If you’re good at something, usually you stick with it — although sometimes you can’t help but wonder, “So what if I tried this?” That’s exactly what Jordan “CaptainSparklez” Maron did.

This YouTube personality has managed to build an audience of 8.5 million subscribers, with more than 1.6 billion video views — and that’s enough to keep most people content. However, Maron has teamed up with video game pioneer Howard Marks to create XREAL LLC, a company that specializes in producing games like Fortress Fury, which recently launched with over two million downloads. Not bad at all for a first try.

We had a chance to chat with Maron about making the move to mobile, as well as its reaching its goal of $2 million in non-binding interest in just over a month’s time.

First off, congratulations on the success of your YouTube channel. 8.5 million subscribers is a huge number. What do you think is the most vital ingredient in terms of keeping viewers happy on the channel?

I try my best to stick to a consistent schedule of videos so that subscribers know when to expect something new. Other than that all I can really do is try to make sure each video I’m doing is as interesting as possible. I find as long as I’m having fun, it usually translates into something most viewers enjoy.

Quick question out of curiosity — how’d you come up with the name “CaptainSparklez?”

A bit over five years ago, I had another YouTube channel with a slightly less appropriate name, and was contemplating changing it to something else. I was chatting with a friend about it, and they jokingly suggested I go with Captain Sparkles. Not thinking it would amount to much, I decided to go with it. The s was taken so I added the z instead. Now here we are.

Now let’s move on to your new business venture, XREAL. What gave you the idea of creating your own game studio alongside Howard Marks? Who approached who to get things started?

I had always been interested in game development, and thought it was a logical next step to go from playing third party games on my channel to being able to play something I helped to create first hand. That said, when Howard reached out, given his long history in the games industry, I figured it could be a beneficial partnership. When our initial, Minecraft related project concept didn’t pan out, I suggested creating a mobile game, and after a few months of brainstorming, came up with the concept for Fortress Fury.

Tell us about Fortress Fury and what players can expect from it upon starting it up.

Fortress Fury is a real time, competitive multiplayer game where players are able to use a set of items to construct a Fortress that they can then take into battle against other players. As they complete battles, they collect resources which can be used to craft more advanced items they can add to their Fortresses.

Fortress Fury has been downloaded over two million times. Congrats! What would you say is the best part about releasing a mobile game?

When we launched, it was great to see the feedback from people downloading the game. When you’ve been working on a game every day for over nine months, you reach a point where you lose the ability to relate to the mentality of a first time user in determining whether or not the game is fun, so to see a majority of players enjoying it was very exciting.

How did you come about utilizing equity crowdfunding to get things moving?  Do you think it’s a great business structure for other up-and-comers?

On top of being my partner and co-founder for XREAL, Howard is also the chairman of the Start Engine crowdfunding platform, which made equity crowdfunding a logical next step for us. I think the opportunity for early adopters to share the long term upside of a company’s success is a pretty fantastic thing, and I certainly hope it becomes a new standard. That said, because Reg A+ (The SEC’s new policy allowing equity crowdfunding) came into effect only just over a month ago, there haven’t yet been any companies to complete a round, so we’re sitting here waiting patiently hoping it works out for the best. So far we’ve received significant interest in the way of reservations, so we are very optimistic.

What’s probably the toughest part in getting a company like XREAL off the ground, you think?

I wish I could say that things have become a breeze now that we’ve been going for a year, but along with every step comes a series of challenges that we must face. We’re still very much in the early startup phase, and I think most of what we’ve done so far has been equally challenging and rewarding.

Now that XREAL is a success, what’s next on the plate for you? More game releases? More YouTube content? A little bit of both?

I think both XREAL and my YouTube content will continue to be my primary focus going forward. We plan to continue developing Fortress Fury as our sole title, hopefully building it into a large mobile e-sports title. Once we’ve reached that point, then perhaps we can think about a new game, but for now we’ll keep on refining what we have. On the YouTube side of things, I plan to keep on making videos as long as there are folks out there interested in watching.

Finally, if you could work on any type of mobile game, what would you like it to be? A puzzle game? Something action-oriented?

In creating Fortress Fury, I tried to come up with a game that I would be appealing not only to a specific audience, but also to me. That said, I think I’m already working on my ideal game.

Fortress Fury is now available for iOS and Android devices {links no longer active}.