Pick a Game to Record

Your first step in making a Let’s Play video is an obvious one: picking the right game to record. If you’re making your game video for fun and to share with a few others, you’re probably going to choose your favorite games. However, if you plan to monetize your videos, you want to think about which games will attract attention and draw an audience. The games you record yourself playing should be visually interesting in some way—even if it’s for how terrible the graphics are, for example. You want to avoid games that are very repetitive because these can bore your viewers. Extremely popular games have a lot of videos dedicated to them on YouTube, to the point that YouTube is saturated with them. New gameplay videos of Minecraft, for example, are going to have a very difficult time getting noticed for two reasons. First, your Minecraft video faces competition from thousands, if not tens of thousands (or even more) of other Minecraft videos out there. It’s very difficult to get noticed in this sea of videos. Second, with saturation, there inevitably comes audience fatigue. Fresh takes on a game like this can be hard to find, and people tire of them.

Choose a Video Capture Device

One of the main pieces of hardware you need, especially if you’re recording from a console such as a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, is a video capturing device. This allows you to record the video output of the game and store the video file on your computer. Lots of video capturing devices are available to choose from. Popular options include:

Elgato Video Capture AVerMedia AVerCapture HD Hauppauge Video Capture Device DIGITNOW! HD Game Capture

Some video capture devices support a microphone for live commentary. Video connection types include HDMI in most cases, with some supporting component or composite connections. The recording quality, particularly for producing YouTube videos, is fairly even among all of them. All the devices mentioned above can record your console gameplay footage, even in 1080p. High performance does come with a cost, however, and a decent capture unit can run you anywhere from $90 up to $150 or more for the best units.

Choose a Microphone and Audio Accessories

Adding your own audio comments to your video requires a microphone. You can use an internal microphone on your computer, or the mic on a gaming headset; however, if you want better, more professional sounding audio, you want to get a USB microphone. A popular choice among podcasters and many video producers on YouTube is Blue’s Snowball mic for around $70. You can also step up in quality and go for the Yeti Studio, also from Blue, for about $150. While any microphone records audio, you usually get better quality with a higher-end device.

Optional Accessory: Pop Filter

A pop filter (also called a pop guard, pop shield, and pop screen) is a simple filter that attaches to your mic to prevent the popping sounds that can be caused when fast-moving air hits the mic when you’re speaking into it. They diffuse and deflect the rushing air caused by pronouncing sounds like “p.” Pop filters can also keep spit from getting on your mic. Pop filters come in a variety of types, from foam caps that fit over your mic to nylon or metal discs that sit between the mic and your mouth. Costs vary, but they are generally affordable. Even cheaper pop filters can improve your audio recording over having no filter at all, so if your budget is small go with a cheaper one.

Optional Accessory: Mic Boom

A mic boom may be useful depending on your setup. It’s an adjustable arm that can be attached to your microphone and positioned more easily for recording your voice.

Ensure Your Computer Can Handle Video Editing

Trying to edit a video on a computer that’s not up to the video editing task can be frustrating, resulting in slow-loading menus and sluggish video playback. The right hardware is crucial for high-quality and efficient video editing. If you’re patient, you might be able to get by with cheap hardware, but that isn’t always true. Check the program’s hardware requirements before you purchase anything; consider checking in with fellow gamers in online forums, too, for tips on what to buy. A couple of key considerations include:

RAM: You don’t need a high-end gaming computer to do some video touchups, but it isn’t uncommon to need upward of 4 to 8GB of RAM for some video processing.Hard drive space: If your game is hours long or high resolution (especially 4K quality), or both, it can take up an enormous amount of storage space. Consider getting another hard drive, such as an external hard drive, if your main drive has only a small amount of free space.

Fast Internet Access

The need for internet access is obvious, but a fast connection with good bandwidth is recommended. Internet service often quotes its download speed, but you may not find the upload speed as boldly advertised. This is because upload speeds are slower—sometimes significantly slower—than download speeds. You’re going to be uploading your game video, so the upload speed is more important for you. It determines how long it will take for your videos to go from your computer to YouTube. For example, if your maximum upload speed is only 5 Mbps (0.625 MBps), it can take a full two hours to upload a 4.5GB video file to YouTube.

Video Recording and Editing Software

Your video capture hardware may come with software for recording your game, but it might not have all the features you’re looking for if you want to produce a truly professional-looking video. A free option for recording video is Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). This is a popular open-source application designed for game capturing. You can choose from a huge offering of both free and commercial video editing software. Versions of Windows that have Windows Essentials installed can use the built-in Microsoft Movie Maker app for light editing, and macOS users can use iMovie. You might also consider more advanced (but not free) software, such as VEGAS Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, or MAGIX Movie Edit Pro.

Audio Recording and Editing Software

You can use a free program like Audacity to edit the minute details of the sound file, and then encode it in the audio format your video editor requires. Audacity is perhaps the most popular audio editing software among YouTubers and podcasters, and for good reason; it offers a huge number of features and options that make audio recording and editing very easy.

Set up the Video Capture Device

A video capture device works by interposing itself in the video signal from your gaming system to your TV or monitor. The device then allows you to connect a computer, with a USB cable for example, and feed the video simultaneously to your computer where the video capture software records it—all without interfering with your gaming. As an example, here’s how you would connect the Elgato Game Capture HD60 S to an Xbox One to record video.

Using Audacity to Reduce Background Noise

When you record your commentary, your microphone may pick up subtle background noise. Here’s a step-by-step on how to clean up an audio track in Audacity and eliminate background noise. When you have your gameplay video and your commentary audio ready, your next step is to combine them into a single video file that you can upload to your YouTube channel. You can do this in the video editing software you’ve chosen, such as iMovie, Adobe Premiere, or other software.

Tips for YouTubers

When you publish videos to YouTube, there are some important considerations to keep in mind and mistakes to avoid to keep your videos visible, and potentially keep them earning you income.

In the distant past, copyright issues were a huge minefield when it came to making gaming videos for YouTube, but things have changed. Many game companies have issued blanket statements allowing gamers to create and even monetize videos, with few restrictions. However, you still have to be mindful of copyrights. This is especially true with respect to any music you might use in your video. Make sure you’re fully aware of the sounds your video has; don’t simply add a song you like during the editing phase without checking its copyright restrictions. YouTube might strip it from your video before it’s even published.

YouTube Demonetization

What’s more, if your video doesn’t comply with YouTube’s Terms of Service, its Community Guidelines, as well as its Adsense Program Policies, your video will likely be demonetized. If YouTube demonetizes your video, it earns no ad revenue for you. Obviously, if you want to make money from your creative game video work, you want to avoid running afoul of these policies and getting demonetized.