17:35 man, the witness is my favorite game. Once you played it, theres just nothing that can compete. Also, regarding the tier list as a whole, maybe it wasnt perfect, but at least you tried something different and thats something valuable Also also, I do think you can do this project again when you have 100-200k subscribers and only your core audience will know about the bit.
Hey Tim, I rarely comment videos and I don't remember when I've subscribed to your channel (maybe the Lego video ?). I've really enjoyed your Bluey video, I've discovered Bluey thanks to you and realized all my friends who have children already knew about it. The episode with the french friend hit me hard (I'm french I guess I related) Also, I've felt that you really stepped up with the Saints of Virtues video. I usually play Hearthstone when I watch videos but this one made me stop multi-tasking and focus on the content. Finally, the whole advent calendar tier list project was so funny to me and I've been looking forward to see what would happen to your character. It's true that sometimes I was not really into the content of the tier list per se, but the storyline made me come back. You complain that you're not following the algorithm and prefer to do whatever you enjoy making. I think that's what differs you from other content creators. The algorithm is a good tool to get an audience but I feel (and heard from other content creators) that making what you truly enjoy doing will ultimately make you stand out more. Keep up the good work and good luck for going back to work again!
Thank you for your support! The lack of comments on the tier list videos made me think that nobody was "getting it" and I was just torpedoing my channel for nothing. But I'm happy that a few people got something out of it! As I mentioned, I'd love to attempt something LIKE this again (but totally different framing device I think) when I have more subs.
I really liked tier list videos. I think serious tier lists were working very well early, when it was not so obvious if it is bit or no. But with time I was quite sure it is a bit. So maybe this is when tier list could became a bit of parody as well? I must admit you and Breandon are great actors!
Knowledge Gating is a term I've seen thrown around a lot for Outer Wilds in particular. Definitely applies a lot to Tunic as well. (new Knowledge Gating based game recently released, Chroma Zero).
Hey Tim! This was a really great deep dive back through your year. I found your channel through the Metroidbrainia video and binged most of your vids since. You have a great voice for these kinds of essays and a wonderful bunch of insights. One note you may find interesting, this video actually got me to go back and watch some of your old content I had previosuly skipped over. A few of your videos had pretty genaric titles and thumbnails that I glanced at once and skipped over before because they didn't catch my interest. But the way you talked about those same videos here piqued my curiosity and got me to go check them out (all of which I ended up enjoying). The Pokemon video, for example, was one I thought sounded way too general when I first saw it. Seeing "what's next for Pokemon" just didn't catch my attention. Everyone and their mother has made a video on UA-cam pining for what they think could be cool in the next pokemon game, and that's what I thought your video was. But hearing that video was *actually* about a time another franchise almost took over Pokemon's throne for a brief period in Japan... that sounded so interesting I had to go back and watch it. And wow it was a great video! I had no idea Vermillion City was based on a real place, or the history of Yokohama, and Yokai Watch sounded like a fascinating subject all on its own. You make genuinely entertaining stuff and honestly, if you're looking for areas to improve in 2025, maybe just working on titles and thumbnails could improve your channel's viewership quite a bit. Apologies if this unsolicited advice is at all annoying. But I can't wait to see what you have in store for next year!
Great advice, thank you! I absolutely agree about the thumb/title issues. Just out of curiosity, what would you call the Pokemon one? Sometimes I change titles of videos every now and then- like with the Tomb Raider one, it used to be called "Lara's Home: How Lara Taught Us About Herself" or something. Again, it's really my own fault because I cover so many topics- Pokemon in Japan, Palworld's influence, Yokai Watch's rise and fall, speculation about the next games. It's just hard to come up with a title and thumbnail for all that. Or maybe I should just come up with the title for the first "topic" and then just assume people will stick around for the rest, even though the topics keep shifting? Not sure. There's also the people who complain about "clickbaity thumbnails", like one could argue the Lego Racers one is (even though I feel I prove the point), but then again that's also the most successful video so far, so I guess it does work, no matter how much they (and I) hate naming stuff like that. But anyway thank you for the kind words and support! Comments like this make it all worth it.
@@tin_sensei For Pokemon, I'd title it "The Day Pokemon (almost) Died." Or something similar. Maybe "The franchise that ALMOST killed Pokemon." (EDIT: After seeing your change, it's probably good now as is!) For the Bluey video (since you mentioned that one in this vid) I'd probably title that something along the lines of "If you DONT have children, you need to watch Bluey." Titles on UA-cam today are actually in a really interesting space. In years prior, they were about SEO optimization and whatnot. But today they provide a genuine spot for creativity. UA-cam handles SEO of most content on the backend so you're free to title your content whatever you want regardless of it's subject (in other words, you don't need to worry about hitting keywords anymore.) So I typically try to title videos something that hits the *vibe* of the content in an interesting way. Normally I focus on doing two things: Inspire curiosity and feel relatable. Your lego racers video did so well because it did both of these great. It felt relatable (just through the nostalgia of seeing Lego racers again) while also creating an interesting information gap (it can't be made today? why is that? what made it so special? what makes today different?) Your Metroidbrania video did the same. It was "relatable" in the sense that it featured plenty of familiar games in the thumbnail people will recognize. While also inspiring curiosity with it's title "[This] Genre still has no name." People see that and wonder: "wait what genre are those games? Aren't they puzzles? What makes them different from other puzzle games? I wonder what this is all about..." Some videos can skirt by on just being pure spectacle. That's MrBeast. If you're able to promise something so outrageous people *have* to click on it, you're golden as is obviously. Similarly, it is possible to have a video blow up even with a bland title as MatthewMatosis did however many years ago. But I think for newer channels today, leaning in hard on inspiring curiosity with thumbnails and hitting relatable subjects/feelings for their "target audience" (if you'll pardon the marketing term) is probably the best way to move forward. Don't worry about a title or thumbnail needing to encompass everything you talk about in a video. Just think about what the most interesting angle is on your overall thesis and how to best give an elevator pitch for that to a stranger.
@@gbay99 Great advice, thank you for taking the time to write it! Had no idea about the SEO changes you mentioned. I have always respected MatthewMatosis for having the balls to title his videos something totally bland like “Wind Waker Review” with no real thumbnail. As if it’s a book in a library or something. The fact that he never broke that protocol from his very first video but still managed to blow up is really amazing. In a way, I wish I could title things like that too, like “Lego Racers Review”. But I agree with you that those days are done and have been for a while. I’ll take a look through my videos and see which ones could use a thumbnail and title revamp based on your advice. Thanks again!
@@tin_sensei I think MatthewMatosis's videos did something really interesting because of the era he first started releasing his videos. He created his first vids in an era before JosephAnderson and other long-form video game reviewers blew up. Most "reviews" on UA-cam at the time were either a TotalBiscuit style, where they were long-form let's plays with a focus of showing uncut gameplay to give an honest look. Or they were more traditional reviews like IGN, Gamespot, or even Angryjoe, where they were meant to do a top-down essay style review of games like something you'd read out of a magazine, typically clocking in at 10-30 mins. All other gaming content in that ~2012 era were top 10 videos, or sketch comedy shows from nerds having fun nerding out about their favorite titles. MatthewMatosis released videos that were "critiques" instead of reviews, and almost always stretched to 30-60 minutes in length. He frequently covered games that were old (not just recent releases) releasing critiques for titles years after they came out. That, in its own weird way, inspired curiosity for UA-cam viewers back then. Seeing someone post a 40 minute review of Majoras Mask in 2012 was uniquely attention grabbing (when sandwiched between PeanutButterGamer top 10s and IGN 8 min reviews of recent releases in someone's recommended feed.) Nowadays though his content isn't nearly as attention grabbing since so many channels have copied him in the past decade. It's pretty usual to see people post 30-60 min videos trying to deep dive on their favorite game. And tons of other creators are copying that minimalist approach of just letting a simple title and a long timecode attract viewers. If a newer UA-camr were to try and start an analysis channel with nothing but a minimalist title and thumbnail analyzing the same video games, they'd get drowned out in the crowd. The "metagame" for making titles and thumbnails is always a contrarian one. If you're ever stuck, you should try and take a look at what other people are doing in your sphere, before then going in the other direction. If everyone is minimalist, go wild. If everyone is going wild (with red arrows, top 10s, and all caps titles) go minimalist. Just think on what UA-cam viewers will be seeing in their recommended feeds and home pages, and then think on how you can best stand out across that crowd. If all else fails, just think about creating that information gap. A title and thumbnail should promise "I have something interesting that you'd like to hear, click here to check it out." You can sell that through straight spectacle like a MrBeast video. Or you can just promise something simpler. A relatable story, a nostalgia trip, or a unique question. Just make sure viewers won't think they already know what the video is before clicking on it!
First of all, I love your videos, but I think you might be misinterpreting who your main audience is. To my mind you fill the same niche as those people who make multihour long videos on random subjects, just a bit shorter. And those people definitely do not stick to a single subject. Not even within a single video. Looking forward to seeing more from you in the future. Of course I may be wrong about this hypothesis. I am just a casual viewer.
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17:35 man, the witness is my favorite game. Once you played it, theres just nothing that can compete.
Also, regarding the tier list as a whole, maybe it wasnt perfect, but at least you tried something different and thats something valuable
Also also, I do think you can do this project again when you have 100-200k subscribers and only your core audience will know about the bit.
Hey Tim, I rarely comment videos and I don't remember when I've subscribed to your channel (maybe the Lego video ?).
I've really enjoyed your Bluey video, I've discovered Bluey thanks to you and realized all my friends who have children already knew about it. The episode with the french friend hit me hard (I'm french I guess I related)
Also, I've felt that you really stepped up with the Saints of Virtues video. I usually play Hearthstone when I watch videos but this one made me stop multi-tasking and focus on the content.
Finally, the whole advent calendar tier list project was so funny to me and I've been looking forward to see what would happen to your character. It's true that sometimes I was not really into the content of the tier list per se, but the storyline made me come back.
You complain that you're not following the algorithm and prefer to do whatever you enjoy making. I think that's what differs you from other content creators. The algorithm is a good tool to get an audience but I feel (and heard from other content creators) that making what you truly enjoy doing will ultimately make you stand out more.
Keep up the good work and good luck for going back to work again!
Thank you for your support! The lack of comments on the tier list videos made me think that nobody was "getting it" and I was just torpedoing my channel for nothing. But I'm happy that a few people got something out of it! As I mentioned, I'd love to attempt something LIKE this again (but totally different framing device I think) when I have more subs.
I really liked tier list videos. I think serious tier lists were working very well early, when it was not so obvious if it is bit or no. But with time I was quite sure it is a bit. So maybe this is when tier list could became a bit of parody as well? I must admit you and Breandon are great actors!
Knowledge Gating is a term I've seen thrown around a lot for Outer Wilds in particular. Definitely applies a lot to Tunic as well.
(new Knowledge Gating based game recently released, Chroma Zero).
Hey Tim! This was a really great deep dive back through your year. I found your channel through the Metroidbrainia video and binged most of your vids since. You have a great voice for these kinds of essays and a wonderful bunch of insights.
One note you may find interesting, this video actually got me to go back and watch some of your old content I had previosuly skipped over. A few of your videos had pretty genaric titles and thumbnails that I glanced at once and skipped over before because they didn't catch my interest. But the way you talked about those same videos here piqued my curiosity and got me to go check them out (all of which I ended up enjoying).
The Pokemon video, for example, was one I thought sounded way too general when I first saw it. Seeing "what's next for Pokemon" just didn't catch my attention. Everyone and their mother has made a video on UA-cam pining for what they think could be cool in the next pokemon game, and that's what I thought your video was. But hearing that video was *actually* about a time another franchise almost took over Pokemon's throne for a brief period in Japan... that sounded so interesting I had to go back and watch it. And wow it was a great video! I had no idea Vermillion City was based on a real place, or the history of Yokohama, and Yokai Watch sounded like a fascinating subject all on its own.
You make genuinely entertaining stuff and honestly, if you're looking for areas to improve in 2025, maybe just working on titles and thumbnails could improve your channel's viewership quite a bit. Apologies if this unsolicited advice is at all annoying. But I can't wait to see what you have in store for next year!
Great advice, thank you! I absolutely agree about the thumb/title issues. Just out of curiosity, what would you call the Pokemon one? Sometimes I change titles of videos every now and then- like with the Tomb Raider one, it used to be called "Lara's Home: How Lara Taught Us About Herself" or something.
Again, it's really my own fault because I cover so many topics- Pokemon in Japan, Palworld's influence, Yokai Watch's rise and fall, speculation about the next games.
It's just hard to come up with a title and thumbnail for all that. Or maybe I should just come up with the title for the first "topic" and then just assume people will stick around for the rest, even though the topics keep shifting? Not sure. There's also the people who complain about "clickbaity thumbnails", like one could argue the Lego Racers one is (even though I feel I prove the point), but then again that's also the most successful video so far, so I guess it does work, no matter how much they (and I) hate naming stuff like that.
But anyway thank you for the kind words and support! Comments like this make it all worth it.
@@tin_sensei For Pokemon, I'd title it "The Day Pokemon (almost) Died." Or something similar. Maybe "The franchise that ALMOST killed Pokemon." (EDIT: After seeing your change, it's probably good now as is!)
For the Bluey video (since you mentioned that one in this vid) I'd probably title that something along the lines of "If you DONT have children, you need to watch Bluey."
Titles on UA-cam today are actually in a really interesting space. In years prior, they were about SEO optimization and whatnot. But today they provide a genuine spot for creativity. UA-cam handles SEO of most content on the backend so you're free to title your content whatever you want regardless of it's subject (in other words, you don't need to worry about hitting keywords anymore.) So I typically try to title videos something that hits the *vibe* of the content in an interesting way.
Normally I focus on doing two things: Inspire curiosity and feel relatable. Your lego racers video did so well because it did both of these great. It felt relatable (just through the nostalgia of seeing Lego racers again) while also creating an interesting information gap (it can't be made today? why is that? what made it so special? what makes today different?)
Your Metroidbrania video did the same. It was "relatable" in the sense that it featured plenty of familiar games in the thumbnail people will recognize. While also inspiring curiosity with it's title "[This] Genre still has no name." People see that and wonder: "wait what genre are those games? Aren't they puzzles? What makes them different from other puzzle games? I wonder what this is all about..."
Some videos can skirt by on just being pure spectacle. That's MrBeast. If you're able to promise something so outrageous people *have* to click on it, you're golden as is obviously. Similarly, it is possible to have a video blow up even with a bland title as MatthewMatosis did however many years ago. But I think for newer channels today, leaning in hard on inspiring curiosity with thumbnails and hitting relatable subjects/feelings for their "target audience" (if you'll pardon the marketing term) is probably the best way to move forward.
Don't worry about a title or thumbnail needing to encompass everything you talk about in a video. Just think about what the most interesting angle is on your overall thesis and how to best give an elevator pitch for that to a stranger.
@@gbay99 Great advice, thank you for taking the time to write it! Had no idea about the SEO changes you mentioned.
I have always respected MatthewMatosis for having the balls to title his videos something totally bland like “Wind Waker Review” with no real thumbnail. As if it’s a book in a library or something. The fact that he never broke that protocol from his very first video but still managed to blow up is really amazing. In a way, I wish I could title things like that too, like “Lego Racers Review”. But I agree with you that those days are done and have been for a while.
I’ll take a look through my videos and see which ones could use a thumbnail and title revamp based on your advice. Thanks again!
@@tin_sensei I think MatthewMatosis's videos did something really interesting because of the era he first started releasing his videos.
He created his first vids in an era before JosephAnderson and other long-form video game reviewers blew up. Most "reviews" on UA-cam at the time were either a TotalBiscuit style, where they were long-form let's plays with a focus of showing uncut gameplay to give an honest look. Or they were more traditional reviews like IGN, Gamespot, or even Angryjoe, where they were meant to do a top-down essay style review of games like something you'd read out of a magazine, typically clocking in at 10-30 mins. All other gaming content in that ~2012 era were top 10 videos, or sketch comedy shows from nerds having fun nerding out about their favorite titles.
MatthewMatosis released videos that were "critiques" instead of reviews, and almost always stretched to 30-60 minutes in length. He frequently covered games that were old (not just recent releases) releasing critiques for titles years after they came out. That, in its own weird way, inspired curiosity for UA-cam viewers back then. Seeing someone post a 40 minute review of Majoras Mask in 2012 was uniquely attention grabbing (when sandwiched between PeanutButterGamer top 10s and IGN 8 min reviews of recent releases in someone's recommended feed.)
Nowadays though his content isn't nearly as attention grabbing since so many channels have copied him in the past decade. It's pretty usual to see people post 30-60 min videos trying to deep dive on their favorite game. And tons of other creators are copying that minimalist approach of just letting a simple title and a long timecode attract viewers. If a newer UA-camr were to try and start an analysis channel with nothing but a minimalist title and thumbnail analyzing the same video games, they'd get drowned out in the crowd.
The "metagame" for making titles and thumbnails is always a contrarian one. If you're ever stuck, you should try and take a look at what other people are doing in your sphere, before then going in the other direction. If everyone is minimalist, go wild. If everyone is going wild (with red arrows, top 10s, and all caps titles) go minimalist. Just think on what UA-cam viewers will be seeing in their recommended feeds and home pages, and then think on how you can best stand out across that crowd.
If all else fails, just think about creating that information gap. A title and thumbnail should promise "I have something interesting that you'd like to hear, click here to check it out." You can sell that through straight spectacle like a MrBeast video. Or you can just promise something simpler. A relatable story, a nostalgia trip, or a unique question. Just make sure viewers won't think they already know what the video is before clicking on it!
I really like Yokai watch part of Pokemon video!
First of all, I love your videos, but I think you might be misinterpreting who your main audience is.
To my mind you fill the same niche as those people who make multihour long videos on random subjects, just a bit shorter.
And those people definitely do not stick to a single subject. Not even within a single video.
Looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.
Of course I may be wrong about this hypothesis. I am just a casual viewer.
i agree with every part of this ^^