Now that OffKai has ended, I want to spend a bit of time reflecting on some of the in-person conversations I had where I was not able to take notes before I forget.

I had several conversations about becoming a more popular/successful/entertaining streamer on Twitch. It seems that among my peers, there are several points of consensus:

• Whatever you do, you should do whatever you enjoy the best. People will be able to tell when you are enthusiastic and excited. Conversely, they’ll be able to tell if you aren’t enjoying it.
• There are many ways to succeed with streaming. Some streamers just have really good vibes/stream visuals that people like enough to just hang around. Some set goals at the beginning of every stream and finish it before ending, in effect telling a story.
• The software and game development community is pretty insular. There is a lot of audience overlap between streamers, and there aren’t very many people getting pulled into the space from outside.
• To be successful in the software and game development, people are doing one of the following:
  • Don’t program and just yap
  • Work on something ridiculous (for content)
  • Don’t be a successful streamer and be a successful game developer instead.
• We think it’s possible to be successful and also work on things that aren’t just for content, but no one has really figured out how to do it yet.
• The bar is pretty low for being entertaining in the software streaming space.