youtube ideas

[par73]

what are some ideas for videos / video series that would be worthwhile to put on youtube?
I am curious to hear what others have to think.

[jason_ac]

You mean like, to create interest in Myth? Or what?

[par73]

Ok, but how would you go about doing that?

[jason_ac]

I'd say play some solo or MP games doing some of the "right" kinds of action, then capture video out of the playback of the Myth recording (I've done a little of this myself for free on my Mac, experimenting)

This way you can play concentrating on play, but can video capture focusing on camera placement/movement/timing. Though when you play I wouldn't worry about perfection, or casualties ("Casualty" sounds nice anyway )

Edit formations so units don't stand too close together. Tight clumps of guys might work well for melee, but it looks like crap as a visual ad.

Make sure you have detail textures on, etc. Maybe HD units. Don't zoom in much so it's not too obvious that the units aren't super-sharp/detailed.

Order your units around some, so you'll get some of the voice fun ("move here, move there, make up your mind", "yes sir", etc).

Then capture a bunch of 10-30 sec. clips of action and string them together. If it's a bunch of quick cuts, I think it's fine if your video gets long (4 min?). If the action is interesting, varied, and fast-paced (partly due to short cuts), people will keep playing the video.

Use a little cam movement during the clips. Not so much to disorient the viewer, but enough to show the 3D nature of things, the difference in terrain elevation, etc.

And what is the "right" kind of action? Show some melee. Show some artillery like dwarves, and the spray of blood and body parts. Get a little cam movement during the spray so they can appreciate the trajectory of destruction. Show a variety of units...warriors, ghols, warlocks, Stygs, Heron, Zerks, etc.

To give the video some slow clips, and show off the environment, could even capture some 5-10 sec. clips of your guys setup in clear formations, watching the enemy advance, while the camera moves a little.

Heck, if you make a bunch of video clips but burn-out and don't want to edit them together, I'd probably do that work.

At least every 30 sec. make sure the video looks very different from the past 30 sec. Maybe that means 1 set of units on a dark, wet, or grassy map, followed by a different set of units on a desert or snowy map. Switch around between Myth and different TCs...Green Berets, MaraMyth, Jinn, ADT, Bushido, Deadfall, etc

For a final polish, keep the original game audio, but at a low volume lay in a track of Myth's music, so your video has a "score".

[adrenaline]

The best promos for any game are shoutcasts of tournament play... which we already have. Just need to get them viewed by a wider audience.

[jason_ac]

The best promos for any game are shoutcasts of tournament play... which we already have. Just need to get them viewed by a wider audience.

Do you mean like these
http://www.youtube.com/user/NewMutator/videos

Although whatever you mean, I still somewhat disagree Tourneys are good videos...but so are "ads". When a game company wants to arouse interest in a game (like a new one they've made), they don't JUST release gameplay commentaries. They also release ads. More "wow"/hype, with less depth. We have those MWC videos...assuming you like those, that means we've covered half our bases. We still need good "ads".

[punkUser]

I'll note that the Myth 1.8 Promo is sort of a targeted "ad" and to date I think it is one of the most viewed recent Myth videos (>3000 views and counting). It has gotten a fairly good response, but it was also definitely targeted at communicating some information.

It's hard to guess how well a pure advertisement would go over... and like I said, there's still the fundamental problem of not being able to tell people "so now you're interested, just click here to get the game" in a legit sort of way, beyond the demo. But hey, I doubt it would hurt to try, just not sure.

[par73]

where was the myth 1.8 promo ad advertised?

[jason_ac]

there's still the fundamental problem of not being able to tell people "so now you're interested, just click here to get the game" in a legit sort of way

I'm sure someone commenting on the video, or re-posting it, will take care of that I'm curious punkuser, I know Magma's stance ("don't pirate"), I know some players ("screw Take 2"), what's your stance on being legit? Counsel for it, against it, pleading the 5th?

[punkUser]

where was the myth 1.8 promo ad advertised?

I think just from PM.net news post and I tweeted about it.

[vinylrake]

Punk is a magma developer so he can't - even if he wanted to - condone pirating or distributing Myth for free.

[punkUser]

Right I'd rather just stay out of that discussion. Even though I'm not in Project Magma officially, I have access to the source code (of course). I think we can mostly all agree that a bad outcome would be Take 2 deciding to shut down patching entirely over some distribution snafu.

[jason_ac]

I think we can mostly all agree that a bad outcome would be Take 2 deciding to shut down patching entirely over some distribution snafu.

Yep. Though I wonder if Take 2 even remembers that Myth exists Have we seen any evidence in years that they do?

[par73]

yea they sued renwood

[jason_ac]

Edited: Well that was a useless derailment of an otherwise reasonable thread. Perhaps par belongs on my ignore list

[Renwood]

Par don't go around spreading this stupid rumor.
jason ~ Instantly believes everything he reads on the internet.

[par73]

lol i thought the comment was funny


i think these are some good ideas. I haven't had fraps for a while, I'll look to find the full version again and see if I can get some videos up.

[jason_ac]

i think these are some good ideas. I haven't had fraps for a while, I'll look to find the full version again and see if I can get some videos up.

Take it a step at a time? Make the MII recordings first, offer them out (saying "cool stuff at the 2min 23sec mark"), maybe someone will make the video captures from there? I can do it free on my Mac, it's just a question of having the time. If no one ever does...well, once you get around to getting Fraps, perhaps you do.

[par73]

well the thing is i can probably handle the majority of the work myself. having someone else take the clips etc is just going to take time with file transfer and depending on other people to have similar level of interest. i have a few ideas on video playlists to begin, such as civil's MWC run in 1999

[Renwood]

Par PM me your E mail, I have an extra FRAPS laying around. Be warned though...Fraps is non compressed video. So it takes up A FUCKTONN OF HD SPACE SON JUST TO MAKE VIDEOS THAT ARE A FEW MINS LONG! If you dont already have one, on newegg they have a 2TB HDD for $89. Its a Seagate. Never get one of them intellipower things or some damned "Green drive" as they are only 5400 RPM. You want 7200 RPM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148834

[drunken_deer]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IykNJIM ... ata_player[/youtube]

This is probably one of the best ones ive come across for a while. I mean Power rangers were cool and all but This just makes me want to go FUUK!

[adrenaline]

Par PM me your E mail, I have an extra FRAPS laying around. Be warned though...Fraps is non compressed video. So it takes up A FUCKTONN OF HD SPACE SON JUST TO MAKE VIDEOS THAT ARE A FEW MINS LONG! If you dont already have one, on newegg they have a 2TB HDD for $89. Its a Seagate. Never get one of them intellipower things or some damned "Green drive" as they are only 5400 RPM. You want 7200 RPM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148834

the trick is to use a compressor on each clip then delete the clip... such as Freemake Video Converter.

[par73]

what quality did you compress to for your videos adren?

[Renwood]

Yea I told par the exact same advice about freemake. Love that program! and its free !!! yay!
1080p or at least 720p
There is also a 1 TB HDD on newegg for $59

[adrenaline]

think i did 720p in .mp4 format... seems to produce the best quality to size ratio. I mean... by all means, go ahead and do 1080p if you want, but I find 720p to be more than adequate.

[Renwood]

yea mp4 is sweetness! I could put a 720p 2 hour movie on a single fucking CD you know, the 700mb ones...

[punkUser]

think i did 720p in .mp4 format... seems to produce the best quality to size ratio. I mean... by all means, go ahead and do 1080p if you want, but I find 720p to be more than adequate.

If you're going to put it on youtube, 1080p usually isn't worthwhile. Youtube compresses the video so much that the extra resolution is barely visible and as soon as the screen shifts (in Myth you pan a lot) it turns into a blurry mess anyways. Youtube's 1080p is basically only useful for pictures or other relatively static content, as stupid as that is.

[jason_ac]

BTW, bandicam is another way to capture Windows game video. Like fraps, you can do free videos that are short, and watermarked.