If you’re like me, you spend some (if not all), of your free time watching streamers on services like Twitch.tv play Vainglory. Prior to December, while I was familiar with the concept of streaming games, I had not completely dove into the social aspect on it. What I found within the Vainglory streaming community was a world of great people, friends, and lots of laughs. This involvement within the twitch community ultimately lead to my creation of the Vainglory Community Overlay Project, and the countless side projects I have done for all our amazing streamers. What it also lead to was a desire to get on the other side of the camera and try my hand at streaming for all the people I admire so much.
However, before I could stream, I had to decide which service to use? Between Twitch, Mobcrush and Kamcord, there was suddenly options, all offering their own pros and cons. While Twitch has the stability of a thriving community, and all the bells and whistles you could ask for, there was also something intriguing about starting on a new platform like Mobcrush or Kamcord, where there may be less viewers, but also less competition for those viewers. After looking at both of these services, I decided I would go with Kamcord for my first test stream. There were a few determining factors, which I will discuss shortly.
Disclaimer: I am now a member of the Halcyon Hammers which are officially sponsored by Kamcord. However, while I am part of the Kamcord referral program, I am in no way getting paid to write this review, or to talk about Kamcord. I honestly think it is a great service, and wanted to share my experiences as more streamers are looking to build new audiences.
Vainshame’s First Stream – Awkwardness Ensues
My first stream with Kamcord, while not as awkward as I would have hoped, was indeed wrought with some problems. Unfortunately, I can’t blame these problems on Kamcord, as they were all my own fault, and my lack of proper setup before I started my stream.
Setup
Since I had already decided I wanted to use one of the new, mobile only services for my first stream, the biggest deciding factor for me to go with Kamcord over Mobcrush was the ability to use OBS for my stream overlay. Obviously, having a great overlay is important to me, and part of “my thing” I guess, so this made it an easy decision. I wanted to ensure that my stream looked amazing, in addition to being entertaining.
Setup on Kamcord was incredibly simple. As soon as you click the Go Live button, you are brought to a screen that clarifies the recommended equipment requirements. Being on a Mac, I am not sure if this screen changes depended on the OS you are using, but I would imagine it does. From here, clicking the Setup and Go Live button, brings you to the Streaming Instructions page. This tutorial walks you through step by step on how to prepare OBS for your stream, and provides both the live url and your TOP SECRET stream key. 
Once you have all your setting entered in OBS and click the Start Streaming button, the Finish Setup button appears. Don’t worry, you’re not Live yet! Being my first stream I was slightly hesitant to click the button, cause I wasn’t completely sure I was ready. Thankfully, clicking the Finish Setup button takes you to your stream settings page, where you can Enter the Title of your Stream, the game you’re playing, get a preview of your broadcast, and see your chat. This is ultimately the window you will keep open throughout your stream to interact with your viewers in chat.
Once you have all your information entered, you get a message that It’s Ready! and you can start streaming! Let the hilarity ensue!
Or if you’re like me, you will spend the next two hours fiddling with your sound settings and trying to figure out what you did wrong. Also, my Koshka play is embarrassing. Though, I’ve been told to get used to it, cause most streams are going to have technical issues and some bad gameplay. 
For my first stream, I was very happy with the results. Could it have been better? Um, YEAH. However, I had a great time hanging out, and chatting with all the cool people that stopped by to wish me luck. Even Kamcord devs came by to say hi, and help me troubleshoot, which was pretty cool.
Overall, I LOVED Kamcord, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t problems with the service. Here are the Pros and Cons I found with Kamcord.
PROS
• Easy Setup
• Less competition means more exposure
• Small community / Developer Involvement!
• Easy to read chat (One of my biggest complaints with Mobcrush)
• OBS Support
• MASH THE HEARTS!
• Archived videos and comments
CONS
• No way to tell exactly how many viewers you currently have
• Not really sure what the Hearts actually do 😀
• Lack of emoticons
• No panel options for contact info / donation info
• Small community
• Stream quality seemed kind of low, but maybe adjustable with OBS settings
All in all, if you are looking to start streaming for the first time, or are already a streamer curious about these new mobile only services, I would urge you to check out Kamcord. They have a solid service, and their dev team seems very down to earth and interested in helping get streamers up and running.
As a special referral promotion, they are giving me and anyone that signups $10 for checking out their service and streaming for 2 hours.
What a great way to give them a try and see if you like it, while earning some easy money for more ICE!
What do you think? Have you tried Kamcord? Let me know in the comments or on twitter @vainshame
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