Mandalore A.K.A. MandaloreGaming is probably one of the chillest people I know on the internet.

I first met Mandalore while managing an outreach campaign for my first digital marketing client, a team of indie game developers making a spaceship RPG. I managed to get as far as getting him to actually play it. My client was thrilled just for that. He was a big fan and it was a good moment for him.

Mandalore has been making gaming YouTube videos since 2011, and has since built a creative and highly engaged audience of PC master race übernerds. At time of writing, he has over 608k subscribers on YouTube.

Mandalore specializes in niche or obscure games with a darker tone. Some of the games he reviews have cult followings that make them very popular but only on certain corners of the internet.

Not only that, but he’s reviewed a fair number of indie games as well. His videos, which routinely get hundred’s of thousands of views, have helped to popularize cult classic indie games like Sunless Sea, Cultist Simulator, and Darkwood.

Mandalore makes videos with an insane level of detail, and they're packed with so many jokes and references that you can easily rewatch them multiple times just to find them all.

If you’re a gamedev reading this, then comment below if this has happened to you:

There you are, slurping your ramen noodles, chugging a RedBull, and pleading a list of YouTubers to just take a look at the game you’ve poured your heart and soul into for years, only to be met with radio silence.

This is actually a really common problem. It’s not easy to get noticed as a small indiedev team. Content creators in gaming get inundated with dozens or even hundreds of review requests a day. Why should they listen to you?

Well, if anyone knows the answer to that question, it’s probably this guy. Here’s what he has to say on the matter.

I. First off, I'd like to know more about the man under the helmet. What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of YouTube?

You seem to be quite an outdoorsman. You’ve talked about raising horses in a couple of videos, and I’m aware that you raise plants. Where did that come from?

What about your taste in music? I always had you pegged for a metalhead. Am I anywhere close?

Mandalore:

Well as for hobbies I've definitely been more inside over the past two years. Since first I was out of commission from a spinal disc slipping, and right when that was getting more tolerable Covid unleashed. Things are just starting to relax where I live. Still left a lot of room for indoor times with friends like movie nights, and occasional restaurant visits if conditions were right.

Unfortunately even getting involved with strawberry farming was basically impossible too since the state wanted as few hands as possible on edible food, though I've been looking into maybe growing some stuff on the apartment deck. Ideally I'd get into beekeeping if I had proper land for it.

The whole horse thing just happened naturally I guess. The local area has a sort of community center/farm that had lots of both farm animals and wildlife around so I was around horses more as a kid. Didn't make for a bad job as a teenager!

Some men fear horses. Great men conquer them.

As for music I listen to such a variety I don't even know what my preference is but I wouldn't describe myself as a metalhead even though I listen to some. I don't even fit in the "I like everything but rap and country" umbrella since I know that's a popular answer. The times I listen to just an album alone is rare since usually I pick stuff out at semi-random.

Me:

Straight up. COVID, unfortunately, ruined a lot of things people used to enjoy. I do think it's interesting how the pandemic transformed our society from an extroverts' world into an introverts' one.

That's also a pretty unique response e.g. music tastes. Unfortunately I have the opposite problem where I get so hyper-into niche genres of music that it makes it hard to relate to sane, healthy, normal people.

Let’s move on.

II. Who are the content creators you yourself are inspired by?

When you were getting your start as a YouTuber, who were the YouTubers and streamers you looked up to and said to yourself: "I wanna be like them when I grow up?"

I noticed a Doug Walker/Nostalgia Critic homage in the Brigador review. Maybe him?

Mandalore:

Haha not exactly. I think I saw Doug Walker/AVGN era stuff when I was still a kid/early teenager so that influence had mainly died off by the time I started. I also missed the boat on the big later ones like JonTron and don't really watch streamers often.

I would watch RedLetterMedia from time to time when I was getting started with doing the reviews, though of course that was more focused on movies. Matt Barton's MattChat channel was cool for learning a lot about RPGs.

Though as for games I was mainly watching lots of smaller channels since most of the games I was interested in weren't particularly covered by larger YouTubers, so that was a niche I ended up helping to fill accidentally. I guess when it came to YouTube at that time I was just watching a lot more general stuff outside of games and wasn't really looking to surpass or "become" anyone in a sense.

I think that's why it worked, albeit slowly. There are many, MANY JonTron clone channels apparently.

Me:

And PewDeePie.

And Markiplier.

I mean no hate if you're into that, but that's not what's going to make you stand out.

III. How many outreach marketing emails do you get from game developers pitching you their game on a regular basis?

(I think in the DopeTalk interview you said you average about 3 a week. Is that still the case?)

Of those, how many would you say you respond to?

Mandalore:

No, I think that interview was 2-3 years ago now? It's monstrous now. Anywhere from about 5 to 20 a day, since sometimes it seems marketing firms might need to get their stuff done by the weekend so I'll sometimes get a lump of mails on a Thursday or Friday. There's so many that I respond to -maybe- 1 a week, though there are sometimes stars align and it'll be two or three. There have been plenty of times where I haven't at all.

IV. What makes you most likely to respond to a developer pitch, play their game, and review their game?

As a follow-up: what are some of the most creative pitches you've seen in your YouTube career? Did they work?

Wanna know the answer?

READ THE REST HERE

Subscribe to Mandalore’s Channel here, and you can follow him at @Lord_Mandalore on Twitter. Tweet Steven Universe memes at him and tell him I said hi.