Alvin From Earth - saga. Feedback & Critique needed on the format

[teemue]

Hi everybody!

Some of you already joined our beta and perhaps even the Kickstarter for Season 01 on Alvin From Earth.

Currently we've just released Episode 04 on Youtube and testing few game-like elements there and waiting for community to tell us what should appear on the next episode. You can see the episode here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA51o2jT6KU

Within our close circle people are enjoying the episodes and are hungry for more but we're definitely on the slow side of getting any proper interest and engagement. We are in early stages but interested to hear real AGS community thoughts on what doesn't work and what does. We are in the works of an actual game for Alvin where the community can interact more with the environment, characters etc, but before we publish that we want to make sure there's nothing we're missing here.

So! Anyone interested in giving comments, critique or suggestions on the format? - we would love to hear from you!

For example :

• Should we keep / ditch the voting aspect?
• Should we just turn this into an old school game instead even with the risks and long development times?
• What kind of simple game mechanics you'd like to see in the upcoming game? Dialogue? Pixel hunting? Talking with other players of the community? Setting puzzles for others?
• Any other ideas you think could work along with this short episodic adventure game format where the community is involved in creating the story?

Thanks guys, any help would be appreciated! The more harsh you can be the better, we have tough skins [/list]

[Cassiebsg]

To be honest, I haven't even grasp the concept that good.
Does the player get to play or just vote on actions that you then program and release as a video or is more to it...?

I did enjoy the humour on the video and would love to play the game, but right now I just feel like I'm just watching a show or a cut-scene on YT. Is that the intention?

[Danvzare]

• Should we just turn this into an old school game instead even with the risks and long development times?

Is it possible to turn it into an old school game, while at the same time providing the short term development times, and voting thing that you've got?
If you got a small team together, you could easily make a decent short game in one month. You could probably even have two games in development at any one time, thus giving you roughly two months to work on a game. By reusing assets, you'll be able to spend more time making the game bigger and better. And all the while keeping the episodic short-term risk-free development, while at the same time providing people the ability to vote on how the story progresses.

It'll certainly be more interesting than... whatever this is.

That's my two cents on the matter, as it was what I was expecting when I first heard the pitch for your game (until I realized it wasn't even a game), and personally if I had money and the know-how, I'd do it.

Also, that third screenshot looks questionable, if you know what I mean.

[Retro Wolf]

I like the idea behind it, it's clearly well made in the animation and humour department.

Promoting a youtube channel and promoting a game are different things.
If it's a game you're making, now days you need a major youtuber or two to pick up the game and actually enjoy it. Some big gaming websites need to review it too, you'd have to email a bunch of free copies out to them or something.
Making a successful youtube channel is different, I wouldn't know where to begin.

If you deviate from the original plan too much you might upset your original backers.

Whatever you decide I hope it turns out well because I have enjoyed the videos.

[Scavenger]

Honestly I think you have a good workflow to create a game without long development times already. You have a very efficient style (rotoscopy, I assume), voice actors, and a direction for your story to go in.

Watching the episode, it was funny but I found myself drifting off from it since it DID feel like a cutscene to an unfinished game. There's not enough going on for it to be interesting watching passively (People standing around talking on a static background isn't great for that - you may want to add in talking heads or some kind of cut to break up the monotony of it), but for an interlude between gameplay sections it would work fine.

The voting aspect seems... vestigial at best, and I'm not sure if it ties into the narrative or is just a way to get audience engagement.

[teemue]

Hey guys, thank you SO MUCH for your replies, TRULY appreciated!

Many of your comments point to direction that we've been also pondering on. Danvzare's thought on combining a game and series-narrative seems to be one major possibility here.

So - a further question - Would you be more interested in :

1) A full game, no episodic nonsense. I'd pay $20 for this on Steam for sure!
2) A game, story updating every 2-4 months in large packs
3) A game, story updating every 1 month in tight but smaller bits
4) A game and a separate story online that somehow are woven together and playable on an app as well. Shorter, around 15 min gameplay episodes which appear every 2 weeks.

And all this with the feature that the story changes according on the decisions majority of the players have decided. For example which planet should he visit on the next season etc.

[teemue]

To be honest, I haven't even grasp the concept that good.
Does the player get to play or just vote on actions that you then program and release as a video or is more to it...?

I did enjoy the humour on the video and would love to play the game, but right now I just feel like I'm just watching a show or a cut-scene on YT. Is that the intention?

Thanks for your question - no. The intention is that we're developing a game but Youtube works as a great initial testing platform first.

[selmiak]

these episodes are fun to watch. but does the game get spoiled when I watch the youtube episodes?

[teemue]

these episodes are fun to watch. but does the game get spoiled when I watch the youtube episodes?

That's the exact problem we're trying to solve here - that the Youtube series supports the game and vice versa. Either so that when watching the youtube episode you will want to download the game or so that the youtube-series could work as a "spin off" to the game. These are the options we're tossing around atm.

[Frodo]

I'd be interested in buying it as a full game for US 20 dollars.
But I wouldn't buy it on steam.  I prefer my games to be DRM-free.