6/11/2020

by Anglerfish555

With the difficulty in monetizing a TikTok account, it seems more and more enticing to pursue more Youtube-based content. Youtube is a platform we are already monetized on, having reached over a million views on one of our videos. Unfortunately, the only revenue we have made has come from the select few videos that are posted on the account. Youtube videos are time consuming, but they definitely pay off. We found a YouTube account somewhat similar to ours that somehow amassed 30,000 followers in seemingly two weeks, far more followers than we have. The mechanics to begin producing merchandise did arrive, but it leaves with a difficult decision on how to sell merchandise. Besides first needing a design, we have the choice between making merchandise ourselves or using one of the many websites which all seem to charge high fees. If our merchandise turned out to be sell-able it would be very profitable to simply produce it ourselves. There’s high risk in buying an inventory because we have no way of knowing if that inventory will ever sell. Other merchandise websites remove the problem of having to buy your own inventory, but they limit your profit margins when they take their share of the money. Perhaps it would be helpful to use one of these websites to determine if there are actually buyers for the merchandise, then move into private production for higher margins without the 3rd party website. The official Minecraft Marketplace is a community for content creators that have a unique partnership with Minecraft. Based on our past experience creating content for Minecraft, there is potential that we would be able to work for the Marketplace. Perhaps easier than applying as a business with such a small team, applying for work at already existing Marketplace partners is a possible way to connect with the official Marketplace community.

6/10/2020

by Anglerfish555

After learning our way around Snapchat’s program for making community lenses, we were approached for the first time to make a snapchat lens by commission. Adding to our repertoire of skills, making Snapchat filters is one more source of future content, especially because it is relatively easy to do. For the first time, I made attempts to port the VSCO mod to the Bedrock version of Minecraft. Although I already knew the basics of creating Add-Ons for Bedrock Minecraft, I learned that creating the VSCO mod in Bedrock would prove to be a difficult task. One of the biggest roadblocks is the difficulty of adding blocks in a system where only entities can be customized. I figured out by searching other Add-Ons online that there are ways to make entities behave in ways like blocks. An entity that can’t move and is very resistant to knock-back is the most rudimentary solution to add things like furniture that you don’t necessarily need to walk on or place blocks on. Porting things like chairs or the Hydro Flask may not be difficult using this strategy. Unfortunately, that method isn’t necessarily survival-mode compatible. Sure, I could make the entity and its spawn egg, but figuring out how to make a crafting recipe for a spawn egg creates another layer of difficulty that I am yet to figure out. I did find Add-Ons that create new blocks, which would be helpful in porting features like decorative planks or decorative wall blocks. However, the Add-On that I tried only partially worked, it did add new blocks but the textures didn’t work on these blocks, leaving them solid gray. Apparently the option “experimental gameplay” must be enabled for that Add-On to work, but even when I had it enabled the Add-On did not work. A final, even more complex way to add blocks like furniture is to spawn a barrier in the block the entity is placed. I’ve seen crafting recipes and custom items, but I am not yet sure if it would be possible to do a custom item model like for adding scrunchies.

6/8/2020

by Viperfish2000

Today was the release of VSCO Mod 0.2.0 The Spring Flowers Update, the Koi Add-on, and the Butterflies Add-on. Even after these big releases, our work is not over. Currently we are working on adding useful articles and guides to this website in order to enrich the experience. Furthermore, we hope to earn advertising revenue through Google’s adsense program. With almost two thousand followers on instagram and well over 100 thousand followers on TikTok, we are looking for ways to capitalize on our success, whether it be through ads, merchandise, or partnering with big companies. Approaching companies can be difficult especially since we have very little experience in influencer marketing. As of now, we have not secured any agreements with companies, but our search for partnerships will continue in the coming weeks. In the future, we plan on updating the current version of the VSCO mod to Minecraft 1.15.2, but we have not yet begun the porting process. We are presently working on updating the VSCO Paintings Resource pack for Bedrock edition in order to post it on mcpedl.com where it will be more accessible for mobile users. Another plan, possibly not so far in the future, is to add decorations from the java edition mod into a pocket edition addon. This can be accomplished by making the blocks into entities. We have very little experience with this process, but Anglerfish555 is willing to take on the task.