Plans for 1UP Vault in 2024
Exciting Year Ahead
While I officially started 1UP Vault in late 2022, I didn’t really get it going until 2023. I have been able to create a platform on Instagram and Threads that I’m very happy about. I finally feel like I’ve found a good use of social media beyond people ranting and screaming at each other. So, as I go until 2023, I have some ideas and plans to expand 1UP Vault and I wanted to quickly write and let my subscribers know about what’s coming this year.
Some Changes
There’s going to be some small changes coming up. One of them, which you may have noticed, is the new logo. Technically it’s the first logo that I launched 1UP Vault with, but I wanted to go back to it because I always kind of regretted getting rid of it. The other change will be my Threads account (@1upvault) which I decided to merge with my personal account. I barely used my personal account on Threads anyway so I’m going to get rid of it and just rebrand my 1UP Vault account to have some personal stuff too, though the big-time majority of it will be about the newsletter and video games. Another change is to fix the way you can find articles on the newsletter. I noticed my brother has organized how to find his articles on his Substack, so I’m going to work on doing the same to mine. Lastly, I’m going to use my X account (@jmmendez89) more to talk about the newsletter, despite the fact that the app has become unfriendly to content creators I’m not getting rid of it anytime soon so I minus well use it for more than just hot takes, but Threads is the long term future for me and 1UP Vault.
The Newsletter
The main priority I’m going to work on with the newsletter is increasing output. I know at times I found myself either missing a week or having long gaps between major articles and I want to change that. I feel I have found the right balance and schedule to do so. The goal will be to consistently get 2-3 articles out a week, maybe 3 a week mostly. I also plan to rethink how I do reviews for games I’ve played. At first, I focused more on how much I would recommend a game, but I decided to put a personal score on them. I also noticed that I make them longer than they should be, so I’m focusing on making them a little shorter and easier to see my points. The first game I’m going to try this new style with will be Sea of Stars. One missing series of articles is my Strachey’s List series. This is where I look at consequential games of the industry, almost similar to AFI’s list of top movies. The reason it’s been so long is because I actually was never happy with the format that I released those in, so I’m relaunching the series and will be republishing the older ones in the new format.
Some articles planned for the first few months are continuations of some of my series (History of Gaming, Side Vault, Strachey’s List, reviews) and some new ideas as well. I want to do articles focusing on consoles and highlight major games and impacts of those systems. I want to look at the most important people in the video game industry, make more personal rankings, write about predictions and debates around what’s happening to the industry. I want to use my Side Vault series to write a couple articles about Godzilla. I’m a huge fan of the King of the Monsters and since it’s his 70th Anniversary, I want to use this platform to talk about the franchise. So, lots of great ideas coming to the newsletter that I hope you can be excited about.
Expansion… maybe
I’m going to consider expanding 1UP Vault as the year progresses. Nothing is concrete but I am considering things such as a podcast and YouTube. I want to see just how much more I can do with this platform. Substack works for me because I like writing and it helps an introvert like me, but I am getting an itch to do more and if the opportunity presents itself a podcast could happen. I’ll update any potential expansions that are coming as the year goes on.
Final Thoughts
I’m really excited about this year for 1UP Vault. It helps that we could be getting some major industry news and events like the launch of the next Nintendo system. I have never felt more excited about something I was working on in my spare time like I am with 1UP Vault. I hope we expand and get more articles out about this industry I love. And I hope we get more subscribers to go along with it. I hope you enjoy all the things coming, so let’s have the best year yet for 1UP Vault.