How To Become A Gaming Content Creator In 2020

There are plenty of reasons to become a gaming content creator in 2020. The salary is pretty remarkable (if you can get to the upper echelons of the profession, of course), and you get to do what you love as a career, which is always a plus.

What’s more, with the coronavirus pandemic still unfortunately raging on with no concrete end in sight, becoming a streamer is probably looking like a very attractive career for anyone who’s found themselves at the wrong end of an industry collapse or job loss.

It’s not always easy to know exactly how to start on the path to becoming a gaming content creator, though. This is, after all, an intensely competitive industry, and if you don’t bring your A game to both preparation and execution, you may find yourself outclassed by people who do.

While that doesn’t necessarily mean having consummate skill in the game you’re playing, it does mean you’ll need to know what you’re doing before you actually embark on your streaming journey. Here’s how to become a gaming streamer in 2020.

Develop your brand

Before you even consider setting up a profile and creating content for some games, it’s important to consider what your personal brand is going to be. This is how you’ll attract and maintain a viewership; if you’re just “someone playing games”, you likely won’t be able to set yourself apart from the many other creators who are effecting the same persona. Think very carefully about who you want to be and what kind of personality you want to bring across when you’re established.

Create an aesthetic

Great content creators have aesthetics that their viewers can associate with their content. This means coming up with a consistent visual brand that is immediately identifiable with you.

Crafting an avatar, using a gaming intro maker to build an intro for your profile, and ensuring you have a solid set of catchphrases and calls to action (asking people to like your video and subscribe to your channel) are all crucial things you need to do if you want to make a gaming channel on platforms like YouTube or Twitch.

Make sure your PC’s up to snuff

Streaming is far more taxing for your setup than you might initially think it is. While a dedicated gaming PC will certainly help you to create content, it won’t necessarily be able to handle the heavy and taxing load on your CPU and memory that editing videos or streaming content can create. That’s why it can pay to have a second dedicated PC to handle the streaming. If you don’t intend to stream and only want to create edited content, you’ll still need a pretty beefy machine to do so.

Get the gear

To become a content creator, you’ll need a gaming machine on which to play games and a method of capturing said games. On PC, this is easy; simply opt for OBS and play games that way. If you’re a console gamer, you’ll probably need a dedicated capture card.

Beyond that, you’ll also want to think about a good-quality microphone and webcam (if you’re opting to show your face to your followers). This is the bare minimum you’ll need for streaming, but you’ll also want peripherals such as a microphone stand, headphones, and other important content creation paraphernalia.

Work with other content creators

You may view other content creators as your rivals. To a certain extent, that’s true; other content creators are effectively vying for the same views you are. However, that can also be an opportunity for you. Networking with other gaming content creators allows for audience crossover and introduces people to creators they may not otherwise have known about. Friendly rivalries are fine, but be sure not to view other content creators as enemies; you’re all in this together, after all.

Use social media

It’s almost impossible to publicise your content in this day and age without a strong social media presence. Look at your audience (which is likely to be young people if you’re a gaming content creator). Which social media platform are they congregating on? That’s where you need to be. Right now, the most popular social media apps among younger people include Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, so it pays to have presences on those platforms. You’ll also want to look at nascent and up-and-coming platforms to see if you can get ahead of the curve.

Upload or stream content regularly

The worst thing you can do as a streamer or content creator is go for long periods of time without providing your audience with content. Make sure you have a regular schedule so that followers know exactly when to expect new things from you. Of course, depending on the content you’re creating – edited content is going to take longer than a simple Let’s Play series – that schedule may be more sporadic or more regular.

Either way, just make sure that it’s consistent. “Every Wednesday” is a good schedule. “When I feel like it” is not acceptable if you’re looking to make streaming or content creation into a profession.

These are our tips on how to get started as a gaming content creator. There is, of course, much more to the profession, but it all depends on your personal situation. Are you a content creator? What challenges have you faced, and what lessons have you learned?