Tag: Blog Update

Noob Blog 2.0

There have been some changes around here so I thought I would write a little summary.

In my effort to simplify my website, I have added many pages. Originally, the idea was to add filter functions to pages so that you can easily find the posts that interest you within the correct section. Unfortunataly that is not allowed on the plan that I am on so I did the next best thing, which was make some new categories and organised them myself!

So what’s new?

Navigation

The biggest change is the updated menu across the top of the site (or using the little menu box on mobile). Categories now make a lot more sense and have subsections to allow you to find exactly what you are looking for. 

Impressions

Impressions is an entire new section dedicated to demos and first looks at games. Now, anytime that a game enters my radar I have a place to shout about it straight away.

Features

Features is a place for a lot of the content that I was already making that aren’t reviews or impressions.

Indie Gaming

Anything across the site that contains any indie content will be gathered here, as well as easy access to past game festival coverage.

Other Content

This is for all of the posts that I make relating to my non-written content like Twitch and YouTube.

Blog Archive

Blog Archive contains every post in one place, plus sub-sections of retired series so that I don’t completely erase them from existance

Home Page

I have simplified the home page so that content is the first thing you see. The plan is to add in temporary segments whenever there is a special occasion like the Steam Next Fest.

Game Service section has gone

Because the new categories collectively cover everything I make, I re-distributed all of my Game Service posts into the relevent places.

Search Bar

I have added the search bar as the best compromise to the filter issue I mentioned earlier. Search for a game title, genre, service etc and you should be able to find any coverage that I have done easily.

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2022 Reflections and 2023 Goals

I wasn’t going to make a New Year post this year, but upon reflection it almost feels necessary. Instead of publicly reflecting on what has been a particularly difficult year for me, I think it will be a lot more useful and enjoyable to think of what comes next.  

A constant in my life is my resistance to consistency. Give me 6 months of anything and I need change, it is just the way of the Noob. With that in mind, these are the latest thoughts in the everchanging realm that is my brain. 

Twitch

I am really enjoying my current schedule on Twitch. Two consecutive days and a seperate third is pleasing for me, allowing me to get into a zone and then let it go to work on other things. I recognise that a day stream can be inconvenient for many and I wish that I could change that, but it is the only way this structure fits together with my other commitments for the time being.

When it comes to game choice, I am going to continue to alternate longer games with shorter ones. This year we played a few games that were the start of a series. For now, I am going to continue to prioritise new games over sequels. This is because there are still so many games that I have no experience in. I’d rather spread the limited time I have around to new experiences wherever I can. That doesn’t mean we won’t be playing sequels, but do expect the potential of years between them.

I am going to continue to balance older and newer games in the same way, but all of this is really dictated by whatever I have access to at the time. Anything with limited access is probably going to take priority.

YouTube

Something that I have learned this year is that I need recording time to balance out stream time. Both are great but they are entirely different experiences that I love for their own reasons. A YouTube playthrough is entirely about the game. For this reason, I am really looking forward to bringing Let’s Plays back. I am unsure about the distant future but I have a list of games that may end up lasting the entire year without any further planning, so that is one possibility.

The current plan is Let’s Plays 3x a week, Indie Showcase Saturdays forever, and I have some other ideas. Depending on my workload, a potential I have been considering is Repentance Sundays. I haven’t played any of the Repentance DLC for The Binding of Isaac yet. It could be fun to put out a run or two a week as I get to know the new content. I will see how my schedule is in a few weeks.

YouTube is such a strange thing for me. I have been doing it for much longer than Twitch but can’t say I have ever found what anyone would call success. It is wonderful to hear when people enjoy my videos, or the rare occasion I see my series is being binged. But when you look at my overall time, I can’t help but think there is a problem. The trouble is, it is hard to figure out what the problem is. Is it just oversaturation, or is it my content? Occasionally an Indie Showcase video will get more viewers than normal because it gets in the algorithm, but it rarely ever translates into more subscribers. I have tried to make my intros as short as I can while including all of the information. I kind of like my thumbnails how they are. My channel is clearly organised. I have tried calls to action but I just can’t do it. I can’t help question whether I am just not entertaining enough. My philosophy is that I make the content that I would want to watch. The thing is, I can have weird and different tastes that potentially others don’t. All of this is to say – I would LOVE for my YouTube to become something. I am not a fool and know it wont, which even makes it difficult to admit my aspiration. But man, I love what I do and just wish it had more appeal. I think the only actionable thing that I can do towards that at the moment is to keep creating.

Just to be clear, I didn’t used to care about numbers, but since trying to make my content a sustainable career it makes it especially sad to think about. Unless something drastic happens, it is not going to work out long term, which sucks but I do need to start coming to terms with.

Blog

I go through phases with my writing. Blog time has been wonderful in a year when I haven’t always felt up to speaking or being around folks. Having said that, if I am not in ‘the mood’ then what I write can be just terrible. When I started using my Blog more regularly this year I hoped that I would do some more thought pieces, a hope that I will bring forward into 2023. The amount of half written pieces and pages of notes that I have that just need a little more time in the oven is excessive. I want to write things worth reading, but I also have to work on finishing them.

I have really enjoyed writing reviews this year and I hope to continue. I have found a format that clicks very well with my thought process that I also believe is good and reader friendly. It has been a great outlet, particularly for games that I didn’t play on stream. What I would like to do going forward is take this to the next level. I would like my reviews and my blog in general to be visually friendly and interesting too. While I don’t have specific ideas yet, I am taking inspiration from the magazine I made.

I’m making it a goal this year to try out a monthly game service recap post, as well as finally figuring out my own way of covering the Indie Festivals. These things are the type that need to develop over time, but I hope to make a start on them relatively soon.

Others

Game Dev – I am in a place in my life where I need to seriously consider my future. I have worked so hard since I lost my job, trying out different things and seeing if I can find a place. Unfortunately, I am still struggling with that. I want to work in games, but I am not skilled enough to write or design anything professionally. Once my schedule has settled down, I would really like to look into Game Development. It is a little difficult because I don’t know what areas I could be good at, so I would like to dip into a bit of everything and see what calls to me. I find self learning incredibly difficult but in my current situation, I have to use all of the time that I can right now to develop a skill that can help me be self sufficient in the future. The great thing about this is that I am surrounded by talented, creative and motivated people. I would like to join that group too!

Podcast – Finally, I have been wanting this for so long that I am writing it here for my own benefit if nothing else. I have so much on my plate currently, no matter how much I wish I could make a Podcast, the circumstances just aren’t right. I still have hope for the future but for now, I have to eliminate this from my current goals. The strange part about doing that is that Podcasts are probably my favourite form of entertainment. I really enjoy and respect them, but as a result of that, I don’t want to do it until I can do it right and that unfortunately just isn’t now.

While this has been a little back and forth on past reflection vs the future plans, I believe they go hand in hand and I do like to let everyone know where I stand every once in a while. It is an unfortunate fact that I don’t know what the state of my content will be in a few months time, let alone a year. Realistically, at the current rate, I will have to be seeking other employment before then. The thing is, I desperately need that to be something that I enjoy. So this year is really going to be a juggling act between trying to grow my current content while also learning new skills. There was a time in my past that I found the unknown exciting more than scary, that is how I would like to be again. I am going to do everything in my power to make 2023 a great year.

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Channel Update – December 2022

Hey guys, it is that time again for a channel update!

Some personal issues that I am having are seriously impacting my ability to provide the content that I have promised and I hate it so much. I think my schedule needs to be a fluid thing untill I figure out something that works for both me and everyone who supports me.

Streams

I am going to try going back to 3 set streams a week. I feel like I am currently cancelling more than I am doing. Through the nature of the current flexible schedule they were always going to change, but I can’t get my head around feeling like every time slot that I don’t stream is a failure (even though I know it is not) so obviously the system isn’t working for me.

So the new schedule trial is going to be –

  • Monday – 1pm GMT
  • Thursday – 4pm GMT
  • Sunday – 5pm GMT

These are the days that fit the best around my other commitments. It does mean that there will only be 2 evening streams, I apologise for that.

When it comes to my Evening/Day stream games, I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I would like a name for my day stream concept, then we can just do them whenever. The biggest concern is that if I play an evening game on a day stream then people may miss chunks of the game. I will open this up to discussion in Discord.

YouTube

There will be no change with Indie Showcase, they will continue to release weekly.

I would like to bring back Let’s Plays. I miss making them. Regardless of how well they do, I think having a balance of solo recording time and live streaming time brings out the best of both – quality wise. I haven’t decided on any games yet but I am going to take a look in the coming days.

So the new YT schedule should be –

  • Monday – Let’s Play
  • Tuesday – VOD
  • Wednesday – Let’s Play
  • Thursday – VOD
  • Friday – Let’s Play
  • Saturday – Indie Showcase
  • Sunday – VOD 

Blog

I would really like to make this into something. I spent some time last week intending to upgrade it but deciding I like it the way it is. It is a fun outlet for me and I have some ideas to make the individual posts a lot cooler if I can figure it out. Sort of like taking elements from the design of my Magazine and incorporating them into the posts here. These are only in the early idea phase so I have a lot of playing to do.

I plan to continue with reviews, eventually finish some of the thought pieces I started and most importantly to me, cover the Indie Game Festivals. I would love to do some sort of monthly round up of the game services and some other stuff but these are eventualities.

I would also love to get back to weekly Tuesday posts but I have no guarantees, I need to see how the above scheduling goes first.

I designed my (previous) new schedule to make sure I had 2 days off while maximising conent. What ended up happening is that I only saw my fixed Saturday as my day off. I would then burn out during the week and have accidental days off, which lead to the spiral of working on my scheduled days off to make up for it. With this new more fixed schedule I have 2 days off, as well as time to focus on Streams, YouTube and the Blog respectively. I am going to try this out for the rest of the year. I still have other projects that I would love to work on but first, I need to go back to basics.

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Enooble Me – A Membership Update

Hey everyone! I started the year with the introduction of Enoobler Memberships and honestly, they have been fundamental to the amount of time I am able to currently spend creating content. When I first set them up I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted or needed them to be, so now – 10 months later – it is finally time for a revamp. I am happy with the content that I’m posting but I wanted to make it more appealing outside of the platform too. So if you would like to get regular updates, first looks, credit in my videos, first dibs of in game characters, a chance to maybe very slightly sway the games that I play, and of course to help me out, please consider a membership.

What is a Membership?

It is a way to support me financially on a monthly basis and getting some perks back in return.

Why would I become a Member?

  • If you enjoy my non-monetised content and would like to support it.
  • I get a bigger cut from Buy Me a Coffee than I do from Twitch (95/5 vs 50/50) so if you would like more of what you spend to reach me this is one way.
  • For extra Noob content including updates and previews.

What do I get?

There are three tiers of membership –

Enoobling The Noob Level 1 – £5 per month

  • Fortnightly Noob.exe Patch Notes – This is a summary of what I have been doing for the last two weeks, the content I have made, the games I have played, how things are going etc.
  • Indie Showcase – A monthly post of all of the games I am going to play for the next month of Indie Showcase in advance.
  • Blog – A monthly post of how my writing is going and what to expect on my blog.
  • Behind the Scenes – Occasional posts of things that I am working on like emote previews, clips from videos, thumbnails, stream updates, miscellaneous projects etc.
  • Announcements and First Looks – These aren’t all that often but members are the first to know.
  • *New* First Dibs on Game Characters – If I am going to play a game that allows the naming of characters and you are at the stream, you get priority.
  • *Updated* Discord – There is a Discord channel for members where I intend to post more real-time updates about the things I am working on and where we can talk about secrets 👀 Members also have access to my Twitch sub channel.
  • *Updated* Credit – Be in the Members list at the end of my streams and videos (ordered based on Membership Level).
  • Eternal Gratitude.

Enoobling The Noob Level 2 – £10 per month

  • Everything from Level 1
  • *New* Super Star – I have a system in Discord that allows me to gauge interest in the games that I have lined up to play. Everyone can put one star on as many games as they like in the list. A star acts as a tally mark and the games with the most are at the top of the list. As a Level 2+ Enoobler, you can have a Super Star for one game on the ‘Day Streams’ list, and a Super Star for one game on the ‘Evening Streams’ list. A Super Star is worth 2 stars, so if you have a strong preference for a game, you can vote for it and it will get an extra point. Once I have played the game that you put your Super Star on, you will be able to put it on a new game. (Disclaimer: I am not guaranteed to play games in any order, these are just to show me where interest is. I do however seem to be prioritising games with 2 or more stars at the moment)

Enoobling The Noob Level 3 – £69 per month

  • Everything from Levels 1 + 2.
  • Memes.

Donations

If you do not want or are unable to commit to a monthly donation, it is also possible to do a one off tip via the ‘Buy Me a Game‘ button. Buy Me a Coffee allows me to offer rewards in return for a donation sum. I am going to get my thinking cap on to see if I can come up with anything fun, and in the meantime, Alien: Isolation has moved from being a Membership to being an Extra.

Non-Monetary Support

It is understandable that not everyone is able to support financially, but there are other ways that you can help. If you enjoy my content, sharing it with a friend (or stranger) could help me grow to new audiences. Liking and commenting on my videos lets me know that you have enjoyed it and gives the video a boost. Even letting me know if there is a specific piece of content that you like can be a huge morale boost and help shape the channel.

Making posts like this is hard. I don’t like asking for things, whether it is time, money or anything else. It is just, at this time I am going all in on my content and I have to know that I tried everything that I could to make it work long term. What that looks like right now is trying to sustain myself financially, while also trying to help my content grow to a wider audience. The story/exploration based, semi-indie, semi-old, not too serious long-plays that I do feels like a very niche area, but based on the amazing times we have I am sure that if I can get the word out, there will be more people out there that would enjoy my content.

And that is that! All that is left to thank everyone for their continued support. I am very lucky. If anyone would like to join my membership, make a one off donation or check out my page, you can do so here.

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Channel Update – August 2022

Guys, I have hit a video block. Remember when I had all of those ideas? Reviews.. Guides.. all of that? I have put substantial time into both of those things but I haven’t finished either, and what I have made.. well.. it’s just bad.

My style just doesn’t suit edited content. I can’t read a script. I mean, technically I can, but it sounds stiffer than my neck after a bad nights sleep. Something I tried to combat this was making notes and free styling. This definitely helps me to get my point across but the videos end up far longer than I would like, even once I have edited them down. I made the decision to stop making Let’s Plays so that I could focus on other things when truthfully, they are the only video content that I am good at. That doesn’t mean this was wasted, I have learned a lot. It also doesn’t mean I am jumping straight back into making them because I still have other things to try.

There are more things on my list that I have still yet to try, and given the results of my experiments so far, these might be much better suited to the way that I think and how I like to make content.

Podcasting | I like long form conversation and I generally have a lot to say about games. If I try to condense things too much like I have in the videos I’ve tried to make, I end up losing my point and my personality. What I love about podcasts is that they can be whatever you want them to be, and as long as you stay relatively on topic then there is plenty of unscripted time to say what you want to say. The only trouble with podcasting is that I really do think they are their best when they are a conversation. I can’t imagine anyone would like to listen to me talking to myself in that way. I thought about solving this by having guests, but I’m not even sure that would work. I have been listening to a bunch of Duckfeed TV and Gary and Kole have a great thing going. They listen to eachother, they support eachother, their subtle communication works so well and ultimately, they are both passionate about what they do. Having another person feels not only essential for the quality of the end result, but also for the support along the way, bouncing ideas back and forth and sharing the workload.

Writing | Writing doesn’t often come naturally to me. I usually need to be in a specific mood at a specific time. I have no idea how professionals manage to make magic with their words every day, on demand. But, the advantage of writing is that I can take all of the time that I need to shape my words into sentences that actually make sense, without the worry of having to do that on the spot or how I sound. I don’t have the most diverse vocabulary, I dont have the best spelling or understanding of punctuation, but I also don’t have the best speaking or reading skills and that didnt stop be from becoming a streamer. What I do think I have is my own unique tone that is easy to read and who knows, maybe with practice I will get better at those other parts too. The drawback is that there is probably even less of a demand for my writing than there is for anything else I could do. I’m not sure anyone will be interested in reading. Having said that, my videos aren’t popular either so it seems worth a try. At worst, I get the idea off my mind, discover I hate it or develop my skills. At best though, people enjoy it and something comes of it.

The reason I am writing this is becasue I need to let go of the video ideas. Despite everything I have written and the want to let it go, I clutch onto the hope that maybe I can make something good. The ideas constantly circle around my head, half formed, taking up space as a fog that never takes form, clouding the way for anything else. No matter how much I want it, I have to accept that I suck at scripts, I find editing a chore and the glimpses in my head of what could be are not translating into the actual content. Let’s Plays and Streaming suit me well because there is no script, minimal editing down, just pure thoughts. Perhaps the things above will too. So it is time for me to move on and try new things. I’m just sorry there is nothing to show to everyone that is supporting me.

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What I do [2022 Edition]

I make a lot of content, some more consistent than others, so I though I would write a post specifically to explain show all the different things that I do and what any donations/membership money goes towards creating!

Twitch Streaming (CtrlAltNoob0)

My most successful and consistent content all comes from my Twitch channel. I have been streaming for a year and a half now, and tend to stream three times a week. I aim to start at 5pm UK time and go for around 4 hours, but the times are very flexible and if I get lost in a game, well.. time sometimes vanishes.

We play a wide variety of games, most of the time they are story based. I mostly play games on the shorter side with a few longer games here and there. I like take things slowly, getting immersed and exploring everything I can. We have the occasional never ending game that we will always go back to and other little streaming projects on the side, but that is generally what you can expect from Noob streams. I do prioritise my Twitch channel over my other content purely because it is the only avenue that is monetised for me, the more sustainable I get then that will hopefully free up time to do more projects in the future!

YouTube (CtrlAltNoob)

I have been doing my YouTube channel for years. If you were to look at my old videos (don’t do it) you could see how far I have come. I used to make full Lets Plays on my PS4, from recording to editing using the on console features. It was not the best but I loved doing it very much so I didn’t let the technological limitations stop me. Since beginning streaming I have barely made any YouTube specific Lets Plays. It is something that I really want to get back to and will as soon as I have the time. I used to cover every single PS Plus game in ‘Let’s Try’ videos, but now instead I have moved that focus on to indies. I have a weekly Indie Showcase where I play either a free short game or a demo that looks interesting. I also like to cover the indie festivals on steam. I do have aspirations for YouTube and I do see glacial amounts of growth even without putting in all the effort that I would like to. But it makes it difficulty to justify spending the time that I want on YT projects when I am earning my money elsewhere. I’m going to work hard to try to get sustainable, continue my passion projects on the side and then one day, I will deliver all of the plans that I have begun in my head.

Blog (www.ctrlaltnoob.com)

I have a Blog that I use occasionally when I have updates or thoughts that I would like to write long form. My blog is like my YT channel in the sense that I have so many aspirations, but putting in the time is another matter. You should see my plans, I have so many post ideas raring to go. Sadly though, for now my blog is on my passion project list and I can only get to it when I have worked hard on making all of the stream improvements I would like to make. The plans include catching up on all of the posts that I neglected since I started it, game reviews, thought pieces about specific games – either about their narrative or their importance in the gaming world, other more obscure gaming related pieces and more. Currently I mostly use it as a place to share another hobby of mine, images from doing in-game photography which is another passion project that I would love to do more of.

Discord (CtrlAltNoob’s Server)

I do have a discord server for the community and we have a few fun things on the go. Sometimes it is multiplayer games, sometimes its tournaments and then sometimes it is things not even related to gaming like our monthly creative prompt. I like to try to make it a nice place for people to be to spend some time and hopefully find some inspiration to do whatever it is that you would like to do.

Other Socials (Twitter/Instagram)

I have other Social Medias like Twitter, Instagram etc. which are mostly used for keeping everyone up to date and sharing things that I have done, made, or anything else that might excite me. Twitter is more current thoughts and polls for future games, where as Instagram is more photography screenshots. I am thinking about dabbling in Tiktok and YouTube Shorts simply because I have so many fantastic clips. I have made a vertical video template so it seems worth a go, at best it is marketing, at worst nothing happens, so lets see how that goes!

Merch (Redbubble)

I have a Merch store if anyone would like any Noob merch! I would like to do more with this but that would be something way in the future when everything else on the above lists are already on the go. More of a hobby for funsies than anything else. A chance for me to practice art or graphic design and share them with others. I did buy the Do It Noob Hoodie in a large size (I’m a relatively small person) and it is an extremely cozy hoodie, so if anyone was interested in that I would recommend buying one or two sizes up!

Secret Projects

I do have two secret projects that I would really like to get going, but they would take a lot of time and effort that I would love to give but I just don’t have yet. When I do manage it then members will get the sneak peaks of the ideas hopefully coming to life 😊

Eventually I am going to catch up with all of the channel updates I would like to do on Twitch (emotes, fun things, channel trailer etc) and when that time comes, I will have more time to either stream more, work on my other projects, or a bit of both. So hopefully that is a good breakdown of the work I put into creating and how much I would love to do more, hence why memberships became a thing. Having somewhere to share the things that I am working on in advance has been super fun for me and I hope to keep it going for as long as possible!

If you are wondering how you can support me, there are many ways. Liking and commenting on my videos are a good way to give me engagement on YouTube. Sharing a video you like or my stream with a friend who might enjoy my content is fantastic. If you have Amazon Prime that means that you get a free subscription on Twitch. All you have to do is create a Twitch account and link it to your Amazon account. From there, you can subscribe to a streamer of your choice for no extra charge. So if you would like to give away your free money I will always be happy to receive it! Finally, if you would like to leave me a tip you can make a one off donation on Buy Me A Coffee. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my membership, which will get you some sneak peaks at what I am working on for £5 a month, or you can explore the other tiers through the link. Thank you so much for everyone’s patience while I work towards making this thing I love doing a think that I can continue long into the future, I appreciate you all.

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Website Update – November 2021

Hello everyone, I thought it was about time that I wrote something on this blog of mine, and starting with an update only seemed right!

I made this website last year while I was going through a bad time, you know when you just get so immersed in something that it helps you block everything out for a while? I literally worked for 3 days straight, taking my laptop to bed and everything to get this up and running. Obviously, in times like those you may not be thinking straight, and it later became clear that there was no way I was going to keep putting the time in to create new content once it was all out. Then I got heavily into streaming and there was even less time, and the rest is history.

But I’ve decided I want to bring it back. Sometimes I can’t express myself well out loud, sometimes I just don’t want to speak, or sometimes I get really excited about something and this seems like the perfect outlet. I have done some reshuffling of my menus and written some (probably too many) lists so that I finally know where I am with my visions of what I want this to be!

I have changed quite a few of the sections above to group together some pieces I might want to write, so if I have something that I want to write about a game that isn’t necessarily a review I can! I have also realised that everything I write doesn’t have to be a ‘piece’. If I feel like writing only one paragraph about something I can, and I am going to! This is going to be a good place for me to keep everything together and to always have a suitable format to express myself.