Current Events > How important is art for video game streaming, really?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have been on and off streaming games on Twitch for close to a year now. I have gained about 22 followers by this point. Could be faster or more, but whatever, its progress.

Most of the people who come in and talk have been people trying to sell me art for my channel. Logos, vtubers, whatever. They claim that it'll help fasttrack my channel to a level of success.

Issue is they ask a lot for it, like $60-80 or whatever usually. Which seems like a lot for digital art.

Does it really work? How important is art for streaming? Anyone here with experience on this?

I always assumed it was more about the personality of the streamer and what you talk about and how you play.

All those accounts that are offering art are scammer bots. Report and block them. It's a longtime scam that Twitch still hasn't stopped. Easy for people to make scam/spam accounts unfortunately.

Art isn't that important for stream in my view. Personality is #1 priority, followed by gameplay.

NintendoFan81 posted...

Art isn't that important for stream in my view. Personality is #1 priority, followed by gameplay.

Hello mate, hope you're well.

I agree - I've been unfortunate enough to have loads of Horizon streams recommended by YouTube because I wanted to see how to get the best ending. They've generally been shit to watch.

Anyway, to the TC - you won't like to hear this, but if you've been streaming for a year and have only got 22 followers, most of which sound like bots, then perhaps streaming isn't a viable main lifestyle for you. Dwell on it as much as you want, but you're going into a very congested space and clearly it's not working.

I say that as someone who's fucked about with YouTube, realised it wasn't for me (I was partnered for a year). I've got over half a mil views and 223 subscribers.

Streaming isn't your career. Find something else.

I haven't been doing it as a main lifestyle choice - just kinda wanted to for fun.

I am playing games that I want to play, the way I want to play them. If people get entertainment from it, cool. Not like I lose anything if people don't watch.

I admit I can talk more - usually I only put on a mic when people talk to me. There is room for improvement.

Any advice from fellow streamers would be appreciated, however.

DisgracefulSins posted...

Most of the people who come in and talk have been people trying to sell me art for my channel. Logos, vtubers, whatever. They claim that it'll help fasttrack my channel to a level of success.

These are scams, and typically botted at that. They're annoyingly common on both Twitch & Discord.

Artists are not going to be going out of their way to advertise to some random person on Twitch. They will open up commissions, and usually post about that on their Twitter or whatever and let people come to them.

Depending on the person/bot, the scam usually will demand money upfront and never deliver, or just give you AI-generated BS.

Don't bother.

DisgracefulSins posted...

Does it really work? How important is art for streaming? Anyone here with experience on this?

I always assumed it was more about the personality of the streamer and what you talk about and how you play.

It depends upon your niche.

Generally, no, art does not matter though. It can help, as it can motivate people to sub to you (i.e. for emotes). It can make your stream/bio look a little pretty or otherwise standout, but that in particular is a personal preference issue: I personally prefer minimalism.

(Samples of my stream: https://is.gd/YZrmyU)

I make the game as visible as humanly possible, and about the most decoration I do for a stream layout is some personal art behind some speedrun splits (if applicable) and/or some game logos and such. And a personal emote because why not (may turn it into a PNGtuber down the road if I care enough).

But the niche I live in is my streams are mostly casual playthroughs or speedruns, and I don't talk (dysphoria and whatnot), so people who come to me are either using me as background noise, or want to see me play the game skillfully. I can engage the viewer over text somewhat in limited circumstances, but generally my draw is the game itself. Between that and how much I am no-frills in real life, I think it works.

That is to say, if your focus is more meant on a game, then you can get away pretty easily without having to worry about artsy stuff. If your focus is more social, art may be more important I think, but it's hard for me to say since I don't really go down that bit of Twitch.

DisgracefulSins posted...

I haven't been doing it as a main lifestyle choice - just kinda wanted to for fun.

I am playing games that I want to play, the way I want to play them. If people get entertainment from it, cool. Not like I lose anything if people don't watch.

I admit I can talk more - usually I only put on a mic when people talk to me. There is room for improvement.

Any advice from fellow streamers would be appreciated, however.

Honestly, that's the biggest piece of advice to be given, and I'd say you have the right attitude about it - you're not going to make much money off of this, so it's best to keep it to a casual hobby. That in turn has two additional benefits L&T didn't mention:

• You can more carefully curate a community without worrying about cutting off a stream of funds. If you want to have a small group of dedicated watchers you're cozy with or whatever, then that's easier to do if it's just a hobby. Easier to ban the chuds when you don't have to worry about losing money.
• You won't feel "forced" to do it or burn out. I have 100-something followers on my end (somehow) and haven't really streamed much for about a year just because I got tired of speedrunning my main speed game for the time being, and feeling the need to stay engaged during casual streams just isn't the pressure I want to put on myself.

If it puts anything in perspective, IIRC, if you have more than 6-7 simultaneous watchers, that puts you in the top 1% of Twitch streamers (or was it 10%? either way, it's very good numbers).

For now, just focus on what makes things fun for you and what makes you happy. Growth is probably going to be slow. If you really want to grow your channel, the best way is probably to either:

• Collaborate with other Twitch streamers, in an organic way. Find streamers you like, preferably other small ones, and get cozy in their chat. Be active there, a recognized and positive force in their community, and they may throw some raids your way. (Or, more simply: make friends.)
• Find a niche that attracts viewers. Casual playthrough streamers are a dime a dozen, so either you need to do something that people more often want to watch (e.g. speedruns for popular games) or do something that somehow makes you stand out (not that I'd know what really works).

$60 is not a lot for commissioned work tbh. Like that's a too good to be true type price.

Smashingpmkns posted...

$60 is not a lot for commissioned work tbh. Like that's a too good to be true type price.

Depends on the nature of the art. A friend of mine does really good emotes and last I recall she was only charging $10 a pop. Granted, she also undervalues herself/her work, and might've been charging so little specifically to get a fanbase, so who knows.

It's not gonna shoot you to stardom, but people do genuinely notice production quality. If you're not trying to make an income from streaming, I don't think I'd worry about it. On top of that, like others here have said they're almost certainly scams.

Depending on the asset in question though, $60 would be an insanely good price

Thanks for everyone giving their thoughts on it. And specially for the advice, Princess.

I did kinda figure they would most likely be scammers - specially since they require money upfront with no guarantee that I would actually get something I like, let alone anything at all. That just always stuck out as being shady.

Ideally I would like to make some money from Twitch before I ever consider investing money into it. There was never a rush.

All I know is you either need a face cam or a VTuber model or your channel has no shot.

If you wanna be a PNGtuber or VTuber, very important.

If you wanna be a regular face streamer, less so but cute emotes can really help drive follows and subs. I've spent thousands gifting subs to people because the streamer had cute Furret emotes and I wanted people to use the cute Furret emotes too.

If you're just a voice, your stream layout and stream art are basically what will make you standout/apart from the crowd so it can be very important there too.

wackyteen posted...

If you wanna be a regular face streamer, less so but cute emotes can really help drive follows and subs. I've spent thousands gifting subs to people because the streamer had cute Furret emotes and I wanted people to use the cute Furret emotes too.

God, I'm such a simp for cute Pokemon emotes that I basically set up a Discord server that directs people to other servers with good Pokemon emotes lol. It has 2,000 members - a server where you can't even talk lol. So I suppose that definitely cements that point in a way.

You don't really need art to gain a following when streaming. It's nice to have in order to feel more "official", but don't let anybody make you believe it's necessary to grow. Commissioning people to create art pieces is for *after* you've gained a following.

A symbol or logo is the representative stand in for your face

which is important because you cant sell the idea of you.. youre just an any guy like the guy watching it.. the person watching it doesnt need to be watching you live out his dream.. especially if theyre shelling out money to see you

the logo makes it so its now beyond you, an entity that associates itself with gaming which is shared by all.. in that sense, they can buy into the dream instead of buying into the will of some rando