MinishKat – A Zelda Streamer Who Created Her Own Niche Community

MinishKat started streaming at the beginning of 2020. She almost exclusively plays Zelda games, ranging from Ocarina of Time to Breath of the Wild. She was fortunate enough to build a welcoming channel that encouraged positivity, something the Zelda community was lacking at the time. This helped her quickly build a following and she absolutely loves to stream nowadays.

Tell us your history with video games

I always grew up with video games around me, specifically the N64 and other Nintendo games. I don’t recall my first gaming experience, but my dad and sister were the biggest influence for me growing up when it came to video games, and were the ones who introduced me to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and other titles like Super Mario 64 and Animal Crossing for Gamecube.

Zelda however has been my favorite series ever since! My username is based off of one of The Legend of Zelda titles, The Minish Cap! My mom would always get me the latest Zelda game for the consoles we owned and she loved watching me play through them after school and was our time spent together.

What’s your backstory and how did you get into streaming?

Like most people, I grew up my whole life with a social pressure to graduate, get a degree and work in a career field for the rest of my life. I graduated college, getting a Veterinary Technician diploma, passed a provincial exam to become a Registered Veterinary Technician and go on to work in this field for 4 years. It was definitely an experience during those 4 years and I had a lot of fun. However, COVID hit and was laid off in March 2020. During this period, my boyfriend and I decided to start streaming on Twitch as a hobby to keep ourselves occupied whilst stuck at home, with no expectations from it.

I was streaming essentially full-time for about 2 months before I got the call back to my day-to-day job. I continued to stream after work hours for a few months before I was unfortunately fired from my job as they wanted to cut hours. At this point, I had a bit of a following on Twitch, decided to stream again full-time and haven’t looked back since.

Tell us about your channel and community

We keep things very comfy and cozy on my channel. Our goal is to make sure the stream is very welcoming to everyone who joins, and to let people have a chance to unwind after a stressful day/week while watching some of their favorite games being played. Those games I play include mostly The Legend of Zelda games which have been my absolute favorite game series since I can remember. I’ve played these games for many years, before streaming became a reality.

While one may think The Legend of Zelda is a single player game, I play Zelda Randomizers and a team of individuals recently released an online mod where I am able to play with viewers and/or other streamer friends, so not only can I play my favorite games, I can play them with my community!

Tell us about your brand and how you’ve been able to obtain success

I never had any intentions to necessarily brand myself or my content, but to just be myself. My brand that I developed were small decisions that I liked best to make my brand represent the best of my personality. This allowed like-minded individuals to have a true connection where we can all relax, be ourselves and share our love for the Legend of Zelda.

By doing so, my channel had a naturally cozy, comfy vibe, which was a niche that was missing from The Legend of Zelda community on Twitch. I think by filling that niche within the Zelda category on Twitch is what really helped my channel stand out amongst the others. Once I found my “brand”, I expanded the concept to be more professional until it enveloped my whole channel. But it doesn’t end there. As a streamer, I’m consistently trying to find ways to improve my content on Twitch to then grow my channel even further. I’ve been streaming for a short 10 months, and by doing these things I’ve grown the channel to where I hit Twitch Partner 9 months into streaming.

How do you balance streaming and life?

As a full-time Twitch streamer, having a work-life balance is absolutely key. While I have full control over the days I stream and the days I take off, things get super hectic if I don’t prioritize real life things. It’s always best to take care of yourself first, and the rest will come naturally.

My streaming days usually consist of waking up, catching up on social media and eating food before I hop on and go live for 8 hours. After my stream is when I do my IRL things, such as walking my dog, cleaning, shopping, etc. My days off are typically spent with my boyfriend and my pets. We typically don’t leave the house unless it’s necessary, but being introverted, it hasn’t bothered me not leaving the house as I did when I worked at my previous job. This routine is what comes naturally to me and my schedule, and I haven’t felt any strain on my channel or my content. It’s fully maintainable to me, and I don’t foresee me stopping streaming anytime soon.

Tell us what tools you use for your stream

I use StreamLabs for almost everything. StreamLabs OBS, donations through StreamLabs, and my bot is the StreamLabs Chatbot, all of which is used daily. My overlay and graphics are all done by myself through Photoshop or Clip Art Studio as I wanted to customize and personalize it to the channel. I would say my overlay is very minimal with very little distractions, to keep focus on the gameplay. Discord is definitely a must for streamers as it helps bring your community further together and where people can feel inclusive to the stream and make new friends.

Everyone is going to have good days and bad days on Twitch, it’s natural. I think looking at analytics can be very beneficial, especially to a smaller streamer. I look at my analytics at least once a week to decide what content worked, and what didn’t work. I use the analytics and go back to the content I played on those days where maybe I had a lower viewer average. I then will either change that content, or not play it in the future. It’s especially good for those with Twitch Affiliate or Partner as a future goal!

What are your top 3 streaming tools? 

I could not stream for 8+ hours a day without my Secret Lab Chair. It’s done wonders for my back since having it and would never go back to a regular office chair. I love my Canon 80D DSLR for my camera. It took the quality of my streams up so many notches. And of course, I can’t go without my G-Fuel so I can keep my full attention to my stream at all times.

What advice would you give to small channels trying to reach Partner?

My best advice for streamers with a Partner goal in mind is to never stop improving. Don’t stop improving your quality and your content and it will show!

If you could change one thing about Twitch, what would it be?

I wouldn’t change anything on Twitch.

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