Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

[Cyprene]

"Your team is untested, your circumstance impossible.  Your enemy is unknowable, but no longer invincible."
Am i the only other one that likes this more? =p

I'm not sold on the first part of it.  (Your circumstance impossible reads kind of odd to me.)  The second part, however, is very, very cool.

[keith.lamothe]

Warhammer 40k corrupted me.

I really enjoy WH40k, in a sort of "whoa this is so messed up but that guy in the armor is a total badass" sense.  And it's certainly influenced me and my writing.  But it comes from, and projects, a worldview radically alien to my own.  I could no more write stuff like that than an Inquisitor could write like a Tyrranid.

Well, maybe not that far off.

Anyway, I have a much easier time writing something more in the vein of David Weber or E.E. Smith, though I have my differences with them too.

[x4000]

"Your team is untested, your circumstance impossible.  Your enemy is unknowable, but no longer invincible."
Am i the only other one that likes this more? =p

I'm not sold on the first part of it.  (Your circumstance impossible reads kind of odd to me.)  The second part, however, is very, very cool.

None of that is actually part of the story, though.  The team is plenty tested, the circumstance isn't (so far as they know) impossible, despite being very difficult.  The enemy is quite well known, and was never invincible.

[MouldyK]

"Your team is untested, your circumstance impossible.  Your enemy is unknowable, but no longer invincible."
Am i the only other one that likes this more? =p

I'm not sold on the first part of it.  (Your circumstance impossible reads kind of odd to me.)  The second part, however, is very, very cool.

None of that is actually part of the story, though.  The team is plenty tested, the circumstance isn't (so far as they know) impossible, despite being very difficult.  The enemy is quite well known, and was never invincible.

Yes, but "You have been tested, your circumstance is possible, you know your enemy, they are still vincible" does not have that kinda catch to it.

[keith.lamothe]

"Your team is untested, your circumstance impossible.  Your enemy is unknowable, but no longer invincible."
Am i the only other one that likes this more? =p

I'm not sold on the first part of it.  (Your circumstance impossible reads kind of odd to me.)  The second part, however, is very, very cool.

None of that is actually part of the story, though.  The team is plenty tested, the circumstance isn't (so far as they know) impossible, despite being very difficult.  The enemy is quite well known, and was never invincible.

Yes, but "You have been tested, your circumstance is possible, you know your enemy, they are still vincible" does not have that kinda catch to it.

Which is why we changed the subject of the line

[x4000]

Right, generally lying in marketing materials is frowned upon.   So we focus on things that are true AND exciting, rather than exciting but not quite true.

[MouldyK]

Right, generally lying in marketing materials is frowned upon.   So we focus on things that are true AND exciting, rather than exciting but not quite true.

So shouldn't most of your game trailers start out with "We've found a new way of making you hate random number generators..."?

It might not be exciting to people, but it's true with AI War, Valley 1 and Valley 2.

[keith.lamothe]

Right, generally lying in marketing materials is frowned upon.   So we focus on things that are true AND exciting, rather than exciting but not quite true.

So shouldn't most of your game trailers start out with "We've found a new way of making you hate random number generators..."?

It might not be exciting to people, but it's true with AI War, Valley 1 and Valley 2.

Well, right, that's basically exactly what we're saying, but we're also trying to make it exciting and also communicate something about the particular way we're about to make you hate the RNG

[Cyprene]

After the introduction of those Counter wave turrets, the AI may as well be invincible.  I haven't been back to the game since getting wiped by one of those things a few months back.

[keith.lamothe]

After the introduction of those Counter wave turrets, the AI may as well be invincible.  I haven't been back to the game since getting wiped by one of those things a few months back.

You mean Counterattack Guard Posts?  Those were added a fairly long time ago, iirc.  They were recently nerfed a bit, for what it's worth

[Professor Paul1290]

I know you've said it doesn't make for a good looking trailer, but have you considered selling the gameplay more straight?

Maybe it won't make for an exciting trailer, but at least the audience will know what the game is and that might be a more important first thing to do than anything else. Looking ugly and having to be long winded and verbose to explain how the game plays might be better if it means getting far enough away from everything else that the game actually stands out.

To be honest I think if Shattered Haven was presented as a "adventure maze-puzzle game on steroids" in advertising and if the story was left for when people actually played the game then more people would have understood it better, as that would have shook off the "cheap zombie game" image early.

Not to mention, if you're going to sell the theme and setting then that pool has already been pissed in so to speak. Just search through Greenlight for a while.

Maybe you shouldn't try to be too concise at first and just get the point out so your audience knows what the game is even if you have to talk more, then after that start selling the theme and setting.
I kind of feel like Shattered Haven and didn't do enough of the former and because of that didn't do well with the latter because the audience was still scratching their heads.

[x4000]

I don't really think we're trying to sell story here, but the overall mission of what you're doing.  This gets reinforced with video of gameplay in the background, of course.  But describing the gameplay in words to go with it is... well, pretty much what we're doing.  I agree that Shattered Haven's trailer was focused all wrong, but that's not really at all what we're trying to do here.

[Professor Paul1290]

That's good, the dramatic one-liners probably gave the wrong impression.

It might be odd, but I still think that this is the best trailer you've put out (minus the review quotes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr_oSOSTfbA

Maybe it's not as exciting as your later ones for AI War and other games and it was text heavy as heck, but it really got the point across. I thought it really pushed to separate the game from its peers right away and I thought that worked really well, even if it had to be very up-front and verbose to do it.

[x4000]

Thanks, I really liked that one too.

[Oralordos]

Wow. I never saw that one before. I agree, that is your best trailer to date.