Concept Idea (Gaming History) - Looking for feedback

[Tarmack]

Over the last month or so, I came to realize that my channel was essentially a one trick show pony. That one trick is the editorial Feature Creep which is by far my most successful series. I'd been adding in some Let's Play content, but to be perfectly frank, LPs are easy, oversaturated content and while I do enjoy making them to some extent, they're really not doing my channel any favors. In fact given the whole concept of subscriber burn, it could actually be doing harm to be uploading more than one or two a week.

So, I sat down with my "ye ole liste" of video ideas. The concepts of game reviews, first impressions of indie titles and a little idea I like to call Masterpiece Commenter all had potential, but have some cost elements that I need/want to avoid for the time being.

I settled on an idea that I'd like to do and want to get some feedback from the forum on certain aspects of its' design.

Essentially, it is a game history show. And I do understand that there are of course some others on YouTube that do a similar thing, at least at its' base but most of those examples tend to focus on a particular game itself. In my concept each episode would focus specifically on either a Hero, or a Villian. The show would be done in a similar "quick speak" fashion to Feature Creep as that is how I'm most comfortable behind a mic using a script, but would take a more long tail format similar in some respects to The Game Theorists.

The episode would follow the Hero chronologically through their game appearances, explaining the plot details, interactions, and odd outside of franchise appearances all with a plethora of voice over soundbytes and ingame scenes from the various games. I'm targeting about a 10 minute video here. From there, each episode would close up and include a voting panel at the end allowing viewers to choose one of two characters for the next episode.

This kind of series is an enormous time investment to produce. The amount of gameplay that needs to be recorded and cut, the audio edits, the research that is required is significant. However, it also does transcend the idea of topical news which is one of my major problems on the channel right now.

I'd like to see what you think of the concept, if it is a kind of video that you would be interested in, but more specifically whether there are any exciting elements that you think would be valuable to include. The reason I'm posting it publicly is because honestly, it is so much work to build this kind of project that I have no real fear of anyone "stealing the idea", and the character and style is so dependant on the channel operator anyways.

 

[Super Pawsitive]

Ty for the idea. Stealing it now.

Jk, but seriously. Sounds like a great show in theory, it's all a matter of properly executing it. As a person who reviews games, does a series based on my thoughts about gaming, and has been a journalist at E3 the past year. I can tell you that it sounds like a time sink. A big one at that. I would say to invest the time into making a format. Do a first episode type thing with someone simple. Hell, it could be Kirby for all I care. It just has to be short and to the point. While I enjoy the idea of exploring the lore of the characters within their respective games, I think it would also be nice to add fun facts. Such as Kirby being a placeholder for a different character entirely, before the devs fell in love with the lil dude and kept him in.

Sounds like a good idea. It's just a matter of presentation at this point. I'd watch it

 

[Conso1727]

I like the idea, as the guy above said, it's just a matter of presentation. If I can give a suggestion, don't make the episodes too long, about 5- 6 minutes each.

 

[Tarmack]

Ty for the idea. Stealing it now.

Jk, but seriously. Sounds like a great show in theory, it's all a matter of properly executing it. As a person who reviews games, does a series based on my thoughts about gaming, and has been a journalist at E3 the past year. I can tell you that it sounds like a time sink. A big one at that. I would say to invest the time into making a format. Do a first episode type thing with someone simple. Hell, it could be Kirby for all I care. It just has to be short and to the point. While I enjoy the idea of exploring the lore of the characters within their respective games, I think it would also be nice to add fun facts. Such as Kirby being a placeholder for a different character entirely, before the devs fell in love with the lil dude and kept him in.

Sounds like a good idea. It's just a matter of presentation at this point. I'd watch it

The first character that I had planned to do was Guybrush Threepwood from the Monkey Island series, simply because I'm already very well versed in the world and plot of those games so very little research will need to be done compared to some others. I'll probably avoid Kirby as Nintendo is a great place to have copyright issues.
I totally agree about it being a timesink. The Let's Play videos that I do take little to no effort to produce, just like most LPs. At most, they take an hour per episode including the half hour of actually playing the game. The Feature Creep editorial takes between 3-4 hours including all writing, recording and editing.
I envision this as being something that I can produce maybe one video every 3 weeks or so. I'm sure it could be done faster, but for now I'd like to be able to take my time and do it well. The day job doesn't help much, heh.

I like the idea, as the guy above said, it's just a matter of presentation. If I can give a suggestion, don't make the episodes too long, about 5- 6 minutes each.

I'm mildly concerned that a 5-6 minute video may not be long enough to do each character justice which was why I had settled on the 10 minute target. It does mean that the overall presentation needs to have essentially zero downtime, being both informative and entertaining for the entire video. More work for sure, but I also don't want to leave out any awesome pieces. I suppose some of the less involved characters would have fewer story pieces to take people through.

 

[Splinter]

Far from being an original idea. But it can work. Who knows. I just don´t think it´s a good idea for you to expose your plans to thousands of people. I mean...c´mon...

 

[Tarmack]

Far from being an original idea. But it can work. Who knows. I just don´t think it´s a good idea for you to expose your plans to thousands of people. I mean...c´mon...

It's not exactly something that I could copyright, short of the name I settle on at the end of the day. As soon as I complete the first episode, it would be public anyways, so I don't see any harm in seeking input prior. I certainly don't claim a level of originality in the concept, though the presentation and quality can impact that side of it which is the hope and intent.

 

[Splinter]

It's not exactly something that I could copyright, short of the name I settle on at the end of the day. As soon as I complete the first episode, it would be public anyways, so I don't see any harm in seeking input prior. I certainly don't claim a level of originality in the concept, though the presentation and quality can impact that side of it which is the hope and intent.

If you wanna open a certain type of restaurant in your zone, it´s better to go first and then let people know than inform everybody of your plans first, wich could lead to someone stealing and executing them even before you. In my country we say "secret is the soul of the business". It´s just not a good idea to tell the world your plans. Believe me.

First you do what you gotta do, then you let people know. Now you´re just giving ideas to thousands of people. Some of them will take them and execute them before you, and probably even better, wich will make it even more difficult for you to have success with that idea.

And this isn´t even a forum where people don´t give a damn about creating videos. This is a forum for people who want to create videos and are hungry for ideas. They will take anything that sounds cool and try to make something with it.

Take this as a friendly advice.