It’s interview time again on Gaming Reinvented! Yeah, it’s happening already. Bet you didn’t expect that so soon after Guru Larry’s interview did you?
Nah, nor did we. But the Eyes in Everything team had their answers ready a tad ahead of schedule, so we decided to hurry up the interview and get it posted as a result.
But hang on, what is Eyes in Everything?
Well, basically it’s the dev team behind a game called Psycutlery.
Which in turn is basically a spiritual successor to a beloved Mario fan game called Psycho Waluigi. Complete with Psycho Waluigi developer Thunder Dragon as the main dev.
Either way, here’s a trailer for Psycutlery, in case you don’t already know of it:
But hey, enough waffling for a minute! Let’s get on with the interview!
1. So let’s start with a simple company question. How did you guys meet for the first time? What made you want to set up Eyes in Everything?
LUKE: The two of us go back since, well, practically forever! Nearly 17 years is practically forever in internet years, uh, right? It was the year 2000 when I made public a little fangame site called “Bowser Technologies,” which soon led to our meeting.
As far as setting up Eyes in Everything goes, it was not formed as a team initially. I came up with the label as a sort of brand identity for myself. The label was to be applied to all my creative endeavors, from art to game development. Likewise, the game Psycutlery was meant to be a solo project. I could have easily done everything myself… except for two crucial elements: the music, and the marketing. I wasn’t nearly experienced enough in either field to pass a professional-grade project, so to speak.
Jon found me at a great time. He is a passionate musician, and is now researching indie game marketing. Perfect!
JON: Way back in 2000, I was known as Yoshiman. I had only made possibly 4 or 5 posts on the not-so-active forum until he switched it up to MFGG. At that time, I was just a lowly member while he was the big guy, top-notch administrator. Down the road, I worked on up to administrator, which I think helped acknowledge a more equal-level friendship than before. Eventually, I offered to make some songs for Psycho Waluigi, and then afterwards left the website for some time. I got wind on Twitter that he had finally broke away from creating fangames and begun an indie game. I wanted to create the whole soundtrack for Toadette Strikes Back (I still have two songs I was working on for it) before I left, so I felt it was my personal duty to offer it now for Psycutlery.
2. And hey, how about the name? Where did that come from?
LUKE: I fretted long and hard coming up with a brand label, and sketching out logos for many potential brand identities. Whatever I did, I just couldn’t come up with a decent name! When I looked back at some of the logos I scribbled out, I noticed one common trend amongst the lot of them: eyeballs. And then I looked back at some of my other random drawings. Eyes everywhere, and in everything! That was when it dawned on me. Eyes in Everything! It also carries something of a double meaning about finding eye-opening inspiration in, well, everything, which is a philosophy we seek to carry across our work.
3. Were you planning on making any other games before Psycutlery? Or is this your first ever idea for a game?
LUKE: I actually didn’t really have an “idea” to make Psycutlery. It was something that just… sort of happened! It began as an open-ended experiment that, by some series of contrived coincidences, ended up becoming something of an actual game. But to answer your question, since I don’t consider Psycutlery an idea so much as happenstance, yes, I did have other ideas for games. Two, to be precise: an underwater action-adventure, and an action-RPG platformer hybrid involving ghosts and necromancy. But considering both of those are considerably more complex ideas, it’s probably better to start off with a simple platformer, huh?
4. As we know, one of your team previously made a Mario fan game called Psycho Waluigi. So, how much did that inspire Psycutlery as a game? Because it definitely seems to have some similarities to the fan project…
JON: It was pretty much all Luke that made Psycho Waluigi, with some testing help, a few other’s sprites here and there, and MIDI to MP3 music for the songs not created by me. We’ve said on Twitter and many other places that Psycutlery is the spiritual successor to Psycho Waluigi, so it has many similarities.
LUKE: Originally, it had nothing to do with Psycho Waluigi. But remember how I said that Psycutlery was a thing that kind of just… happened? In its experimental stages, it was something of a straight-up Yoshi clone, albeit with original characters. However, having decided around the time that I wanted to distance myself from fangames forever, I didn’t want a character with an extendable tongue. So in a haste, I covered up all ties to Yoshi with a spork. A floating spork. That happened to be controlled with what appeared to be psychic powers. So, ironically, in my urge to distance myself from fangames, the project wound up playing awfully similar to one! Thankfully, it was one of the few fangames that had potential to pass as something original with a few audible and graphical swaps – so, hey, may as well act on that.
5. Why Psycutlery? Seems like a very weird name for a game about a character with psychic powers…
LUKE: But did you notice exactly what the character was controlling with said psychic powers? It’s a piece of cutlery, is it not? As for the pronunciation, think of it as something like “psychiatry” or “psychology,” only with tableware.
6. Heck, what’s with the kitchen utensil motifs anyway? Because everything from the logo to the end of level goals seem to involve forks…
LUKE: It’s a SPORK. It’s like a fork. But it’s also like spoon. It’s the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none in the world of silverware! As such, sporks are inherently comical, so the idea of a game that places emphasis on one is bound to raise a few laughs. It’s all to set the decidedly bizarre tone of the game, and the wonderful absurdity of saving the galaxy with such an impractical eating utensil… there’s something of an underdog story there.
7. What about the graphics style? To me, it reminds me of a fair few GBA games (in a good way). Was that the generation you were inspired by?
JON: The Progressive Era – the first spork to be manufactured was available in 1890. Huge inspiration.
LUKE: Indeed! Actually, the original patent for the implement that would become known as the spork – Dr. Samuel W. Francis’s “runcible spoon” – was issued as far back as 1874. So one could say this is a graphical style over 140 years in the making!
Ehhhh, but seriously, there was no specific console generation that inspired the graphics. I was merely going for what one would call “simple pixel art,” for the sake of convenience and ease of animation. See, I have long been a traditional illustrator, so everything in both the digital realm and the realm of animation is something of a new experience to me (although I have previously dabbled lightly in both). One of the coolest things about game development is learning all sorts of new things, really! Like, you know, the history of the spork. Wild.
Continue Reading…
Well, it’s interview time here on Gaming Reinvented! And this time, we have an even more interesting choice of interviewee. Namely, a YouTube creator and video game journalist with a fair bit of experience under the belt.
Yep, it’s Guru Larry! Aka Larry Bundy Jr from YouTube, or the guy that creates those awesome Fact Hunt videos every week or so! He’s a bit of an old hand at this media thing, being on TV as a presenter and having been part of Channel Awesome for a while, so there’s bound to be some good stories here too.
So let’s get to it shall we? Here is our exclusive interview with Guru Larry, starting with a quick question about his personal life…
1. Well, it’s become a bit of a cliché to ask this, but I’ll ask it anyway. What’s your personal background like outside of video games? Who are you as a person?
Well I’ve done quite a few jobs if that’s what you mean, from being a post-mortician, doing manga/anime art for various companies to playing Tangoman in several TV commercials in the ‘90s, so I’ve been all over the place, but currently I’m just some random asshole on the internet 😀
2. And how did you get interested in video games? Based on your videos over this year, I’m assuming it was somehow connected to the microcomputer era or something, right?
I’ve got two older brothers and one day when I was about 2, one of them, Colin bought an Atari VCS from WHSmith with his wages and I got addicted from that. We were too poor to buy games back then so we used to rent them from a local TV repair shop, so that lead to quite a large choice of games I wouldn’t normally have experienced. but I can remember having long matches of Combat with my brother Shaun and renting Frogger over and over, also I LOVED Pitfall II, played it with a wonky Quickshot joystick.
3. Still, what games did you enjoy back in your childhood? Any obscure classics few people remember now?
I was really into the Master System as a kid and loved the Alex Kidd and Wonder Boy games, but when the Mega Drive rolled around I was nabbing Japanese games just from looking at the artwork, most of them were a bit arse in all honesty, but I sometimes came across gems like Ringside Angel Etc.
I had an Amstrad CPC464 too, and that had loads of obscure budget games, in fact I keep re-experiencing them as distant memories, when I stumble across random screenshots of videos of them.
4. Heck, what games are you enjoying now? Were there any really enjoyable ones you started playing in 2016 or so?
2016 was rather anaemic for me in regards to actually playing games to be honest, I spent more time writing about then than playing, but I got some time playing the usual, OverWatch, Battlefield 1 Etc., but I’m really enjoying Let it Die right now, probably my fave game of the year and it was free, who’d have thunk? 😀
5. Onto video making now. How did you get started there? What was the first gaming video you ever created?
It started when Wez and I left Game Network, we came up with an idea where we would do video reviews for mobile phones, which pretty much didn’t exist back then, which could be viewed by scanning the bar code or a QR code on the game box, we pitched it to GAME (which I ended up doing something similar with their sister site Gameplay.co.uk) but a mobile phone company was super keen on the idea, but stood us up for meetings twice (one in a restaurant that sole £10 burger, always remember that :D) But we gave up and stuck what we had made onto this new site called YouTube and it carried on from there!
First actual video though? It was either a video of Wez laughing while playing FEAR or a review of Shadow of the Colossus. It’s so long ago.
6. How about ScrewAttack Europe? What was that all about?
That was really from ScrewAttack branching out and wanting some UK/European stuff on their site, Wez really got us that gig by doing a video on the UK midnight launch of the Nintendo Wii, but Stuttering Craig suggesting we make videos on European only games is really what got us noticed with Games Yanks Can’t Wank, Even though Craig didn’t know what “wank” meant 😀
7. And for that matter, how did you originally meet Wez and decide to make videos together?
It was Game Network again 😀 They were looking for more presenters as they wanted to expand the show and Wez and Janice (Wez’s now wife) auditioned, (Wez thought she had a better chance of getting the job) she did, mainly as the producer fancied her! but her first day no one wanted to help her set up, so I volunteered, and at the end of the Skype chat Wez came on and thanked me, so we became friends there, mostly playing Halo 2, and I got him a job at Game Network a few months later.
But we decided to do videos together to hopefully get a job back on TV again (which we eventually did with Xleague), But YouTube was long out of our minds then. Hell, GameVideos.com was the hip place to put up gaming videos back then.
8. So what made you decide to move on from that anyway?
We were let go ultimately, not because we did anything bad, The bosses were awesome and Game Network was really successful, the company saw Psychic Interactive as more profitable media than video games, so took us off so they had more air space for that. We left on great terms and we’re still good friends with everyone there!
9. You also seem to be on Channel Awesome. How did that come about anyway?
Ha, that was down to ScrewAttack giving us a hard time back then, and a lot of ScrewAttack’s rather disgruntled ex-staff now working there to, so put in a good word for us with Channel Awesome’s owners, and with the rivalry between the two sites, they were more than happy to pick us up for some strange reason XD
10. Heck, what’s it like being a creator there? How does the ‘business’ side of things work over on Channel Awesome?
It’s alright, I book videos to go up on their site and that’s about it really, they don’t really bother with me too much. I chat with a couple of their other contributors every so often, but that’s about it.
11. You’ve also been on a fair few TV shows about games in the past. So what was that like? Was it fun being involved with Game Network or XLeague.tv?
It was great fun doing television, It’s quite exhausting as there’s often super tight deadlines, also the pay isn’t great, but it is nice seeing your stuff on the box. Not so much when they’ve repeated it for the 100th time that day.
12. You’ve also been doing a fair few collaborations with Slopes Game Room recently. How did that come about?
He messaged me on Twitter one day asking to watch his videos and noticed one of his was a history on the Roland games, which was something I wanted to do for years. So, we got talking from there. Actually, he stopped talking to me for about six months so he could have his first child, the selfish bastard!!! XD Dan’s an absolutely amazing editor, who is also incredibly quick, so when I was ill in the summer I asked him to edit some of my videos, I also posted up a couple of his to help fill in my rather large gaps and my fanbase really took to him.
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CM30 on December 19, 2016
It’s been a while since we’ve posted an interview, hasn’t it? After all, the previous one (with Slopes Game Room) was back in late November. What happened?
Well, personal life and stress happened I guess. But that’s all irrelevant now, since we’ve now got another interview with a popular YouTuber! This time, the ever so British gaming wrestler Top Hat Gaming Man!
Yeah, you heard that last bit right. In addition to touring the world and making video game videos, he’s also been involved as in pro wrestling under the name Rich Parliament! It’s… quite an interesting backstory really, and very different to that of other internet game critics I’ve seen online.
But hey, enough of that for now. Let’s begin the interview!
1. Namely, with the standard personal background question these things always have. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
Well my name is Richard, I am 30 years old and hail from London England. I own copious amounts of video games in which I have been collecting for many years. I am currently enjoying the finer things in life which consists of drinking fine wines, travelling the globe, all whilst playing some of the finest handheld games history has to offer. I document my bizarre life through my YouTube channel known as ‘Top Hat Gaming Man’.
2. And for that matter, how did you get interested in video games? What was the first game you ever played?
I was born into it, moulded by it, whilst many may not have ever played a game until they was already a man. It is hard for me to pin point my first game as I have literally been playing them for as long as I can remember. I have memories of my Father taking me to play the Arcades on holiday in the Mediterranean on holidays in the likes of Spain and Greece, whilst I also remember playing them in the local pubs in London on Sunday afternoons. From the moment I was born there was also an Amstrad CPC464 in my house hold, so I use to play with that a lot at home too.
3. Onto a bit of a personal question now. What’s the whole deal with your wrestling career? Cause from what I see, it seems your YouTube character is based on your wrestling alias in some sense…
Ah Yes, my ring name is Richard Parliament. I am well known for being the UKs only wrestling politician. I competed up and down my fine country for nearly a decade. Whilst many may not necessarily agree with some of my practices in the ring, there is nothing better than giving an uncouth ruffian, a bloody good thrashing! I have competed for the likes of TNA, don’t you know!
4. And where did the ‘archetypical’ British gentleman theme come from? It’s carried through into your gaming video persona as well…
You see here in England in my opinion there is nothing more important than keeping up appearances young man. If you can dress the part, can talk the part, you will be the part.
5. It also seems you’ve been wrestling less and less recently. Do you have any intentions to return to that field?
If you was to follow British Wrestling, you would have seen that my key agenda was to use it as a political platform to help get Britain removed from the European Union. After many years of campaigning, the moment I achieved my goal, I felt it was time for my own Brexit. Ever since the referendum back in July, I have been travelling around the globe enjoying a well earned break.
However in the short five months I have been gone the entire British Wrestling landscape has been changing. You see now the country has its sovereignty returning, British Wrestling is about to have the biggest boom period since the 1980s.
Indy Promotions are now drawing huge gates and a YouTube promotion known as What Culture Wrestling is now drawing huge houses and getting big views on Youtube. Now combined with all of this on New years day World of Sport Wrestling is returning to ITV, which is forecast by some to receive viewing figures seven times higher than Raw will get in the United Kingdom.
With all of this going on WWE have noticed how lucrative our current market is and are launching their own exclusively British Promotion WWE:UK. A great wrestling war is upon and it will be interesting to watch them all fire shots at each other from afar. As for myself, I will wrestle full time again, as and when I am ready. Lets see who is still standing at the end of this. Then I will choose which of these promotions to sign for….Yeaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!
6. Finally on that note, do any of your fans from your wrestling days also watch your gaming videos?
There has recently been some cross over as I have now started marketing my channel on Facebook. However I am sure to garner more cross over appeal soon as I am set to release a video about exclusive British Wrestling games over on a much bigger channel than the one I operate.
7. Onto gaming stuff and YouTube now. What inspired you to start a YouTube channel?
This is quite a tough question as there are so many factors that lead me to doing this. Firstly I have always been into gaming and always been into production since I was very young. I even studied video production in college when I was a teenager. Back then things were much more difficult, we use to edit on mixer boards and use computers with very limited space. It was always fun creating content back then, but there were no platforms to show it off on like the likes of YouTube today and it was a laborious task even managing to make anything with the more limited technology. Today I feel anyone can make content, now that computers are so powerful and that editing is so bloody easy. There are so many online tutorial videos about, that everything is easy and accessible.
I was a big fan of a lot of YouTube gaming channels, however as much as I was a fan. I noticed there was a massive hole within the YouTube retro gaming community. There were not enough strong characters and instead the scene filled with prototypical nerds, mostly American, on the whole, all talking about the same sort of stuff. After watching a lot of creators, the whole thing all sort of started to look rather sycophantic to me and I just began seeing the same opinion and information regurgitated time and time again.
So I started a YouTube channel to try and bring something new to the table, whilst at the same time I think I just wanted to flex my production skills for the first time in a long time.
On top of all of this, YouTube has given me something productive to do, whilst I have been away from the wrestling ring.
8. And why the whole ‘travel round the world’ aspect? It’s certainly a unique idea to record video game reviews in every country you travel to…
I am 30 years old, I realised I wasn’t getting any younger and there were still things I wanted to do in which I was yet to achieve. So I put the necessary things in motion to allow me to quit working for a year and pursue more leisurely goals. I do not feel anyone lies on there deathbed then looks back and thinks to themselves ‘you know what, I really wish I spent more time at work’. I want to lay on that death bed and think ‘what a ride that was’.
9. So on your journeys, what are the best new games you’ve been buying/playing? Have you reviewed them yet?
I’ve played so many games on this journey many of which I have talked about on my channel, so a tough question to answer. I did play through both the Yokai Watch Games which were great fun, I have yet to talk about those on my channel, however I am sure I will.
10. How about the worst? Any you bought recently that you regret paying for?
I do not buy a great deal of brand new games, so I cannot regret buying any games really as on older stuff it is hard to lose any value on a purchase anyway. I got Mario Maker 3DS the other day, I couldn’t bring myself to play that for more than 15 minutes for some reason. So Mario Maker?
11. Generally, you seem to stick to older games more often that not. Are there any current generations you’re enjoying at the moment?
The 3DS has seen a fantastic life over the last few years, I think the library for that thing could be as good as that for any handheld system previously and to be honest I have found myself enjoying more games on that over the likes of the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U.
12. How about in the future? You’ve made a video about the Nintendo Switch and what not. Are there any games for those consoles you’re really excited for?
Indeed the obvious ones really. Zelda, another 3D Mario and most exciting of all the almost guaranteed first ever big screen full Pokemon game down the line.
13. With the recent comments about the NES Classic and ‘fake’ nostalgia, you seem to believe that the US ‘canon’ has basically taken over the gaming world. So, have you considered making a few more reviews for classic games not released in the US to counter this? Like the ones you might find on the ZX Spectrum?
You have read my mind, now I am back in the UK for a short break, that is going to be the main theme of the channel for a few weeks, at least until I resume my travels. I will reveal to you now the name of my next big video is ‘Why the NES Flopped in Europe’. It will tell our side of the story from that era.
14. Let’s talk YouTube in general now. Which of your videos are you most proud of so far?
I like my one about Xenoblade Chronicles, I just love that game so bloody much and I felt Bryce Canyon in Utah was the perfect back drop for it as it looks like the landscape from the game itself. I had a lot of fun making that one.
15. How about the other end of the spectrum? Any reviews you don’t feel too proud of? Or even games you just couldn’t make an interesting video about?
I hate my Bootleg Pokemon Go Cards Video. It was meant to be pointless filler and after I made it, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to upload it or not. I just showed off some crap trading cards I found and for some bloody reason it is my most watched video! 13,000 views and counting. It just shows the mentality of most people on YouTube if they want to watch crap like that. The whole thing makes me feel sad about humanity and how low brow there taste must be compared to mine.
16. What about other people’s channels? What other YouTube channels do you follow or think make interesting videos? Why?
There are loads of Americans ones but everyone hears about them all the time, so I will talk to you about some of the British Channels I like. Check out Slopes Game Room, a fantastic channel in which makes documentary style videos about entire game franchises. Guru Larry, who covers videos about more obscure game facts, and Kim Justice a channel which has a big focus on the old micro computers. All these channels are great viewing as they do not feature the old youtube regurgitation problem too much.
17. A quick YouTube business question now. How have you monetised your channel? And is the pay now good enough to live on? Because I remember watching a video where you said that you spent a lot of your life savings on traveling and filming costs…
To monetise a YouTube channel you simply click the monetisation button. In terms of earnings I have had a positive start. I have only been on YouTube 10 months thus far and to already be earning anything at this stage is a miracle in itself. It is a long road ahead yet, but its a start.
18. And have you considered any other ways of monetising your videos? Like say, in case YouTube encounters any issues?
Sure, I have some donations coming in thus far from my Patrons over on Patreon. The help and encouragement they are giving me to build the channel is very humbling.
19. How about other video platforms? I know a few (like Slopes Game Room and the Lonely Goomba) are considering VidMe at one point… so have you considered anything like that?
If I get some free time, I may dabble with it. It is always worth experimenting.
20. Either way, your channel is getting surprisingly popular now. Did you expect it to? What are your hopes for the channel in 2017?
It is hard to say, I would say I never ‘expect’ to achieve anything, however no matter what I do I try to work hard to get results. I am trying to fill a niche, however it is a case of whether I can successfully combat the YouTube algorithm and be able to fully do so. In 2017 I would just like to continue to grow my channel. I have a few collaborations lined up with various YouTubers who are much bigger names than myself, so hopefully that should give me some decent exposure too.
21. Finally, if someone is interested in starting their own YouTube gaming channel, what advice would you give them?
It depends on the reasons why they want to start a gaming channel, however to be successful the overall arching themes appears to be consistency, quality content, regular uploads, decent thumbnails and making your videos a decent length whilst at the same time trying to keep the audience engaged.
And that wraps up another interview! Did you learn anything interesting here? Do you want to see more of Top Hat Gaming Man’s work (gaming related or otherwise)? If so, check out his channel on YouTube and follow him on Twitter today!
CM30 on November 23, 2016
Well, it’s interview time again at Gaming Reinvented! And in keeping with our recent trend of interviewing YouTubers, this one is with another YouTube creator who’s growing in popularity.
Namely, DJ Slope of Slopes Game Room, whose videos about video game history and Disney tie ins have been getting more and more attention to the point they’ve been featured on Nintendo Life! And with his channel growing in popularity (from 2,000 to 16,000 subscribers), that’s certainly a massive improvement since he was featured on our underrated YouTubers list!
So let’s find out about a bit more about him and his work, in our exclusive interview with Slopes Game Room!
1. As per usual, a quick personal question to start. Who are you as a person? What’s your background?
I’m Daniel Ibbertson a 33 year old retro gaming – YouTubing – EDM loving, Marketing Manager, Dad and husband
2. And how did you get into video games?
I can’t exactly remember the 1st game I ever played (which should give a good idea as to how long i have been playing them)
All I can say to this is that for as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with games and computers
3. Were there any games you liked then that you think don’t hold up too well today?
Ahhhhh plenty, almost all the Amstrad CPC games. Back then I was just excited to get a game no matter what it was like to play. There are some hidden gems for the system but there was a time when I thought games like Bridge It (which is possibly the 1st game I ever played) was a real solid game.
But hey, you also have stuff like Night Breed, Basil the Great Mouse Detective and Bridge It!
4. Or for that matter, any games you started enjoying more once you replayed them as an adult?
I remember not enjoying Castlevania Symphony of the Night… WHAT WAS I THINKING!
5. What games are you playing at the moment?
I hardly play games as much as i would like now, most the time i am editing and other than playing the games I review, right now, i am playing Stardew Valley and I’m looking forward to playing through GTA5 again on PS4.
6. Onto your YouTube channel now. What inspired you to start a retro gaming YouTube channel?
It’s like starting a band I had been into several other artists and wanted to create something that was in my opinion the best of what channels like Larry Bundy Jr, Lazy Game Reviews and the Gaming Historian was producing
7. What about the name? Where did DJ Slope and Slopes Game Room come from anyway?
Well I’m a DJ so that’s that part covered but the slope part came from the movie Shallow Hal.
8. Are you a video game collector as well as a video creator? If so, what finds are you most proud of?
I was a video game collector but sadly I have sold the majority of my collection to fund my channel 🙁
Knuckles Chaotix, my 32x and the multi mega are my best finds 🙂
9. But let’s talk about the actual videos now. What inspired you to start your series about Disney movies and video games?
I am a huuuuuuuuge Disney fan, seriously big in fact its my only full collection (all on blu ray unless not available).
My house is covered with Disney artwork and theme park attraction posters 🙂 mix that with my live for video games a voila
10. How about the untold history videos?
Its what gets me most excited making videos like that because 9/10 they are stories you have never heard of.
The Johnny Turbo video is likely my fav vid I have ever done
11. So, how do you research them anyway? Because they’re a lot more detailed than most gaming history videos are, and some of the subjects are quite obscure franchises little has been written about online…
I just keep going until I have enough information for 1 good video.
Sometimes it’s just 1 blog post but most the time I open u p tabs for every game try and find anything about development then try and find interviews with the main guys who worked on it. And finally I check Retro Gamer Magazine to see if i can find any extra bits from that.
Its time consuming but 100% worth it
12. And what about the fact videos? How do you choose what games or systems to create videos on?
I don’t know lol I just do whatever comes to mind. Sometimes i may find out aa really cool fact and then think AWESOME! Lets go find 99 more!
13. Were there any games you wanted to make a video about, but dropped? Like say, because there wasn’t enough for an interesting video? Or because you simply had a better idea later on?
Loads of times. I have probably 10 unfinished scripts. However, from time to time I find a really juicy article or interview that fills in the gaps, which is exactly what happened to Metal Slug.
14. On the other end of the spectrum, which of your videos are you most proud of and why?
Johnny Turbo: The worst mascot ever -SGR and The fucked up inspiration behind Ecco the dolphin are probably my favs. Due to the nature of the videos not being covered by anyone else and getting to work with so many YT heroes of mine 😀
15. You also seem to have done a few collabs with other popular YouTubers (like Guru Larry and Kim Justice). How do you choose who to work with?
I have crazy amounts of people backed up that I plan to someday work with but I only like doing so if it fits within the video.
I hate forced cameos 🙁
16. How about favourite YouTube channels in general? Who else’s videos do you like watching?
So so many…
And sooooooooo many more
17. A few general channel questions now. How did you monetise your channel? Did you join a network or decide to go it alone here?
Yes, sadly I’m with a network :@
As soon as my 2 year contract is up I am leaving at the earliest possible chance. An absolute ball ache! (probably shouldn’t get too into it, no idea how much they might kick off)
But yes I monetize and also have a Patreon too. Which I hope to take on alone eventually
18. Similarly, I’ve noticed you’re also selling merchandise via Spreadshirt. How is that working out at the moment? Does it make as much money as YouTube monetisation or Patreon?
I have never sold a single t-shirt lol so therefore I make 100% more on YT and Patreon currently.
19. And what’s the deal with Extra Slope? Just some extra videos about miscellaneous stuff?
Yeah, pretty much that lol. The plan was to put weekly lets plays up but sadly i dont have the time currently. So I just upload as and when i feel like it 🙂
20. Either way, did you expect your channel to get so popular? Or for gaming sites that Nintendo Life to start featuring your videos?
Hahaha never, although I will say I actually contacted them originally!
It’s all part of learning to promote your own channel. You cannot expect to just wait for people to find you, that would be very lucky.
With that said, I never expected to be shown on quite as many websites as I have… (Reddit helps too)
21. Finally, what advice would you give any aspiring YouTubers wanting to start their own gaming channel on the site?
GO FOR IT! Don’t be worried that there are soooooooo many other gaming channels out there, but instead see them as people that come to YouTube and therefore could potentially find YOUR content!
Be sure to look up how to promote yourself properly and make the very best content that you can! 🙂
And that’s an inspiring message everyone can learn from. Try your hardest, promote your work properly and you’ll go far. What a perfect note to end the interview on!
So what did you think of it? Did our interview teach you anything interesting about Daniel Ibbertson, Slopes Game Room or the videos found on the channel? If so, post your thoughts on Gaming Reinvented or social media, and make sure to subscribe to Slopes Game Room today!
CM30 on November 14, 2016
With well over 130,000 subscribers and many hundreds of thousands of views per video, The Lonely Goomba is one of the most popular Nintendo focused channels on YouTube. And well, with recent collab videos and crossovers with such other stars as Gaijin Goomba, Haedox, Guru Larry and the folk at GameXplain, his popularity is only getting better from here.
So let’s interview him! Here is our exclusive interview with the Lonely Goomba!
1. So a personal question to start with. Who are you? Who is the Lonely Goomba when he’s not making YouTube videos?
I’m just a guy who lives in the middle of nowhere. I try to keep my identity secret, since there’s a lot of crazy people out there. So I shall leave it as that.
2. And how did you get into this YouTube thing anyway?
Well, I hated my job. Working nights in a crappy factory. So I saved up a ton of money over the years, left my job, and decided to give Youtube a try whilst living off my savings. I guess it was a “all or nothing” kind of thing. If it failed, I’d be at step one working a crappy job again.
Had nothing to lose really. I don’t fully recommend doing that approach though, I just got lucky it worked out.
3. What about video games? What’s your history with Nintendo and their franchises?
I’ve pretty much been playing Nintendo games my entire life. Starting with the SNES, been hooked pretty much. Since then I’ve owned every Nintendo system, even the incredibly shit Virtual Boy.
These days I still mostly stick to Nintendo, which is probably why I never play games anymore. Make more games Nintendo!
4. For that matter, what are your favourite games and series? Do you have any?
I think my favourite series is probably Kirby. There hasn’t been a single bad Kirby game, and they’re still getting better. Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, they’ve all had bad titles, I don’t get excited for them anymore.
But when a new Kirby game is announced, there’s no worry of “Will it be good? Will they mess it up?”, it’s gonna be good, so don’t worry about it.
5. Oh, and what games are you playing at the moment by the way?
Some obscure JRPG that never came out in my country. Radiant Historia. It’s pretty good, but I’ve made the rookie mistake of leaving it alone for a few weeks and now I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.
So, that might be the pre-mature end of my Radiant Historia adventure.
6. Onto channel stuff now. Why did you choose the Lonely Goomba as your username? It’s not a common word used in critic names…
It’s just a name I randomly made to join a gaming forum many years ago. I guess I thought the premise of a Goomba feeling loneliness was interesting. So yeah, it was just a username at first. Then I thought the premise could work as a YouTube channel.
7. How about the concept? What inspired the idea of an average Goomba giving his opinions about games from a random Mario level?
Well the concept changed a lot. It started off as a lets play channel (the videos were never made public), but I sucked at it. I was so nervous I got drunk just to talk in front of the mic. So that was pretty much a disaster.
So then I decided to make it scripted, but the original script and Goomba was a positive happy review. But again, I sucked at it. I realized, I’m a pretty grumpy person, and re-wrote the script, ripping into the game and only focusing on the negatives. It was much more fun to write and record.
So I wrote it, recorded it, and made the entire video in a day. Probably an hour or so, and then I made the second video immediately after on the same day. And thus is the story of Lonely Goomba.
8. Heck, how do you choose games to cover? Because there’s quite an assortment of random titles you’ve made videos about by this point.
Most of them are games I played as a kid. So I just go through my backlog of actual games and see if they work as a video. Other than that, I usually just browse gaming lists or watch videos of bad DS games and see if any ideas come into mind before playing it fully.
So if say, there’s a licensed game that I know people will enjoy watching, or is relevant at the time. (Like SpongeBob or Powerpuff girls) I’ll try to pick one of those games. But more often than not, just a random game that pops into my mind.
9. You also seem to have a fair few guests in your videos too, with Haedox, Guru Larry and Gaijin Goomba all appearing in videos. How do you choose who to work with?
Well, it’s hard to just randomly go up to someone you’ve never talked to before and ask to guest star on a video. So, I usually approach people I’ve either talked to before, or we both like each other’s work. I don’t tend to collab for the sake of it, only when it seems like a natural fit for the video.
10. In recent years, it seems you’ve said a fair about the repetitive themes in modern Mario games. Are you a bit tired of the series and the New Super Mario Bros inspired direction it seems to be going in?
Honestly, I’m completely done with the Mario series at the moment. Like I say in my videos, they’re fun games but there’s nothing to get excited about, just some decent platforming and then it’s over. I’m worried Mario has pretty much reached it’s peak and there’s nowhere left to go or innovate with.
Noticing the new Mario on the Nintendo Switch looks more promising though, but not getting my hopes up.
11. However, you also seem to quite like Paper Mario Color Splash, which surprised a few people. What made you grow to like that game more after actually playing it?
Well, it’s not easy defending a game a ton of people hate (without actually playing it). I went in expecting to hate it, and rip into it. I planned to do a video about that game. But I cannot call a game bad, when it’s very well made.
I understand Sticker Star is hated, and for good reason, it’s a fundamentally bad game. Color Splash fixed every single issue with the game, it’s funny, perfect pacing, fun, more creative levels and scenarios… it really got the spirit of Paper Mario back.
It’s just a shame Sticker Star was so bad, no one wants to give the franchise a fair chance.
12. And how was it being in that GameXplain episode with Arlo and Josh Thomas?
I was so nervous to be honest. I live in a noisy house so I had to make sure there would be no noises / talking in the background. That and the planned recording time kept changing.
And then I was with Josh Thomas, who’s very very vocal and opinionated. It was pretty hard to get a word in I’ve gotta say. But, despite that, was a ton of fun. It goes so fast, I had a lot more to say but the topic changes before you get a chance to say.
Still, I enjoyed it so much I’d like to be invited back one day.
13. On a less game specific note, how does it feel to have reached more than 130,000 subscribers on YouTube? Did you expect to get such an incredible number of subscribers?
Feels good man. Although I haven’t been counting them much lately. I somewhat miss the days of when every new sub was a massive achievement, now it’s impossible to keep track of it.
But I also appreciate more people like my videos, so, the more subs the better really.
14. How about the monetary side? Is the channel your full time job now?
Well, at the moment I’m living off Youtube and still the money I saved up from my previous job (I saved up a ton so it’s still there).
I’m in the process of moving out so, we shall see what happens. If I need a real job to survive, I’ll still make videos. If I can survive off Youtube, I’ll probably make twice as many videos in order to keep the channel sustainable.
So, I’m just clinging on basically.
15. I’ve also noticed that (unlike a few YouTubers), there’s no Patreon for your channel. Is that something you don’t have any interest in having?
I have a Patreon, I just don’t like promoting it much. Patreon has such a bad rep due to it being misused by certain people so I feel self conscious and nervous asking for money.
16. How about an official website? Because there isn’t one of those linked from your YouTube page either.
No one really uses websites to view videos. Sites like Normal Boots and Hidden Block, people just watch it straight from Youtube these days. So, wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
17. And have you ever considered partnering with other YouTubers as part of a group? Because I know Gaijin Goomba joined the Game Theorists, JonTron used to be part of Game Grumps and other video makers have joined Channel Awesome. Have you ever thought of getting involved in something like that?
I’ve thought about it. My dream team is Arlo, ItsaDogandGame and me. The super trio of animated characters.
18. On a similar note, what other YouTube channels do you watch on a regular basis?
I’ve kinda got bored of Youtube lately, especially gaming channels. (Which I used to exclusively watch). So now I watch H3H3 Productions and RedLetterMedia, and that’s about it. Always on the search for something new though.
19. Do you have any interesting future plans? Like games you want to make a video based on, or non video related projects you might be interested in starting at some point?
Well, an idea I’ve had in my head for a while, and I’d say is quite likely to happen, is to introduce serial elements to each episode. I have a story arc planned out, with each episodes ending leading onto the next video. The only issue I have is how to find an excuse to play DS games during each episode.
But yeah, that is the likely evolution of the channel.
20. Finally, what advice would you give new YouTubers who want to run a successful channel?
Just make a video. Everyone’s first video will be terrible so just get it over with. I started Youtube with no animation or video editing skills. I had no idea what I was doing (and it shows), but if you just keep at it, and try to improve something each video, you’ll end up with a pretty swanky channel by the end of it.
And that concludes another interview. It was an interesting one for us (especially in regards to stuff like a story arc in Lonely Goomba videos), but what about you? Are you a fan of the Lonely Goomba’s YouTube channel? Did you find the interview interesting to read?
Post your thoughts on the matter at the Gaming Reinvented forums or on social media today! And if you want to see more from the Lonely Goomba, go ahead and subscribe to his channel too! It’s well worth it!
