Thinking about recording gameplay videos of your own, quitting your day job and building a career as a professional YouTuber? Before you get ahead of yourself, you should know that recording gameplay videos is one thing, but creating engaging gameplay videos that attract and keep viewers interested is quite another.
To put it simply: If you want to publish gameplay videos that make an impact, you need to make sure they’re as engaging as possible, and that starts with these five tips:
Only use high quality gameplay footage
Viewers expect a certain quality when they watch gameplay videos, and you can’t afford to let them down. Starting to capture video on PC in 1080p and above 30 frames per second is good, but you need to also make sure the game you’re playing doesn’t have any performance issues that could affect the quality of the footage.
Make sure you choose the right games
Generally there tend to be a lot more people looking for videos of popular or trending games, and so you should try to create gameplay videos of them. While there is certainly a niche market for gameplay videos of more obscure games – you aren’t likely to obtain many viewers as less people will be looking for that content.
Think of the game that you choose as your subject matter, and for it to be relevant to potential viewers it needs to be a game that already has a large player base, or a new release that lots of people may be interested in finding out more about.
Be passionate and enthusiastic about the game that you’re playing
Gameplay videos are very often personality-driven, which is why some YouTubers are able to build up much larger followings than others. At a bare minimum you should try to be passionate and enthusiastic about the game that you’re playing – and show it in your gameplay videos.
Most of your viewers are likely to be gamers who are passionate about the game themselves, or at very least looking to see how excited it makes you. In short be sure to show your passion, and make sure it looks authentic.
Invest in high quality audio
One of the most important aspects of any gaming video tends to be the commentary – as that’s what you’ll use to showcase your personality and deliver your message to viewers. A solid commentary can thoroughly engage viewers, but before you can get there you will need to make sure your audio quality is top notch.
Often it will take a bit of an investment to be able to record high quality audio, most notably in the microphone that you’re using. On top of that you may also have to find a place to record that has minimal background noise, or you’ll spend ages trying to edit it out.
Learn how to use jump cuts
Arguably the most important editing technique that you need to know is the ‘jump cut’. It is basically a technique that moves the video forward in time by cutting ahead, and it is especially useful in gameplay videos as it will let you skip over any boring parts.
After all no one really wants to see you farm your way through 100 identical mobs for a quest, and you could instead just show yourself killing the first few, then jump cut to the last few. That will move the video along at a faster pace, and make it more engaging.
If you make use of these tips when you record and create gameplay videos, you’ll find the results are certainly worthwhile and you should be able to engage and retain more viewers, and start building up a following much faster. While you probably won’t want to quit your day job just yet, being able to create engaging gameplay videos will certainly help you take a big step forward.
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