It has been years since I discovered Twitch, and I regularly use it to watch tournaments of my favorite games or observe others trying out new games. This allows me to validate if it's worth my time and money because watching reviews is cool and all, but seeing someone else play it just hits differently.
A couple of years ago, I found out about the 'Software and Game Development' category, which seemed like a gathering of my type of nerds doing their thing in public. I was hooked and started to regularly tune into streamers like Prime, Teej, Bashbunni, and TheAltF4Stream. It was a great way to kill time, get motivated, and see how other people work in public. Additionally, I learned new things because they would either develop something or try out new languages and frameworks. It looked like a ton of fun.
Fast-forward to 2023 when I actually met some of them. While talking, they were super nice and mentioned that I should give it a go as well (Thanks BG!). Initially, it was something I kind of wanted to do, but I didn't feel confident in doing. Until the end of 2023 when I just said YOLO and ordered a microphone, a mic arm, and a cheap light to hang over my monitors so people could see me.
One night, I clicked on "start streaming" in OBS, and so far, I've done it on a regular basis after my kids go to sleep from Monday to Wednesday. I already have 20 hours of stream content, which seems low, but it's a big achievement for me.
The first couple of times, audio problems haunted me—either the music was too loud, the microphone was way too low, or I flat out forgot to turn it on. That was a fun stream. I started to get myself involved in more OBS settings and overlays. A couple of days ago, I also bought a stream deck which I'm using to switch scenes in OBS, adding tons of fun.
One thing to point out: I'm not expecting to get famous or rich from this. I'm honestly doing it because I find it fun, and I really don't care if there's no one seeing me. I will admit, though, I still get nervous when someone randomly pops up and asks a thing. I have to remind myself to try to interact with people because, at the end of the day, I need to build up the confidence.
So, if you are interested in seeing me and my late study sessions, tune in and ask stuff or just troll me.
See ya!