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PROFILE

I’ve always been a fan of video games since
my parents first got me and my brother an
Amiga 500 as a kid with Pluto and Firepower.
Video games come as a way to relax after a day of
designing and switch my thinking to puzzle
solving or fast reactions. Being able to play with
family and friends is what drew me in more
towards online gaming and eventually the family
gaming channel we set up on YouTube [called The
Now Gaming Zone].
The idea for a gaming channel started when all
three of my boys would play Minecraft together
and then watch other people play it to get ideas
on how to create their worlds. They would
pretend they were making their own videos on
YouTube talking amongst themselves. I figured:
“Why can’t we do that? I’m sure it’s not too hard.”
I did some research and within a few days, we
started streaming on Twitch. It was primitive but I
would take the saved videos from Twitch and
upload them to YouTube. The video quality was
awful but we were on YouTube!
After a while, we invested in an Elgato capture
device for the Xbox and a Yeti Mic. We made just
about every mistake you’d expect from a new
YouTube channel such as bad audio, bad
resolution and a load of garbage videos. We kept

at it, though, and made an effort to create a video

or two every week to keep the channel current.

The channel started out primarily focusing on

Minecraft and has evolved alongside our family

gaming habits. We’ve touched on games like Call

of Duty, Plants vs Zombies and more recently

Fortnite PVE and Battle Royale.

I find it a great creative way to spend time with

the family while coming up with ways to promote

the channel. Starting the gaming channel has

been a great way for the family to bond and spend

time coming up with ideas for videos to create.

To help make more gaming content for the

channel on the cheap, I’ve also had the chance to

play more indie games. The amount of innovation

in these small games is astounding. It’s a great

source of inspiration as I’m able to think about

design interfaces in a new way as well as how

interactions can work on the web and mobile. I

think starting the channel and playing indie

games has made me become a better designer

these past few years.

VIDEO-GAME STREAMING

How Folļ#Qrzlfnlġv#video-game obsession led him to

record gaming videos for his family’s YouTube channel

BEYOND PIXELS

Cliff is a designer who enjoys

crafting visually appealing and

user-friendly experiences.

#june 2018 15

Feed

STUFF I LIKE

SUSH KELLY

Digital director at Imaginate

http://www.sushkelly.co.uk

@maxray

FIREFOX DEVELOPER

TOOLS

Over the last ten years I have

swung between Chrome and

Firefox. With CSS Grid arriving

over the last 12 months,

Firefox has smashed it with

its dev tools for Grid. Really

useful both for those just

starting out and more

seasoned developers.

XTENSIO PERSONA

CREATOR

I love creating personas with

bits from magazines and so

on. Xtensio lets you build up

personas and save them as

PDFs, the modules are easy

to use and let you focus on

creating the personality.

https://xtensio.com/user-

persona/

TINYPNG

An old one but a go-to while

developing assets or blog

post images. Drag your PNGs

onto the browser and watch

the Kbs fall off. Often you will

have a solution built into your

workflow but for all those

other times TinyPNG is

definitely a firm favourite.

tinypng.com