YouTube Star CaptainSparklez Talks XREAL, Fortress Fury, YouTube

YouTube sensation Jordan ‘CaptainSparklez’ Maron has joined the ranks of online celebrities expanding their brands with new business ventures. Maron, who has over 8.7 million YouTube subscribers, has partnered with Activision and Acclaim Games co-founder, Howard Marks, to form XREAL, a mobile game company whose first release, Fortress Fury, is already available. Fortress Fury is a real-time multiplayer title on iOS and Android devices, challenging users to build a fortress capable of withstanding the onslaught of other players. The goal of each one-on-one match is to find and destroy the ‘core’ hidden somewhere in the opponent’s tower, before the other player can do the same. Users attack others with catapults, ballistas, lighting storms and more, and can customize the design and layout of their tower between matches. Since release in May 2015, Fortress Fury has been downloaded more than two million times, with Maron hoping to use the game to grow the world of mobile eSports. To capitalize on this early momentum, XREAL has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine, which allows users to invest in XREAL by reserving shares in exchange for various rewards. Since the campaign launched, it has crossed its goal of $2 million in non-binding interest in just over a month. We recently had a chance to chat with 23-year-old Maron, who spoke about the development of Fortress Fury and XREAL, as well as his life on YouTube. SocialTimes: Did you always have aspirations of owning or creating your own development studio, or was this something that developed over time as your YouTube channel grew? Jordan Maron: When I was in high school, I was always interested in doing game development to some extent; I figured I’d try to become a developer. I didn’t end up going into it in school, because I didn’t realize it was a viable career path. So, I started on a chemical engineering path. About two quarters into my freshman year at school, as I was doing the ‘YouTube thing,’ I realized game development is a pretty big industry, so I made an attempt to switch from chemical engineering into computer science to go in that direction. That didn’t pan out, and I ended up leaving school to focus on YouTube full time. Still, I’ve always been interested in doing game development, so when the opportunity presented itself with Howard Marks, I jumped on board. I thought it would be very cool to try developing a game of my own; each day, I’m playing games and putting them on my YouTube channel, so I figured a pretty logical next step would be to try making a game of my own, which I can also post and show to people on my YouTube channel. The thought of doing it has been there for a very long time, but it was only recently that it actually became a possibility. I decided to go for it. ST: What inspired the concept behind Fortress Fury? JM: I wanted to make a game that was pretty original—that wasn’t too similar to many of the things out there on the App Store. I [wanted] something that incorporated elements that people like in games that I play, like the creativity you get from Minecraft, and the competitive aspects you get from other eSports games, and try to merge them all into a mobile package that can be consumed in very short play sessions. Fortress Fury was something that incorporated the creative elements—it also has the real-time competitive aspect—and you can pick it up and have a full experience in just a few minutes, which I think is pretty crucial to the mobile playing field. ST: Was the process of developing the game from that concept to the actual release more challenging than you expected, or easier? JM: Being that it was my first time, I figured we’d run into some challenges. It was definitely more of a time consuming process than I initially figured going into it. We set off with a timeline that was very aggressive; we were aiming for August to December, and having a finished product in December. It ended up taking about twice as long as that to get the game out there and published on the stores. It was very cool learning experience for me, given that I haven’t done this before; I’ve always been on the user end, playing games, but not involved in the creation of them. ST: Do you think mobile has the same potential for successful eSports titles as PC? I do, yeah. There are so many mobile devices out there. Even with my YouTube channel, for example, the majority of my content is consumed via mobile devices—everyone has them at all times. If [XREAL], or someone, is able to create a competitive experience that works really well in the mobile environment, I think it can work wonderfully, and there will be tons of people playing it. It probably will be a different style of consuming the game. You probably won’t sit down [and have a] two-hour session for it, like you might with League of Legends, but people who are sitting in the car, on the bus, on the train or waiting in line for something—to be able to get on and do a match, I think, is a concept that has the ability to really take off. ST: When it comes to growing Fortress Fury as an eSports title specifically, how much do you pay attention to other competitive mobile titles, like Vainglory, for instance, as inspiration for what to do? JM: I don’t pay too close of attention, because I don’t want to emulate someone else’s path too closely. We have our plan as to what we’d like to do as we continue to work on Fortress Fury. A big thing we’re definitely striving for is live, in-person tournaments for cash prizes. I have an internal, personal goal. It sounds like a pretty big stretch when most people hear it, but I would love to do the first $1 million mobile game tournament. We have a ways to go to work towards it, but especially now, with the new method of crowdfunding tournaments—selling an item on the store and a percentage of that item goes towards the prize purse of a tournament—that’s a fantastic concept, and I’d love to do something similar down the road for Fortress Fury. Not only in-person live tournaments, but also doing structured tournaments [in] the game, so it can be fully automated and people can opt-in to do tournaments whenever they’re running. That’s a big goal for us, on top of just updating the game, continuing to tweak it, [making] it more interesting and [adding] new content. ST: Fortress Fury has been downloaded more than two million times since launch. Do you attribute most of these downloads to fans who have downloaded the game after hearing you mention it or seeing the development videos, or are you also working to acquire users through traditional advertising campaigns, as an example? JM: We haven’t done [traditional advertising], and we don’t have plans to do it in the immediate future. For the moment, our marketing strategy is purely focused on YouTube. As it stands, I’ve really been the only driving force behind it with my YouTube channel. We’re actually waiting to add more content to the game and update it; then I’ll hopefully be collaborating with some other friends of mine and making more videos that their audiences will check out. We were featured under the new games category on the App Store and the Google Play store, so that gave a little boost as well at launch. ST: When it came to expanding your brand outside of YouTube, was the main motivation to simply fulfill your dream of creating a game, or, do you see XREAL as a long-term career move, that you can rely on if you decide to take a step away from YouTube? JM: Definitely, the goal there is to have XREAL become a self-sustaining business. I love making YouTube videos, and I’ll continue to do it as long as I possibly can, but I live with this paranoia in the back of my mind, that ten years from now, I don’t know if there are going to be many people out there in the same age range they are today, who are interested in watching a 33-year-old playing video games. I certainly hope that will be the case, but I always plan for the worst. I would love to have something exist that doesn’t necessarily have to do with me as a personality, as an individual. Something that has its own IP that people play and enjoy—that has longevity independent of how old I am. While I’ll continue to make YouTube videos as long as people watch them, I’m looking for other side-projects that can ‘outlive’ me. ST: On a more personal level, when it comes to sponsored videos or brand partnerships—like the Best Fiends campaign from February 2015—how do you decide which brands or companies to work with? JM: In most cases, those are brought to me by an intermediary—in the case of Best Fiends, Maker Studios—or other ad agencies. If something sounds interesting and the ‘creative’ is desirable on it, I’ll go for it. I try to stick to companies I can support. If I have ever had a personal issue with a company in the past, I’ll try to stay away from it. What I always like to strive for, is having the branded video allow me to do something I wouldn’t normally be able to do. If a brand wants to send me to do something that would otherwise be restricted, I find [that] super awesome. ST: What advice would you give to aspiring YouTubers in general? JM: I usually tell people to do something you’re interested in; otherwise it’s going to be ‘grindy’ and not that fun. Make sure you’re adding some sort of unique twist onto whatever you’re doing, so you can catch the attention of whoever might be stumbling by your video, discovering it. Try to meet other people, make friends [and] collaborate. I think that’s the best part of it, because as long as you’re enjoying doing the videos with friends, no matter the views [they’re] getting, at least you’re having fun. Hopefully, that ‘having fun’ will actually translate into more people wanting to watch. Image courtesy of CaptainSparklez on YouTube.

Social Pro Daily

YouTube Star CaptainSparklez Talks XREAL, Fortress Fury, YouTube

We chat with the YouTube sensation about his new game development company, his first mobile game and his life on YouTube.

Brandy Shaul

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