Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

[Histidine]

Personally I  thought "you have died of dysentery... and robots" was funny without ever having played Oregon Trail, though I knew enough of the game to get the reference. But it feels more "funny" than "explains game."

For me, the high point of the AS trailer was at 0:50 - 1:02 with the words "one last chance to rebuild," "one last chance to survive," "one last chance to fight" fading into just "rebuild," "survive," "fight."

Right then, here are my taglines: "Every bullet - every bandage - every word matters." and "Your tools are the means; survival is the end."

[Wingflier]

Then at the end add, "And if all else fails, nuke the bastards. At least you'll take them with you."

No, I'm serious. If I saw a trailer that said that, I'd buy the game instantly.

[Echo35]

* Your first trailer should not have any inventory menu screens or complicated interface mechanics.

Spreadsheet Simulator 2013!

Works for Crusader Kings trailers.

[madcow]

* Your first trailer should not have any inventory menu screens or complicated interface mechanics.

Spreadsheet Simulator 2013!

Works for Crusader Kings trailers.

...Have you not seen Crusader Kings trailers? They are really quite hilarious, and don't show off the spreadsheet simulator side of it.

Incidentally, apparently somebody actually made an rpg in excel, saw an article about it this past week. I guess spreadsheets are wanting to branch out into video game simulators.

[mrhanman]

I thought trailers were supposed to be 80% CGI cinematic, 15% logos/credits, and 5% gameplay.  This seems to be the formula, anyway.

[madcow]

I thought trailers were supposed to be 80% CGI cinematic, 15% logos/credits, and 5% gameplay.  This seems to be the formula, anyway.

If you can afford to put more money into a trailer than arcen probably puts into its games, sure.

[LaughingThesaurus]

If you can afford enough money, you'll have only CGI.

In my experience actually, the CGI-to-gameplay ratio is roughly equivalent to how proud the developer is of the game. If the game sucks, you look up a trailer and screenshots, you probably won't see any gameplay in it at all. If it's really great, you'll see a whole lot of gameplay. This really is more of triple-A sort of trailers though. Can't say I've watched Arcen's trailers and had them influence my decision. The game's descriptions or demos sold me on the game.

[Echo35]

In my experience actually, the CGI-to-gameplay ratio is roughly equivalent to how proud the developer is of the game. If the game sucks, you look up a trailer and screenshots, you probably won't see any gameplay in it at all. If it's really great, you'll see a whole lot of gameplay.

There is also proportionately more dubstep.

[keith.lamothe]

Then at the end add, "And if all else fails, nuke the bastards. At least you'll take them with you."

Depending on the circumstances, that might not be failure at all.

[Wingflier]

Then at the end add, "And if all else fails, nuke the bastards. At least you'll take them with you."

Depending on the circumstances, that might not be failure at all.

Well, at least from a player satisfaction standpoint it wouldn't be

[LaughingThesaurus]

Then at the end add, "And if all else fails, nuke the bastards. At least you'll take them with you."

Depending on the circumstances, that might not be failure at all.

Well, at least from a player satisfaction standpoint it wouldn't be

If your name is Faulty Logic, it would be very satisfying.

[chemical_art]

...Have you not seen Crusader Kings trailers? They are really quite hilarious, and don't show off the spreadsheet simulator side of it.

Incidentally, apparently somebody actually made an rpg in excel, saw an article about it this past week. I guess spreadsheets are wanting to branch out into video game simulators.

Actually, that does bring up an idea:

Pre game release, make several interlocking videos with each other. The goal is to try to make them entertaining, but touch upon various gameplay assets. Drop in tidbits of the spreadsheets throughout the video, so they act as easter eggs for those looking more in depth.

The goal is you both generate interest, and give an avenue to explain all the different stuff that is going on. Odds are at least some of your game reviewers will see at least one of these videos, and potential buyers can see them too.


Then, as your last video before release, make your trailer proper.

[Nonsense Syllable]

"An in-depth turn-based strategy where every decision counts."

That's probably a little too dry (even a bit cliche). The point I really want to make is that you don't want to overload that initial statement.

True, and thanks for the suggestion.  We don't want it to be long, and this is about the right length. 

But we also have to avoid the cliche: isn't the quoted line a claim that a great many games make?  Granted, the "turn-based" part of the claim is rarer nowadays, but doesn't every strategy game claim that every decision counts?  Generally, every decision does count somehow in a strategy game.  We're trying to emphasize that it really can come down to the wire, and every round left in your offworld weapon's clip may make a difference at a critical moment, or that last energy bomb could get you past that last encounter... if you still have it.  Or that each choice can contribute to your reputation, which can make the difference between a particular enigmatic figure stepping in to save your rear-end at a crucial moment, or trying to crush you instead.

If you saw a game claim it was an in-depth strategy game where every decision counted, would you keep listening?  Would you even suspect it could mean the above?  Or would you think "well, yea, every strategy game has to claim that"?

Sure. The quote was never intended as a serious suggestion, I just wanted to make the point that the opening line doesn't have to describe every nuance of the game, (although obviously the more quickly and concisely you can get across your hook the better). If I saw the trailer open with this quote it wouldn't immediately get me excited for the game, but it does tell me that this is a genre I'm interested in, which at the very least is more than I would infer from the game's Visual Novel stylings.

[keith.lamothe]

Right then, here are my taglines: "Every bullet - every bandage - every word matters." and "Your tools are the means; survival is the end."

"Every bullet - every bandage - every word matters." is actually better than any suggestion I've heard publicly or privately yet.  Not quite there but it's a step in the right direction, thanks

"Your tools are the means; survival is the end." - hmm it took me a moment to understand the sentence, and then after that I realized it was a play off "means to an end".  Anyway, the overall structure avoids cliche (despite playing off a cliche), but assuming an average audience caffeine:consciousness ratio not significantly better than mine (which may be a pessimistic assumption) we probably need to be clearer than that

[Panopticon]

What are the aspects you want to push the most? So far I have the impression of a high stakes adventure with implications of personality driven diplomacy and conflict and a significant amount of pressure (timed? or perhaps something like AIW's AI Progress?) and resource intensive strategy.

That's a whooooole lot of stuff to try and nail in a tagline or two.