Need feedback for game introduction video II

anyone? Is this video better than the original?

Is the video meant to act as a intro for the game mechanics? Then it's fine.

If it's supposed to be a trailer for your game, I didn't get that impression. There is zero information regarding the background. What's the story? Who is the main character? What exactly is going on? Is this a puzzle game?

The story is basically just you are a robot with no objective, so you need to travel to space stations to look for your objective, while in those space stations you need to solve puzzles to progress, The emphasis of the game is using the space connector to solve puzzles. Some people said it was too long for an intro on steam so I made it shorter.
Do you think another longer video explaining the space connector/puzzle solving part is needed?

12 minutes ago, Kai Keeper said:

The story is basically just you are a robot with no objective, so you need to travel to space stations to look for your objective, while in those space stations you need to solve puzzles to progress, The emphasis of the game is using the space connector to solve puzzles. Some people said it was too long for an intro on steam so I made it shorter.
Do you think another longer video explaining the space connector/puzzle solving part is needed?

I looked at your other thread, and you're planning to release this on steam. Is this a commercial game, or free to play?

I can provide some advice but it depends on if you're financially invested in the release.

It is a commercial game, but the price is only gonna be around 5 USD(or lower), basically I'm the only person working on this project for years and I'm pretty broke now, so I don't think I would say I'm financially invested.

10 hours ago, Kai Keeper said:

It is a commercial game, but the price is only gonna be around 5 USD(or lower), basically I'm the only person working on this project for years and I'm pretty broke now, so I don't think I would say I'm financially invested.

The advice I'm giving is only my opinion and based on the fact you're intending on profiting from the game, and that you're working without a budget.

Considering the focus of the game is solving puzzles and not an actual progressive story, you need to sell a few things within your trailer.

1. How many puzzles are there

2. What kind of puzzles does the game have (showcase your top 5)

3. How does one solve these puzzles (mechanics)

4. Showcasing your most interesting puzzles and features in quick snap shots. Why should anyone play this game or buy it? Sell it.

When your video starts up, you need to try to sell your game within the first 30 seconds. I wouldn't make a trailer longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, but I personally think trailers should be only a minute long, but regardless the main goal is to sell your game in the shortest time possible while building up momentum. Keep in mind that you can have several videos on your steam store page, but your game trailer should be your first video people see. Game play videos themselves can be longer.

Depending on your ability in video editing, you can also create scenes by using pre-set cameras in your game to record from different angles (it gives a more cinematic feel), then make transitions showing various parts of the game without sticking to a single scene for too long.

As an example, if you're going to showcase points 1 through 4 within a minute, you can tell that you're not going to be having a 30 second scene where you're moving blocks around, which is good because it's more exciting to see the top 5 most interesting puzzles, and unique mechanics within short spurts as momentum builds. You also need to consider your choice of music when making a trailer. Your music needs to match the mood you're attempting to generate. The music used in the video doesn't have to be the same music in the game.

I would also change your approach with your usage of text. The green text sitting at the top doesn't match, and I personally think if you're going to advertise any information through text, it needs to be shown at eye level (center of the screen or near), then disappear so the viewer is 100% focused on what you're trying to sell them. You can make your text look better with transition effects, and animations. When you leave text on the screen it becomes a distraction.

I'm not sure how long your game is, and how much content you have, but your game looks very good. Is there a reason you're selling it for only $5 USD? There is a psychological element at play when you put your game price too low. A lot of garbage on steam is released with lower price tags in the hope that if they upload enough games that through the nickle and dime sales they will generate money by a large quantity of sales. I personally will rarely even look at a game that is $5 USD as their initial release price (not a sale price). I find that most people are not willing to search through the junk bucket on steam to find the little gems that are among the turds in the $5 or less release section.

Thanks man, your advice is very helpful.
It is kinda hard for me to create short videos because each section takes a pretty long time(2~5mins) to solve(at least the interesting/non-tutorial ones).
The game takes about 4 hours for someone who knows how to solve all the puzzles to finish(I don't know how long a normal person who has no idea how to solve the puzzles would need). There are 8 stages, each stage is cut into sections, sections are somewhat isolated from each other, so you can only use the items within the sections to solve the puzzle and progress to the next section. However, there are secrets in each stage, and if you solve the puzzles of each section a certain way, you can get certain items/devices in a state that can help you unlock the secret area of that stage, so the whole stage itself becomes one huge section and you use all the stuff in the stage to unlock the secret area(or you could just move on to the next stage and not get the secret), each stages' secret area is unlocked in a different way, in some stages you have to find a way to move stuff across sections even though there is no trivial way, in one stage you get an additional space connector at the end, which inverts gravity but allows you to pick a key up, the secret area is right at the beginning of that stage but now you need to traverse the whole stage upside down back to the spawn without losing the key. If you gather all the secrets from each stage, you get the final ending where you discover your objective;otherwise you don't.
The reason for the low pricing is because I really don't know how I should price it But hopefully steam would give me some suggestions after I submit my build for verification. What's your suggestion for pricing?

5 hours ago, Kai Keeper said:

Thanks man, your advice is very helpful.
It is kinda hard for me to create short videos because each section takes a pretty long time(2~5mins) to solve(at least the interesting/non-tutorial ones).
The game takes about 4 hours for someone who knows how to solve all the puzzles to finish(I don't know how long a normal person who has no idea how to solve the puzzles would need). There are 8 stages, each stage is cut into sections, sections are somewhat isolated from each other, so you can only use the items within the sections to solve the puzzle and progress to the next section. However, there are secrets in each stage, and if you solve the puzzles of each section a certain way, you can get certain items/devices in a state that can help you unlock the secret area of that stage, so the whole stage itself becomes one huge section and you use all the stuff in the stage to unlock the secret area(or you could just move on to the next stage and not get the secret), each stages' secret area is unlocked in a different way, in some stages you have to find a way to move stuff across sections even though there is no trivial way, in one stage you get an additional space connector at the end, which inverts gravity but allows you to pick a key up, the secret area is right at the beginning of that stage but now you need to traverse the whole stage upside down back to the spawn without losing the key. If you gather all the secrets from each stage, you get the final ending where you discover your objective;otherwise you don't.
The reason for the low pricing is because I really don't know how I should price it But hopefully steam would give me some suggestions after I submit my build for verification. What's your suggestion for pricing?

You only need to showcase snap shots of the puzzles, not the whole thing. You can use text overlays to present tag lines for parts of the video itself, but the whole point is to show the flashy stuff, not showcase every fine detail.

The pricing thing is very tricky, but I have a personal stance on it. I price games for what they're worth in the market while trying to account for how much I need to pay in fees, taxes, ect,, and what I want to make in profit. I also don't believe lower prices generate more money in the end; I haven't seen the low-balling approach work on steam as of late because there is so much trash in these price ranges. Regardless if you set the price high or low, your marketing plan will determine your sales potential. If your game becomes a big hit, you're only hurting your potential profits by setting the price too low with the illusion people will buy it because it's only $5. I would gladly pay $15-$20 for such a game. (There are people who go shopping in a store and will pass two identical products, but one is priced low and the other is priced high, but they will buy the higher priced one because they believe more quality has been put into the product. The same can be said in reverse for people looking for a 'bargain', but is your game a "bargain" game?)

If you're just going to release the game on steam hoping to make sales without a plan to bring awareness, then it's really a waste. No matter how good your game is, without proper marketing not enough people will know it even exists to generate a reasonable amount of revenue. If you're unable to spend money on marketing, then you'll have to take a slower approach, but it takes a lot more effort and energy to generate a following and interest.

Yeah, I can see what you are saying, There is a lot of bad content that is low priced on steam, people won't even want to waste their time checking it out( I don't either).
I always knew marketing is important but honestly I have absolutely no idea how to do it with no budget(okay I'll be honest here, even with a budget I still wouldn't know what to do ) I started this project not knowing a lot of stuff, but I managed to do/learn the technical parts to create the game, but when it comes to marketing I feel like I'm completely lost and I feel like it's way over my head...Like do I talk to a publisher or something?

4 minutes ago, Kai Keeper said:

Yeah, I can see what you are saying, There is a lot of bad content that is low priced on steam, people won't even want to waste their time checking it out( I don't either).
I always knew marketing is important but honestly I have absolutely no idea how to do it with no budget(okay I'll be honest here, even with a budget I still wouldn't know what to do ) I started this project not knowing a lot of stuff, but I managed to do/learn the technical parts to create the game, but when it comes to marketing I feel like I'm completely lost and I feel like it's way over my head...Like do I talk to a publisher or something?

Unfortunately this is one of the major things many indie developers overlook, they're not always viewing the big picture from a business point of view. How do I make money? There is a big difference in just making games as a hobby, and making games for commercial sale. This needs to be decided during the game design part because it will drive a lot of the decisions you make during development, and the quality of work put forth. You also have to work on polishing the overall product before releasing, which means making it the best you can before it hits the store front.

If you look online about all the failed release stories from indie developers you will see some of these examples:

- The game wasn't as interesting as the developer thought

- Missing too many core features expected for the game (such as releasing local mplay instead of online)

- Graphics are sub-par - they give the feeling it's just a hobbyist game

- Story is poorly written

- Game concept is poor

- Zero marketing budget

- Zero following (the developer essentially made the game in the dark, and released it out of the blue)

- Releasing a niche game that has no following

The list goes on... There are no guarantees of success in business.

I personally wouldn't deal with a publisher, but it's an option you can look at. Keep in mind depending on your agreement you will usually lose your ownership of all the intellectual property connected to this game. You also might not even see a dime until all costs have been recouped, and on top of that when it's time to get something if sales are still happening, you will get it from the bottom, not the top. Considering you're new to the game, make sure you get a good lawyer to act on your behalf, otherwise you'll be sent to the cleaners by signing a deal that is not in your favor.

Does your game have any social media linked to it? Website? YouTube channel with a developer VBlog regarding the game and development? These are things you need to have when you're in the development stage to help get that following.

I really cannot offer much in advice as far as free marketing goes because you're already at the release stage. A lot of the strategies I would've suggest wouldn't be as effective now. You can try the growth hacking as cheaper method to marketing your game however.

I have a website but I'm still working on it, need to create more videos for the introduction section, you can check it out here:

https://www.overlappeduniverse.com/overlappeduniverseofficialsite/index.php/pages/view/panel

And I have another question, you mentioned getting a following "while" developing the game(which makes a lot of sense), so you can share news/videos during development, how do they usually get the initial people to see their website/social media page?

14 hours ago, Kai Keeper said:

how do they usually get the initial people to see their website/social media page?

You have to be very active on social media, and utilizing every possible SEO tactic that you can. There is something that draws people in when developers are building a community for feedback, and inviting criticism during the development stage. Video Blogs and Pod Casts are an amazing tool to utilize. You can even find developers using Twitch for Q&As, and live demos. Keep in mind that without pumping money into ads for exposure it takes a lot longer to build that following coming from zero. It also helps to have websites that will advertise your development as well. Those over night successes we hear about were around years before they hit 'big'.

You need to be active all the time, and if you fall off the radar for even a tad bit, you can lose a good chunk of potential followers, and interest in your game. It's a lot harder when you're not branded, but that's just the way it goes.

Money will help speed up your exposure, but doesn't guarantee sales, you still need a good product.

14 hours ago, Kai Keeper said:

https://www.overlappeduniverse.com/overlappeduniverseofficialsite/index.php/pages/view/panel

I took a look at your website, and it will need an overhaul. The best advice I can give you is look at the sites AAA games are using as landing pages for their games. This is why I was talking about 'polish' in my prior post when dealing with commercial development as opposed to a hobbyist title.

Otherwise, just release everything as is and take this as a learning experience for your next title. Once you build a following on your new game you'll have a free advertising opportunity for this title.

Well done for halving the length of the trailer, and adding an introduction at the beginning.

So, how can you improve on this?

1) The first 12 seconds whizz by so fast its hard to take in the text as to the "situation". I have a feeling a short animation in Blender would be better here.

2) Gameplay footage is still a bit of a chore to sit through. At least try to trim it enough so that the trailer is shorter - say a maximum running time of 2 minutes. At the very least it needs to give breathing room for the introduction.

3) Gameplay footage with the text at the top - its great but having given enough time to read, make it disappear until you present the next feature of the game.

4) If its one part of a game that draws you in - its the character you get to play as. See if you can improve the robot character and once again, consider a rendered short animated clip of him in Blender(or whatever package you are using).

5) "Kai Yuen's Overlapped Universe". Perhaps start with "A game by Kai Yuen" and then "Overlapped Universe".

...once again, see what you can come up with.

Thanks for the feedback man. Yeah, I was feeling the same way about the titles/subtitles, like people can't be reading text and focusing on the gameplay at the same time
As for the story/main character part...I get what you are saying, but for my game, it's mostly not about the story... It's about being able to interact with objects from other universes & force fields from other universes and using those to solve puzzles that are otherwise impossible to solve. There are a lot of creative ways one could use this mechanism and I want to show that in the trailer.

I've seen some really good trailers like the ones for the Talos principle, Portal 2 and such, but they put a lot of emphasis on the story, which is not the focus of my game. Also I don't have the resources to do cinematic trailers, like for Portal 2 they created dozens of concept trailers for every little thing in the game, and they use humor in those trailers to move their audience, every time you see their trailer it makes you laugh and want to pre-order it, I don't think I have the resources to do that (payed actors/writers for scripts/cinematic). The story in my game is more like Minecraft style, generic/mysterious but doesn't involve a lot of writing...It's basically just:
A robot awakens and realizes it has no objective in life, he travels to spaces stations across the universe to find his objective, in the stations he faces obstacles/puzzles and he needs to use his wit to solve them, maybe if he pays enough attention to detail, he will find his objective in life and why he was created...

I do start to understand what many of you have told me about switching between scenes(snapshots) really quick but don't show too much gameplay, like a lot of those games use a narrative to tell the audience about the game world, while quickly switching between scenes to show the game art/combat system/building system/other systems in the game, so I am considering doing that for the first trailer of my game, then maybe a second trailer that just shows sections after sections of puzzle solving/gameplay...

Also it kinda goes against Steam's suggestion to not show gameplay in the trailer, on steam's site they urge you to get to gameplay as quickly as possible, their reasoning is that users mostly care about what it's like to play the game, if you spend too much time on cinematics, users just leave the page, they recommend cinematics as an alternative trailer on Youtube or secondary on steam. I think their opinion is valid.

However, when you look at a lot of successful games on Steam: Fallout4, Portal 2, The Witness...etc they really just switch between the scenes rather quickly to show off glimpses of art/in game systems...I'm not really sure what to do here...I could just do 2 trailers like I mentioned earlier, but which one should I pick as my primary trailer(The one that starts playing when people visit the store)? Perhaps I'll finish both and ask around, maybe you guys can tell me which one has more potential to draw attention from people?

33 minutes ago, Kai Keeper said:

Also it kinda goes against Steam's suggestion to not show gameplay in the trailer, on steam's site they urge you to get to gameplay as quickly as possible, their reasoning is that users mostly care about what it's like to play the game, if you spend too much time on cinematics, users just leave the page, they recommend cinematics as an alternative trailer on Youtube or secondary on steam. I think their opinion is valid.

When you're showing game play in quick snap shots you're still showing game play. You shouldn't have a cinematic game trailer as the only trailer available anyway, this would not give anyone an idea what the game play looks like.

Trimming doesn't mean you've gone against their suggestion. The point to trimming is to showcase the best stuff quickly and with momentum, not bore your viewer so they assume the game is a chore to play through and just exit out.

26 minutes ago, Rutin said:

When you're showing game play in quick snap shots you're still showing game play. You shouldn't have a cinematic game trailer as the only trailer available anyway, this would not give anyone an idea what the game play looks like.

Trimming doesn't mean you've gone against their suggestion. The point to trimming is to showcase the best stuff quickly and with momentum, not bore your viewer so they assume the game is a chore to play through and just exit out.

Yeah, I think you're right. But sometimes when I watch trailers, talos principle for example, the snap shots are so short, I don't even know what their puzzle looks like, what's their main concept in puzzle solving?(Most of the time it just shows a 5 second strip, the player is putting some stuff on the ground, or he sees the tower, or he is picking something up) I had to go to let's play/playthrough made by other players to find out what it was all about. They're usually developed/published by well established companies so it works in favor of them, people would go and look for other videos of the game.
I don't have that going for me. So I think I need to sell the core concept of my game: The Space Connector. It's the thing that makes this game unique, nobody would want to play some game developed by a nobody like me unless there is something unique about it.
If I just show 5 second strips, players won't be able to understand what is happening...Like almost every puzzle in the game(except tutorial ones that introduce new object/devices) is solved by using the space connector, just in different ways, and it will blow your mind when you figure them out, but I really don't know how to show that with such short time frames...
That said, I do realize I have a tendency to show too much during presentations/demos to the point that it bores people throughout my life and I'm working on it

This is why you have more than one trailer. Game Development on the business side is a different beast. You're not promoting your game with just one trailer, or screen shot. You should have a main trailer that acts as your entry point, and after that you can work on 'game play' trailers that are longer in length. Assuming you're promoting your product correctly, it's very likely you'll have live pre-release / post video demos, YouTube videos, visual showcases, and more... If you go to any site that has a landing page for their game worth its salt, it will have a lot of marketing elements to it.

I know several studios that do live demos on Twitch, and YouTube as part of their marketing strategy.

Your job with this trailer is to get someone interested, not explain the whole nine yards of the game in 2 minutes. Once they're interested they might search for more content regarding your game if they don't decide to buy it right away.

When I look into buying new games, I personally will watch a game trailer and if it's something that looks interesting I will go online to see any 'game play' video demos before buying. Rarely do I just buy a game based on a trailer, but if the trailer is awful I will usually just move onto the next title.

Just my 2 cents.

Also I really want to go with the snapshot way, but I'm not sure what's the way to go about it, like in Fallout 4, they start with introducing the main character's inner thoughts, the faction's opinions on to the more exciting stuff like building and then awesome combat footage, the music goes from emotional to epic during the end, you get so hyped about the game and then they show the logo. Makes you want to insta-buy(which I did ).
I don't know if I could do that with my game, there no doubt an emotional element to finding one's purpose in life, but I don't know if I have the skills to execute and make a good trailer out of it...If it backfires when you try to make something epic...it just feels really wrong...
There's also another way, and just use fun music like the current trailer, to make people feel that it's just a fun game, I don't know which mood I should set for the trailer...

1 minute ago, Kai Keeper said:

Also I really want to go with the snapshot way, but I'm not sure what's the way to go about it, like in Fallout 4, they start with introducing the main character's inner thoughts, the faction's opinions on to the more exciting stuff like building and then awesome combat footage, the music goes from emotional to epic during the end, you get so hyped about the game and then they show the logo. Makes you want to insta-buy(which I did ).
I don't know if I could do that with my game, there no doubt an emotional element to finding one's purpose in life, but I don't know if I have the skills to execute and make a good trailer out of it...

You can always work on improving those skills. When you're working as small team or a one "man" show, the skill requirement goes up substantially because you're working in multiple roles at once, including the business and marketing side.

There is a ton of content on how to make trailers online, if you're able to devote the time then you'll get there. At some point you just need to accept what you have and just release it.

Depending on your budget, you might be able to outsource the trailer work to another country that has a low entry requirement.