How I started my YouTube channel Boldly Unbuffed

How it started

I started my Boldly Unbuffed YouTube channel roughly in February of 2022. I spent a decent amount of time thinking about he formats I wanted to do on the channel before starting it. I knew I wanted to do a short-form game review format, since that was not something I had seen anywhere else before and it felt like a good fit for the Zeitgeist, with short form video formats like Reels and TikTok becoming increasingly more important and replacing longer form video content.

I also knew I wanted to do more traditional Let’s Play series, but also wanted to put some kind of twist on them. I came up with the “Lets Play Through” and the “Git Gud” formats.

The video formats

Let’s Try

The idea behind the Let’s Try series was to present a game review of the first hour of gameplay with a binary conclusion (recommend / do not recommend) in less than 60 seconds. 60 seconds or less would allow me to publish the format on all short video platforms (TikTok, Reels, Shorts). Restricting it to the first hour of gameplay would set the series apart from other longer form game reviews that typically try to capture the full gaming experience. In addition, I decided to put a spotlight on how well suited a game was for quick gaming sessions (e.g. over a lunch break or in between bringing the kids to bed). This decision synergized with the short video format and would address a more mature audience that doesn’t have endless hours to spend on getting accustomed and into a new video game.

Let’s Play Through

The “Lets Play Through” format was a very traditional Let’s Play albeit with a focus on gameplay and story. The game had to be a linear, narrative driven game and I thought that that kind of game could attract an audience that was interested in experiencing the gameplay and story but didn’t have the time or patience actually playing the game itself.

I choose Half-Life: Alyx as the first installment of the format because it was a game I was interested in playing, fit the format very well, and being a VR exclusive increased the potential audience by people interested in the game, but lacking the neccesary hardware to play it themselves. Also, VR continues to be a novelty platform and people might get attracted to the series for the VR gameplay alone vs the format or game specifically.

Git Gud

The idea behind the “Git Gud” format was to document and shed light on the journey of becoming good at a video game. Most succesful streamers and YouTubers are able to build an audience because they are good at the video game they are playing. And a lot of people watch them to take part and learn from their experience, knowledge and skills. What we rarely get to see is the journey to that point though. How do people grow from being absolute noobs at a game to competent and strong players? “Git Gud” was supposed to do exactly that. By setting goals and targets and consistently working towards these, I wanted to show that with the right mindset and approach, anyone can grow to become a competent gamer at any game.

I choose “Slay the Spire” as a game, again, because I was interested in playing it and it’s strategic and tactical nature made it more suitable to become better at without needing to build a lot of physical skills. I could explain and reason through decisions and make it a more productive learning experience for everyone.

Let’s Play Together

Around September I had also started a fourth format “Let’s Play Together” which this time was a social Let’s Play format, i.e. I would play with someone else together. I always enjoyed these kinds of formats myself and I thought it would be fun for both me and the audience.

For the first installment of the format me and my partner Danielle decided to play It Takes Two on the Playstation together. My partner was a decent choice, because I thought it would open up our content to a different audience, namely females and couples. It would also add a different dynamic to those videos that I simply couldn’t bring to the table all by myself.

It Takes Two was a game that seemed relevant at the time, interesting enough that both of us were interested in playing it and just fit the format very well.

Declining Viewers

Up until this point I’ve had seen very slow but sustained growth including some relatively successful Let’s Try episodesisodes. However, towards the end of August and throughout most of September viewership started declining.

Both Half-Life Alyx and It Takes Two were struggling to pull in more than just a handful of viewers at a time and the Git Gud format I had already given up on and a couple months earlier for various reasons, lack of viewers among them.

Having seen slow, but continued growth up until this point gave me confidence that what I was doing was working in some capacity, but seeing viewership drop robbed me of any confidence that I was on a path of progression and improvement.

I decided I had to change something.

Change

In the next blog post I will talk about how I reached out to my social network for help and mentorship, how that lead to some great feedback and insight on my side and lastly how I used my learnings to build an action plan and pivot strategy for my channel that ultimately lead to stronger and more consistent growth.