Live streaming Project Moon games can be a uniquely fun experience
not only are there ample opportunities for audience participation,
there's also years worth of lore and community in-jokes for everybody to enjoy.
That is, if you've already finished the games
and are up-to-date with Limbus Company.
For a streamer new to the franchise with lots to catch up on,
it's a very different story.
Hi, I'm Zero and in this video I'll be going over my thoughts
about new players streaming Project Moon games.
First I'll talk about who is this is for.
Next I'll explain the main problem and
some options to address that problem.
And after that, I'll talk about other problems that might show up.
Then finally, a section for “Chat”.
As a Streamer, you can skip this part
but you can also watch it if you're ok with the minor spoilers.
A quick disclaimer since we're potentially dealing with money here:
I'm not a professional streamer,
I'm just a guy rambling on the internet.
If you are a professional streamer,
please take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Better yet, consult with other people before following any of my suggestions.
On to the first part, who is this for?
Obviously for Streamers new to Project Moon.
But since advice for one type of Streamer may not apply to others,
we'll need to split them up into groups.
I'm gonna keep it simple and classify them by viewer count.
First are Hobbyist Streamers, ones with less than 10 regular viewers.
Maybe some friends will drop by to watch sometimes,
but most of the time they just stream for the sake of streaming.
Then the next step up are the Small Streamers,
hovering around 40 viewers.
These are either longtime Hobbyist Streamers that have
slowly built up their faithful audience,
or relatively new Streamers that took growing their audience
much more seriously.
Then there's the Large Streamers,
I'd say 250 viewers would be a good baseline.
These are professional or semi-professional Streamers
that have worked hard to get to this level.
I could add one last type,
the Even Larger Streamers with thousands of viewers,
but again keeping things simple,
I'll lump them together with the Large Streamers,
and just explain later how a much larger audience could change things.
Alright here's the deal:
Project Moon games make it hard for new players to fully appreciate them.
And it's not just because of one or two major issues breaking the game,
but a combination of factors eventually leading to much bigger problems.
Complicating matters is how some of those factors aren't problems
but rather design choices that may even be considered a plus
in other situations.
It's only when they're all combined that they become an issue.
Think Domino effect or the Swiss cheese model.
Anyway, let's start with one of those non-issues:
Project Moon games use some of the most unique game systems out there right now.
Lobotomy Corporation is a management and memory game
with a challenging Real-Time with Pause combat.
Library of Ruina and Limbus Company, on the other hand,
are hybrid Tactical Auto-Battlers
that flip traditional Turn-Based combat upside down.
On itself, this isn't an issue:
there's a market out there for games that push the boundaries of gaming.
But then there's the next part:
The tutorials and manuals kinda suck,
making it much harder to get into the games.
But again, this doesn't affect other games that much.
For example other complex simulators
have bare bones tutorials that barely cover the basics,
but it isn't that big of a deal breaker for them.
What Project Moon games have that those others don't is our next factor:
Project Moon games are best played knowing as little about them as possible.
I'm sure you know of many games that fall into this category,
though I should note that this isn't all about
avoiding spoilers for plot twists.
It's also because Project Moon games are structured such that
details of the story and the lore
are presented like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle,
and that “OH!” moment you get after all the pieces fit together
won't be as impactful if you are spoiled,
regardless if it's a plot twist or not.
Normally this also isn't an issue,
because unless you're a complete outsider to gaming,
you shouldn't have problems picking up and playing those other games,
usually because they're based on older games,
say if you've played a JRPG before,
it should be easy to jump into others.
And also because they have adequate tutorials
that introduce gameplay mechanics to new players.
If you put together all of what we just discussed,
you should be able to start seeing the problem…
It's as if to get the ideal Project Moon game experience,
a new player has to
already know as much about playing the game as possible,
while knowing as little about the game as possible.
And so we reach the fundamental dilemma with Project Moon games:
Do you look up guides to understand how the game works
but open up yourself to accidental spoilers?
Or do you tough it out and try to play the game on your own,
only to learn dozens of hours later
that you've been missing out on some basic concepts,
and have been giving yourself unnecessary handicaps all this time?
You can try going for a middle route,
spoiling yourself a little to learn a bit more about the game
but how many compromises can you tolerate
before you give up one way or another?
By the way, we haven't even talked about streaming yet.
Ok, streaming:
it's got it's own set of problems that make things worse.
The first one is caused by Streamers playing way too many games
that they get blindsided by the dilemma.
We already talked about lore rich games
and how avoiding spoilers usually isn't a problem
as they're either in an established genre
or have approachable mechanics.
And so Streamers don't need to go out an look for guides
or ask too much from Chat.
As for games with complicated mechanics,
it might be surprising to some,
but they are streamed a lot,
with the top games of Twitch filled with them.
However, we haven't mentioned how these games
have very simple un-spoilable stories,
or have extensive lore but they're hidden well into the background.
So having a wiki open on another window
or getting Chat to guide the Streamer won't necessarily spoil that much.
With Streamers used to playing either one of these types of games,
most will not know how to deal with a game that is a mix of both.
Or to put it in another way,
Streamers will often go in with incorrect expectations.
Let's take Lobotomy Corporation.
A few years ago, a Streamer looking for content to stream
might try LobCorp thinking it would be another rage game.
Then they'll gloss over stuff that could've piqued their interest
like the story and the setting.
In the end, they don't get hooked,
and so they drop the game after a few short cycles.
Nowadays it's the opposite,
with streamers trying out LobCorp after hearing good things
about how the lore was built up across the series.
Then they start the game and learn that
it's a painfully janky game that doesn't hold your hand.
Same end result, they also drop the game.
Then there's the next problem,
the best and worst thing about streams:
Chat.
Say you're streaming like you would with any new game -
you warn Chat to avoid spoilers
but allow backseating only when you ask the questions first.
This approach works for complicated games,
but only up to a certain point -
some games are just too complicated
and even the most knowledgeable chat members
can have trouble explaining things to the Streamer.
With smaller Streamers, it's easier:
they can just stop and have a discussion with chat
until they get a good idea how to do things.
Larger Streamers don't have that privilege
as they've got a huge audience to entertain.
And even if they slow down to listen to Chat's advice,
the problems still continue -
if there's too many people in chat that know the game,
the streamer will get overloaded with info.
If there's too little, it can get a bit awkward
talking to only a few people in chat
and if those "few people" give the wrong advice,
there's not enough people to correct them.
And then there's the chat delay,
5-10 seconds might not seem much,
but it's just long enough that you can't ask chat to remind you
about certain things in LobCorp.
They will remind you,
but it will be too late.
And finally the cherry on top -
once you finally find a good level of backseating allowed,
you're bound to get at least a couple of
clueless self-proclaimed Project Moon fans come into the chat,
see the active audience interaction,
and just assume it's ok to start spamming spoilers,
looping us back into the main dilemma.
Now if the last one was about chat
and complicated gameplay,
we also got the other side of the coin -
a problem mostly on the Streamer,
and is related to lore.
Remember what I said about jigsaw puzzles
and things falling into place?
Now think about how many times
a Streamer is distracted while playing games,
whether through personal tangents or addressing donations -
that jigsaw puzzle is gonna have some missing pieces
unless the Streamer pays closer attention to the game.
Sure they could use the logs or the replay functions
to revisit story and dialogue,
but when was the last time you've seen a Streamer do that?
Especially, as we said, there's a lot
of people waiting for the Streamer to entertain them.
This rush to go through the game to not bore the audience
leads to another problem:
sometimes the game needs time to sink in.
A quick history lesson for some context:
both Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina
went through Steam's Early Access.
While the former's update schedule was
more in line with your typical Early Access game,
Ruina did something so groundbreaking that I'm both surprised
and not surprised that more Early Access games haven't followed suit:
Namely, we got a couple of new stages to play through every week,
almost like a TV show.
As streaming services eventually learned the hard way,
sometimes it's better to get away from the binge model and split things up,
building anticipation among the audience on how things will progress.
This continues in Limbus Company
with major story content updates split into multiple weeks.
So yeah, binging Ruina and Limbus may not be a good idea.
As for Lobotomy Corporation,
oddly enough it suffers the opposite problem -
it's common for players to take very long breaks between sessions,
forgetting everything related to the story by the time they come back.
I could go on with this line of discussion,
but it all boils down to this:
a new player streaming to a sizable audience
will have a much harder time appreciating the games' story
compared to those who have played
on their own as the games and updates came out.
Alright - here are the problems,
what's the solution then?
I'm gonna go out and say it,
there's no proven and consistent solution as of this video.
If there was, we'd see more new players doing full franchise playthroughs.
That said, let's go through some options.
There's the default option,
“just stream with the chat open”,
which I've already talked about,
problems and all.
We'll get back to it later.
Then there's a better option,
at least theoretically:
get an Advisor to guide the streamer.
If you're kicking yourself for not thinking about this obvious solution
considering that every game in the series
has an Advisor or a Guide character,
don't worry, I'll wait for you to finish.
Despite how obvious as it may now seem,
I'm certain most Streamers haven't event thought about it.
But if you look around,
once in a while you may find some smaller Streamers doing it.
As for bigger Streamers,
Shirakami Fubuki did this years ago -
and this was even before Ruina's Early Access.
So it's also not a new idea.
So yeah, an Advisor.
Rather than asking chat questions,
the Streamer would be in a call with
someone who has already finished the game.
The latter will then teach the ins and outs of the game,
and point out stuff here and there.
But apart from that, the Advisor is totally hands-off,
letting the Streamer make some mistakes and see the results for themselves.
As for the Chat,
it's up to the Streamer to decide.
They could still read it, and thanks to having an Advisor,
trolling would no longer be an issue.
Unless of course, the Advisor joins in on the fun.
But if there's too many people dropping spoilers,
the Streamer could also pin a comment
that they won't read Chat and donations until they behave.
And thanks to years of social deduction games,
ignoring chat isn't that extreme or weird anymore.
But then comes the hard part -
who do you get to be the Advisor?
For Smaller Streamers, this one's easier:
It's 2025,
so if it's the first time the Streamer is trying out Project Moon games,
there's a good chance that a friend or a mod suggested the game.
And if that's the case, just bring them on stream.
It gets a bit complicated with Larger Streamers, though.
With so much going on in the game,
the Advisor might give bad info to the Streamer once in a while,
causing chat to inevitably correct it.
In a smaller stream, this can be a good thing,
with chat helping the Advisor out.
On a much larger stream,
dozens of “well akshually's” popping up can get annoying really fast
and might even be too much for the Advisor to handle,
especially if they're just a friend
and not a mod that's used to this bullshit.
So, if you don't want to subject your friend to Chat's degeneracy,
who else can you bring in to be the Advisor?
Project Moon content creators.
Again, another obvious solution.
Find someone with videos showing that they know what they're doing.
Bonus points if they've dabbled with mods that add new content,
and if they've played them on stream.
If you're that big of a Streamer that chat can scare away a guest,
I'm sure you can find a Project Moon content creator
within a few degrees of separation from you,
if you don't already have some among your longtime viewers.
Then again if you're popular for…
"less desirable reasons"
you shouldn't be surprised if the more knowledgeable ones
would outright ignore you.
Ok, so you've roped in someone good at Project Moon games as an Advisor,
there's still another problem:
the time commitment.
These are very long games; not gonna spoil how long,
just gonna say that if you're gonna get hooked,
you could be blocking off your schedule for a long time...
Again for Smaller Streamers this is fine,
with every stream being sort of a weekly
or bi-weekly game night with friends.
For external collabs however,
someone's got to get paid.
Seriously.
It's ok if it's just gonna be a few streams,
but if this collab's gonna be a regular thing,
some sort of compensation should be on the table.
Or the guest would only be on stream once in a while.
Or you've got multiple guests that rotate.
and so on...
anything that would make it less of a hassle for both of you.
And that's it for the Advisor route
at least for now.
You might have noticed that
we haven't really talked about Hobbyist Streamers yet,
so what about them?
Oddly enough, I'd go with the default
“just stream with the chat open” approach.
From what I've seen with Hobbyist Streamers
and with my own experience streaming LobCorp
spoilers aren't really a problem
especially if you make it clear that your stream doesn't want it.
Sure there might be some weirdos that can't read dropping by,
but from what I've seen there are many more lurkers
willing to help if you have questions.
So despite all of what I said earlier in the video,
the default route is a viable streaming option…
if you're a hobbyist.
Sadly it quickly gets worse the more viewers you have.
Streaming with an Adviser is still a better option
if somehow a hobbyist can get one.
And there's the third option:
if you're really worried about spoilers,
playing the games off-stream is always on the table.
That's what I did, so when I streamed LobCorp,
I was pretty much immune to spoilers
because I already spoiled myself when I was looking for guides.
This goes beyond avoiding spoilers, though,
especially if you plan to upload VODs or edited playthroughs of your streams.
This is because everything we've discussed so far that
makes it challenging to stream the games
also affect the resulting videos.
That is to say, most of them
leave a lot to be desired...
Many are first playthroughs,
and no amount of editing will remove the awkward gameplay
coming from an Advisor-less first time player.
Playing off-stream first gives you the opportunity
to produce much better videos:
you can play better,
focus on the parts of the story that will be important later on,
and keep your eyes open for stuff you might not have noticed
in your earlier playthroughs.
In other words, your playthrough would be
more like a deep dive from a lore-master,
and less like a game reviewer rushing to meet a deadline.
The downside here is that you don't get the
"genuine first-time reaction"
that so many crave nowadays.
So if your target audience prefers that over quality gameplay,
this approach may not be for you.
Though I must also point out that without an Advisor
or looking up other players' analysis of the games,
it may take a couple of replays before the
metaphorical jigsaw puzzle will click for some players.
So sometimes your reaction to the second or later playthroughs
could be better than your first.
And here are your options.
Now it's up to you to decide which best suits your streams.
Once you've decided how you're going to go about streaming,
next you'll need to decide where to start.
The most obvious choice is to start at the beginning,
Lobotomy Corporation,
as it would unravel the story in a logical order.
However, it's also the hardest to get into,
not only due to difficulty, but also because it's as janky
as an ambitious small indie developer's first game.
So I'd strongly recommend getting an Advisor
if you choose to start with this game first.
On the other hand,
Limbus Company's the most accessible
and you can get by without an Advisor.
However, it's a gacha game so references to the previous games
meant to open your wallet will go over your head if you start here.
Seriously though, you can still enter the series through this game,
but note that it's not a direct sequel, but a spinoff
Basically, it will spoil the previous two games,
but most of the spoilers will come from those
not directly involved with them.
Speaking of spoilers,
Limbus Company's also reached that point in its popularity
where those who blatantly put spoilers in their posts and thumbnails
now far surpass those who take time to hide them.
In other words, it's practically impossible
to avoid spoilers for Limbus Company nowadays.
On the other hand,
Lobotomy Corporation's older so there's less market for clickbait
and some spoilers have been shitposted and reposted over and over
that they've almost become non-spoilers,
confusing anyone not familiar with the in-jokes.
Basically, as long as you're not actively looking for LobCorp content
you're slightly less likely to get spoiled.
Library of Ruina is in the middle of the two -
it's harder to get into than Limbus Company,
but still easier than Lobotomy Corporation.
I'd still recommend getting an Advisor for it, though.
In terms of spoilers, it also spoils LobCorp,
but in a different way compared to Limbus.
We'll get back to this later.
As for the other type of spoilers, the one from the fanbase -
it's a mix of both.
It's recent enough that you can still get accidental spoilers on your feeds,
but old enough that some community memes
have been beaten to the ground already.
And here's a summary on where to start.
Unfortunately this table doesn't tell you what you really want to know -
What are these games all about?
and WHY you would want to play any of them?
So let's go through these games one by one
and give you actual reasons to play them.
Lobotomy Corporation is a management game,
with the said corp in the business of providing energy
to a world that has a never ending demand for it.
However, they don't get this energy from fossil fuels,
renewables, or even nuclear sources.
They extract it from Abnormalities,
anomalous entities contained within Lobotomy Corporation's sites.
In the game you play as a new site manager,
and it's your job to reach the daily energy quota for 50 days.
Unfortunately, you start out with almost no information about the Abnormalities
and you have to figure out by trial and error
how to extract the most energy out of them.
And with new Abnormalities added to the site almost every day,
soon you'll be juggling dozens of them at the same time.
But it gets worse.
To use a phrase from another franchise,
these Abnormalities do get a bit quirky,
and one mistake can lead to containment breaches,
deaths of your employees,
or even day resets.
Thankfully, the game allows you to return to checkpoints.
You don't get to bring back everything,
but you get a chance to pick more manageable Abnormalities.
Worst case, you can always go back to the start,
ending a cycle for one the weirdest roguelites you'll ever play.
And with that intro, we can loop back to what I briefly mentioned earlier about
why you might want to play this game,
Namely, you're a fan of losing is fun games
like roguelites and survival games.
Or you want to get your feet wet in the
deep lore that is the Project Moon franchise.
But really,
there's one main reason why you might want to play Lobotomy Corporation.
It's how I got into the game,
and it's even one of the main reasons why the game was made.
You love SCP, but are frustrated that most SCP-inspired video games out there
are just clones of SCP: Containment Breach.
Unfortunately explaining SCP would be too big of a tangent
and is best moved to another video.
So for the interest of time,
I'm gonna assume you're at least vaguely familiar with SCP
and anomalous containment fiction as a whole,
and maybe seen some gameplay of other SCP games.
Anyway, there are a number of problems an SCP fan may have
with the current crop of SCP games,
but I'll just focus on what I believe is the biggest one:
Most games center around containment breaches,
with the player taking control of a character
tasked to survive and escape the event,
or suppress and re-contain the anomalies,
or a mix of both.
And I can't blame the game devs,
containment breaches are the most exciting part
about about being in a SCP-like universe,
even if your demise is the most likely outcome.
However, the concept of SCP is much more than containment breaches.
In fact, SCP doesn't stand for Secure Contain Protect -
that's just the Foundation’s motto.
SCP stands for “Special Containment Procedures”,
documents detailing how to contain anomalies,
written in dry scientific and bureaucratic language
which often masks the great lengths the Foundation goes through to fulfill its goals.
And we don't really see this side of SCPs that much in SCP-inspired games.
Where's the methodical approach to investigating the unknown?
The mounting dread as the scale and extent of your mission
becomes more and more apparent?
The ethical and moral dilemmas involved
in dealing with such a seemingly futile Sisyphean task?
You do see these in other Cosmic Horror games,
just not SCP-inspired or anomalous containment games.
Now, if I list down the things that I think should be in my ideal SCP game,
then score games according to those criteria,
here's what we'll get:
"Containment breach"-based SCP games do really well on the top half,
but end up getting a low score because they operate on a smaller scale and
you don't get to see the big picture.
On the other hand, Lovecraftian and Cosmic Horror games
can get excellent scores on some parts,
but they still don't get a high overall score because, well,
they're not meant to be SCP games.
You might think I'm gonna fanboy here and say LobCorp absolutely
blows them all out of the water,
but no, Lobotomy Corporation is a flawed game,
and other games in this table are definitely better than it in some places.
As an SCP game, though,
it's the only one out there that covers all the bases.
So until a more ambitious and better funded studio
manages to combine, say,
the mainstream appeal of Control
with the depth and dreariness of Sunless Sea,
anyone wishing to get the
“shady organization that probably
shouldn't be working with this many anomalies” experience
will have to settle with the janky game that is Lobotomy Corporation.
But what if you don't care about SCPs?
Or maybe you don't want to spend way too much time on
a janky roguelite management game.
Maybe you'd rather spend way too much time on a card battler instead.
Seriously though, going straight to the next game is also an option,
as Library of Ruina recaps the story of Lobotomy Corporation as you play it.
Before I describe the next 2 games,
I have to say that it's impossible for me to describe them
without dropping hints related to spoilers.
So if you're locked in with Lobotomy Corporation
as the start of your Project Moon journey,
skip to the timestamp on screen.
Alright, Library of Ruina:
Play this if you want a uniquely different gaming experience.
Like if you take a normal game,
then flip half of it upside down.
Starting with the premise:
in the previous game,
you were preventing murderous anomalous entities from breaching containment.
Now you ARE the Eldritch horror,
slowly murdering your way through the ranks of the City to get to your end goal.
Then there's the setting:
The City can be described simply as a dystopian cyberpunk megacity,
but it doesn't have that wide-eyed wonder
that 80's or 90's cyberpunk had with cyberspace.
There's Augmentations, AI dilemmas, and overall suffering caused by Corporations,
but there's no fancy hacking here -
the Internet and telecommunications are just as mundane as it is in our time.
It's also based on East Asian sensibilities rather than Western Cyberpunk,
with the most prominent feature being the overly heavy regulation on firearms
forcing many to rely on melee combat.
Speaking of the combat:
on the surface it looks like yet another Slay the Spire clone,
but once you actually play it,
you'll see how much it questions not just card game combat,
but video game combat as a whole…
Like why do units just stand and take damage in turn-based games?
Why can't they try to parry before taking damage instead?
Or why do we need a special skill to defend our party members
when speedier units can intercept attacks like in tactical games?
I could go on with other stuff, but I think you got the point.
So let's proceed to the last game:
Limbus Company,
it's a spinoff so I won't be spoiling anything that I haven't mentioned yet
but if you want to skip, timestamp on screen.
Limbus Company:
it's Dante's Inferno,
with “Hell” being “The City”.
Dante, now an amnesiac with a clock for a head,
travels around The City guided by Vergilius,
with the ultimate goal of gathering Golden Boughs
from former Lobotomy Corporation branches.
This road trip explores the other parts of The City
that we haven't seen in the previous titles.
Along for the ride and serving as the journey's muscle
are the twelve Sinners,
people who are also suspiciously named after literary figures from around the world.
So there's your first selling point:
if you love classic literature but hate how media keeps going for
a select few titles like Sherlock Holmes,
this might be up your alley.
The next major selling point -
it's a live service gacha game,
that doesn't feel like a live service gacha game.
Take for example the combat,
if a live service gacha comes out of nowhere boasting a unique combat experience,
you just know it's gonna be another
Raid - Summoner's War clone.
Limbus Company, on the other hand, does use a unique combat system,
a hybrid tactical auto-battler that only it and Library of Ruina use.
Then there's the monetization which I won't go into detail.
Basically, if you've got the patience.
almost all of the game is available to you through gameplay
And one last, seemingly minor change from your usual gacha -
the rating.
When a gacha game is rated for more mature audiences,
usually it's just because of the fanservice.
But Limbus Company shows us what we're missing:
there's violence and gore,
your teams covered in blood after a long battle.
Mature topics are also tackled, you know,
things like overwork and tax evasion.
Jokes aside, this game does go to places
where mature games in the same market typically avoid,
fitting for an allegorical journey through hell.
And I guess that's also a fitting end to this section:
if you're looking for indie games that explore issues that
modern AAA slop rarely touch upon nowadays
so as not to offend their mainstream audience,
any of these three games may scratch your itch.
Once you've decided where to start,
here's some things you have to be aware of before playing each game:
Lobotomy Corporation:
There's a memory leak, but as a Streamer,
your streaming rig should have more than enough memory for it to be a problem.
Worst case you can always reset your game after a few hours.
The game allows you to customize your Agents, including their names.
While this is a great place for audience interaction,
note that there is a built-in name list that the game draws from
and they can be…
well.. interesting.
Some are unintentionally funny,
others are hard to pronounce,
and others…
let's just say where I'm from,
I would rather reroll some names rather than deal with them.
So yeah, be prepared to quickly reroll
if you see a name that you don't like,
say an ex or someone way worse.
Library of Ruina:
First off, just stick with the PC version.
It's much easier to navigate with the mouse and keyboard
and the loading times are much faster.
Customization returns, so yeah,
up to you how you deal with certain names.
At least now renaming is free.
Then there's the music -
this is where Mili started doing the vocal tracks for the franchise.
I honestly don't know how much it affects the monetization of videos,
but this is a heads up so you won't be surprised
and be prepared to do some audio scrubbing
if your platform's content detection algorithm messes up.
If you're really paranoid,
you can just ask chat to tell you when to mute the music,
though understand that Mili's songs only play at key moments in the game,
so not only will you be missing out on what the community considers
some of the highest points in the series,
you will also be spoiling yourself.
Oh and yeah, speaking of audio,
mix the audio before the stream unless you want to
on game startup.
Limbus Company:
same here just go with the Steam version.
Even if you've got a kick-ass mobile streaming setup,
the PC version is just more stable,
not to mention the unique id on the title screen
is much more anonymous than your email.
Speaking of privacy, the game doesn't have a streamer mode yet
so you should strongly consider censoring some stuff through your overlay -
we already mentioned the title screen,
then there's the User ID unless you want to get swamped with friend requests,
and perhaps the Lunacy count to hide how responsible
or irresponsible you are with gambling.
Mili returns, so like I said earlier,
prepare for content detection shenanigans.
And lastly, plan ahead about what you'll be doing with the live service gacha part.
Best case scenario,
you've got an experienced Advisor
and both of you are challenge runners,
then you can set the whole stream's schtick
as going through the game with as little pulls as possible.
Otherwise, you've got to decide how much are you gonna spend on the game.
Are you gonna whale upfront and pull on stream for content?
Or maybe you'll be more responsible
and wait until you start liking the game enough
before opening your wallet?
The choice is yours.
One last tip before I talk to the Advisors and Chat,
the obligatory one for anyone new to Project Moon games.
Read.
Not sure if you've noticed it yet,
but every game in the series is a blatant reference to reading.
The second game has Library in the title.
The third is full of classical literature references.
The first isn't quite as blatant, but it's arguably the most important -
the strong ties to SCPs.
Despite its popularity in video platforms,
at the end of the day, SCP entries are still text documents
that are free to browse and read online.
And just like SCPs, most of the challenges that you'll face in the whole series
can be dealt with by reading and understanding what you're facing.
Sometimes it's straightforward,
other times it requires some extra thinking.
So yeah, read.
And always remember that you can take your time to do so,
despite the more impatient side of your chat.
Pro tip: ask your Advisor for help if you have trouble understanding
what you just read.
And that's it for the Streamer tips.
The next part's going to be for the Advisors and Chat.
If you're a Streamer, you can stick around but there will be minor spoilers abound.
Let's get straight to business,
Advisors, your main role is to be
the Skip Tutorial button for the Streamer.
Not that I recommend you tell the Streamer to skip the tutorial,
but watching them play through it will show you what you're up against:
the huge info dump,
the odd timing of introducing concepts,
and finally, how some things are straight up not explained.
So yeah, you're gonna have to sit down before the stream
and figure out what the Streamer needs to learn
and when to step in and teach them.
However, making a full on lesson plan ahead of time would be overkill
so for most Streamers, just having a checklist on hand
to remind yourself what to teach should be enough.
I have a video about essential LobCorp tips
and you can use that list as a baseline.
I don't have an equivalent video for the other two games yet,
but consider skimming over my overview of Ruina's combat
to get some hints on how you'd explain
the unique combat mechanics to the Streamer.
Another task for the Advisor: Mods.
Not chat moderators, but game mods.
Mod sites and the Steam Workshop are full of spoilers,
so if either you the Advisor,
or the Streamer, suggests using mods,
it's up to you to prepare a spoiler-free step-by-step guide
to download and install them.
If you ask me, the only mods I'd go for are appearance mods,
as they improve audience participation.
I wouldn't go for game-changing mods for a new player,
like the Detailed Info LobCorp mod
or the No Grind Ruina mod,
because even though they can be huge Quality of Life changes,
they still fundamentally change how the game plays
and in turn changes the experience.
I'd wait for the late game or repeat playthroughs
before even thinking about adding them.
But at the end of the day, you are the Advisor,
and you have the final say what mods to suggest to the Streamer.
Except for Limbus Company mods.
I honestly don't know if mods break the Terms of Service
but I don't want you to learn the hard way.
Next up: Reading Homework.
I didn't bring this up in the "READ" section
with the Streamer earlier because,
well, it's a straight up spoiler.
If you played through the games,
you should know that some references
are such non-spoilers that
knowing about them beforehand
actually improves your enjoyment of the game.
However, you should also know that the extreme opposite is also true -
there are works wherein the mere acknowledgement
that the game references them
can be counted as a major spoiler.
So no, in this video I won't be listing books or other works
that I recommend your Streamer read beforehand.
Except Limbus Company,
as that game sorta expects you to be familiar
with the works related to each character.
That said, there's opportunity here
for Advisors to tailor their Streamer's experience
Say the Streamer is well-versed in literature
or an SCP fan,
you can just sit back and let them connect the dots on their own.
Then later on, point out the stuff they missed.
And maybe drop some red herrings here and there
if they're feeling too smug about figuring out things too quickly.
On the other hand,
if the Streamer's more of your average
“I stopped reading books after getting out of school” type,
but is willing to start reading again,
you'd point out the non-spoilery references earlier
while deferring the major spoilers much later,
or even after the playthrough.
This whole knowing what to point out and what to hide
isn't limited to literary references,
it can also be applied to other hidden details
that the Streamer might miss.
For example, the extra details and Easter eggs that are
sprinkled throughout the series.
Unfortunately, they're just hard to see because most of the time
because most of the time you're zoomed out
or are focused on the action.
And sometimes they're hidden unless you play in a certain way -
say if you play too well,
you won't see certain special attacks or death animations.
So yeah, Advisors should consider pointing out these things
when doing so won't derail the playthrough too much,
though they should also take care not to overdo it
and accidentally point out a detail
that will only make sense much later in the game.
AKA spoilers.
Speaking of spoilers,
I might as well remind Chat about basic etiquette.
First off, check the Title and Description
about how much spoilers the Streamer allows in the stream.
If it's missing, assume that the Streamer DOESN'T want spoilers
For the Advisor, remind the Streamer to add it before going live.
Those warnings generally cut down most of the spoilers,
though even the most well-behaved chat members
will have trouble not spoiling climactic plot developments too early.
Look, even I'm not immune to this;
I will join in the meme spam of
[I'VE COME TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT]
or
[RULES OF NATURE]
but at least I try to wait until after they play out on stream
and not 5 minutes ahead.
Then again, chat getting too excited is just part of streaming,
so we can give them a pass,
or a warning if they get too annoying.
Besides, experienced Streamers should be used to it by now.
But for those who are obviously trolling by spamming spoilers
or if we're gonna be charitable,
clueless chat members innocently looking for attention
just tell the Streamer to time them out or outright ban them.
No use letting them continue.
Back to reading:
There's more to reading than
gameplay-related stuff like passives, guidelines, etc.
and the reading homework.
There's still other text like Abnormality Stories.
Pointing these things out could be done by both the Advisors and Chat,
but in my experience chat members that
suggest reading stuff like Observation Logs
are often ignored or are lost in the sea of other messages.
So this job's squarely at the Advisor,
with Chat reminding them to do it.
So what else does the Streamer have to read?
For LobCorp, I already mentioned the Abnormality Stories,
then there's the blurbs above the containment units during work.
Aside from expanding the game's lore
these flavor texts can also contain gameplay-related stuff
not mentioned in the main document.
There's also chatter among employees, though they can get repetitive
Finally, there's the often overlooked text like the Mission, Research,
and Department Descriptions.
For Library of Ruina: the Book stories.
These can set the mood of the game early on
- see Finn and Yun -
but in almost all of the streams that I've watched,
the Streamer misses out on this one.
Other than that, the combat messages at the bottom are also often ignored
even though some of the comments can get interesting.
Limbus Company - again Observation Logs,
this one's a bit harder because there's no Codex yet as of this video,
but there's a lot of stuff in there that fleshes out the enemy
as well as the Sinners assigned to write about them.
Then there's the Mirror World stories and Dante's Notes
- more lore to digest.
And remember that this is a live service game so new things are added regularly.
You don't need to read the Patch Notes
just be aware that occasionally, some new stuff to read
will pop up in certain places.
As for the series as a whole, well, I don't need to spoil them -
you already know the lines of text that I'm talking about.
Unless somehow you didn't read them in your playthrough,
despite being a trademark of the series by now.
Well, at least you know first hand how the streamer
can ignore such an important thing.
Except for Limbus Company;
they're pretty hard to ignore in that game.
Next up, Pronunciation.
[sigh] I should make a video about this.
Alright, the series is full of terms from all over the world,
as an Advisor, what do you do
if the Streamer asks how things are pronounced?
As I haven't done the the video yet,
my current opinion on pronunciation is
it's all up to you.
Most of the fanbase mispronounces the terms foreign to them anyway.
I have my own guidelines for pronunciation
in my streams and videos,
but that's just me and all of this may be too much effort for your typical gamer.
Long story short, do some research
so you won't look stupid in front of the Streamer's worldwide audience,
but don't force the Streamer to pronounce things in a certain way.
That said, it's a good idea to have some standards in place
so both you and the Streamer don't go too wild with butchering words.
Say you're ok pronouncing Meursault as Mr. Salt.
Or for extra “insult” to the French, pronounce “Cinq” as “sink”.
But then you draw the line at pronouncing Ryōshū's "ry" digram
like it's 1991.
Next let's talk about everyone's favorite thing to do in a LobCorp stream:
suggest run ending Abnormalities to the Streamer.
As funny as it is, this is a serious matter;
many Streamers stopped streaming just because Chat decided to suggest
picking an Abno that is way out of their league.
It's a lot less of an issue with an Advisor,
as pretty much every Abno can be contained
even in the first cycle if you know how,
but there are still some that may be too much even with an Advisor.
Personally, I'd avoid run-ending Abnormalities as much as possible,
while still nudging the Streamer towards
towards hard-but-doable ones for a challenge.
Wrapping this video up with the final tip for Advisors and Chat as a whole:
Understand that Project Moon games may not be for the Streamer.
Different strokes for different folks.
I don't give a shit about pretty much every "game of the year",
and in the same way,
your favorite Streamer may not be up for indie game jank.
You can hype up Project Moon games all you want,
but at the end of the day if it doesn't click with them,
they'll drop the game and move on.
In fact, hyping them up too much might just turn off the Streamer instead.
All you can do is to try to give them the best possible experience,
clearing all the unintentional hurdles in the way
so they have a better chance to stick around.
It's an uphill battle,
after all, you are trying to give them
as much fun and enjoyment as you can
from games that are all about suffering.
If you succeed, then great.
If not, well, that's just how it is.
And that's it for this video.
I've been working on this on and off for months and
it turned out much longer than I originally expected.
If you're still watching, go check out the description
for some few extra tidbits related to how long this took.
Anyway, thanks for watching and see you in the next video
where I hopefully will return to proper guides
instead of rambling again for 50 minutes...