How to start a cosy gaming YouTube channel
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Be honest with yourself. How many times have you sat on the sofa and found yourself thinking about your cosy gaming hobby and wondered if you could possibly do something more with that? Maybe you’ve considered becoming a streamer or making content on YouTube but you have no idea where to start with it. Will you be any good at it? Will anyone watch it and what happens if your videos suck?!
There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to starting a YouTube channel, but it’s not as difficult as it seems to get started. I’ve been making content now for 3 years and I’ve learnt a lot in that time. Here are the most important things you need to know so you can get started with a bang on YouTube.
Pick a niche
The first thing you are going to want to do as part of starting your cosy gaming YouTube channel is to pick a niche for your channel.
We already know you are into cosy gaming and this is a great place to start, but the niche of cosy gaming is pretty wide. So, you want to narrow down your focus so that you are able to make content which fits in with what you want to make.
What this normally leads to is picking a game or a few games to start playing on your channel and you may find yourself asking right now “but what game do I play?” It’s the question that so many gaming channels wonder right at the start of their journey. Do you play something like Minecraft which is super popular or a small unknown indie game?
Here’s a big piece of advice: the game you play does not matter!
Out of anything when it comes to starting a YouTube channel, the game you play is the least important decision. Instead of asking yourself what game you should play, ask yourself what you can talk about all day, every day for the next however many years. When you have an answer to this question, you’ll know what you should play on your channel.
Pick a game or a few games that you absolutely love and use this as the starting point of what you cover on your channel.
From there, you want to think about the style of content you are going to make. Let’s play videos are all well and good, but most people don’t watch them any more. Think about who you naturally are and what you are good at and use this to direct you.
Are you more of a builder in game? If so, you may want to consider doing decorating videos. If you are someone who knows a lot about game mechanics, you may want to consider making how to guides to help others get the most out of their games. Or, if you like to stay up to date on what is happening in your game, you might want to consider making videos covering news and rumours.
From there, you then want to consider the format of your content. YouTube has three different ways to showcase your creativity: videos, shorts and livestreams. All of these require different skillsets and understanding which format is going to be right for you is really important.
Think about how the content you want to make lends to each format, from there you can narrow down your selection to where you put your time and energy.
Pick the right channel name
Once you know the niche you are going in, it’s time to pick your channel name. This is by far and large, the largest pitfall you can get into at the beginning of your journey and a lot of creators like you get stuck on what is best to name their channel.
You want to think of your channel name as the foundation of your brand as this is how you are going to be known online. So, you want to pick a name which is short and easy to remember. YouTube has a limit on how long your channel name is before it cuts off so if you keep it short, you will see the full thing displayed all the time.
Some people choose to use their real name as their channel, and you can do that if you want to, but it’s not absolutely necessary. So, if you want to use your gamer tag or a nickname, you can.
What can be helpful though is to keep your channel name aligned to your niche. For example, when Animal Crossing: New Horizons was really popular, there were a lot of channels which called themselves “something” Crossing (e.g. Twilight Crossing). Other gaming channels stick a keyword like “games” or “plays” in their channel name to make it clear that they are a gaming channel.
Ultimately, what matters when you pick a channel name is that you are prepared to keep it for a while as this is going to be the starting point for creating your brand online.
Once you have picked a channel name, make sure you get the handle on every social media platform! Even if you don’t plan on posting to Instagram or Twitter, getting your username on every social media platform means that if you do decide to post on there in the future, your content can be found more easily.
Create your branding
Now you know what your channel name is, it’s time to solidify your branding!
This is where you are going to make your channel come to life. Your branding is the packaging you are using to make your content more easily identifiable. Think channel banner, profile picture and thumbnails. Everything which is not the content yourself is the packaging and this is how you are going to sell what you do to your audience.
The most important part of your branding is going to be your colour scheme. As fun as it is to be a rainbow all the time, that doesn’t work for everyone. Try to pick two or three colours which you like that represent your brand to your audience and make sure these fit together perfectly.
One of my favourite tools to use is Canva’s colour wheel. Here you can select one colour you like and it will then automatically select one or two extra complementary colours which you can use in your branding. Make sure to keep a note of the hex codes as these will be how you find the exact colours you want later!
You also want to think about the text fonts you are going to use as this also feeds into your style. Something in a handwritten style can give a very different feel to a font which has harsher edges. When picking fonts, you want to go with something which is easy to read. Yes, you may be able to read it on your screen, but if your font is super teeny tiny on a screen, can an elderly family member read it? If not, you may want to pick something else.
If you are planning on being on camera, then you will want to think about the backdrop to your filming setup. Your background on camera will be representing your channel in some way so you will want to make sure this fits with your branding. Move things around, put in items or lights which match your colour scheme or, if you can’t change it, use your background as the backbone of developing the colour scheme for your YouTube channel.
Also, if you are prone to messiness, make sure you tidy up as you don’t want a discarded hoodie showing up the background of all of your footage for the month!
What is important though when you are developing your branding is that you keep it consistent. You may see channels go through refreshes where they change their colour scheme and logo or profile picture, but typically this should be done rarely. Your audience will associate your branding with you and if you make too many changes to often, what you will find is they get confused and may not remember following you in the first place.
The best equipment to get started on YouTube.
Now that you’ve got your channel set up and ready to go and you know what niche you are in. It’s time to start making some content. However, where do you start with it all?
If you’ve ever seen those really expensive set ups which are really aesthetic, you probably think that’s the absolute minimum you need to start making content for YouTube. I can tell you for a fact that it is not.
It’s all too easy to get swept up in the gaming set ups of those channels which have thousands of subscribers, but you have to remember that almost everyone starts their channel at zero subscribers and with very little money.
There are only a few basic items that you need to get started:
PC or laptop
Capture card (if you are gaming on a console)
Microphone
Camera
Most people have access to a PC or laptop. The only thing you need to make sure is that it is capable of running the relevant software you need to use to make videos.
If you are intending to cover games on a console, you are going to need to purchase a capture card. There are lots of different ones on the market, but this is the one area that I would say you should never scrimp on! You don’t have to spend a fortune, but a medium priced one is a good option. The one I will always recommend is the Elgato HD 60 X. I’ve used Elgato capture cards since I started and they have never let me down!
Microphones are where you can easily spend hundreds of pounds or dollars and, in all honesty, you really don’t need to. A simple microphone to get you started is normally around £100/$100, but you can make almost any microphone sound good with filters and effects.
If you are going to be on camera, you can get away with filming on your phone if you really have to or if you want to have a dedicated camera so you can still keep access to your phone, a good option is the Logitech C922 webcam and, like with microphones, you can make anything look better with filters and effects that you can apply later.
The most important thing with creating content to begin with is that you don’t spend hundreds on a set up. You really don’t need to. Going with just the basics to begin with means that you can test, learn and play without worrying too much about the cost. If you want to, you can also look into the option of getting some of the basics second hand so that you can save a bit to put back into your content later.
Consume content
So, now you are on the verge of making content or you may have started working on a few videos and you are incredibly excited to publish and get your name and branding out there. It’s a very exciting time, but I want you to do one thing before you hit the big publish button. Watch other people’s content.
It’s not everyday you will hear that from creators but it’s honestly the biggest thing you can do for yourself. You need to watch other creators in your niche and get ideas of styles of filming, editing, script writing and gameplay and make notes of the things you like and don’t like.
This isn’t about directly copying someone else, copying is not a good thing. But, you can take different influences from different creators and use this to formulate your brand and voice within your space.
For example, if you spot a creator who makes amazing thumbnails on their videos and you want to emulate them, make a note of what you like about their thumbnails. It doesn’t mean you have to make the same video they did, but you can use their thumbnail style as a starting point for your own thumbnails and play around from there to find something you like which works on your channel.
And when it comes to consuming content, make sure you are consuming content in the formats you are looking to go into.
One thing which can really let creators down is if they say they want to go into YouTube shorts, but they admit they never watch shorts. If you aren’t consuming the content that you want go into, you are never going to learn how to put your channel in the best possible space when you go into that medium.
Take a little bit of time through the week and watch a few pieces of content which aligns to what you are trying to make and take note of what you like and don’t like, what you see is working or if there are any trends which you can get involved with. Knowing these things ahead of time is incredibly helpful for whatever you are wanting to do on YouTube.
Consistency is important
By now, you’ve probably made a few videos, or you are ready to go with starting a channel. There’s one really big piece of advice that I can give you which has stayed with me for the last few years of working on growing my own YouTube channel, be consistent!
Whenever I hear this, creators like yourself automatically jump to one thought process, uploading content on a consistent basis. Yes, it is important to maintain a consistent upload schedule and YouTube does take this into account when they are working with your channel. However, I don’t just mean to be consistent in uploading weekly or fortnightly.
You also have to be consistent in your style, your branding, your personality and your niche. If you keep chopping and changing how you format your content or how you present what you want to say, your audience is going to get very confused and they may not stick around for the journey.
It’s like when you are watching a cosy gamer who has played Disney Dreamlight Valley for a while and they suddenly decide to only make Call of Duty content. You probably won’t watch the Call of Duty content because it’s not a cosy game and it’s not what you expect from that creator.
The same is true when it comes to your channel. You have to be consistent in how you approach your channel. Pick a style, game or format which works for you and see how you get on.
You can always make small changes in your videos as you learn and develop your style and in time, you may find that you naturally transition into other games or content within the wider cosy gaming niche, but for a while, you need to make sure that you stay consistent so that your audience knows what to expect from you and your channel.
Making cosy gaming content for YouTube can be a really complicated process to start with, but once you get the hang of the basics you will be set up for success in the long term. I have been making YouTube content now for three years and there’s so many things I’ve learnt from making cosy gaming videos that I would highly recommend anyone gives it a go if they really want to.
Are you planning on starting a cosy gaming YouTube channel this year? If so, what games are you looking to play, let’s all share in the comments below and I’ll see you in the next one.
