Alright. I'll give this a shot. I've got a lot of thoughts that I've been trying to put together into words, but I think it'll be tough. Anyways, I'll try and condense each 'topic' into its own tweet thread. Actually, I'll write them up in word first before tweeting them.


WHAT IS MRSIMON? – I’m Si McClure, a professional animator with 11 years of experience developing LEGO video games. New creative platforms and tools have always interested me. Through experimentation over the years, I’ve ended up producing music, animation and other content.

I’ve published this stuff under various aliases (like Nettoon, SMcClure34 and KoalaClock) but as time went on, I settled for the name mrsimon around 2004, which was a name that stuck with fellow Sheezyart users at the time.

As I tried to create more consistent content online (YTP and music), I tried to find an alias that would serve me better in the long term. ‘The Electric Cheese’ came close, but others like ‘Siemo’, ‘Cowboy Town’, ‘Big Massive’, ‘Homie Dawg’ and ‘Master Computer’ fell through.

mrsimon ended up not just representing my creative experiments, but also my larger creative projects, and myself. As my best content became associated with the alias, the manner in which I present the ‘brand’ is something I’ve mentally battled with daily.

Today, mrsimon for my fans I believe has become a stale relic of the internet past, and a nostalgic throwback to how creative platforms once were in the not to distant past. For me, it’s the biggest hurdle preventing me in improving myself, and attempting more ambitious projects.


WHO ARE THE MRSIMON AUDIENCE? – The bulk of my mrsimon audience are YouTube subscribers and Twitter followers. On YouTube, I currently have approx. 8K subscribers, and on Twitter, I have approx. 1K followers.

I gathered the bulk of my Twitter followers from between 2010 to 2012, whilst I produced YTP, maintained Breakbit Music (an electronic net label for hobbyist producers) and released my two albums ‘There’s a party in my head’ and ‘Disruptor’.

According to YouTube analytics, my subscriber activity peaked from between Nov 2008 to July 2013. The most attractive content being ‘GOTTA POOP FAST’, ‘Stu contemplates suicide at 4am’ and ‘Gaston is a Gaston’.

Based on the statistics, my average viewer is a US west coast male between 18-24 years old. I believe that the majority of my fans share my love of Sonic the Hedgehog, South Park, Cartoon Network, electronic music and surrealist humor.

I have a number of high profile influencers who follow my work. These include Egoraptor, who was a great inspiring online contact in the Sheezyart days. He helped out with my student project ‘The Mascot’, and still follows me today.

Others include The Living Tombstone, Shmorky and Ian Jones-Quartey. I’m not so sure why these guys follow me.

As things stand, I presume that my fans want to see more YTP and remixes from me, particularly of Sonic the Hedgehog, South Park, Cartoon Network and similar IPs.


WHAT HAPPENED TO 2018? - Heading into 2018, it was looking like the smoothest year I've had for a long while. I was hoping to use the time for extensive personal creative development, and to potentially launch exciting content. Unfortunately, life got in the way at every moment.

At the start of the year, my grandfather died after suffering from Alzheimers for years. This was a very challenging time for my family, and it was my priority to try and assist as best as I could. Having never attended a funeral, this was tougher than I thought.

Immediately afterwards, my brothers wedding quickly approached. As best man, it was my responsibility to organize a big stag party, assist with the wedding and prepare a speech for guests. This ate almost all my time, but it all paid off in the end.

During all of that, I was also dealing with professional duties. Juggling my family commitments and professional duties was really challenging. I managed to hold myself together under immense pressure, though I feel my animation could have been better.

After everything calmed down, a long delayed housemove with my housemates became top priority. This took every other weekend through Summer. Once everything was done, I had to dart for a two week holiday too, so I'm still settling in. Unpacking will probably take me another month

As production ramps up on the next TT Games product, professional demands have started to eat my time once again... With the house move aftermath and crunch time in mind, I can't see myself willing to devote time to 'content production' until some time in 2019.

With most days and weekends scheduled in for real life shit, whenever I've had a spare moment, honestly I've just wanted to chill the fuck out. Having not devoted time to content creation for at least a year, it's not something that springs to mind now.



WHAT DON'T I WANT TO BE ONLINE? - I have some vague goals I'll get to later, but since I'm a pessimist, everything I DON'T want to happen comes to mind much easier, so I'll describe that first.

Making content honestly doesn't make much sense to me unless it can be seen by as many potential fans as possible. Though Newgrounds initially served that purpose, the traffic and variety of content YouTube offers quickly eclipsed it.

For the first few years, the loose and unmoderated platform served as a perfect 'wild west' for creative expression. However, as the years passed, monetization has driven the design and functionality of the site, and by extension, the kind of content that prospers.

Though most creators seem to 'go with the flow' in the name of continuing to produce revenue, this would steer me far away from what I want to be. The downside is, my content will fail when it comes to revenue and metrics. I have to be willing to take that risk with my content.

I've never made any money on YouTube. Starting to pander to the algorithm would be immensely challenging, and would change who I am online. Since I make my living from games development, becoming a 'YouTuber' doesn't interest me at all.

The YouTube algorithm rewards creatives who produce long-form content with high attach rates. Because of this, there has been a surge of roundtable discussions, podcasts, IRL vlogs and lets plays.

When it comes to that content, successful YouTubers thrive by treating their audience as a singular individual that they develop a parasocial relationship with. Beyond that, successful and non-successful content producers use YouTube and other platforms as a communications tool.

Cultural implications aside, that entire game doesn't interest me at all... I want to broadcast content... I don't want to 'communicate' with YouTube, and I am very particular as to what I consider 'content' to be.

The kind of content that interests me is what I'd call "craftwork". If you've taken time to develop something, that's content to me... The process of crafting that thing isn't really content. Neither is vlogging. I get the appeal, but I'm not taking 'mrsimon' in that direction.

All that said, I understand the appeal of 'hanging out', streaming, etc.... I think it works well, as a realtime, non-DVR video stream. I think that can exist outside the scope of 'content'.

Investing time into figuring out how to present myself better and appear to be more 'social' on webcasts doesn't appeal to me at all. I'd rather disconnect from the internet, and try hard to develop my social skills with friends and family, so that's what I've been doing.

Adding onto my thoughts on casual streams.... I don’t really see the appeal of me doing it, unless there’s some extra value. I think Jackbox (audience participation), studio streams (tutorial in disguise), and special gaming events (exclusive access) work fine.

I’m going to hold off regular game streams though. I’m not adding anything different to the big pool of streamers with that stuff.

By special gaming events..... I’d consider participating in an exclusive tournament to be part of that.... or a respectable VIP only server people want to be a part of.

When I head to Insomnia BYOC, I’ll probably stream that entire thing, even though I’d be playing regular games. It’d be more about getting a sense of that play environment.

Otherwise, Day-to-day, I’m not trying to build an audience, make money, or become a personality... so I’m going to stop the usual casual game streams... I MIGHT do nostalgic longplays still, but that’d be it.

Putting time and energy into content online doesn't make sense to me now, unless it'll benefit me professionally or commercially. My professional goal is to ultimately expand and build my digital skills, to the extent that I could someday take on a more substantial project.

I want to ensure that I'm attracting the right audience with particular content. In the last year, I've been posting meme-format videos (e.g. Steamed hams) as opposed to YTP-format videos on my alt account 'YouTube Executive'. This has been a really effective move for me.

I think the best indicator as to whether your content is succeeding is when it naturally spawns similar content. Whether that's people trying to imitate your style... build upon it... or transform it.

For example, creators like Pogo and Blank Banshee have had whole genres built around their work, and a community of like-minded creators expanding the format.

Other examples are games, comics and animation. The obvious entry level transformative content are lets play / reaction streams... but a popular game can spawn fan-art, cosplay or film adaptations.

In the past, my mrsimon content has spawned fan videos, live performances, tribute music and DDR tracks.

I'd rather focus on producing content with the potential to tap into this kind of trans-formative opportunity for the audience.



ABOUT MRSIMON MUSIC - I started producing music as a means of exploring my creative outlets in 2001. Though I continued to produce music for years, I don't think I hit my real stride until the debut of my album 'There's a party in my head and you're all invited' (PIMH) in 2010.

Fans of my music almost always go back to PIMH. I've considered a special edition (including new remixes) and/or a physical release over the years. I think the demand for physical mrsimon releases has faded away now though, and I'd rather focus on new content.

Around this time, @NickBertke started to become a massive influence on my work. He found a fantastic remix formula that resonated with people. I believed that I could complement his work, by combining his plunderphonics, with my breakbeat influenced sound.

As I focused on this sound, I ended up releasing Spirit and Disruptor which was also released on CD. These were received well, and I'm immensely proud of these albums.

Though I once had grander plans for remix content, including a spiritual successor to Disruptor built around The Simpsons, the performance of my Spirit music video was a giant blow, and is mostly responsible for killing my musical ambition.

I've also considered a producing a 'best of' album for physical release, including tracks from PIMH, Disruptor and Spirit. I doubt the demand would be there though, so I havn't really perused this.

As music habits have changed over the years though, there's now significantly less demand for music downloads or physical releases. In addition, most of my mrsimon music content is ineligible for monetization on YouTube. With all this in mind, producing new music isn't viable.

Over the past year, I've ended up with incomplete tracks for various potential projects. Today, these have come together to form two WIP releases. They are 'Max [Single]' and 'ClipArt'.

Max [Single] would include my Goofy movie remix, as well as any other loose b-sides that wouldn't suit the ClipArt project (e.g. Sin). I COULD spend a few weekend on this and wrap it up, but I lack the motivation for it really.

Producing a music video for Max would be incredibly challenging, as a clean source of the movie isn't available. My plan was to jazz it up with bespoke CGI graphics, including a Max character model. Following Spirits performance though, I don't think it'd be worth the effort.

My ClipArt project is an attempt to tap into a 90s aesthetic that doesn't appear to have been explored online. Influenced by UK rave, breakbeat, US new age, corporate CD-ROM gold rushes and the early internet, I'm hoping to cook up a unique vibe.

Though I have high hopes for the ClipArt album... I don't have the time or motivation I'd really need to take this to where I want it to be. I wouldn't be surprised if the vaporwave community nail this vibe before I have the chance to release a polished album.

Another project that's come to mind over the years is a dedicated 'mrsimon live' show, where all my music and videos would come together in an hour long performance for physical venues. I've been highly motivated by the reception my 2012 Breakbit VJ performance received.

Again though, this project demands more time and motivation than I can afford. Even if I produced a great show, it'd be something I'd want to take on the road rather than perform once online. Honestly, I don't think the demand is there beyond my 7K YouTube subscriber cap.

If time and money wern't factors, my personal music goal would be to re-invent big beat (e.g. The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim) for a modern audience. Today, I'm most influenced by the works of @IGLOOGHOST and @VHS_Head.

As the years have gone by, remix music videos seem to be a riskier type of content for publication on YouTube. I'd rather spend time on content that'd be more likely to succeed, and would benefit me better. As things stand today, musical remixes arn't where I should be.

As I think of my core mission now, which is to ensure that my personal projects can benefit me professionally... my music no longer fits into the picture.



ABOUT YTP AND MEMES BRIEFLY: This kind of content has always been off the cuff absurd comedic expressions. I've attempted in the past to give these more production focus, but I've never been able to retain the sporadic vibe.

A couple of memes in the last few years have sparked my interest. I've made a few notable contributions, like "Steamed Hams but every word is replaced with its first occurance" and "Bart hits homer with chair: Lion King".

Originally, YouTube Poop used to be a catch-all term to describe these kinds of videos. Today though, it very specifically describes short-form (traditional or abstract) narrative content, which includes in-jokes specific to its community.

With my newer meme content, I've made a conscious effort to separate it from YTP in order to gather a new audience. For instance, I've layed off 'earrape' and overlay effects, and structured narrative clearly, so that I'm less likely to repel the viewer.

In order to separate this content from mrsimon which I grew to consider my prime creative outlet, I rebranded a old alternative parody account. The "YouTube Executive" channel now has 2.8k subscribers, who I believe appreciate stupid-ass videos more when compared to mrsimon.

YTP and meme videos are a game I don't really understand anymore. Driven by analytics and YouTubes tighter restrictions, this content has migrated to almost every other platform, primarily Twitter and Facebook.

Tapping into big statistics or any kind of financial return doesn't become possible, unless your content is stolen... or unless you commit to making meme videos daily. I can't afford to do this.

In addition, I've also attempted to produce some mrsimon YTP throwbacks.... but when compared to the kind of meme / shitpost videos I could produce today and broadcast on my alt channel, it doesn't really seem to make any sense. It honestly feels like procrastination.

I can see myself jumping on future meme trends though honestly. When a hot new formula starts to emerge, the creative juices just explode and take over. I can't say its a bad thing either though, as this stuff is my most popular (statistically speaking) content overall.

What I'm trying to say then I guess is... consider mrsimon / 'The Electric Cheese' totally dead when it comes to YTP and YTPMV. As for shitposts, stay subscribed to 'YouTube Executive' for more of that.

When it comes to my legacy YTP content, I'm going to leave it up on the mrsimon channel now, to retain statistics and comments, preserving it as part of my legacy... Honestly though, I'm not keen on promoting it alongside my new content though.

Once I start producing new content, I'll be hiding the YTP from my channel frontpage, and ensuring that they're not promoted on end-cards.

Over on YouTube Executive, it's business as usual though. Content will appear then when it comes into existence. I'm going to hold back on anymore "mrsimon" and "YouTube Executive" cross-promotion also. Perhaps a mention on social, but that's it. No mentions on "mrsimon" YouTube.



THE SI MCCLURE YOUTUBE CHANNEL - A little while ago, I set up a YouTube channel to host my professional showreels on. Over time, this grew to include my casual webcasts.

In accordance with company policies, I need to ensure that anything I share on social media adheres to any contractual obligations I've made, including NDAs. Personally, I like to keep mrsimon and my professional output pretty separate anyway, so this works for me.

Going forward, my SI MCCLURE will strictly be for my professional showreels only. As I mentioned earlier, webcasts will appear on the mrsimon channel, and I'll be asking myself whether the stream would be of any value before I commit to it.

If you're currently a subscriber on my SI MCCLURE YouTube channel, and you're not interested in TT Games animation, then you'll probably want to unsubscribe from that.



SOCIAL MEDIA - Oh boy. This is where everything breaks down for me. I have mixed feelings when it comes to all this. I seriously believe it does more harm than good, but I feel it's so tied into today's culture that I can't quit it.

When it comes to 'mrsimon' on social media, I'd like to back away. I want to associate it with core content (music etc, but also meme gifs), rather than thoughts and opinions. I'd like to start associating my thoughts, opinions, discussions etc, with my actual self, 'Si McClure'.

I've created a new Twitter handle, @SiMcClure, where I plan to post anything from here onwards. I'd plan to use @mrsimonYTP to repost anything of noteworthy value (e.g. if I post a meme response on Twitter), as well as announce any new content (e.g. music videos).

In addition, I feel that I've been neglecting the YouTube community that's gravitated towards my videos. I've only ever processed their comments and participated in any discussions on a whim.

From here onwards, I want to make a more solid commitment to the YouTube community... so I'll be trying to respond to more comments, more often.

I plan to continue to stay reasonably active on Twitter... I have no interest right now in attempting to expand mrsimon onto Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr or Soundcloud, as I feel these platforms devalue content.

If I use the alias "mrsimon" anywhere online, then I'm presenting my crafted content. If I use the name "Si McClure", then you're just dealing with a human being with opinions and interests. Think of "Si McClure" as the staff member behind "mrsimon".



NEW CONTENT - So now all that's out the way, I'll very quickly mention which forms of content could have bigger appeal, and/or what'd benefit me better.

First and formost, I want to learn how to develop industry standard game / interactive assets like crazy in Unreal and Unity. This'll be my top priority. Once I've done that, I'm keen on producing some metaverse props.

I've kept an eye on metaverse platforms, and I like the look of High Fidelity the most. Once I've learnt the basics, I intend to livestream the creation of a few simple props.

While YTP has become a bloated and stale production endevour with a limited audience, the appeal of short-form meme responses have an astronomical reach. I want to continue to produce the occasional entry to trendy memes, and publish them here on @mrsimonYTP and on my YouTube alt

I feel that in the last year animation has started to make a comeback on YouTube. I believe the demand for this content will continue to grow both on YouTube and outside it, as almost every company is building their own Netflix, and will want to populate it with a mass of content

I believe that any drawing and animation I do on YouTube could potentially provide more engaging content, but also benefit me professionally. As for the content, this would be a perfect opportunity to inject some of my absurdest humor that I previously used YTP as a platform for.

I'm aware that a massive chunk of popular YouTube animations are based around a life story format. Personally this toys with the whole YouTuber personality and social media shit. Id probably pick up some presentational cues from those videos, but I don't want to follow the format

I'd also like to toy about with producing short minigames in Unreal or Unity. I have to look into this more.





Here's everything that I've posted over the past week about "mrsimon". With that, I'm going to bow out, until I've got anything dumb to share... Follow @simcclure if you want RL updates and "non-content".