One year of Infinite Lives: Reflections and plans for the future
What’s worked, what hasn’t. What others can learn, and where to from here.
This week marks one whole year of writing a weekly column on video games. It is my answer to my quarter-career crisis, where I love working for myself in comms but wanted a new challenge that harked back to my roots and grounding as a reporter. My goal: Create a platform for smart, approachable commentary on games and the industry that creates them.
I've always loved video games and the idea of writing about them had been a passion. Back when I worked as a business tech reporter, I would pitch in stories about gaming companies amid my usual weekly commentary. While arguable more people game now than back then, the sector was a lot more vibrant in terms of the number of people covering it. I think I can now count most employed games journalists in Australia on two hands.
Quick stocktake on Infinite Lives: After 50 or so articles: I'm at 180 subscribers, over 260 followers on Substack. My audience is split between the US and Australia. My open rate is around 50% — which I’m told is pretty good. The audience for my republished articles on StartUp Daily is much larger, but the level of engagement I see is a lot stronger here.
It's been an incredibly rewarding year. I've never had better conversations with people, now that my hobby is more out in the open. Moreover, the response my articles get on Substack from the community in terms of likes, comments and shares really energises me. It’s a stark contrast to my journalism days, where more often than not any comment would be aimed at pointing out a fallacy with the piece or that the commenter could do a better job.
But it hasn't been all high-fives and smiles. As I'm sure many can relate, I'm often my own worst enemy with my writing. I ask: Is this piece good enough? Could I have done a better job? Am I going to be called out for being absolutely wrong? Typos may be endearing in the age of AI generated content, but I still live in fear of them.
One other thing I did not anticipate was how difficult it would be to source comment for my articles. Despite stories without interviews being largely the norm for games writing, it’s something I care about as I strongly believe it leads to both more accurate and higher quality pieces.
Case in point: Last year I wrote a bumper piece showcasing five indie games from the PAX Australia show floor. I got their contacts on the day, told them I’d reach out, emailed each trying to fact-check my musings on them — I didn't want to misrepresent them or their project. It's something I wanted to get right.
Two of the five replied to me. That’s roughly my average for all interview requests. My best guess is either the industry is simply too busy for stray requests for comment or there’s no immediate upside so people ignore.
But that will change as I grow. So I guess it can only go up from here?
Continue to post reviews and articles separately, aiming for one of each per week
The level of engagement I've seen speaks for itself. My likes, comments and views have spiked since I separated these out. Beyond this, it makes these reviews easier for me to find when I need to revisit my own writing, and easier to share for those who want to do so.
While the idea of one contained product is nice, it doesn't gel as well with the social media aspect of Substack, which is driving the majority of my audience growth. Moreover, it's not any more work for me. I'm not writing more, just repackaging it.
Another point, while I’ll try to have two reads each week, I don’t want to rush finishing games for the sake of a deadline — especially when some titles are over 80 hours long.
Not only is that unfair on you as a reader, but its also disingenuous to the developers of the title. So if I need to skip a review one week, I’ll let you know via notes, or if I know ahead of time, in the edition before.
Continue to hone in (where I can) on Australia
Part of the reason I've been trying to talk to more people locally is to gain a better sense of what's going on in this market.
Let's be clear: I don't think I'll get a scoop on when the Australian-made Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming out. But there are occasionally things that happen here that have a broader relevance to the global gaming scene. I want to catch those instances.
Create a platform to occasionally showcase other Substack writers
I think my piece on gaming's greatest love stories was a prime example of this.
While the awesome Alex Anata curates gaming Substacks, I'll continue to think of articles that offer micro opportunities for other writers (or just Substack users) to show off their stuff -- and maybe get it republished in Australian media too.
Subscribe or just follow me for callouts, I'll try to give at least two weeks from first post to deadline -- as I realise I can be asking a lot from others.
Mulling monetisation
I'm in a lucky position where I earn enough from my other role to not need to leverage Substack to build an empire. As a result, I originally didn’t want to monetise and just write for the joy of it.
However, a year in, I’ve seen an opportunity here. I'd love to create a platform to showcase — and crucially, pay — other Australian professional writers to cover gaming. Similar to what Patrick Klepek has done with Crossplay.
I'm turning on pledging to get an indication on the appetite for this. My biggest concern is that if people are going to pay for my content, I want it to offer genuine value. Because of global currencies, a subscription with Infinite Lives will likely be cheaper than others too.
My concept of value here is similar to what Stephen Totilo offers on Game File, where he genuinely breaks industry news. My barometer may be off here given my background and appreciation of how hard it is to stand up stories.
I'd love some feedback on what value with a Substack subscription means for you. Is it access to locked articles? Scoops, access and new info? Reviews on new titles as they release? Or just unique, interesting reads? Or a worthy cause? Let me know in the comments.
What I've learned:
Substack can be its own biggest deterrent for publication growth: More and more, I'm offering to sign up older friends, family and acquaintances to my newsletter for them; manually entering in their details into Substack's backend. Many try, and then get lost in the flurry of notifications or options in the sign-up process and just give up. Others tell me that they end up getting my newsletter and a bunch of other content they didn’t sign up for.
They just want to read my work, not be absorbed into the ecosystem. Which is totally fair enough. I find just adding their email (with express permission) helps me, perhaps it helps you too. If I ever move off Substack it will likely be for this reason.
Consistency is greater than quality: While I strive for both, I've found that at least writing something each week delivers a compounding return over trying to be perfect with every article.
Substack is a social media platform first, content-hosting platform second: The biggest learning here is that I can't treat it like I would a reporter, where I hold a one-way discussion with my audience.
I think you can pick the former reporters on this platform, they tend to post at, rather than engage with their large audiences. Some arrive with existing profile. Others like me, have to work at it. Honestly: out of curiosity more than anything else, I think I spend more time reading and liking other people’s posts than promoting my own. And that’s likely the best approach. This has been my primary vehicle for growth.
What to expect from here?
Well, I’m keen to keep going, and where possible ramp up. Again, the real life conversations with friends and family on something I love as a result of running Infinite Lives have been their own reward. As is being part of this growing vibrant gaming community on Substack.
As for what’s next: we’re all guilty of skimming, so I’ll break it down:
Up to two emails per week, aiming for one review and one piece of analysis. Same amount of words, just in two takes.
A greater effort to try and embed myself in the Australian (and Melbourne) game development scene (while balancing my day job). Possibly more Q&A pieces with those in the industry.
More pieces that showcase other talent on Substack and some exciting collaboration opportunities.
And a nudge towards monetisation with a broader stretch goal of supporting (and paying) other local writers for their work in this market, and showcasing them too.
It’s ambitious! But those are my goals for 2025, and we’re going to see where we land. I hope you’re along for the ride.
That’s it from me. Over to you: I’d love to hear your thoughts on Infinite Lives so far and the plan ahead. Any feedback for me? Any favourite pieces? Let me know what you think.
Otherwise, onwards and upwards!
Congrats on your one year anniversary! 🥂🎉
Awesome read! You seem to be building something really special here and the value of your work and passion to help grow the microscopic but oh-so-important Australian games media scene cannot be overstated. Keep up the excellent work and here's to many more years.