Hunter Walton - Content Creation

YouTube Channel: Its Rascal

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I run and manage the YouTube Channel "Its Rascal" where I post weekly videos about game development challenges, psychology of game design, as well as other industry trends.

I handle all aspects of video creation including planning, content strategy, production, editing, and packaging. I closely watch each video's analytics after they have been posted to see what changes should be made for optimal reach and engagement.

This content Strategy has Yielded my channel over 1.5 Million Total Views and doubled my total subscriber count since August 2025.

Content Strategy:

Knowing your audience is key to success on social media. By identifying my audience and ensuring the content I make is both targeted and repeatable I can make sure I have plenty of meaningful content to deliver to my audience.

Every single video I produce is created through the same formula:

First I need to identify my target audiences that way I know exactly who I'm making content for.

Audiences can be different, but must have some amount of overlap. In the case of my channel, I create content for "Casual Game Devs" and "Gaming Enthusiasts".

I chose these audiences since I wanted to create game development content, but in a more entertaining fashion than most similar channels on YouTube. I specifically targeted "Gaming Enthusiasts" since they are most likely to care about what goes on "under the hood" compared to more casual gamers.

Once I identified my target audiences, the next priority was making sure my content could scale and repeat. If I can’t build on the success of a single video in future uploads, then that idea isn’t worth producing.

So instead of planning isolated videos, I plan series. A concept might start as a single video idea, but it has to evolve into a repeatable series format before it earns a spot on my production list.

I also use the term “series” very broadly. I don’t mean multi-part stories, but rather groups of videos that share a similar structure, tone, and topic.

For example, if someone enjoys one of my game jam videos, chances are they’ll also enjoy the others. That means viewers always have more content tailored to their interests, and I have multiple opportunities to convert them into long-term fans of the channel. This strategy reduces the risk of someone watching one video, not connecting with the next one they see, and leaving the channel behind.

Once I identify a series that I believe my audience will enjoy, I can start fleshing out individual video ideas within that series. At this stage, I usually jot down a bunch of concepts in a notepad and ask myself one key question: how can this video appeal to both of my target audiences?

Even though each video has a primary audience, it’s important that it still lands somewhere between those two groups. That way, there’s never a complete mismatch in who the content is meant for.

For example, if I create a video primarily for my “Gaming Enthusiast” audience, I might frame it around a game design concept or sprinkle in small design and development insights throughout. This ensures my game dev audience can still expect to learn something valuable in every video I release, even if it’s not explicitly about game development.

Once I have decided a video idea is a good enough fit for both target audiences, I have a few more questions to answer before I can start scripting or recording to ensure no time is waisted on a video that may underperform.

Firstly, I have to write down my value proposition. To do this, I have 2 questions I need to answer:

1. What is the viewer getting out of this video?
2. Why should the viewer care about this video?

These questions may look simple, but truly answering them can be surprisingly challenging. I’ve often started with one direction for a video idea and, through answering these questions, ended up with a much stronger concept entirely.

These questions also drive the entire rest of the video creation process like my packaging and script writing. These two simple questions are what make me hit the brakes and put myself in the shoes of my ideal viewer.

Next I come up with as many relevant titles as I can and try to figure out the best one. I will never move on to making a video without at least 2 strong title ideas, In some cases the smallest changes can have a huge impact on CTR, and with YouTube's new A/B title testing feature, I can see exactly which titles are performing best for optimal reach

Lastly, I plan out different thumbnail variations. I do this after finalizing the titles since thumbnails take more time and effort, and they should always work to elevate the title. The thumbnail is the perfect place to add a few extra words or recognizable elements to boost interest and intrigue.

Once a video makes it through this entire process, I can script, edit, and publish it with confidence. A video is only as strong as the idea and intention behind it.

Below is a list of videos I have highlighted for different reasons, all of which were developed using this framework:

Industry Trends: