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Noclip's latest documentary, an hour-long exploration of the popular Independent Spacefaring Independent Game Astroneer, does not look like a normal YouTube video.
Its long duration is associated with a well fleshy history. It starts with the training of the System Era Softworks developer, and that goes through AstroneeThe intoxicating days of the post-launch, during which hundreds of thousands of copies were sold and the big names of Twitch streamers have taken over. "The unpublished story behind the difficult development of Astroneer" also evokes a dark story, largely unknown, involving the death of one of the founding members of the studio shortly after the early launch of the game. a difficult watch that shows an aspect of game development that we rarely see.
The video also breaks many of the conventions of gaming coverage on YouTube. Not only is it long, but it's completely ad-free and does not support YouTube's all-powerful algorithm. It's been the same for Noclip since its launch in 2016. "I knew the traffic would not be so intense, but it's one of the most important things we've done," says Noclip's founder. Danny O'Dwyer. Astroneer video. "This is a place where I could show my parents, and they would understand [game development]. "
Noclip was founded in 2016 and differs from most game channels on YouTube. Instead of earning money from monetized videos, Noclip is fully funded by Patreon, which brings in more than $ 23,000 a month to nearly 5,000 clients. Instead of the personality-driven coverage that dominates the space, the channel focuses almost entirely on the games themselves and on the people who created them. O'Dwyer, with a small team of freelance freelancers, has managed to leverage platforms such as YouTube and Patreon in a way that has allowed him to create exactly what he wants without worrying about issues like the number of views or demonetization. "We break a lot of rules," he says.
O'Dwyer has worked in video game journalism almost all his life. He started working at the British branch of Gamespot when he was 15, gradually climbing the ladder to finally join the US office in San Francisco. He has animated many shows in Gamespotbut one of his favorite subjects was to attend previews – those where a large group of the press plays an early game and talk to the developers – and try to create something that looks like a video cover of the game in question. "We always thought it would be a fun challenge to attend these previews and, instead of trying to make headlines, we figured that if we put some production behind we could give these things a cool look, "O & # 39; Dwyer explains.
Around the same time, he realized that he had reached a ceiling in his career. Unless he wants to get into management, there was no other place to go for Gamespot. Meanwhile, a group of old IGN The publishers had just quit their job to launch Kinda Funny Games, a Patreon-funded YouTube channel, whose popularity immediately exploded, surpassing its original funding goals. For about six months, O'Dwyer had the idea of doing something similar. Although his vision was very different from Kinda Funny – instead of video directed by his personality, he wanted to make detailed documentaries covering the history of video games – but he thought it could still be a viable platform. By the time he gave Gamespot in his opinion, the plan was already moving.
One of the first challenges was to determine which game to cover first. "The first one can not be an AAA studio because everyone will think I'm just marketing," says O'Dwyer. "It could not be a small independent game because there were a lot of people doing documentaries on small studios. Independent game: the movie was amazing and everyone tried to copy that. On October 31, Noclip launched the first half of a two-part documentary on the cars-soccer-soccer match. Rocket League, which has amassed 500,000 combined views.
Since then, Noclip has covered a wide range of games, big and small. There have been documentaries on The witness, the restart of 2016 Condemn, Horizon Zero Dawn, Daddy's dream, and Spelunky. The team traveled to Poland to film a document The witcher III, and they spent time in Japan for a piece on Final Fantasy XIV. Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene and his profiles were presented Condemn designer John Romero. Noclip is producing an ongoing series on the development of Supergiant's next big game, the Early Access Title. Hades.
This may seem like a lot, but by YouTube standards, Noclip's production is relatively small. In 2018, he released nine documentaries, the first of which was not presented before March. Meanwhile, 2017 had a much more regular pace. O'Dwyer said this gap in early 2018 was intentional. Like many creators, he has suffered a lot of burnout and is struggling to meet the demands, real or perceived, of a large online community. "Burnout is very real," he says. "Especially with the customer number, it may look a little like the rotation of the plates. If you do not touch for a moment, the number decreases because of my exit. And it is somehow because of your production, but also for many other reasons. There is no way to get used to this outside of time.
When things went well during this relatively quiet period from the beginning of last year, he realized that he could work at his own pace and continue to survive. A new life situation has also helped. When the situation was at its worst, O'Dwyer was living in a studio in Oakland with his wife, where it was impossible to miss work. Now, the couple and their young child have a home in Maryland with a basement dedicated almost entirely to Noclip. "I get out at 9 o'clock, get in for lunch, go down and get in at five, and the door is locked," says O'Dwyer.
The structure of Noclip, especially the lack of monetized videos, means that it is not as dependent on YouTube as most other video creators. "What I like is that everything is free and we do not stick anything behind a paywall," says O'Dwyer. "YouTube is the biggest funnel for this." Patreon, on the other hand, is an integral part. (Although all videos are finally made public, customers quickly have access to documentaries, behind-the-scenes content and a Noclip Discord server.) Noclip is one of Patreon's most important funds and maintains healthy relationships. with the company. At the Game Developers Conference last month, O'Dwyer and his team used the space in Patreon's San Francisco office to film a series of developer interviews. But this dependence does not bother him.
"I think it's so out of control that I do not really waste time worrying about it," O'Dwyer says. "If Patreon disappeared tomorrow, we would have trouble fighting. They make a big difference. But in reality, all we have to do is convince some 5,000 people to move elsewhere, or to support us if Patreon does something we do not agree with. It's manageable.
To celebrate his two years, five months ago, Noclip released a video on what a Noclip 2.0 might look like. Basically, it was a call to potential customers to explain to them what O'Dwyer and his team could do with more funds: more videos, better production values, that sort of thing. The roadmap is ambitious and the series shows no sign of slowing down, with documentaries on the Elder Scrolls: Blades, the closing of Telltale and 15 endless talks with the GDC should be published shortly. (One of the GDC videos will feature Edge reporter Megan Farokhmanesh.) For O'Dwyer, it's a chance to live a dream, with a little help from YouTube, Patreon and nearly 5,000 people who want to see this kind of long-running video game coverage.
"I felt more like a journalist at Gamespot, "he says." Now, I feel more like a filmmaker or a creator because I am what I want to do and the stories that are important. "
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