Opinions & suggestions on Trailer

Started by AnasAbdin, Mon 10/08/2015 11:50:54

Previous topic - Next topic

AnasAbdin

I'd like to borrow a couple of minutes from your precious AGSing time *gulp*

When it comes to trailers I find myself facing a nightmare! It seems I can't capture what to put and how to present the project's elements properly. I made an unlisted video trailer demo to have your opinions and any thoughts on how to improve it. Audio is still an overlapped music track form the game... will see what to do with it :/

Here's the trailer demo:
[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9YoAorWHXg[/embed]

At the end, I will add logos of where the game is found (e.g steam, indiedb..) and flags of the countries of the available languages and other info.

Well..

Halp!

Blondbraid

I like the trailer, it looks cool and I like the music.
But the text on the screen which says "deep story and lots animation"
feels weird from a grammatical standpoint, though English is not my native
language, and this is the only complaint I can think of at the moment.

Judging from the trailer I get the feeling that the game is kind of a retro sci-fi story
in the same vein as Alien or 2001: A space Oddysey, but less gruesome. I if this is what the
trailer is supposed to convey it has succeded in doing so.


AnasAbdin

Thanks Blondbraid ;-D

You're 100% correct about the grammar "..lots of animations" me bad :P
I'd super glad you got the vibe of retro sci fi and old space movies!

Still gotta work on different elements though..

Jack

You've done one of the hardest things there is: Make a trailer for an AGS game with no voice :D

I think it looks great, and so does the game.

AnasAbdin

Thanks JackLucy :) Point and click adventure games are hard to capture in a trailer. The character is either standing, talking or walking (laugh)

I will add a stroke effect to the text (black outline) and animate the text a little as well ;)

Cassiebsg

Think you should add some effect/border, or change color for the text.

Occasionally the white text is over a very light part of the picture and it's hard to read. For instance "write down notes" (0:38') is the most obvious hurting the eyes even.
Not sure about the "lots of animations"... don't know, just sounds a bit childish way of saying it. :-\

I don't know much about making trailers so can't help much more than this...
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

cat

Wow, that's a great trailer, makes me want to play the game! I also like the music a lot, it gives some great vibes.

One thing I'd change (beside the obvious grammar error mentioned) is the font. Please use an outlined font, the way it is now it is hard to read.

MyEakinBack

Maybe the text should be more marketing-like.

Can you survive?
Will you triumph?
Save a world far away.

Short and thrilling can pull them in.
completed: Beyond Eternity

cat

For me as an adventure gamer, the text is one of the reasons that made me interested in the game. It is teasing with great puzzles and innovative gameplay instead of banal marketing phrases.

But if you aim for a more casual market, the general text might be better.

AnasAbdin

Cassiebsg yeah I mentioned I will add a stroke effect to the text :) I kinda agree about the lots of animations.. will have to think of other things to say :-\

cat thanks for the kind words! But.. add an outline to the font or change the font entirely? ???

MyEakinBack The thing is, I wanted to keep the trailer short. People tend to skip videos or jump from one trailer to another specially if it was long. So I wanted to concentrate on the unique elements the game provides. I like what you mentioned, just it doesn't make the game unique among other point and click games IMHO. You know, most games are supposed to be about the character surviving, triumphing and saving worlds! (laugh)

cat

Dunno, it's just that the white font in front of the brighter screenshots is not readable.

Bulbapuck

Nice work! As the rest I really like the music, I also loved the intro sequence. There are some things I think you could improve though.

In my opinion the trailer gets weaker further in. Things like "draw on your face" and "count stars with Simon" is presented like they were major features in your game, whereas I believe the intention was to show a sillier side of it. I personally think it would be better if that was not in the trailer at all.

The first part is strong as mentioned, but when there are four screens it's almost overwhelming. It's a lot to take in for a viewer who watches it the first time. It works well when showing off gameplay, like in the "Alternative puzzles solutions"-part. But otherwise it might be a bit much.

Another minor thing is the screen that says "Alternative puzzles solutions", it's confusing when you read it quickly. Are the puzzles alternative? The solutions?

Bear in mind that most people that watch the trailer will only watch it once, so you need to get across what the game has to offer clearly, and end at a strong note. Maybe in stead of mentioning that there are lots of animations you could show off those cutscenes to give the viewer a break from the information. If this is done well it can lend a flavor of intrigue.

For instance, the scene with the shooting gun was something that stuck with me. Having that as the ending (before the name of the game) I believe would leave the viewer with more of a "wow"-feeling.

Of course this is all very subjective and opinion-based, I've never created a trailer myself so I'm no expert. But I thought I could throw in these thoughts :)

Mandle

#12
Just watched the trailer through a few times and I thought it was very attention-grabbing during the opening sequence but loses steam towards the end.

I would advise just cutting the "lots (of) animations" line because as Cassie said: it does sound a bit unprofessional, and the video itself shows tons of awesome animations so the line is not needed anyway.

I would also advise cutting the "write down notes" part. I think that is just going to have a lot of viewers thinking: "So wait...what? I get to feel like I'm back in study-hall again?!"...Anyways yeah: it just doesn't sound all that exciting. If you want to keep it in maybe change the text to something like "Keep track of vital clues in-game"

Also "use sign language" is not very grabbing either. How about "A unique non-verbal communication system" or something like that?

So yeah...don't just say what is already obvious from looking at the images, but instead describe what excitment the features will bring to the player and you will have an audience-grabbing trailer!

Oh...and I cannot WAIT to play this game! It looks amazing!!!

AnasAbdin

I really appreciate the advice Bulbapuck and Mandle  :)
The "draw on your face" and "count stars with Simon" were intentionally put in a silly way to give an ease to the trailer video. They are however important parts of the game. I will replace the "lots of animation" with something like "cut scenes" etc... still looking for the best way to present it. I think the 4 screens illustrates the "lots" and "alternative" well  ???

I did get another idea though from the mention of the gun shot, as the 4 screens started from scaling down one screen, maybe I can expand the gun shot scene back to full screen in order to ease the transition from four to one screen on the viewer's eyes.

Now about the mention of some of the features as the "notes" and" sign language", put in mind that the trailer is not intended to AGSers only. There are people out there who are too bored to even look at the point and click genre. Since all of the codes and passwords in the game are randomly generated and obtained in the game itself, a notebook is vital to the game. Perhaps I should have mentioned that, but it would take too much text in a short trailer.

To be honest, I was shocked how you guys liked the midi music track! I was so worried that the trailer lacks speech or sound effects. I still think of adding panic breathing at the low Earth orbit scene at the beginning  :)

Edit:
Oh cat, consider it fixed  :)

SilverSpook

Great trailer, AnasAbdin!  I know the hair-tearing that comes with trying to decide exactly what and how to show in a game trailer.

I'd suggest, instead of "Lots of animations", something like, "Over 100 animations!" or "Over xxxx animations!" however many there are.  "Over 5000 lines of dialog!" and stuff like that is usual trailer faire I think.  Numbers have strong juju with people, don't ask me why.

You might consider telling a super-compact version of the game story in the trailer.  Like, introduce the protagonist(s), antagonists, some of the major plot points, rising tension, some action scenes... climactic explosion of spacecraft, BOOM!  Pithy and ominous quote murmured by Morgan Freeman... fade to title.  Wait, did I just describe the trailer to The Martian? possibly!  But just think, hundreds of millions of dollars went into that movie, so they must've gotten something right!?

Hehe, but yeah, iterating through the various highlighted cool features of your game also works.  Think about what it is about Tardigrades that is so unique and/or awesome that people just HAVE to play it.  And try to rub that in, hard, till people get road rash.

Mandle

Quote from: AnasAbdin on Tue 11/08/2015 06:31:03
Now about the mention of some of the features as the "notes" and" sign language", put in mind that the trailer is not intended to AGSers only. There are people out there who are too bored to even look at the point and click genre. Since all of the codes and passwords in the game are randomly generated and obtained in the game itself, a notebook is vital to the game. Perhaps I should have mentioned that, but it would take too much text in a short trailer.

I didn't really mean not to show the fact that the game has a notebook...What I meant was that the phrase "write down notes" probably doesn't sound very exciting as a game feature...It kind of sounds like you are back in school writing down what the teacher is saying...

What I meant to say was to promote the feature by saying something like:

"Keep track of vital clues in-game"

Then the customer gets excited and understands that it's a cool feature and not just a chore that they have to do...

AnasAbdin

Why do I love anything written by SilverSpook? Thanks for the advice mate! I kinda try to avoid numbers generally, numbers make me feel like a merchant standing outside his grocery or vegetables store calling for promotional prices and so on hehe. If it's up to me I'd stick with artistic teasers like the ones I always do. But you know people have demands  :~(

Quote from: Mandle on Tue 11/08/2015 08:58:08
"Keep track of vital clues in-game"

I love it. Consider it done kind sir.

Cassiebsg

I knew Mandle would "read my mind" and solve that puzzle! ;)

Anyway I also think that "Deep story" should be a topic on it's own and not share the space with other "unrelated" stuff (so probably dropping the lots of animations line would be the way to go, that way there's less text to concentrate and ppl have the chance to grab of the picture and animations). Though, feel like it's missing one more strong adjective on that line to make it complete. Just don't ask me what that is... maybe Mandle can solve that puzzle too, he's good with the English language... (laugh)

Quote
maybe I can expand the gun shot scene back to full screen in order to ease the transition from four to one screen on the viewer's eyes.

I like that, I was about to suggest something like that just before I read your reply. ;)

And I didn't mentioned, but I also really enjoy the start of the trailer and the music you used... kind of grabs the attention (and that's exactly what you want in a trailer. (nod) ). On that note am not sure you'll gain anything with the breath sound, but can't hurt to try I guess.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

AnasAbdin

#18
Here's an updated version, tell me what you think  :-\

[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10K_aeC9EbM[/embed]

Edit:
*sigh* no matter how you double triple check...
"passwods..."  (laugh)

Blondbraid

It's an improvement and I like it! 8-)


SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk