Tag Archives: Sunless Sea

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 Vacation – Channel Update 2017-05-26

I am on holiday. The trip actually only kicked off yesterday, but understandably I’m not exactly able to keep updating and recording videos while I am away. As I have mentioned in the posts for the previous weeks it has taken a fair amount of preparation but at this point, the channel should pretty much just play itself. Videos releasing at midday every day, automatically tweeting out and adding themselves to the appropriate playlists. The marvels of the built-in YouTube scheduling and playlist systems.

This week I finish Ranless Sea and put a pause of Pillars of Ranternity, that means next week you will see some changes to the schedule. In the Monday/Friday slot I will be fighting the alien overlords in The Ransistance (you can sign up to become a soldier here. On Wednesdays I revisit my favourite game from 2015 and play through Massive Chalice for the first time since I wrapped up my Massive Tips series.

The current schedule is:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – Ranneko and Syfro Play Pit People
Sundays: Ranowned Explorers: International Society
Monday and Friday: Pillars of Ranternity
Tuesday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera
Wednesday: The Ranless Sea: Zubmariner

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

Ranneko Plays Preparation – Channel Update 2017-05-19

Working with a buffer can be hard but very rewarding. I am currently getting ready for a trip at the end of the month. I won’t be gone for too long, just under 2 weeks, but to do that I need to ensure that I can extend the buffer far enough.

Generally speaking, I do most of my recording on the weekend, but vacations generally take up weekends on both sides of the trip, which means I not only have to cover the period I will be away, but a little longer until I can find more time to record. This means a 2 week trip needs a minimum of a 3-week buffer.

Somewhat unhelpfully, the trip also falls on the changeover points for 2 of my series. At the end of this month Ranless Sea will wrap up and Pillars of Ranternity will be taking a well-deserved break. This means that I need to try to prepare 3 weeks worth of each of the new series, along with prepping the title screen and ideally outros. At least if some of this falls behind I can try to get a little done during the trip.

At the time of posting this may be a little bit late, but one of the new series will be titled The Ransistance and will be an XCOM 2 Let’s Play. If you want to join up please fill out this form. (NB: the only thing you absolutely HAVE to provide is a name, everything else is optional)

The current schedule is:

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

Ranneko Plays Scheduling – Channel Update 2017-05-12

In terms of viewership the channel has not changed much. I am still seeing very low engagement with my longer running series, Pillars of Ranternity and even Torment: Tides of Ranmenera is barely getting any interest. Worse still I am losing motivation to play Pillars of Eternity and so, in the absence of any written or vocal feedback I have decided to take a break from Pillars. In my recordings I have reached the end of the White March Part 1 and that seems like a suitable stopping point. I will return to it eventually but I think some separation will do me some good.

At this point I think I will start an XCOM2 Let’s Play to replace it. That game stole a week or so from me just after it released and I would like to go back to it now all the DLC is out and the mods are more mature. Let me know if you are interested in being recruited and if you have any mods you would recommend I play.

The backlog itself still in a state of flux, on YouTube I am only solid through to the 18th, but I have raw footage that will see me through to the 26th when Pillars wraps up. In general, 2 weeks feels like a pretty good buffer, but I have a trip coming up at the end of the month. If I don’t get some extra recording done it will be hard to keep up the same consistency of output in June.

The current schedule is:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – My Mom is a Witch
Sundays: Ranowned Explorers: International Society
Monday and Friday: Pillars of Ranternity
Tuesday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera
Wednesday: The Ranless Sea: Zubmariner

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

Ranneko Plays Games – Channel Update 2017-05-05

My buffer is shrinking disconcertingly quickly. I now am covered for daily episodes through to the 15th of May with only a small amount of unedited videos to help extend things. I need to find the motivation to sit and record more. What doesn’t help is the complete lack of feedback on the new schedule. My attempts to get it so far have proven unsuccessful and the only other metrics I have to go on aren’t exactly ideal. Since the release of Torment: Tides of Numenera my view count has dwindled dramatically and many of my new videos are being almost completely ignored. I would love to know why. Are the games just no longer fresh? Am I putting out too many videos? Should I take a break or change the format. I really need some human feedback here, not just numbers without much context.

The current schedule is:

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

Ranneko Plays Too Many Games – Channel Update 2017-04-21

It’s been a while since I posted, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. In fact, right now I have new videos on my channel every single day. Unfortunately, it has proven… difficult to post regularly on the site because my update system wasn’t really intended to cope with this kind of volume. Plus some of my regular series have gone on long enough that it is difficult to avoid repeating myself. The plan from this point is to weekly summary posts so regular readers can keep up with at least the broad strokes.

The current schedule is:

Saturday: Syfro Saturdays – Something involving my good friend Syfro
Sundays: Ranowned Explorers: International Society
Monday and Friday: Pillars of Ranternity
Tuesday and Thursday: Torment: Tides of Ranmenera
Wednesday: The Ranless Sea: Zubmariner

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

Indie Wonderland: Sunless Sea

Ah, Sunless Sea. It’s finally here! Long-term readers of Ninja Blues and listeners of our Discourse Dojo podcast — such as it is — may remember that I name-dropped Sunless Sea as one of the few games whose Early Access program I actually liked in the podcast of that topic. I even very specifically added a note about its projected February 2015 release date in the post-podcast post. And hey, look at that! Failbetter Games basically came through on their promise 100%.

Hell, even-more-long-term followers of my work may even remember that my on-again-off-again infatuation with Failbetter Games’ magnum opus, Fallen London, was the principle reason I first got on Twitter in the first place! That I would write about Sunless Sea, spiritual successor to a game that’s brought me so much joy and randomly arguing with strangers instead of sleeping on time, at the earliest opportunity was basically a given.

(Spoiler levels: Narrative, low. Mechanical, medium-high.)

(Game source: Kickstarter reward.)

After the break: Sunless Sea. How many suns are there in Sunless Sea? *The answer may surprise you!*

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