One of the biggest shifts to happen in the video game industry over the last five years has been the explosion in fan-made video content, which has become its own $3.8 billion industry thanks to things like Let’s Play and Twitch livestreaming.

While the growth of platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming have been great for content creators, they have also been a boon for many game developers, especially in the indie community, and people like Big Pharma creator Tim Wicksteed credit YouTubers with making their games a success.

“Over the first few days of the beta a relatively small number of very high profile YouTubers covered [Big Pharma] which not only sent sales skyrocketing but also put the game in front of other YouTubers who went on to cover the game,” Wicksteed said in a recent blog post on Gamasutra. “This cyclical effect of YouTubers influencing YouTubers seems to be very powerful and allows you to extend your reach way beyond what is possible by manually sending out emails.”

“You have to think about things from a potential YouTuber’s perspective”

Wicksteed explained that there is more to getting your game covered by well known YouTube stars than just blind luck. One reason Big Pharma was so popular with video creators, according to Wicksteed, was that it was as fun to watch as it was to play.

“You have to think about things from a potential YouTuber’s perspective,” he said. “What do they want from a game? Sure, they want it to be fun, but they also want it to be fun to watch. They want opportunities to show their own creativity via the gameplay. Ideally they want to be able make the odd dick joke.”

“All these things are possible in Big Pharma. It’s a sandbox game so there’s plenty of scope for creative play. There are opportunities for audience interaction via the naming of drugs and the endless potential for optimisation. And yes, there’s ample room for body humour with cures for warts and erectile dysfunction and side-effects such as ‘can cause anal leakage’.”

Wicksteed admitted that he did not create those features with video creators in mind, but looking back, he notes that they were a big part of why his game was popular with YouTubers, and it is something he has learned to consider for the future.

“What I’ve learned for future games,” Wicksteed concluded, “is to specifically think about features I could include which would be attractive to YouTubers and Twitch streamers; to design a game not only to be fun, but fun to watch.”

Image courtesy of Twice Circled via Steam Store