A Shooter Video is done.

Yep it is true. After too many hours i have the new promotional video for A Shooter. Check it out below.



I don't think it came out too badly. My only real disappointment is that i am only showing off a fraction of the enemy types that are in the game.

I also noticed that Youtube have not used the default picture i told it too, bah! Now it is a generic frame from the video, that is annoying...
Laters

Promo Video

Tonight i expected to be Peer reviewing a Peers game 'Hypership Out of Control'. But that has not come to pass, as it had already passed Peer review when i finally got home and setup (it is quite late already). so i realized i need to work on some stuff for A Shooter. Currently i have not recived a score from anyone on my mostly running game on the Xbox. This is not a surprise as noone has the time to playtest currently. I am sure it will get a thorough testing once it gets into Peer Review, maybe the end of this week if not sooner.

So i have 3 major things to do on my list, does yours look like mine ?
1. Press release ready to go.
2. Sort out and get the Excel file of reviewer candidates updated.
3. Get the Promo video done and placed on Youtube and Gametrailers.com.

Tonight i really should have done number 2. I was finding it hard to concentrate though and was failing at being able to do this. so i decided to try to work on my promo video. I didn;t expect to get very far, but i am now pleasantly surprised to find i have cut my 5 minutes of video down to 1:20. This is now getting much closer to what it should be. Once i get a couple of video shots that i somehow down't have of some smart bombs going off. I can then do the intro and credits and finalize the order of the set pieces. Then it will be the music and sfx overlays. This all takes so much time, and i am not sure many people really appreciate it.

Still, tonight took me a long way towards getting the video done. I do not believe this will be one of my best, but i hope it at least gets some interest.

G'night

The Promo Video - is it important?

There seems to be two theories on this that i can ascertain from reading blogs and forum posts, and also talking with other knowledgable people.

1. It makes very little difference
2. It will help sell the game

These two are not opposites and can certainly both be true. In fact I personally believe them both to be true. Though there is one aspect to making a video of your own game that goes beyond money. It is 'Worth'. If you believe in your product, then you should have no problem being able to come up with a short Promo video for it. If you do have a problem, then maybe something is missing or just not quite finished yet.

I make videos for all my products. In fact i rather enjoy the challenge of putting al my work into about 1 minute and thrity seconds of video. Adding titles and overlays and transitions as i think will help make it more appealing and palatable.

I now have a basic script for the A Shooter video and have already recorded all i need (or i believe i do). So tomorrow i get to start on editing the video together. Chopping and hacking and splicing a small video together from about 20 minutes of footage. It is a time consuming thing to do, but i am usually proud of what i end up with. as i was especially so with Pellmell.

1. If it makes little difference because noone sees it, then it is what it is. I will put it out there and shout about it the best i can. Publicity for an Xblig product is just hard to find.
2. I think the video if done well will certainly help sales. It will mostly help downloads. Though again, i will need people to see it.

G'night.

1000 Pieces of software

Today the news came in that XLIG now has a 1000 pieces of software on it. Simply amazing. I was also informed that this mean't that 1.8 games a day was being produced for the channel from it's inception.

This is truly amazing that this much could have been created by people and placed on this successful service.

However, it makes me wonder a few things.

So I called it all software, to avoid the distinction of calling everything an App (bad word on xblig), and the Games would have taken umbridge at that too. So Xblig is full of games and applications.

oh my wonderings...

1. How many games are there on Xblig?
2. Therefore how many are apps?
3. Which gives the channel more press coverage (remember there is no such thing as bad press!)
4. If the average is 1.8 a day. Who has been writing software and publishing it that took less than 11 hours to create? I am sure there are some examples out there, i could name a few but i won't.
5. Will i also get lucky or something and get one of my games in lights? Or do i already need a name to make a name?
6. Should I jump on the Avatar / Zombie etc bandwagon. This is one of those questions that so many Developers are asking at present. I am also asking myself... And , yeah.. I sort of hate myself for it.
7. Should I just go sensationalist with my next game?

Too many questions, too many choices... And if you get off to a good start when released, you are so much more likely to be successful. anything that misses that early boat, for whatever reason is probably doomed. sometimes you cannot control the tide..

8. When will i be able to control the release date of my game. This is still so freakin STUPID. I have money and prizes and promotions to setup and I cannot truly set them up properly till I know when the game is to come out. Give me some control. I know most of the developers couldn't give a hoot. They do not advertise Xblig, they do not advertise their game.. Hell most don't even do a stinking poor attempt at video. But some devs care, some have the understanding of marketing. Some need just a bit more help.. Please?

g'night
Voodoochief

Marketing A Shooter pt?

Well here i am injured. It is hard to even write notes as to what I need to do at the moment. However typing is less painful and so maybe I should do all my work on that. Not quite sure how I will fare tomorrow at work in my day job. Heck, I cannot even drive atm..

So I have made a list of the things I reckon I need for Marketing. My marketing strategy is listed in previous posts. my short list loooks like this:-

• Sorcery Games Logo Board 26"x5" or so.
• A Shooter Logo Board 13"x3.5" or so.
• Printed materials for monitor sides (for demoing my game etc) 5"x13".
• Sorcery Games Logo T-Shrirts for prizes and to wear while promoting.
• Sorcery Games Logo Embroidered hat, also to wear and possible prizes.
• Table for putting my Xbox360 in/onto and lock in place.
• Montior that can lock onto table.
• Flyers for easy give away promotion in bags etc.
• Info sheets for gathering emails and names for promotional activities.
• More company business type cards with twitter/facebook/webpage listed.(thanks Michael)

I reckon for now that is it. Of course I am also still acquiring email addresses of anyone that will review my game. I will be continuing to collect those lists as I am able.

This week I start on compiling this list of items. it is very exciting, but i never realised how hard it is to find t-shirt printing and stuff. It seems they work weekly hours only, :S bah!

Once the stuff starts coming in, i shall start taking pictures to put in this blog for you all to see.

G'night