Proof of Concept

Last post, I talked about my intentions of maybe doing some Youtube videos... and about how I didn't just want to make the same Let's Play/PewDiePie/MLG/screaming-into-a-microphone kind of videos that everyone is making. Now here I am, having made one of those exact videos.

This is not a prototype of things to come, just something of a proof of concept. While I'd done a tiny little bit of editing in Premiere before, I hadn't really done anything above basic cutting and exporting. I wanted to try some of the basics before jumping into anything bigger, and I had this footage recorded already, so I made the most of it. For what it's worth, tweening text and dropping in sound effects is pretty simple in Premiere, possibly simpler than it is in Flash, so it didn't take that long at all do make this. I do need to research better compression/export options though.

Also shout outs to BLAST Gaming... It's pretty much just an excuse to play random multiplayer games with guys I used to go to school with. They got some other highlight vids from some of our other nights on their own Youtube channel.

Problems

I have this problem where over the last few years I've picked up way too many games. More games than I have time to play. So many games in fact, that when it comes time to play something I'm completely paralyzed by choice.

I also have this problem where I hadn't really done any file I/O in GameMaker yet, or tried out the new internal font stuff, Or indeed made anything of note in it recently.

Then there's this problem where I've missed out on a few potential jobs I'm pretty sure I could've gotten if I had any experience in video editing. Well maybe, maybe not... But I've been thinking about learning the basics for a while now at least.

In addition to these three, I have this other problem where, due to my current circumstances, I don't really talk out loud that much anymore. Especially when it comes to critical discussion about game design.

That last problem is kind of solved by this podcast I do with frequent collaborator Drew Fellows, that I'll totally post about next time we record it, but I need more. It's not at all original but for a while I was thinking about the possibility of doing some kind of Youtube/videogame thing. Not something as banal as Let's Playing but maybe something more about discussing and critiquing game design, while also clearing through the pile of shame that is my game library.

I'm not at all deluded into thinking this is a great idea. I don't expect, nor want, to be the next PewDiePie. Nor do I plan to be able to sit back and rake in that sweet Youtube partner money. I want to treat this as a learning experience and build new audio visual skills that I'll probably need some day anyway. I also want to get better at finding what does and doesn't work in games, and get better at effectively communicating that to people. I'm going to be spending the time to play these games anyway (eventually...) (probably.), so why not record it and then use that to make something new?

So... in an attempt to fix some of those problems, that's what I'm going to do. They will probably suck, at least at first, but everything always does when you start something new. This is not going to be my main focus either, I'll only be spending a set amount of time per week on them. I'll just be happy if I can get on some kind of schedule and get the videos to a level I'm happy with.

What does this have to do with the todays pic? As I stated before, I have so many games, I don't know where to start. I was originally thinking of using Steam Roulette, but my library of unplayed games goes back to at least the original Playstation. What I decided to do was to hit that 4th problem and make something to pick my games for me.

It's a pretty simple thing, but I've learnt a few more aspects of GameMaker that I needed to check out anyway, plus it was a good warm up project to get back into the swing of things. All it does at the moment is read in a file of games and platforms and then pick one for you, all while playing out some simple bells and whistles to make it more interesting to watch in a video. I might add on a couple of things in the future like a game count, ability to filter by platform/genre/whatever, or listing functionality.

It works fine for the moment, but for some reason the HTML5 port doesn't want to show images so I haven't put up a link to check it out yet. When I work out what's up I'll make another post. At the moment though, it's useless for anyone else, unless they want a sneak peek at what's in my library. Maybe in the future I'll add the ability for people to upload their own libraries so they can use it themselves...