Meet CityPoppu, our GameBlast spotlighted streamer
Thursday, May 4th, 2023
We couldn’t do what we do without the support of our incredible community of streamers, and as part of our Stream Team Spotlighted Streamer interviews after an incredible #GameBlast23, we talked to CityPoppu!
Hey CityPoppu, thank you so much for taking part in GameBlast this year! Please, introduce yourself!
Howdy! I’m CityPoppu, a variety streamer that likes to build Gundams & Game Boys, learn Game Dev and Git Gud at games, all live on Twitch. My community are an interactive part of my content, with them being able to mess with my green screens, duel for the right to be Chat Champion, or even summon the HamCam – a webcam hooked up to my hamster, Ushi’s, enclosure!
We must confess to being big fans of Ushi! Tell us, how long have you been a content creator, and how did you get started?
During the COVID lockdowns in 2021 I began to feel a little isolated, so I figured that I should head online to make new friends and share my hobbies! It’s been great working to create a cosy community full of friends who appreciate crafting and niche gaming with a chill atmosphere.
That’s wonderful, it sounds like building a strong community is part of what makes content creation so fun! What is some of your favourite content to make online, and why?
I love sharing my hobbies and making new friends online and I always try to do something creative on stream, whether it be building a model kit, restoring retro tech, or taking either of the former and learning how to put glowing lights in them! Putting time aside to work on creative pursuits on stream has kept me active in learning and improving my skills without burning out, and it brings an awesome social element to every project.
Alongside tech, we know you also love streaming games! What are some of your favourite games, and why are they important to you?
I’m late to the party, but I recently played through the first Dark Souls on stream, and it was such a fantastic experience! The feeling of progress in the face of adversity, with the community on Twitch offering support and relishing in my unfortunate, but comedic, failures cemented it as one of my favourite experiences.
The Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games are also among my all-time favourites – with their complex systems and excellent soundtracks they can be a real joy to drop into.
Very good choices! How did you hear about SpecialEffect, and why have you fundraised for us?
During my teenage years, I had the opportunity to stay in Trinidad where I met a pair of local brothers. One of them relied on a wheelchair to move around and had difficulty with tasks that required fine motor skills, such as playing video games – which happened to be their favourite pastime. A strong friendship was forged with them, and we spent many hours together finding creative ways to include everyone in the fun. We devised a system of splitting controller responsibilities, such as having one person aiming while the other shoots, so that we could all play games like House of the Dead and Street Fighter together.
I later heard about SpecialEffect from friends whose families the charity had helped. I was super enthusiastic about their cause – a controller setup put together by SpecialEffect would have been great for my friend back in Trinidad. I became involved with fundraising for SpecialEffect as part of GameBlast, when I hosted a set of marathon streams to raise awareness & funds for the charity! It was a bunch of fun, and it was great to network with others that are passionate for the work SpecialEffect do.
That’s an absolutely incredible story, we’re so glad to have been able to help! So, what are your top tips for running a charity event?
- I try to differentiate charity events from my usual content and keep them special by incorporating donation milestones for the community to work towards. For example, hitting a certain milestone could allow the community to pick your pizza toppings for the day, or having to build a model kit in a hot tub full of spare pieces. Personally, I still can’t forget the taste of cursed Pineapple and Mushroom pizza…
- My most recent fundraising stream was part of #GameBlast23 and I wanted to reward every donation with something fun, with them earning a spin on the ‘Wheel of Doom’ which led to a bunch of different prizes for them & forfeits for me, such as me having to eat a spicy jelly bean, drawing a character from memory (I am not good at art) or having me perform a cover of a song while gargling (I am also not good at singing).
- Don’t be afraid to reach out to businesses that align with your content, as they may be willing to support your event by donating prizes or assisting in other ways. I was able to build a prize pool this way so that every donation was also entered into a Gundam model kit raffle (below), which was assembled with the help of donations from local stores.
- For top donators, consider offering a special prize to add some excitement to the event. For example, I was kindly provided unique gear that RetroModding designed for #GameBlast23 that I used to restore some broken Gameboys into awesome SpecialEffect themed one-of-a-kind prizes (below):
- To make your charity event run smoothly, it’s important to hype it up with your community beforehand and enlist their help. You may want to consider having a friend or two assist with off-stream tasks to alleviate some of the workload if possible. Additionally, using a bot to manage common questions such as event schedule, donation link, and charity information can be incredibly helpful in keeping things organised.
- Make sure to look after yourself too. I don’t think I have the endurance for 24-hour streams, so instead I try to split my fundraiser activities over multiple days instead. No matter what you do, you’re doing a net positive for the charity which is rad!
Fantastic advice! If people like what they’ve learned today, where can they find you online?
You can find me live on Twitch building Game Boys & Gundams and playing games. I share progress on my projects on Instagram and Twitter, and shorter clips can be found on my YouTube and TikTok channels. Be sure to join our cosy Discord community to stay up to date on all the amazing projects that we are working on!
Find out more about our awesome Stream Team, and how you can stream for SpecialEffect, on our Stream Team Page.