2007 PGD Annual Video Ad #1

[WILL]

I've posted the first Video Ad for the competition on YouTube. It includes footage from past entires including some of the top 3 from 2005 and 2006!

<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GlXgkUbrUnU"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GlXgkUbrUnU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="442" height="350"></embed></object></center>

Mirrors:

YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlXgkUbrUnU) 320x240
Yahoo! Video (http://ca.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1e80ff60522f84224fb4d46a5ef8497d.1746994) 320x240
Google Video (http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=7262567038982061419) 640x480

[jdarling]

Looks much better then when you showed it to me the other day. Love the sound track, just hope it isn't copywritten some place :)

[WILL]

I've created a YouTube Channel for Pascal Game Development as well: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PascalGameDev

[Traveler]

Hey that's pretty sweet!

tbh though, I do think its at least 30 seconds too long. I had the feeling you wanted to show a little too much (can't blame you there :)).

I believe the start was pretty good, after a short message, you jump right to the action. The transition to airblast looked a bit off however, with the main screen being aligned too far to the right. On the other hand, I got all excited again when the airfights came up.

I did not like transition to Tanx. It was too abrupt and I fear people might miss the mainscreen alltogether if they are not familiar with Tanx. However, the rest of the gameplay of tanx was pretty good, although I think its better to remove parts where ingame text is visible.
Viewers familiar with Tanx might know what´s going, but I think others may find it a lot to consume.

The transition to ArticMacrob was again a bit too sudden. Although the fact that there´s relatively little action on screen, does give the viewer some time to realize what´s going on.
After ArticMarob it was again a sudden switch, this time to Sodoma. It was at this point that I was kind of wondering if there was going to be some additional information. Something to add a bit of extra stimuli to the viewer to keep on viewing, other than the bits of gameplay videos.

Anyway, after having seen a few other games which some I think were better to be left out (Village Defense (mainscreen aligned to the right and poor quality video), Tankbusters (slow gameplay video), MadAeon (unreadable intro and slow gameplay video), space cadet (doesn´t fit in there alltogether)), the ending was well done, especially with the effect and all.
Unfortunately while the mid section was rather lengthy, then ending was too short. I was actually expecting more information there. Something in the lines of an invitation to join this years competition, a conclusion to this video.

In all it was pretty good. IMO, main 'problems' are the transitions, where you dont allow the viewers some time to get used to a new game, the quantity of games, there are too many of them now, and the absence of information.

I do agree with jdarling about the music. I fits the video perfectly.

As a sidenote, having done a few video edit sessions myself, I know how difficult and timeconsuming it is. Having the proper software and tools does help, but still. Anyway my hat off to you for doing this.

[JernejL]

it's great, but what about.. change the music? :/

[cronodragon]

What software did you use to record the games?? It looks very nice. :D

[jdarling]

@Traveler, you and I said almost the exact same things. Of course, when I saw it there wasn't any music with it. I do have to admit that the one that WILL put up is much better then where he started, and overall, I think that it gets the point across quite well.

[NecroDOME]

I also liked the movie, but I agree with traveler on the transitions. But it ROCKS!!!

I agree with music: It rocks, it fits in, it's action :D

however, I think is copyrighted: Piankiller soundtrack... (used it in SCAG)

ps. can I have the movie in .wmv or .avi (or whatever you saved it in) to save to my hard drive? 8)

[WILL]

Thanks guys. :)

I used FRAPS for the video capture and recorded them all myself.

I see your guys point about the hard transitions from game to game. The biggest challenge I believe about this was getting good clips. It doesn't take too long to amass a 1 GB file recording with FRAPS (even without the audio) so while trying to keep the clips short, I'm playing the game AND reaching for F9 to turn the recording on and off.

Another thing I guess is trying to cram so much into 2 minutes or so. I would have liked to get all the entries in, but it's just not possible. Besides this was just meant to be a quick and dirty colloge of action packed footage from both competitions.


The next commercial will have a lot more information. I'm planning on profiling all the winning entries and the prizes they won in sort of a News format. Should be kinda neat if it goes my way. :)


I've made a larger (clearer resolution) version of this video for download. But it, like a lot of online videos will be upwards of 10-14 MB.

[paul_nicholls]

Sweet! Nice work! :)

cheers,
Paul

[savage]

Great work WILL!

[Paizo]

Nice! :) :D

[FNX]

This one ROCKS! More of these please! :)

[Legolas]

Impressive! I never downloaded all compo entries, but after this video I feel like playing them all! :shock:
Great work, Jason! :clap:

[chronozphere]

That looks very nice. :D
Let's show the world the possibilities of pascal game development :razz:

We should make such a movie for every annual PGD contest. :)

[WILL]

Well the next one is coming up soon. I'm hoping to be able to get it together early next week. This one took about 3 or so days, give or take some time to make the clips needed.

I'm actually considering if we can announce the winners in this format if we have time at the end of this competition. If I get the 'go ahead' (and yet again the time :P) then I'll likely make it happen a full day before we publish the final scores.

All kinds of great possibilities with video. Really speaks volumes with the games medium.

[NecroDOME]

I'm actually considering if we can announce the winners in this format if we have time at the end of this competition.
That would be cool!!

[Ñuño Martínez]

The video is great and the entries are so professional... I can't compete with this quality level! :oops:

[savage]

The video is great and the entries are so professional... I can't compete with this quality level! :oops:

?ëu?±o, que te pasa chaval! That is a very defeatist attitude. Do your best, that is all you can do. Then next year your entry will be better because of what you have learnt this year.

Also remember that this year we will have a prize for most promising newcomer.

[Ñuño Martínez]

?ëu?±o, que te pasa chaval! That is a very defeatist attitude.
I know, but I had some personal issues and I'm too sad today :(

Also remember that this year we will have a prize for most promising newcomer.
:think: Well, I've just finished a new release of Allegro.pas which supports transparency, color-maps and other bugs (but I can't upload it to sourceforge today :cry: ). If I finish an entry everybody will see what Allegro.pas can do... :think:

[pstudio]

The video is great and the entries are so professional... I can't compete with this quality level! :oops:

I can't compete as well, not even the newcomer price is in reach :roll: , but I'm still going to try and participate. It's fun programming, and without a goal to reach(in this case finish a playable game for the competition deadline) I would never be able to pull myself together and start programming.

[jasonf]

I'd like to compete this year, I've missed out for last couple of years.. the only limiting factor will be the amount of time I can spare to work on the project.. due to factors like Day Job and The Wife :D

As soon as the rules are published, I'll have a think.

[cairnswm]

the only limiting factor will be the amount of time I can spare to work on the project.. due to factors like Day Job and The Wife

So do something small! Something that you could at a push do in one week - and lots of time to polish - well anyway thats my plan this time around :)

[rif]

This video is good stuff! 800+ viewers on YouTube in one week, not bad!

The music score is great for this action run. Is it indeed from another game as hinted in earlier in this thread?

Doei RIF

[WILL]

Hey thanks Rif. :)

Yup, it's taken from .S.C.A.G. winner of last year's 2006 PGD Annual Award for Best Music.

I've got another 2 more ads coming. One will take a little bit of time to put together, but it'll be quite interesting to some. Mostly gears towards gaming industry enthusiasts and commercial sponsors.

But the other one I'm hoping to bring together this week. It'll show some of the other games I couldn't get into the other one for one reason or another. (Mostly due to large amount of content in the other.)

Also, most of the games seen in the 1st are from the 2005 competition, this next one you'll see more from 2006.