How to Keep a Viewer Through an Hour-Long Video – An Interview with Gaming Video Creator Ilia Shishkov
Written by Eric Bergmann
For a single hour-long episode, Ilia Shishkov records 20–25 hours of gameplay, and roughly the same amount of time then goes into reviewing and selecting footage. That is how the 2026 series "100 Hours in the Army" was built: Ilia's character, with no admin privileges, rises from newcomer to one of the leadership positions in the in-game army, and viewers follow along across four episodes of about an hour each. One of them gathered 470,000 views in a month.
Ilia is the author and head of the media project "HOMA – GTA 5 RP," based in Russia. He has been making videos about role-play based on GTA V since 2019, and his @HOMATAWER channel has more than 245,000 subscribers and 53.7 million views.
We asked Ilia how he holds viewers' attention, why the promise of the thumbnail has to be confirmed in the first minutes of a video, and why an audience follows a creator into a new game.
Ilia, hello. What was the idea behind launching "100 Hours in the Army" on the new Majestic project?
Hello. I wanted to show progress from zero on the same terms as any player. A long stretch of gameplay had to be turned into a clear and engaging story while keeping the feel of an ordinary player's real journey.
So I played it without any admin privileges. The goal was to get as far as possible within the hundred hours tracked by the game's statistics. In the end, viewers watch the character climb step by step from newcomer to one of the leadership positions in the in-game army.
How much material stays off camera?
A great deal. For one hour-long episode I record 20–25 hours of gameplay, and about the same amount of time then goes into reviewing and selecting. Out of many in-game events, you have to build a coherent narrative.
I record gameplay in OBS Studio and voice in Audacity, and we edit in DaVinci Resolve. The series has four such episodes in total, and each one takes me about 70 hours of work to produce.
How do you decide what makes it into the video?
The backbone of the series is the character's progression. Viewers should see a consistent story from newcomer to a leadership position.
I select moments to fit that story, write the script and the connecting transitions, and film the main narrative line separately on camera. Then the team edits, and I assemble the final version.
How did viewers receive the series?
One of the episodes reached 470,000 views in a month.
A long video is easy to close in the first few minutes. How do you keep the viewer?
First of all, I confirm the video's promise. I start by working out what the viewer expects from the title and thumbnail. Then I pick the most interesting moments and show them briefly in the intro.
From the first minutes, the viewer understands what's coming and sees that they'll get exactly what they clicked for.
Do you come up with the title and thumbnail before filming or after?
After. I work on them at the very end, once the final cut is assembled. I develop them together with the designer, and we go through options with the help of AI, among other tools. I take them as seriously as the footage itself.
Which part of this is hardest for beginning creators?
Keeping a steady release schedule. Many newcomers can't manage it, and their delivery is often rough. The idea isn't properly thought through, so even good footage is hard to get across to the audience: the viewer simply doesn't understand why they should open the video. In the first year, I'd advise setting up regular releases and learning to carry every idea through to a video the viewer can understand.
You also review other creators' videos. How does that work?
I help several creators: SALAT PATAPON, Alex Boom, Willy Vens, Caesar Banhammer. We discuss ideas and break down videos, I give recommendations on titles and audience retention, and when needed I introduce them to representatives of game projects.
The main thing I try to pass on is how to connect an interesting idea with how the viewer actually perceives the finished video.
Your longest-standing partner is GTA5RP. Using your promo code homa, 472,332 people have registered there, 143,802 of them have spent more than 12 hours in the game, and the code ranks in the project's top three by registrations. What matters most to you when you invite viewers into a game?
Trust. I protect it and I'm not willing to deceive viewers or advertise questionable products for the sake of earnings. A reputation is built over years, and for me it's part of the business. I have no dramatic stories on that front: I simply try not to let my work get to such situations.
Even so, in 2026 you began working with the Majestic team, which by its own data has more than 100,000 daily players. How did that fit with GTA5RP?
Keeping my agreements matters to me. I'd had offers to move to Majestic before, but I kept working with GTA5RP.
I joined the Majestic team through their new project, Russia Online, a role-play game on a map of Moscow, because my contract allowed that format. And in 2025, GTA5RP gave me a personal award for contributing to the project's development, a gold ring with its logo.
What did you do for the new project's launch?
It opened on August 20, 2026. I released a video announcing the opening, took part in the project's media presentation, made two videos, and invited my audience to join.
Content featuring me is published in the project's official Telegram channel, and the website has my personal page (russia.online/homa) and the promo code homa. The task wasn't easy: the project was entering a competitive niche where viewers already know other role-play platforms.
I had to show what sets the new game world apart and get my own audience interested in it, so I presented the project through my gaming experience and personal brand.
How did the first month end?
12,357 players registered with the promo code homa. Two launch videos gathered more than 700,000 views in two weeks.
How were the registrations and payments counted?
The project ties registrations to the promo code, and payments to the players who came through it. The first-month figures were passed to me by the project's PR manager.
How has your audience changed over the past year?
People who've watched me for a long time are growing up, and at the same time new viewers arrive with their own expectations. I have to adjust both formats and delivery to these changes.
You already use AI when working on thumbnails. In a couple of years, will it start making videos in place of creators?
GTA 6 RP may well appear, but that's my forecast; I can't claim anything about the developers' plans. As for AI-generated content, I think there will be more of it.
Viewers will still be drawn to real creators with character, emotions, and a perspective of their own. That's why I'll keep developing my personal brand and my connection with the audience.
The viewer who stays after the video
Views show how many people opened a video. For a game project, something else matters more: whether a person stays in the game once the video ends, and for Shishkov the answer to that question is recorded in the statistics of two projects.
Behind it is a fairly clear mechanism. From the first minutes, the viewer gets what the title and thumbnail promised, the creator doesn't push questionable products on them, and over the years trust builds between them.
New role-play projects have to reach players who already know other servers, and a creator with the audience's trust becomes one of the most reliable ways for them to bring in people ready to stay for a long time.
