PJ May/June 2021 update

tl;dr: Stream income has been down while I've been looking to transition into more permanent non-streaming avenues, and I'll be playing a bunch of games this week that I've been excited about for awhile to try to more comfortably cover living expenses.


I've always been of the opinion that if streaming can't consistently cover living expenses every month then it is time to look for another career path.  I never intended to stream as a long-term career, and decided about 2.5 years ago that it was time to transition to a more permanent and stable path.  I've had some pretty shitty luck with this though: companies deciding they're actually *not* hiring after a month-long interview process, or promising me a spot after they consider where I'd fit best but then changing their mind, or the company going bankrupt a few weeks after they give me a soft offer, or my contact quitting and the company restructuring during the interview process, or going through 3 months of interviews/tests and ultimately losing out to someone with 30 years more experience than me.  I'm not complaining or blaming them, because I definitely understand that it's not their fault, but it is pretty unfortunate luck all the same.

The result of this, though, is that I've been mentally checked out from streaming for awhile and have had no desire to push/grow my stream or run special events because it feels disingenuous to do so while looking for other work.  Ultimately this hurts my numbers and makes it even less sustainable than it was, which then pushes my focus even more towards finding more sustainable alternatives, and compounds the problem.

All the career uncertainty, dissatisfaction, and bad luck has been pretty terrible for my mental health, and I've needed to take several pretty extended breaks from streaming and from my typical streaming content over the past year and a half or so.

Since finding work elsewhere doesn't seem to be realistic at this point, I've decided to start working on making my own game (don't worry, it's not the Super PJ RPGJ).  I'll share more details about that as it progresses a bit more.  This is splitting my available streaming hours even more, though, and won't be bringing in any income for awhile.  Moving forward, my streams will likely be shorter (4-5 hours?) and probably with more scattered days off here and there as I work on game dev.  I really love streaming and will continue to stream even if I find work elsewhere, but my schedule will be pretty inconsistent for awhile I think.  Thanks for your patience!



Continuing this week, I'm going to be doing a bit of an unofficial fundraiser to try to make up for some of the lost income of the past year, so I can more comfortably cover living expenses and some of the other unexpected bills that have popped up here and there (car repairs, health screening, rent/utility spikes, etc.).  I'm planning on just playing through a bunch of games that have looked really fun and interesting, but I hadn't been in a good enough mood to enjoy.  List of completed games and future games is below:

✓Super Mario 3D World (100%)
✓Bowser's Fury
✓Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (not completed, but I've played enough to know to stop)
-Mega Man ZX
-Mega Man ZX Advent
-Mega Man Star Force

I won't be setting any goal or any special incentives because...well, really just because it doesn't feel right.  My content will always be free, and I don't like locking good ideas behind paywalls anymore.

I'm not saying all of this to try to invoke sympathy or guilt anybody into helping out, because frankly there are plenty of other people in more pressing need than me, but I want to be open about my plans for the stream moving forward and offer a brief explanation for what has been happening behind the scenes for awhile.

Sorry for the wall of text!  Thanks so much for reading and for the continued support over the years!