Machinima Shorts improvement idea

Dangerzone

why not have a downloadable file that can be played in game with our own computer graphic card at full screen and resolution

each episode except episode 6 will have the 3 shorts that followed it attached to the episode via a patch-like update

you can release a file that installs the new voice and animation files into the directory of the game and then add another tab to the games pulldown menu that you can play the shorts from

when a new short is released you update the old installer to contain the new short.............. and in the end when the next episode comes out you will have a single installer that adds all the of the corresponding shorts for that episode.................. and after you fix any of the bugs in an episode and offer version 2.0 of a particular episode you can incorporate the short installer into the main one for that game

then as an added bonus on the version 2.0 games, the shorts will play automatically after the credits roll, and are not avalable untill after you have finished the episode............. this way you avoid spoilers and you make the player feel like they accomplished something by unlocking the shorts

maybe you can even hide the shorts in the game itself, like easter egs and you need to find them like an item, or accomplish something to unlock them

what does everyone think of this idea?

Maratanos

Probably not. More of a hassle than you're really interested in, either I bet.

There will be all the machinima shorts on the Season 1 CD at the end of the season, though, so be patient.

Badwolf

Sounds like a good idea.
I think another good way to implement it would be secret video tapes hidden around the game which you can play on the VCR in the office to access the shorts. They'd probably be different than the ones available publicly though, so it'd mean more work on the behalf of the developers.

Jake

Hey dangerzone - that suggestion's been brought up a few times before, both on these forums and in discussions at TTG's office. The problem is that these shorts are designed to be done very quickly, which means that a lot of work in them is done in a video editing program instead of in the tool. In other words, we cheat. A lot of the stuff in the shorts (all of the TV overlay effects and title cards and stuff) aren't actually done in the game engine, because it takes about 1/5 the time to get them to work in a video editor. Because of that, the best we can do for people is put up full resolution WMV files of the shorts, which we do They can't play in-engine because the final versions of the shorts just don't exist as solely in-tool cutscenes. Admittedly, it would be cool if they did, though!

AdamG

Hmm, well, them being pre-rendered recordings does also have the benefit of letting people who don't have a powerful enough computer see the game in action. So it does in some small way increase the potential audience, since those people could be tempted to go and upgrade their computer to play the game. Though I don't think the game engine has very high requirements.

Speaking of which, what's the average onscreen polygon count? It must be fairly high if everything is rendered. Takes a lot of polygons to make cartoonish characters.

Maratanos

Jake wrote: »

Hey dangerzone - that suggestion's been brought up a few times before, both on these forums and in discussions at TTG's office. The problem is that these shorts are designed to be done very quickly, which means that a lot of work in them is done in a video editing program instead of in the tool. In other words, we cheat. A lot of the stuff in the shorts (all of the TV overlay effects and title cards and stuff) aren't actually done in the game engine, because it takes about 1/5 the time to get them to work in a video editor. Because of that, the best we can do for people is put up full resolution WMV files of the shorts, which we do They can't play in-engine because the final versions of the shorts just don't exist as solely in-tool cutscenes. Admittedly, it would be cool if they did, though!

And for some reason your engine doesn't support prerendered cutscenes where necessary... :rolleyes:

Udvarnoky

Uhh, that's not true. Did you play CSI?

Jake

Maratanos wrote: »

And for some reason your engine doesn't support prerendered cutscenes where necessary... :rolleyes:

Err why would we put it out as a prerendered cutscene in the engine... when we could just release a video file? If we put out an exe that did nothing but play a rendered cutscene, the first thing people would do is rip the video out to its own self contained file. :P

Maratanos

I wasn't saying you should do that particularly. I was just saying there might be certain advantages to being able to do such things if you so desired.

Jake

Well, we do it in CSI pretty frequently. It's a deliberate choice in Sam & Max.