Tag Archives: Firewatch

Ranneko Plays – 2017 YouTube Analytics Review

2017 has been over for quite a while now, so how did Ranneko Plays do? YouTube provides analytics to creators to give them a sense of what is popular on their channel, what demographics they appeal to, how long people are watching, etc. In theory, this should allow me to get meaningful information about my channel and help me find ways to improve my videos and grow my channel.

What did I release in 2017?

YouTube makes this information surprisingly difficult to collect, which means no pretty graphs, just text for this one.

During 2017, I published 334 videos, 331 of them following a fixed schedule, and 3 extras near the end of the year.

At the start of the year I released videos every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On April 10th I shifted to a daily release schedule and I am extremely pleased to have not missed a single update during that time even with an extensive travel schedule. It seemed that I was always building up and running down the buffer in response to an upcoming trip or time away during 2017.

During that time, I covered:

Pillars of Eternity – Continued, paused though much of the year
Torment: Tides of Numenera – Completed, also spent a fair amount of time on the beta
Sunless Sea: Submariner – Completed
Polybridge – Single Stream
Pit People – Early Access (Completed the available storyline with Syfro)
Renowned Explorers: International Society – Completed
Abduction Blues – Some weird thing my friends made at a game jam
My Mom is A Witch – Dropped (Not very good)
XCOM 2 – Dropped (Technical Difficulties)
Massive Chalice – Completed
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Completed
Thimbleweed Park – Completed (Played with Syfro)
Curious Expedition – Dropped (One bug too many)
Star Realms – Dissecting Replays
Heat Signature – Tips, replays, and a traditional let’s play
Emily Is Away Too – Completed
Firewatch – Started

That is a total of 17 different games, 15 if you exclude DLC and game jams games

On April 10th 2017, Ranneko Plays started to release videos every single day. I am quite proud of the fact I have not missed a single day since, but was it worth it?

Not really, but let’s quantify, using graphs!

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Ranneko Plays Finishing Up Two Games – Channel Update 2018-01-05

In a rare occurance this week I finished up 2 games in the same update period. Both Firewatch and Emily is Away Too are fairly short experiences, focused not on spacial challenges but on telling a story and providing a more emotional experience. Unfortunately, neither game seems to have captured any attention from my subscribers. They don’t even have the normal New Game bump for the start of the series. I’m not sure why.

Is it just a quiet time on the channel?

Are these games neither popular or recent enough to attract attention?

Are they simply not the kinds of games my viewers are interested in?

Unfortunately with a small, quiet viewership it is very difficult to get any feedback to draw conclusions from. Which is kind of frustrating because getting feedback would make it easier to pick new games to play. In order to delay a little bit, this Sunday I am going to experiment with a bit more Heat Signature content. But I would love to get game suggestions from you humble reader. Both for longer games in the Mon/Wed/Fri slot and shorter games for Sundays.

The last week’s releases were:

Saturday and Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Sunday: Ran Is Away Too
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Ranwatch
Tuesday: Heat Signature Hot Tips / Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!

Ranneko Plays Realtime Heat Signature – Channel Update 2017-12-29

Sorry for not posting last week, the lead up to Christmas had me a little too occupied to sit down and write this up.

If you have been watching the channel, you might have also noticed a few videos being published on Friday outside the normal schedule. These videos:

I have been somewhat obsessed with Heat Signature of late, for some reason it seems to have grabbed me harder than almost anyone else I know and as a result I have spent a lot of time looking at what other people have been saying about the game. In particular I noticed a number of people wishing there was the ability to show a replay of a mission without any of the pauses or slowdowns the game provides to make things a little more managable.

I realised that, as the owner of a video editor, I was in a position to effectively make that kind of a replay. It takes a lot of work, and it isn’t perfect, a few times single frames of pause screens pop in, but I have been able to take Heat Signature missions and create footage of them proceeding in real-time. It is amazing just how much information is either lost or obscured this way, you will see your character charge into a group of guards and they will all suddenly fall over, or you will literally just run through a room at breakneck speed, giving the guards no time to react as you steal a key and keep moving.

These videos have proved really popular, so I will probably make more of them, especially since I am, after all, still playing the game. The only problem is that they don’t fit into the normal schedule. Should I change the schedule? Is it okay to just occasionally release extra videos or do I risk having my channel be perceived as spammy? What do you think?

The last two weeks releases were:

Week ending 22nd:

Saturday and Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Sunday: Ran Is Away Too
Monday, Wednesday: The Ransistance: War of the Chosen
Tuesday: Heat Signature Hot Tips / Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips
Friday: Ranwatch

Week ending 29th:

Saturday and Thursday: Pillars of Ranternity
Sunday: Ran Is Away Too
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Ranwatch
Tuesday: Heat Signature Hot Tips / Ranneko’s Tuesday Tips

After the break, more about the videos that released last week!