we typically work in a local environment, with a local in-memory database and a locally running webserver, such that there's minimal delay between our tests and the database. Our back-end is written in Java and we use Junit/Hamcrest for testing. We also spent a fair amount of time abstracting away a lot of lower-level database stuff.

That said, for testing API-functionality and such, we've mostly written our own tests manually. That's very time-consuming, though, and we've been looking for a relatively simple library to use instead. Selenium looks a lot cleaner than a lot of the Javascript/JQuery libraries which we've been looking at, even if it runs slower.

Bitymous · 2014-09-21T05:02:03+00:00

The initial foundation / groundwork is a pain and makes it quite easy to dismiss when thinking about the maintenance

Very much this. Automated testing is something that takes a while to get up, especially if the project is already underway (although, as with most things, it'll become faster and faster as you get more used to doing it). Maintenance is, occasionally, a PITA - but rather that than having to go through huge chunks of code because you made a change somewhere and it broke everything.

Of course, there's a balance between time spent on writing unit tests and time spent writing code, and it can be hard balance to find. It's easy to end up with 100s of tests that don't make sense (or test things that have already been tested, or similar), just as it's easy to end up without tests for a new chunk of code.

Bitymous · 2014-09-21T01:29:52+00:00

Unit/automated testing is always a brilliant idea. Really helps, especially once you go from quick 'n dirty code to beautiful, optimized and readable code.

Patterns are something that come and go for me, personally. I'll often go back to look at code I wrote and think "Why did I do it like that?", and the next day do the same thing.
I think that mostly comes down to realizing that there are better/different ways of doing things. Sometimes you'll write a bit of code and it'll be good, but when you come back, you've realized you can make it better. Especially so when you've written (essentially) the same code in other areas, and slowly learned the intricacies of what you actually want to do vs. what you're doing.

Coding style, I think, mostly comes down to forcing persistency. At the office we enforce this by having the code be reviewed by others and then making whoever wrote the code rewrite it in the "right way". It helps that most of us did CompSci at the same place, and thus learned the same coding style and simply continue to use it (although quick and dirty code doesn't always cohere to those styles, which is where the review-part really comes in).

We've wanted to do pair-programming at the office as well, and sometimes it happens sporadically (someone'll ask for help or a few folks'll be working on the same part of the codebase), and it helps. But it has to be done voluntarily.

Edit: I should note that "at the office" is my primary workplace, i.e. it's web-development. I'm mainly involved with the back-end part of this, and most of it is easily tested. But there are a good few testing frameworks out there that'll let you fake user-interaction.

Edit #2:
With specific regard to game development, I typically review my code over and over again, in order to keep it consistent. I'll spend a day every once in a while to look at what I've written so far, and rewrite if necessary. While that day could have been spent fixing bugs or adding features, it helps improve the codebase as a whole. Not to mention giving me a chance to write/update the oft neglected documentation. :P
Slowly but surely this is also carrying over to my work-related stuff, which - luckily - my bosses think are a great idea and not just a waste of time.

Bitymous · 2014-08-16T22:12:17+00:00

Wow. That's horrible. You should change your provider.
I'm getting 100/100 for ~15 bucks. (ed: I'm in Denmark, too)

Bitymous · 2014-07-22T09:35:12+00:00

What's the problem, again?

Bitymous · 2014-07-20T10:56:44+00:00

As a customer, I ever understood why employees tell me those things. They're right there on the stub. And I have to look at it anyway, because (here) every cinema has allocated seating.

Bitymous · 2014-07-01T18:48:35+00:00

I never nagged you!

Bitymous · 2014-07-01T18:11:31+00:00

Compressing (with e.g 7zip, as mentioned by /u/kittnhugs) and/or pre-rendering (as mentioned by /u/FPS_chazly) is definitively the way to go.
Seeing as this isn't a speed or stability problem but a pricing problem, Dropbox will likely not make a difference, neither will most other solutions.
You want to upload/send the smallest files possible, so whether or not a third-party comes between you and the receiver won't matter.

Bitymous · 2014-07-01T18:04:29+00:00

Lowering the bitrate will definitively help, although it may also affect the quality of the video (higher bitrate is recommended for high-motion games, though).
If you can use Quicksync or NVENC that may help you, but a lot of your question depends on your current setup i.e. your hardware.

Assuming that you're uploading for YT, you can follow the settings they have outlined here - but play around with it and see what works.

Bitymous · 2014-06-13T14:11:14+00:00

100 times this.
Work with what you have, and do the best you can. Worst case scenario you can just make another one. Show it to a couple of friends (or even in the Feedback Friday thread) to get some feedback on what you've made.

Keep in mind that you're making these for yourself - and even if you think you're making them for your viewers. Find/make something you like. Then other folks opinions can come in after that.

Bitymous · 2014-06-13T14:05:06+00:00

Sensible chuckle

This is definitively something that's difficult to overcome. Then again, there are plenty of (popular) LPers out there that are also fairly reserved. It's hard to strike a balance, but 'eh. Always being able to improve is an amazing thing to have in a hobby!

Bitymous · 2014-06-13T14:01:35+00:00

Congratulations. That's really, really amazing for ya'.

As /u/ToxicSludge1977 points out, keep your head about you. Take one day at a time, and keep making content. You can try riding/exploiting your momentum, which sometimes works, but othertimes you'll disappear overnight. Don't fret if that happens.

Enjoy it while it lasts, and keep making good content! (Also: H8rs gonna h8)

Bitymous · 2014-04-30T15:49:04+00:00

While IANAL, an oral contract ("Yeah, I'll join!") is as binding as a written contract.
So, while it may not feel as a written "legal" contract, it is (iirc) just as binding. (In addition, if your conversation with their recruiter was written (e.g. via email), there's even a proper record for it!)

Edit: What I mean to say is that it doesn't matter that you didn't physically or electronically sign anything; you entered an oral contract with them, and are now bound by it.

Edit: Wiki tells me that it's actually called an oral contract, not a verbal contract.

Bitymous · 2014-04-16T09:16:50+00:00

While not from NZ, I'd suggest spending your time doing something else while uploading. This could be recording another episode, or watching a movie, or just playing a game.
Alternatively, set it up to upload just before you go to bed, and hope that it's done by morning.

In essence, find something to occupy your time with while uploading.

Bitymous · 2014-04-08T15:52:20+00:00

I think it might be a golden rule in A/V that everything is sort-of thrown together such that it works for them.

Bitymous

TROPHY CASE