TroytlePower

I’ve always liked making things. I’ve always doodled or wrote or crafted, but, in the past few months, I’ve really gone all-in on making things online. I had a realization today (definitely not while listening to the most recent episode of Thoughts Cast, because that episode is just for Arjuna) that I’ve come a long way in the amount of stuff I’m putting out there, and the confidence with which I do so.

Buckle up, buttercup, it’s time for me to write a self-appreciation post about all the silly stuff I make!

(Also, sorry in advance for all the links… I just wanted to try to shout out everyone I could!)

I started playing around with streaming over the summer and was pushed along by my old friend Scoot and The Pipe Dreamers community. That community isn’t quite as active as it once was, but I made a few great friends there, and hope to see it build back up. On top of that, my stream is now part of the Geek to Geek network, which includes podcasts I’ve been listening to for years!

Amidst getting comfortable with streaming, I participated in Blaugust, and started to get comfortable with the idea of publishing content, even if I didn’t think it was perfect. Since August, I’ve settled into posting blogs once a week. While they aren’t always perfect, it feels good to be consistent.

Near the end of September, I started putting out my audio-only-let’s-play podcast, TroytlePower Presents: The Power Play-Throughs Podcast, with TroytlePower, inspired by the other audio-only-let’s-players who came before me (Daniel K, NOCKAT, Bill from the RPG Golden Years, and Luckless), and I’ve found a few new AOLPs to listen to, too (I’m looking at you, Enchantment and Stories From Eorzea). TPPTPPTPwTP is still going strong, with episodes posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’ve joined an awesome community of podcasters (join our discord!) and the We Can Make This Work (Probably) network.

I love making that podcast, but I was originally only throwing it together to figure out how to get things organized for the cartoon review show my friend MC and I were looking to do. A few weeks ago, we officially launched The Best Animated Shows Ever… So Far, and are releasing episodes every Tuesday. We’ve looked at Biker Mice From Mars and SpongeBob SquarePants so far, with a whole lot more shows on the horizon.

Finally, I’ve been lucky enough to help contribute to a new show on the We Can Make This Work (Probably) network called “YDWMY Reviews”, where several of us review video games we play after a day, week, month, and year. It’s a cool idea to look at how our views of games change with time, and so far I’m actively reviewing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Starlink: Battle for Atlas. I know I’ll be talking about God of War on that show when I finally crack that game open, and I’m sure a lot more games as well.

Throughout all of this, I’ve been lucky enough to work on a few illustration and design commissions as well. It’s been incredible to get hired to create art for folks, but I’ve still not been drawing nearly as much as I’d like to. I did just recently purchase some new equipment that should let me set up drawing streams a little more easily, though, so I’ll probably be able to combine Twitch and doodling soon, to keep that side of my creativity going.

I guess this is kind of my New Years post, it’s just a few weeks late. I’m really proud of all the stuff I’m putting out into the world and, more importantly, I am grateful for the connections that I’ve made with streamers and podcasters and geeks and all sorts of wonderful people all over the world.

So here’s my New Year’s resolution: Keep making stuff and keep making friends.