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Trailer vs. gameplay video?

I think we're approaching the point where we can build a bit of hype - that is, via a video. As people may (or may not) know, SMWCP's trailer was actually hosted on a rather large Nintendo news site, GoNintendo, thanks to a couple of our members (and Jul's, for some shocking reason) promoting it there. Being that the trailer itself garnered several thousand hits and drew it a few more people, I figure we could get the same thing to happen with this one - especially since the SMWCP "series" is now widely known.

What I was contemplating is the following: should we create a full-scale trailer like last time, or show a few 30 second clips of various levels? While the former has the benefit of being overly fancy, the second one would give a 100% representation of what players can expect. I'm personally good with either, but I wanted to get some thoughts from others involved in this.

Thanks.
How about a mix?


Picture this: Some narration followed by short gameplay clips. Set to an orchestration with ominous latin chanting. Explosions are encouraged.
Perhaps we could do both? That is, start with a major trailer showcasing varioius segments from the game, and then follow up with a couple of videos that go a bit more in-depth on specific levels (showing off a single sublevel each, for instance).


Edit: How did we actually put this together last time? I'm willing to record clips to help out.
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I say we do both, as well. The 30-second clips gameplay trailer could come first as a "sampler" of sorts, while the more SMWCP1-like trailer would come later after the hack has gotten considerable polish to really wow the crowd.

Originally posted by AxemJinx
How did we actually put this together last time? I'm willing to record clips to help out.

If I'm not mistaken, it was kinda' like a contest. That is, several people threw together trailers, and the best of the bunch was chosen to represent the hack.

EDIT: Edited for clarity.

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I don't think a single thirty second trailer would be enough and we're somewhat too far into development to see that as a viable option (maybe three or four months ago, sure). I could see this going a few ways.

- If there were multiple thirty second clips in a single video, I would go with the route of picking one level from each world. That can take care of the "first" trailer. The second one could go the route Mineyl mentioned- wait for everything else gets considerable polish.

- A more "professional" method that Nintendo does with some of its games or what SEGA did with a couple of trailers for Sonic Generations would be to take a "World Reveal" trailer that showcases snippets of the levels from each world. That would make nine trailers and each one could be released weekly.

Of course, we should throw in Teyla's title screen logo in there somewhere.

I did the trailer last time. What I did was simply play through the rom and record 5 second clips from various levels that were, at the time, complete. Then I ordered them as best I felt, set it to music and uploaded it to the Youtube channel. Then I asked some people to spread it around and we threw it up on GoNintendo.
Originally posted by Kaijyuu
How about a mix?


Picture this: Some narration followed by short gameplay clips. Set to an orchestration with ominous latin chanting. Explosions are encouraged.


The first part of your suggestion is incredible, but no explostions, for God's sake! They make trailers look so cheesy.

If you want a narrator, call me. Various people can vouch for my voice.[Kieran, where are you?]
Doubleposta!

So, I wanted to show you all a sample of what I can do as potential trailer narrator.

Link.

Bear in mind that for the actual trailer, my work will be a bit more...polished.

The section with the choir represents where the gameplay footage would go. The choir part is just cheap filler.
Originally posted by Camerin


We need to put your voice through a vocoder or something to give it a God-like boom.

Seriously though, this is an interesting idea, though I'm kind of digging MrDeePay's idea of a "trailer a week" thing a bit more. My only concern is that nine trailers may be a bit too excessive.

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Compressing it down to three (three worlds a video, one video every 1-3 weeks) could be a viable alternative if you choose to go with that.

IF we do that (3 worlds, one vid), we should reveal a video every 2 weeks, instead of each week. IT'll let viewers absorb the material better and eagerly await the next one.
I wonder what a HFD opcode would do in ASM...
Should we even be showing off World 9? It is technically a "bonus" world, and it would be odd to show off secret stuff like that in a trailer.
Yeah, I want to leave world 9 out. If we go with our original plan of making it accessible via some random level (and having Asteroid Antics act as the "clue"), then we can ensure that anyone who ISN'T involved in the hack won't even know it exists. Thus, discovering it will give the player that much more satisfaction.

(see: my TSRPR Thirdspace explanation, in which I tried to provide some valid points for why this was a favored option.)
Maybe worlds 2 and 3 should be shown on the same video because they are alternate paths, same goes for worlds 5 and 6. That way we just have to make 6 trailers.
I'm really rather against having eight trailers. There's creating hype, and then there's creating information overload. It's kind of like those awful reality TV programs that say, "And you won't believe what happens when John visits home! But you have to wait until next week to find out!"

Trailers are only really effective when they are shown seldom and in quick, enticing bursts. This is why Nintendo does not often offer eight trailers for an upcoming game--after about the fourth, everyone is like, "Just give us the game, already."

At the most, I feel that three trailers will do. Any more will undermine our effeorts.
You should have text over a black screen, slowly getting bigger with narration in the background.

Then, BAM, and we're treated to several clips of gameplay and stuff, the most interesting levels. In the background is a heroic orchestration of Nyan Cat. At the end it says:

"COMING 2012
ON SMWCENTRAL"

and the music stops.

...actually, I like the above post's idea.
I think one trailer will do. I don't really see trailers for games that go: "Here's W1 of *game*. Come back next week for World 2!"

I reckon it'll be best if there was only one gameplay video showing short clips of various levels. I don't think we should cover all the levels submitted so far, but the 'better' levels submitted.
Eight trailers? No... we can make one two or eventually three but not eight. I think picking some of the most interesting parts of the hack may work best if it goes with "interest people with your hack". We don't need any super-extra effects for the trailer. Showing some interesting parts of the hack may be enough to interest people. At least it's my though.
Eight trailers is just overkill. And we should probably take a look at how many level's we've got before we start doing any mathematics regarding the amount of time they get. Like lets say World 5 has seven levels, would we be showing off like 4 seconds of each one, culminating into a 28-second stretch of World 5 footage?

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I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

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Not to be "rude" or anything, but did any of you even read my later post where compressing it down to three could also work?