The video is up!

[x4000]

The video is up!  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcengames/611177331?token=77fc57f9

Won't be on youtube until we launch the KS.  It gets all the salient stuff across in the first 1:10, and then basically drives it even further home for another 50ish seconds after that.  It even directly embeds everyone's favorite old trailer for the first game, #3.  Lots of really cool contrast between the old and the new.

The importance of a good video is apparently something that people are divided about.  Having a video at all makes a big difference, and having one that is less than 5 minutes also makes a difference, but the actual completion rate of people watching even short videos is pretty low.  Hopefully this one is compelling enough and dense enough with information to get a lot of completed views.

[Chthon]

The big green button! It does not exist! D:

[Cinth]

Excuse me while I scrape my jaw off the floor......

[MaxAstro]

That looks incredible.  I saw that the game was moving to 3D, but I did not expect it to look THAT good.

[chemical_art]

Amazing video. Great VA, great graphics. My jaw dropped when I saw the scale of the larger ships. I thought they would be large. I did not know it would be THAT large. Wew!

[x4000]

Thank you, everybody!

New version was just uploaded.  What's new in this one:

1. Jack suggested kind of a record-scratch sort of effect when moving from the little joke 2D platformer to the first AI War II visuals, and I did more of a whoosh but got the same idea across.

2. I added a little goofy jump sound effect and children cheering blandly during the joke platformer, again to hopefully make sure that nobody misses the sarcasm there.

3. There are several explosions throughout that actually have sound effects now, which gives them a better sense of impact and gives also a better sense of what the sound design of the final game will be like.  Welcome for AI War Classic folks, I'm sure, hearing those.

4. The music now changes tracks when it goes into the old footage, to part of the Stars Suite, and it really works much better for the tone in the second half of the video.

5. I added a little final section with the logo and some flying through space particles (but no visible ship) at the very end, after an impact sound to kind of cap off the video.  Just an extra 2 seconds there, more or less.

Anyhow, that about does it for this thing.


And yeah, the big green button appears tomorrow.

[Misery]

Wow, I'll say, that's pretty darned impressive.  I particularly like what I assume is the new galaxy map. 

But one question, what's with the bits that has the ship zooming around asteroids?

[Vinco]

Excuse me, but I seem to have gotten my credit card stuck in the front grille of my computer.  Can someone help me get it over to Arcen where it belongs?

[topper]

Looks great, best of luck!

Note, the page still has a note that says it is missing the video as of 11 EST.

[Chthon]

Ok, just a minor bit of criticism, some of the explosion sounds are out of sync with the graphics, happening what seems to be late by as much as a second in places.

Also the big green back button is still absent. This needs to change soon.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Chris, I'm sorry, but that video about AI War 2 is really rough. It dumps way too much information that's not necessary for Kickstarter without really talking about the Kickstarter itself. It needs to be much longer, much better paced and with a lot more human touch than this. I don't know, I'm really concerned about this being the front running video for your campaign.

I need to keep thinking on this but I have a lot of misgivings on it.

[x4000]

Chris, I'm sorry, but that video about AI War 2 is really rough. It dumps way too much information that's not necessary for Kickstarter without really talking about the Kickstarter itself. It needs to be much longer, much better paced and with a lot more human touch than this. I don't know, I'm really concerned about this being the front running video for your campaign.

I need to keep thinking on this but I have a lot of misgivings on it.

Sorry, that's really not in the cards.  There are a wide variety of styles of kickstarter videos, and various of them have varying degrees of success with various audiences.  With most KS videos, the completion rate is evidently less than 30%.  There are strong statistics that the videos should be under 3 minutes for the video game sector, and ideally closer to 2.  Videos over 5 minutes suffer particularly heavy.

There's no data that trailer-like videos work any better or worse than those with a more human touch in this particular segment, but the trailer-like ones have been sharply on the rise.  Overall the message I have taken away from other indies and what I've read is "the video at the top is to get people interested, preferably in one minute or less."  Anything else it would do would basically be preaching to the choir, and that's essentially what the rest of the page is for.

Doing further videos and various other forms of updates and engaging with potential backers is super important, to be sure.  But the sort of videos that you're referring to are personally a huge turnoff for me, and it's just not something that seems all that successful in the modern KS market in this segment from what I can tell.  The data is pretty scattered, though, so it's easy to find support for any given point of view.  Ultimately I went with where data is more solid since it was mine-able: those with shorter videos have a statistically-significant funding rate, as do those with no videos versus having a video.  Beyond that I went with my gut as well as generally what I have been gleaning from other folks.

Aka the video isn't about the kickstarter at all: it's about selling you on the idea of the game itself, and so the kickstarter gets about 4 seconds of mention at the end as the call to action (those do yield results as well, evidently).

[Captain Jack]

Looks great, best of luck!

Note, the page still has a note that says it is missing the video as of 11 EST.

Fixed, thanks!

Chris, I'm sorry, but that video about AI War 2 is really rough. It dumps way too much information that's not necessary for Kickstarter without really talking about the Kickstarter itself. It needs to be much longer, much better paced and with a lot more human touch than this. I don't know, I'm really concerned about this being the front running video for your campaign.

I brought up the same complaints with Chris when the video was twice as long. Apparently long videos are not recommended since short videos help your campaign more.

EDIT: Aaaaaaand Chris is still on. Good!

I rewrote the sidebar rewards to be a bit more consistent. I've renamed the "name drop" factions to "satellite factions" and the uncontacted factions to "sequestered faction". I'll write longer explanations in the campaign proper.

[Chthon]

Perhaps you could introduce more videos below in addition to that one, for when people are interested in hearing more. This way they have the initial one to hook them, and more if they are still hungry for information.

You can break them up on a variety of topics, and post them over the course of the Kickstarter as needed even.

Edit: It is still not live, and it's Monday for me.

If it's not live by about 7am EST I may have to wait till I get home, and might miss one of the $250 tier slots. I will be sad if this happens.

[mrhanman]

Looks great! All I need to do now is to figure out how much money I can throw at you.