Author Topic: Grognard Trailer! And Ruminations On The Throughline From All Our Past Games.  (Read 4348 times)

Offline Professor Paul1290

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What you're showing is extremely familiar stuff, though:
1. First person, I immediately understand that.
2. Fight guys, sure.
3. Okay, you're picking stuff up and killing guys.
4. An alarm went off, I know what that means.
5. You're picking up a bunch of various objects, I guess that is the loot.

And that's pretty much what I took away from it.  The TLDR seems to be "you sneak around and steal stuff, and kill people from behind."  That's fine, but that's like trying to compare an explanation of Memento or Inception to an explanation of Speed.  The two require vastly different approaches. ;)

I'm more getting across the point that you don't have to explain everything you are showing as long as the general idea behind it is clear.

To come closer to the genre in question, here's the Crusader Kings II trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzkVTDfxIUI

Crusader Kings II is a strategy game with lots of complicated menus, and all sorts of UI elements and menus are popping up here without much detailed explanation. There's narration, but it doesn't deal that directly with what's going on UI-wise, instead it's conveying the general idea of what's going on.

The audience perhaps doesn't know what screen or menu does what. They do understand that "you play as a king, your fending off an invasion, stuff is happening". They do understand that the menus and tools they are being shown are part of that, so in general they understand what they are for in the end.
If they need detail they can ask or research later, but the important part is that they become interested in the game.

Offline x4000

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Yep, makes sense.  I've added a new trailer that does more showing than telling: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,15227.0.html

I'm hanging on to both trailers, as I think they both serve a purpose, but I'm going to really push the shorter, less-wordy one, presuming that people like that one and I don't have to create a third trailer or something. ;)
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Offline KingIsaacLinksr

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Yep, makes sense.  I've added a new trailer that does more showing than telling: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,15227.0.html

I'm hanging on to both trailers, as I think they both serve a purpose, but I'm going to really push the shorter, less-wordy one, presuming that people like that one and I don't have to create a third trailer or something. ;)

Pretty much what I was going to say. Use the shorter one to give people a taste and then have the second one for those that want more. I always prefer when devs do that anyway.Nicely done on the trailer. Accelerated combat is a bit weird but it's fine otherwise. :-) I definitely can share this trailer and get the word out.
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Offline x4000

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Whew! :)
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Offline Histidine

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Okay, I had my own issues with the trailer (specifically, the big text is on the obtrusive side, and the start could use a dose of "show, don't tell"), but I must say I really admire the delightful cheek of a trailer that says "GRAPHS!" Like it's the best thing since sliced bread! :D

Offline Coppermantis

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Okay, I had my own issues with the trailer (specifically, the big text is on the obtrusive side, and the start could use a dose of "show, don't tell"), but I must say I really admire the delightful cheek of a trailer that says "GRAPHS!" Like it's the best thing since sliced bread! :D
I liked that part, it was funny. My only real issue was how crowded it was, with the text overlaid on top of the UI.
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.