Summary
Minecraftis currently celebrating its 15th Anniversary and has reached a300 million copiessales milestone. The block-based sandbox phenomenon has grown exponentially during this time and so has the number of content creators who broadcast their adventures within it.
One such Minecraft creator isOwen Daughtery, also known as OwengeJuice TV, a streamer who is one of this year’s Twitch Ambassadors, an opportunity which he described as both humbling and validating. We sat down with Daughtery to talk about Minecraft Survival Multiplayer Servers (SMPs), shifting from player to creator, and forgetting to tell your Twitch mods when you’re on the front page.
Daughtery is a long-time Minecraft fan, after picking up the game in its infancy. “I’ve been playing from one of the first alpha versions,” he tells me. “I started playing when I was 11, and I’m now 26. So it’s been in my life longer than it hasn’t been, which is pretty crazy to consider.”
He made the move into content creation around three years ago, beginning with YouTube videos before turning his focus toward Twitch. Storytelling is a huge focus for Daughtery, and the reason he loves Minecraft so much.
“At times it feels less like a game and more like a game engine,” he explains. “Minecraft has something called data packs or command blocks, which essentially allow you to change the way that the game functions and works so you may take the game that they’ve given you and just make something completely different out of it.”
Twitch, Community, And Being On The Front Page
This move to Twitch has been rewarding for Daughtery, and has seen the creation of an inclusive and welcoming community as well as a very understanding mod team. “Upwards of 16 people are working in the mod team currently, and they all work so well together. It really feels like a secondary community to the one I’ve built for my audience and I’m doing everything I can to make sure that they feel heard and supported,” he tells me.
Luckily, this support goes both ways and was tested when Daughtery appeared on the Twitch front page, something which hugely increases both viewer numbers, and issues. “It’s a big jump going from the average of 200 - 400 [viewers] to 10,000 upwards, but it was a really great opportunity for my audience to showcase how welcoming they are,” Daughtery says before confessing that the moderators were somewhat thrown in at the deep end.
I forgot to give my mods a heads up that it was happening until it was happening
He confesses, “I had to tab out of the game and be like, by the way, should probably tell you we are on [the] front page, and so they all came flocking in and they were great.”
Creating SMPs
Alongside his streaming efforts, Daughtery co-runs an SMP development company called PowCreations with fellow streamer ‘Apokuna’. They work together to create themed SMPs, Survival Multiplayer Servers which use a combination of mods to create a unique environment, usually tied to a storyline the members will roleplay within.
This partnership was borne out of the Outsiders SMP which both worked on, and that Daughtery says has had a profound effect on his career.
“The ending [to Outsiders] was something really special,” he recalls. “It was the culmination of everybody’s writing prowess and improv skills. We had kept the ending, this big twist secret, for the better half of a year and to be able to finally release that and have it be shown to the public was really special. We’ve been chasing that high pretty much ever since.”
Daughtery loves scripted beats and lore drawn together by improvisation, something he was first exposed to with Outsiders. He continued in this vein with Rats, PowCreations’ first SMP, which ended up including creators Daughtery never expected to accept his proposal.
When we sent out the invites to Rats I remember getting some certain people that were our real pitch-hitters, golden ticket people and when they were saying yes. I was punching the air.
One of these is likely to be Martyn Littlewood, also known as InTheLittleWood, who Daughtery watched before his own content creation journey. “I was watching people when I was 11 and now in some capacity I’m working with them,” he says with a tone of disbelief. “When I was a kid I used to watch a lot of [Martyn’s] stuff with the Yogscast and now I’m making SMPs he’s taking part in.”
The longevity of Minecraft has allowed a huge community to build up, and creators often end up working alongside those they used to watch.
“It’s so cool when the game’s lived this long,” Daughtery says. “You’re starting to get generations of people which I think is what makes Minecraft so special. The longevity of it has allowed it to build up passing the baton on to people as you go along.”
Minecraft’s Unique Flexibility
Part of this community is the appearance of creators you may know in other projects. Daughtery often appears in MCC, a popular Minecraft challenge that pits creators in teams against each other, as well as other SMPs other than his own.
“I was in Empires Season 2 as a llama which became quite a beloved character,” he tells me. “You never really realise how odd these things are until you say them out loud.”
Daughtery also looks up to communities like Hermitcraft and the chaotic Life Series, “If they had a slot open, [in the Life series] I would be more than happy to fill it,” he says. “Just because it always seems like a great opportunity to kind of jump in, meet new people, and it’s always such chaos.”
PowCreations also has plans for its own brand of chaos in future. “We do these things called one shots, where we build a really small world and have a really quick story. Sort of like D&D, or a choose your own adventure style thing,” Daughtery tells me. “Any short form stuff like that is also really fun and lends itself as well to how powerful Minecraft can be.”
Daughtery’s next focus is TwitchCon where he has accepted every opportunity that’s come his way, leading to him appearing on a Pirates SMP, an Ambassador’s LGBTQIA+ Panel, a Minecraft Event Creators Panel, and making an appearance in Twitch Rivals MCC. “I think this might be my lesson to not be such a yes man,” he laughs. “I might get to the end of it and be like, next year I’ll ration what I do, but for the time being I’m happy to throw myself into it.”
