Hello,

Thank you so much for checking out the very first season of VTuber Spotlight! 🎉 We are thrilled to have you with us on this exciting journey into the vibrant world of VTubers and content creators. This is an archived copy from the newsletter, however. In each newsletter, we will bring you exclusive interviews with some of your favorite VTubers, diving deep into their stories, experiences, and creative processes.

In this inaugural edition, we are excited to feature an interview with Hydrakk, who shares their journey, insights, and what it means to be a part of the VTuber community. We hope you enjoy it!

Frosty > hello hello and welcome. Today, I have with my my friend Hydrakk. Would you be willing to tell me a bit about yourself?

Hydrakk > Hello, my name is Hydrakk. I am… I don’t know much about myself other than that I am water, I stream on Twitch. Mostly VRChat, War Thunder and other random things. Uhh… I don’t know much. Honetly I never really think much about who I am. I am just a scuff person that may or may not be water.

Frosty > “May or may not be water” giggle Does this water aspect have anything to do with your switch working or not working? [I had mis-heard]

Hydrakk > Uh maybe?

Frosty > So you did mention that you play Switch games, what kind of switchy things do you like to play?

Hydrakk > Oh, uh. I didn’t say Switch games, I meant like other stuff.

Frosty > Oh, like variety content type of stuff.

Hydrakk > Yeah, that stuff yeah. Variety. I don’t know, I’m not a very professional streamer.

Frosty > I mean, you go ahead and look at some of the big people and are some of them professional streamers?

Hydrakk > That is a fair point.

Frosty > But with that being said, you’ve got to have had, like even, professional or not, you’ve got to have had some favorite moments of being a VTuber. What are your favorite moments? What’s your favorite thing that’s happened to you?

Hydrakk > Hmmm… I’m not entirely sure, I can’t exactly narrow it down fully. I guess just finally getting to see all sorts of dreams you wanted to do with an existing avatar come to fruition. Like say when it comes to things like alternate outfits, such as this one here which is meant to be a cosplay of a murder drones character. Aside from that, just something about seeing what ideas people have for your avatar. Um, just something about that really warms my heart.

Frosty > The fact that other people are coming up with these ideas for your own avatar?

Hydrakk > Yeah.

Frosty > Okay, okay.

Hydrakk > That and stuff like, um.. I don’t know, like. I was really happy with um, doing all sorts of doing the standard avatar reveal things that happened. Like when I had to reveal the 2.0, which is this avatar. I had a lot of fun with that.

Frosty > Okay, so Avatar reveals. That does kind of bring to my next question. So a lot of VTubers build up a lot of hype around avatar reveals, model reveals, sometimes to the point of having community goals for a new model that they are going to bring up on stream. With that being in mind, are there any sort of major things that you’ve been able to accomplish with your community where it’s not just you working towards a goal but you and your community?

Hydrakk > Well, in relation to the avatar reveal thing: How I revealed my latest model was through a lot of help creating a trailer for it. To do that, I had to spend a lot of time with quite a few of my friends to gather enough footage for the avatar reveal and just making it into a way that fit with my OC’s lore as she is. This character, named Abigail, she’s meant to be a dragon’s herald and also a artifact hunter. That was the thing I was looking for. So the trailer was just exploring a bunch of ancient ruins and then she would stumble upon a portal and then in the portal she would become the 2.0 avatar. And aside from that though which took quite a bit of community help, one of my favorite things was actually just Lethal Company and hosting community events in my own server. Those have all really helped with bolstering a community’s health, I think.

Frosty > Okay, that’s really cool! And Lethal Company is a lot of fun.

Hydrakk > It honestly is.

Frosty > You mentioned that your character is Abigail, do you put on some form of character?

Hydrakk > Umm, what do you mean by character?

Frosty > Some VTubers, especially the corporate/agency VTubers, will put on a character. It’s not them speaking as themselves, as their own person, but they are speaking as their VTuber, as their character. Take Gawr Gura for example, she’s a Shaaaaark right? So do you put on a character when you’re streaming or roleplay from time to time?

Hydrakk > I try to, but I’m not the best at roleplaying and I kind of view that as roleplaying. So, I try to but I’m not the best at it so I usually just kind of let people see my OC and assume that’s who I am. When most of what I do really is not roleplay at all. What you see from my personality is genuine. I don’t really hide anything. So short answer is no.

Frosty > Hahaha, you know, whatever works, right?

Hydrakk > Yeah, whatever works.

Frosty > Another question that I do have, is so you’ve been VTubing for quite a while now and this is as you mentioned your 2.0 avatar. There’s a lot of aspiring VTubers out there, many of whole haven’t done a debut or any sort of stream or content really. Do you have any tips or words of advice for people who want to get into VTubing?

Hydrakk > Do you want the brutally honest approach or the softer approach?

Frosty > Whichever you think would help out the most.

Hydrakk > Well, admittedly, VTubing has been such a rise in popularity thank in part due to these big corporate VTubers as well as people like Aura, the VTuber for Opera GX. So many people want to be like that now that it’s very hard to stand out. I guess the main tip that I’m going for here is: you need to find a way to stand out in a way that makes it very creative but also very enjoyable. There’s an example of someone that I’ve been looking at on Twitter, but they’re a VTuber and their entire aesthetic reminds me of these really old cartoons. I wish I remember their name [Editor’s Note: it’s PumpkinPotion], but they looked exactly like those really old cartoons that you would’ve watched in the 90s, 80s, around that era. Maybe a little older. But yeah, that’s an example of just how far I think, if you really want to hit it big and aspire and to be hitting it big as a VTuber, I feel like that’s how far you kind of need to go now.

Frosty > So, to kind of summarize what you’ve said: don’t follow what everyone else is doing. But be yourself. Be something that is completely different, don’t copy what other people are doing because you’ll just be buried in the mud.

Hydrakk > Exactly. Yeah, it’s definitely for the best to just, don’t try and follow whatever new e-girl avatar thing is the new norm or whatever. Just be yourself. And while you’re at it, have fun!

Frosty > And speaking of being buried in the mud and trying to stand out, where can people find you? Like, where are you?

Hydrakk > Easiest place to find me is on Twitch, name is HydrakkTW. I wanted to just go by Hydrakk for a name but for some strange reason I can’t so I had to put the TW on. But regardless, Twitch is the easiest place to find me, otherwise I’m usually on Discord with the same name of just Hydrakk.

Frosty > As we sign off for the day, is there anything else you’d like to say to our fans (mine, yours, the VTuber community as a whole in general)?

Hydrakk > I guess the best thing I can tell you is just… Never forget who you are. Never forget where you started from. Cause there’s a lot of people who would love to see you blossom. But yeah, I think that’s it.

Frosty > Thank for joining me on this interview for the VTuber Spotlight and I look forward to seeing you around.

We have many more amazing guests lined up and ready to share their unique perspectives and experiences with you. Stay tuned for more exciting interviews coming your way soon!

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Thank you once again for being a part of this community. We are excited to have you with us and look forward to bringing you the best of VTuber content.

Stay creative and keep shining! 🌟

Best regards,
Frostyfrog
VTuber Spotlight Team