With the rise of watching popular content creators play various games live on stream, you may be wondering how to get involved with streaming your own content. If you enjoy hosting an audience and love playing games, streaming to an audience could be your calling!
What is streaming?
Streaming or broadcasting involves screen-recording your game, usually with a voiceover or even live video. We recommend not using a camera until the age of 18 for safety purposes, but using a voice over is perfect until then. You can screen share your favorite FPS, let the audience join in an interactive trivia game, or even play some single player games with more of a relaxed feel for your viewers.
A great way to start is to find what genre of game you enjoy the most, and stream that category! Viewers love to interact with the streamer and comment on the game, get their opinions on various gameplay elements, or just have background noise to do homework to.
How do I start streaming?
The first point to note about streaming is that it requires both a front-end streaming platform like Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook gaming, as well as a back-end production software. There are various pros and cons to each, so thoroughly check out each one before you make your decision!
Streamlabs OBS is the most beginner friendly production software, and Twitch is the most popular streaming service right now. Streamlabs OBS has great tutorials for beginners, but we’ll go over the basics here.
First, you want to find your stream key in your front-end streaming service of choice. This is individual to you, and allows you to link the front and back end together to create a stream - so don’t share this code to anyone. After this, you insert it into the back-end software, and your stream is officially linked.
Next, you’ll want to select your inputs. Selecting your game or screen screen shares whatever you selected, and nothing else. Audio is more confusing, as the only audio options are usually your whole desktop, which means the chat can hear your voice chat call, or your background noise in your mic. There are settings to fix this, so look up tutorials if you’re interested in more!
Last, you can customize your stream with fun graphics and create your own personal streaming style by inserting graphics and overlaying them the way you want. After this, all that’s left is to press the go live button and share!
Why would I stream?
Streaming is a great way to show your gameplay to others, and can even serve as a way to improve. If you are wanting to be the best of the best in your favorite game title, having a dedicated audience supporting you along the way helps your journey to the top! Along with this, streamers can make a decent amount of money for college funds, improving their gaming setup, or for their viewers to invest in high quality content creation.
It is also a great way to build a fantastic community around a game. If you’re streaming a game that your viewers love, and your personality keeps them sticking around, they’ll come back again and again to enjoy your content. You may make some of your best friends through streaming, who knows?
We always recommend internet safety online, so be sure you are keeping yourself and your information private when interacting on the internet. But check out what your favorite streamers do, build up your audience, and share your corner of the streaming world with the internet!