Pixel Hunt plays adventure games!

[DoorKnobHandle]

Hi AGSers!
Remember us?
We're Pixel Hunt, the band that should have recorded songs but instead we started recording Let's play videos because it's fun! Yaaaaay!

The first game in the series will be a game by Radiant: Errand.
It is the winner of the Monthly AGS competition of October 2012 with the theme: This is bullshit! It can be downloaded right here!

[embed=720,576]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ELTexvnwak[/embed]

Just a reminder as to who exactly we are again:

dkh - Our producer of Gründlichkeit and a very lousy German accent (funny fact: did you know dkh actually stands for 'door knob handle'? Wow, isn't it amazing?)
NoaVana - Our amazing vocalist and occasional kazoo magician
Wyz - Our fabulous keyboardist and elevator music provider (funny fact: did you know Wyz actually stands for weird yellow zoo? Wow, isn't it wonderful?)
Snake - His solos are so moving and striking it made his mic leave in shame (no really, he doesn't have a microphone right now).
Dualnames - No further introduction needed, he's an AGS superstar! When he's not fulfilling his army duties (we miss you!) he'd be whacking his strings for us (that's what she said).

We're looking for games to play next, if you have a brilliant idea of a short game we should check out because it's quirky, funny or silly, let us know! Likewise, if you have any suggestions or comments, go ahead and shoot!

-- Pixel Hunt

[tzachs]

I support this!
Here's an errand for you (well, not really, just a suggestion): how about playing Femspray? It's a classic and can use a revival...

[Ghost]

Annie Android! I'd love a Let's Play of that!
And... maybe Apprentice? Now that one's an old-time favourite...

*edit*
Note to self: Find ...and play... Feemmm-spraay... *scribble*

[Radiant]

Hey, I'm honored! Thanks guys

(edit) okay, I think I should comment on this a bit. Maeldun is the protagonist of A Tale Of Two Kingdoms; the talking blue cup is Cuppit, and is the protagonist (or something) of META. More importantly, you guys missed the good ending! Like Tom says in the end, the first ending is kind of boring - you just do your chores and go out. The second ending is more fun, and I would encourage you to let's play and find it; it's not all that hard. At any rate, thank you for recording this!

Spoiler

After you found the treasure chest, look at the shiny thing on top of the television set...

[close]

[noavana]

Hi Radiant!
Sorry for the name corruption on my behalf
Now you really made me curious about the good ending .. I might just play it again

Ghost, thanks for the great suggestions! we'll check them out

[DoorKnobHandle]

I have to say, sometimes I'm a bit disappointed at the apathy of the community these days. Even though it's just a 15 minute video, I know it took Noa a LOT of work to sound-balance, sync and edit the video together. I know we're not great entertainers or anything, but I really thought we'd get more than a SINGLE response (by someone not affiliated with the band or Radiant as the game author). When you put hard work into producing AGS community content like that, especially when stuff like this (ie. group let's plays) has, to the best of my knowledge, not been done before, you just expect a tiny bit of feedback. If we were really unfunny I don't mind at all, but post and let us know. If you thought it was 'okayish', tell us that. We are deciding whether or not to continue this based on the feedback we're getting.

[Anian]

...this is probably gonna be a downer, but here it goes:
Well it's a good production for something with multiple people not in the same room playing. It's a bit unusual that there are so many people playing it at once, just seems like it turns from a video about playing the game, into you guys talking while you play something. Don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but the game was kind of lost with all your comments on it.
Also there seemed a lot of text skipping, which I don't get the point of, if it's in a Lets play video and I think it's a side affect of the whole "playing while talking" and no the usual "some talking while playing". Also I actually don't like it when people read all the text (nothing personal, Noa, I just don't like it in general, although I'm probably in minority on that part). It all seemed like nobody wanted to play the game for the game, you just wanted to do a Lets play.

I know it's sort of a test, but personally I either watch lets play videos of games I played long time ago or don't want to play (for example Farenheit, I just suck at QTEs but I wanted to see the story). This game on the other hand is something I played recently, so that might have made it strange.

[DoorKnobHandle]

No downer at all, that's good criticism, thank you! I'll make sure to bring it up to the rest of the gang next week.

[MurrayL]

Liked the video - I look forward to seeing more!

It'd be great fun to see you play through one of my games - I'd recommend Plan M.

[Scavenger]

I just watched it. I'm going to be harsh, but I believe in you guys.

I didn't really like it. It was very overwhelming and scattershot, and I think it could have done with a lot more structuring. The blind run doesn't really suit groups, as people tend to react and talk over each other. Group lets plays also don't work well with reading out the dialogue - it confuses the listener as someone who is commentating on the footage is also presenting themselves as part of the footage (as a side note, if you are going to read out the dialogue, don't put on a voice to do it. Just use your normal voice.)

I'd set out a script or at least a list of talking points for each part of the video, to give you some direction. A let's play is about informing the audience as much as it is entertaining them. You must know more about the game than the viewer, and present it to them in an informative manner. You missed out the good ending? Tell the audience how to get the good ending. Get all the points. Find all the secrets. Present the game in a manner that is easy for the viewer to digest.

The intro was a little bloated, and since you have who the people are explained in the accompanying text, you don't really need to have an elaborate intro for a let's play. Just say "Hello, and welcome to  ~Name of Show~. I'm DKH, and this is Noa (Hi! ~Witty line~) and Wyz (Hello! ~Witty line~)..." etc, "... and today we're playing Errand, by Radiant.". This is the internet we're producing for, and as it's on demand we don't need long intros to make sure everyone is sitting comfortably. Just jump right in there. Be quick. Be snappy. Grab the audience's attention, but don't overwhelm them.

Perhaps the slow intro is partially the reason for the lack of response? After all, if you dither on getting to the meat of the video, people will shut it off and forget about it quicker than you think.

Also, don't be afraid of a second take. If something goes wrong in your video, don't ignore it, take a second take instead. The final product will be a lot more polished and well recieved. This isn't live television, you can edit and reedit however much you like.

So, in brief:
- Structure! Bring some new information to the table, and show the viewer interesting things about the game. Be on top of your material!
- Impact! Don't fill the void with chatter, make the things you say meaningful and interesting! Brevity is the soul of wit! Get into your videos with the minimum of introduction!
- Polish! If something goes wrong, fix it, streamline it. If too much goes wrong in a final video, it turns the audience off since you're literally breaking their immersion with issues. This isn't going out live, it's prerecorded. Take some time and make every episode gleam!

You guys have a lot of potential, but you need to focus your efforts and coordinate to create something great. It's a lot of work, I know, but I know you can do it. Once you have the right system, this could be an entertaining and informative series. Without that focus, you're not providing the audience with anything they need more than providing videos of people talking over a game, which is something the internet has in excess.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Thanks MurrayL!

Scavenger, I agree about every point you make there and I'd personally all for going with that route, the problem here is that I know the rest of the Pixel Hunt people are much more into a spontaneous, chaotic Let's Play style, while you are thinking of a planned out, almost scripted and very educational style. I will definitely bring that point up next week, when we'll have another band meeting, but I don't think they'll be very supportive of changing our style that way. I personally also prefer education to chaotic random though, so I can absolutely see where you're coming from.

Thanks for the feedback, it took you guys a while and a reminder but it's all good!

[Scavenger]

Scavenger, I agree about every point you make there and I'd personally all for going with that route, the problem here is that I know the rest of the Pixel Hunt people are much more into a spontaneous, chaotic Let's Play style, while you are thinking of a planned out, almost scripted and very educational style.

You can still make something appear more chaotic and spontaneous even if it is scripted, it just takes longer to put it together. If you remember MST3k/Rifftrax, that appears like the commentary track is spontaneous and everyone is ad libbing and ribbing on the film. But it's actually meticulously put together, with jokes just in the right place, and recorded such that noone flubs their lines or talks over one another unless it's a deliberate joke.

You need to be insanely talented in order to pull off a purely ad-libbed let's play with a group of people you can't see the reactions to in one take. I'd wager that it is an impossible task. I mean, sure, you'll have fun doing it, and it'll be fun for the people involved, but producing something for an audience? That's a different kettle of fish. You need to think about making it approachable for an audience. Spontaneous group blind run isn't working. I've seen too many let's plays that have been ruined by the insistence that "doing it live" is the thing to do. You can still be funny, you can still be "spontaneous", and you can still be "wacky" and still create something worth watching, without relying on your first take. It'll take a bit longer, it might even require reshoots of footage and rehearsals where you brainstorm funny jokes, but it's totally possible to make your videos more watchable while still achieving the same feeling you're going for.

The audience, more often than not, wants to see the game being played, and be shown around it because otherwise, they'd just play the game themselves. Don't lose that in a cacophony of conflicting personalities trying to make jokes. Embrace the format you're working in, don't try and fight against it.

[Wyz]

Your comments are much appreciated! I knew that our first let's play would cause some controversies. Maybe the "let's play" thing gave off the wrong impressions and made it hence not live up to expectations. Our intention was to goof around a bit while someone of us plays a game as a informal podcast sort of thing. We don't have the time nor the resources nor the intention to make a serious and informative let's play. We just have fun with them and instead focus on our core task: make music!

Well that said; I can't promise there won't be more of these so I guess that is just something we'll all have to live with.

[selmiak]

you should live improvise a soundtrack over a the game's actual soundtrack while someone plays and also react to the dramatic scene happening

[Radiant]

Incidentally Errand has a voice pack now I hope it's as good as the voices your team did.

[MurrayL]

Really enjoyed watching the Let's Play of Plan M! I hope I'm not alone in saying that I don't tend to play my own games very much, so it felt pretty fresh to me, and I actually ended up laughing at a good few of my own jokes. [/lame]

Your voice-over work was, er, something special Obviously you aren't a reviews channel, but in future videos I would love to see more analysis of the game throughout, and/or at the end. Nothing major, just your thoughts on the gameplay, story, etc.

[Stupot]

Did any of you Pixel Hunt folks actually get around to replaying the game for the second ending as Radiant recommended? I really think you would be pleasantly surprised

[Wyz]

Really enjoyed watching the Let's Play of Plan M! I hope I'm not alone in saying that I don't tend to play my own games very much, so it felt pretty fresh to me, and I actually ended up laughing at a good few of my own jokes. [/lame]

Well there were plenty. I'm glad you liked it!

For those of you who missed it (yeah we forgot to put the link out ) here is the video:

Pixelhunt plays Plan M
[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg1dgJy8gsM&feature=share&list=PLYBEms1FKLLQGV_ojU1j5ZarGO_aNQcJY[/embed]

Your voice-over work was, er, something special Obviously you aren't a reviews channel, but in future videos I would love to see more analysis of the game throughout, and/or at the end. Nothing major, just your thoughts on the gameplay, story, etc.

Well, we tried that once but it turned out a bit chaotic.

Did any of you Pixel Hunt folks actually get around to replaying the game for the second ending as Radiant recommended? I really think you would be pleasantly surprised

Maybe we will

[noavana]

Really enjoyed watching the Let's Play of Plan M! I hope I'm not alone in saying that I don't tend to play my own games very much, so it felt pretty fresh to me, and I actually ended up laughing at a good few of my own jokes. [/lame]

Your voice-over work was, er, something special Obviously you aren't a reviews channel, but in future videos I would love to see more analysis of the game throughout, and/or at the end. Nothing major, just your thoughts on the gameplay, story, etc.

Hi MurrayL,
I was the one who recorded the video and played the game and I wanted to say that it was really enjoyable! The characters and animations were a bit quirky but it didn't spoil the experience and it added to the overall hilleriousness of the story and texts. The puzzles were easy to understand (this is important because sometimes you don't understand what you're supposed to do, or the logic of it) and I really enjoyed the music!
We wanted to add our thoughts on the game but because of that annoying '15 min' limitation on youtube, we didn't have time and like Wyz said, we are trying to keep our Let's plays in order (if that makes sense).

Did any of you Pixel Hunt folks actually get around to replaying the game for the second ending as Radiant recommended? I really think you would be pleasantly surprised

We intend to do that