Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

[Panopticon]

That trailer is pretty sweet. It's the one that sold me on AI War. And it really was the just kind of sit down and explain myself tone that did it for me. I don't know if that's appropriate for most games and companies. I think it just may be a fit for Arcen though. Most of the time I spend talking about your games is trying to explain just how BIG they are to people, that something as simple looking as Tidalis is actually far more than what it seems to be on the surface. After pushing the demo on a few people they admitted to me that Tidalis really was as deep, varied, flexible and feature packed as I was saying. A few of them even bought the game. Every single one of them said, "But the trailers and screens made it look like a Match 3."

I expect I'll get the same experience from people with Shattered Haven. I've gifted out a few copies and a few friends bought it on my recommendation. Once they get done with their Tomb Raiders and Bioshock Infinites I expect I'll be having some similar conversations about Shattered Haven.

[Cyborg]

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

One of the best, if not the best, I agree.

[Cyborg]

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.

Why would you say that and use the AI War universe if the lore isn't part of what we're getting? Did you miss the excitement of your AI War fans to learn more about what happened?

[keith.lamothe]

I can't say for sure, but I think what he meant, Cyborg, is that we aren't trying to sell story in the trailer.  Not as the primary thing, or it looks like a VN and sales go bye-bye.

But I picked the setting specifically because so many of you would be excited about it.  And I wanted to tell more of it, too.

The audience viewing the trailer is mostly people who've never played AIW, though.

[x4000]

Absolutely, I didn't mean to imply the story has no point or interest. But I think that he primary motivator for getting a game like this would need to be gameplay, and then the story is an awesome bonus. Basically what Keith said. But agreed, that's in no way a value judgement on the story itself or its importance!

[Aquohn]

...which brings us back to the original AI War tagline. It does both, really: by telling us how screwed we are, it gives us a sense of the unique gameplay elements (e.g. odds heavily heavily heavily stacked against you) and at the same time, gives some insight into the lore. If we could get a tagline which is both lore- and gameplay-significant, then we've pretty much hit the sweet spot. So if the tagline is essentially a paraphrase of "you are screwed", then if we work that whole element of the players being screwed (um, not in that sense) into both the lore and gameplay, then we'd have killed two birds with one stone, and pretty much sold the thing to people with a love of impossible odds (e.g. me). And given ArcenGames' track record, I'd say this shouldn't be too hard .

[Kahuna]

So is this going to be something like FTL? Get from point A to point B.

[Aquohn]

So, what's the progress on this one? I'd expected it to be worked on first since the teaser was released first.

[x4000]

Both are simultaneously being worked on, and this one has been in progress longer. But this one also has more complex art and GUI, both of which are particularly time consuming. We've learned how key first impressions are, so aren't sharing much until its really polished. It's coming along, though!

[keith.lamothe]

So is this going to be something like FTL? Get from point A to point B.

The semblance is pretty vague.  But yes, A to B, survival in the process being the main challenge.

[Kahuna]

So is this going to be something like FTL? Get from point A to point B.

The semblance is pretty vague.  But yes, A to B, survival in the process being the main challenge.

Cool. I'm looking forward to this.

[x4000]

Unfortunately the project is on hold, potentially indefinitely.

[fanneyjack]

I really like the Artwork...