Starward Rogue AuGMENTED trailer -- looking for feedback

[Pepisolo]

Hey all

So, here is the latest cut of the AuGMENTED trailer. Whatever feedback anybody has is most appreciated. A few things, I'm looking at changing the font and also removing the intro logo zoom, but aside from that it's mostly complete. I also need to add Humble and Steam logos to the end. Oh, the first insert (the Starward Rogue AuGMENTED bit) is also placeholder while we wait for the proper art to be drawn up. Cheers!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9xo04vnv9v6k7x/Better%20Trailer%20Quieter%20Intro.mp4?dl=0

[Logorouge]

Feedback time, in order:

-The fade in/out of the "Once more into the megalith" text seems unnecessary.
-The aggressively blinking title screen rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. Maybe my eyes are tired but I didn't like it.
-Once it settled though, the title screen looked very good. Is that part really a placeholder? That "AuGMENTED" looks great.
-I love the way you did the mechs introduction, with the pause/black bars/name, after showing them being badasses. The exception would be Roulette that didn't seem to do much, but I know it's pretty hard to show off out-of-combat abilities like his random perks in an action trailer. If he was shown killing a metalmill or something similar by ripping right through it, he would give off a better first impression I think.
-Speaking of Roulette, I'm surprised you decided to use his nickname in the trailer instead of just the name.
-That trick shot to kick off the "New weapons and items" segment was just perfect.
-Good variety shown for the challenges, minibosses and bosses.
-Ending it with a bang? I like it.

With a couple of tweaks and the final additions/replacements you mentioned, the expansion is gonna have a darn good trailer.

[Pepisolo]

-The fade in/out of the "Once more into the megalith" text seems unnecessary.

I could probably go either way on this. Having the fade ins does make the text more consistent throughout the video, but the intro text has a different style anyway, I suppose. I might try a version without the fades.

-The aggressively blinking title screen rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. Maybe my eyes are tired but I didn't like it.

More feedback from others on this would be good, as I have conflicting reports on this. A couple of other people have said they like it, so I'm not sure.

-Once it settled though, the title screen looked very good. Is that part really a placeholder? That "AuGMENTED" looks great.

The text art in there is final, I think, but we're looking at getting some different background art. Something like that.

-I love the way you did the mechs introduction, with the pause/black bars/name, after showing them being badasses. The exception would be Roulette that didn't seem to do much, but I know it's pretty hard to show off out-of-combat abilities like his random perks in an action trailer. If he was shown killing a metalmill or something similar by ripping right through it, he would give off a better first impression I think.

Good to hear you like the freeze frame bits. Yeah, the Roulette is tricky since most of what makes it special is in the perks. The clips I used are showing off the piercing alpha ray, and the random nature of the Alpha Slugger, if you notice, the final shot is more powerful than the other ones, since the Alpha Slugger power is randomized per shot.

-Speaking of Roulette, I'm surprised you decided to use his nickname in the trailer instead of just the name.

I wasn't really aware that Alpha was even a nickname, heh. I usually just call the mech Alpha, or Roulette Alpha. I can use whatever you want, though... just Roulette?

-That trick shot to kick off the "New weapons and items" segment was just perfect.

Nice!

-Good variety shown for the challenges, minibosses and bosses.

Cool, good to know.

Ending it with a bang? I like it.

Yeah, simple but effective!

With a couple of tweaks and the final additions/replacements you mentioned, the expansion is gonna have a darn good trailer.

Thanks! It's turned out pretty well so far, I think. Thanks for the feedback!

[BadgerBadger]

Never played Starward Rogue, but here's my two cents.

I think the "Once More" screen should be left up longer. I was staring at the explosions and missed reading that text entirely the first time.
I don't like the blinking title screen.
My what a lot of bullets

[Misery]

ARGH okay I went to quote BadgerBadger's post and clicked "modify" instead of "quote" and totally ruined the post.  Sorry about that.   Is there some way to fix this when it happens?

The bloody thing needs some interface tweaks so that the two modes don't look exactly the same, this keeps nearly happening.  Or this time, fully happening.

Uuuuuuugh.

[Logorouge]

Here it is:

Never played Starward Rogue, but here's my two cents.

I think the "Once More" screen should be left up longer. I was staring at the explosions and missed reading that text entirely the first time.
I don't like the blinking title screen.
My what a lot of bullets

[Misery]

Thanks! I've put it back together now.  How did you get it to show back up?  My browser only kept loading the current version of the page no matter what I did. 

Oh well, that's one failure averted....  I cant even remember now what I was originally going to actually post.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand here....

[Draco18s]

ARGH okay I went to quote BadgerBadger's post and clicked "modify" instead of "quote" and totally ruined the post.  Sorry about that.   Is there some way to fix this when it happens?

I had that problem on a different forum where I was a moderator. So I wrote some custom CSS (the Stylish addon for Firefox, there's something similar for Chrome) to put a red border around the button so that it would stand out (the border on the buttons on the other site was green, so it worked).

[Logorouge]

Thanks! I've put it back together now.  How did you get it to show back up?  My browser only kept loading the current version of the page no matter what I did. 

I was actually typing my own reply when it happened (saw your post while using preview), but the change wasn't registered on my side so I could still grab the original text (but not quote it, I used the quote thing from your version of his post). So, lucky timing I guess. :)

Yeah, the Roulette is tricky since most of what makes it special is in the perks. The clips I used are showing off the piercing alpha ray, and the random nature of the Alpha Slugger, if you notice, the final shot is more powerful than the other ones, since the Alpha Slugger power is randomized per shot.

Looking at it again, there should be enough demonstration of the piercing and bouncing nature of the alpha ray.
On the other hand, the random nature of the Alpha Slugger didn't really come out in that sequence. While using it on different enemies, it mostly looked like the weapon struggled to kill anything but the smallest of them. If it was used twice on the same enemy, with the 1st shot doing minimal damage and the next shot surprisingly finishing him off, it would show off the variable damage in a pretty clear manner I think. But don't get me wrong, the Roulette bit is still fine (if a bit underwhelming) and it is followed by the masterful display of Penumbra. Kudos to whoever was driving for that part. That smoke bomb use in particular... oh my!

I wasn't really aware that Alpha was even a nickname, heh. I usually just call the mech Alpha, or Roulette Alpha. I can use whatever you want, though... just Roulette?

The funny part is, "Roulette" is actually the nickname, even though I use it more often than the real name "Alpha". Either way is fine I think. Players might get intrigued by the meaning of roulette in that context, so it might be a good thing to keep it like it currently is.

[Pepisolo]

I think the "Once More" screen should be left up longer. I was staring at the explosions and missed reading that text entirely the first time.

Good to know, thanks. I've extended that a little now for the next cut.

I don't like the blinking title screen.

That's another negative for that. Probably looking at removing that then, but I'll wait for a little more feedback.

My what a lot of bullets

Yep!

ARGH okay I went to quote BadgerBadger's post and clicked "modify" instead of "quote" and totally ruined the post.  Sorry about that.   Is there some way to fix this when it happens?

I've done that once before actually. I think I modified one of Logo's posts accidentally...oops! I'm not sure if there is a way to fix things in case of accidental modification.

Looking at it again, there should be enough demonstration of the piercing and bouncing nature of the alpha ray.
On the other hand, the random nature of the Alpha Slugger didn't really come out in that sequence. While using it on different enemies, it mostly looked like the weapon struggled to kill anything but the smallest of them. If it was used twice on the same enemy, with the 1st shot doing minimal damage and the next shot surprisingly finishing him off, it would show off the variable damage in a pretty clear manner I think. But don't get me wrong, the Roulette bit is still fine (if a bit underwhelming) and it is followed by the masterful display of Penumbra. Kudos to whoever was driving for that part. That smoke bomb use in particular... oh my!

Yeah, it's tough with the Alpha since it isn't as flashy as the other mechs. I'm not sure if I'll go for some new Roulette footage as I can't really imagine getting that much better, it's just a bit of a tricky mech to show off. Yeah, that Penumbra take took the most takes of all the footage, not helped by me having to redo it because I had set up the smoke bomb wrong for the first good take. The Penumbra looks pretty impressive, yeah.

The funny part is, "Roulette" is actually the nickname, even though I use it more often than the real name "Alpha". Either way is fine I think. Players might get intrigued by the meaning of roulette in that context, so it might be a good thing to keep it like it currently is.

Ah, right. I usually just call it Alpha or Roulette Alpha. We can go with whatever you want, though. Cheers!

[tombik]

I would not include "Also 2 free mechs for the base game" in the trailer. This is a trailer for the expansion, not the update coming with it. Just include 2 free mechs in the store description, and include them as if they are a part of the expansion in the trailer I think.

[Pepisolo]

I would not include "Also 2 free mechs for the base game" in the trailer. This is a trailer for the expansion, not the update coming with it. Just include 2 free mechs in the store description, and include them as if they are a part of the expansion in the trailer I think.

I'm not sure on this. Originally I wasn't even going to have those mechs in the trailer because I was concerned about being able to disambiguate between the free and expansion stuff, but Chris said it would be good to show off the free things that were being added. Removing the text might be misleading, since people who just watch the video might be expecting those mechs to be part of what they're paying for. I'm probably just going to defer to whatever Chris says on this issue.

[x4000]

I would not include "Also 2 free mechs for the base game" in the trailer. This is a trailer for the expansion, not the update coming with it. Just include 2 free mechs in the store description, and include them as if they are a part of the expansion in the trailer I think.

I'm not sure on this. Originally I wasn't even going to have those mechs in the trailer because I was concerned about being able to disambiguate between the free and expansion stuff, but Chris said it would be good to show off the free things that were being added. Removing the text might be misleading, since people who just watch the video might be expecting those mechs to be part of what they're paying for. I'm probably just going to defer to whatever Chris says on this issue.

I like having that in there, because it actually is a trailer for the current state of the game and the expansion, if you really think about it.  That's tended to be how all our trailers go, since we update the base game while also updating the trailer.

[tombik]

I would not include "Also 2 free mechs for the base game" in the trailer. This is a trailer for the expansion, not the update coming with it. Just include 2 free mechs in the store description, and include them as if they are a part of the expansion in the trailer I think.

I'm not sure on this. Originally I wasn't even going to have those mechs in the trailer because I was concerned about being able to disambiguate between the free and expansion stuff, but Chris said it would be good to show off the free things that were being added. Removing the text might be misleading, since people who just watch the video might be expecting those mechs to be part of what they're paying for. I'm probably just going to defer to whatever Chris says on this issue.

I like having that in there, because it actually is a trailer for the current state of the game and the expansion, if you really think about it.  That's tended to be how all our trailers go, since we update the base game while also updating the trailer.

Fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[Pepisolo]

A new version of the trailer. The main change is a new font. I'm still not sure about the flicker thing, some seem to like it, but others don't.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/68gz2n100a2pmqb/Near%20Final%20Trailer%201.mp4?dl=0