A Whole New Look

Garret, AKA Desperate Saint, is a friend of mine who has also previously been my client. A few years ago, I created a stream package for him that was energetic and sporty. He basically handed the creative reigns over to me and was stoked with what I made him. A couple years went by and he honed in on the look and feel he wanted for his stream: Dive bar.

This time around, I had a clear objective to chase that was wildly different from the first version. The goal was to capture those dive bar vibes without it making it too dingy whilst making sure not to keep it too clean either. This was a fun direction to work towards, especially for a video game centric stream. There are so many basic and stereotypical stream packages with no personality—this path set up Saint to stand out from the crowd.

The Heart of the Stream Package

The chat scene is where the look and the feel of the concept really comes into play. Second only to the main game scene, the chat scene is the most used scenes. This is where the streamer can hang out and interact with their viewers in between games or even just in extended chatting sessions.

I mixed in a multitude of textures to build up that sense of materiality. I didn't go crazy with covering the back wall with tons of signage so as to limit the chaos, instead opting to highlight some of Saint's faves to personalize the feel of his stream. Rogue Energy is also stacked on top of the beer tap along with a promo poster showcasing his discount code.

The wall is a dark brick to give that cave-like feel with red and blue glows emulating neon signs just off the edges of the screen. The section for the webcam is a mounted TV, allowing him to integrate himself into the chat scene.

Below where the bar counter is became the perfect spot to showcase the stream labels for followers, subscribers, bit cheers and donations.

Knowing Where to Pair Back

With stream graphics, standing out is important, but you don't want to clutter the scenes too much and take away from the content. The main game scene needs to stay pretty clear so the gameplay is the main focus.

Here we went with a super simple webcam overlay. Just a clean border with transparent logo in the top left corner and a section for rotating stream labels underneath. In the bottom left corner is a concept for a pop-up ad for his discount code in partnership with Rogue Energy that pops in for a few seconds on a set interval. Other than those simple elements, the screen is free and clear to showcase gameplay. So how do we really show off that dive bar look? Well, the chat scene of course!

The interim Scenes

The chat and the main game scenes are what a streamer will be on most of the time, but there are some other scenes necessary to flesh out the stream experience: Starting Soon, Be Right Back, and Ending scenes.

Dive bars are covered in neon signage, liquor brands, sports banners and so much more, filling the space with an energetic collage of typography and imagery. I took this and focused on mixing together a selection of fonts to create that mix-n-match feeling in the interim scenes.

Starting Soon

Be Right Back (BRB)

Stream is Ending