Contests for fan-made trailers sound great, and we might do that for LotS, but bear in mind that it's well past where this trailer will benefit from any criticism, constructive or otherwise. It's done, it's submitted, I couldn't change it if I wanted to (on Steam, etc, where it most counts).
And, I disagree very much about the music, etc. There are more moods than just "exciting." In this case, my goal was "haunting / fascinating." It paints a picture of a world unlike anything quite seen in other games. The goal of the trailer is not to educate, but to pique the interest of players that might be interested. It's to get them to read the features text or to try the demo. The goal of the features text is also not to get anyone to buy -- it's to get them to download the demo. The goal of the
demo, then, is to get them to buy.
I think I felt like a lot of the criticism here was so harsh because this is wholly done and not something I can change at this point. So to me it kind of feels like "neener neener, I didn't like it and there's nothing you can do about it, but here's what you
should have done." But that's not exactly fair to you guys, because you didn't necessarily know it can't be changed.
Anyway, if there is one thing AI War is not, it's exciting in a visceral, FPS hacksaw sense. I like exciting games of that sort as much as the next person (Red Faction: Guerrilla or Left 4 Dead 2, anyone?), but this is not that sort of game. Sure, it's exhilarating when a plan comes together, or heart-pounding when everything seems about to fall apart, but that's different from glitzy excitement. A lot of my favorite games are not exciting: Mario, Zelda, Silent Hill 2, etc. None of those are fully of explosions or excitement, but they each have their reasons for being fascinating and awesome. With AI War, people in the past have talked about the desolate themes and story as being such a motivator and a draw for them, and so after I saw a great minecraft trailer that focused on the same, I thought I'd try my hand at doing something similar with the material here.
The reason I didn't have larger battles from the AI, etc, is that specifically the talk of massive fleet battles turns off a lot of strategy gamers. That makes them think it's going to be a click-fest, etc. Obviously many people here disagree, given that you already have the game. So in some senses it even makes sense if an older trailer works better on you, since it got you to buy the game (if it was a factor). But, with the new trailer, I'm trying to get a subtly different (but somewhat overlapping) segment of the strategy game audience. So if the trailer doesn't appeal to you... maybe that's okay, it's not like you'd buy it again and most people like you (who also heard of the game) have already bought it. And for those that haven't, I'm not sure that the new trailer would be such a turnoff that they wouldn't read the features or progress to the demo.
Wow, this has turned into a long post. But at any rate, the considerations that go into something like this are many and varied... I have learned. Personal reactions to something like this are great, but you also have to consider if it's really targeting you, etc. The message of this trailer is intentionally much slower, darker, and more emphasizing of strategy/tactics and the unique environment. I'm pretty sure we've mostly tapped out the audience that is primarily excited by massive space battles over the elements I mentioned there.
As noted, this doesn't mean I think this trailer is perfect, or that a much better one couldn't be done, but I think that a lot of the feedback ranging from the music, to the lack of explosions, to the lack of tutorial-ness, to the lack of glitz -- or whatever else along those lines -- are sorely missing the point entirely.
Anyway, I'm off for some sleep, and then tomorrow is the last set of changes before this thing gets marked gold and sent out to the distributors. Exciting times, even if you don't like the trailer.
