Incline Strangeland - new adventure game from Wormwood Studios

[MRY]

Question: We have a very old trailer:

We also have a couple montages we put together for publisher pitches, which are non-public.

Our view is that the trailer is too dated, and the montages not suitable for trailers, so we were going to go live with the page without a trailer. Do you think that will seem too lame?

 

[bertram_tung]

Question: We have a very old trailer:

We also have a couple montages we put together for publisher pitches, which are non-public.

Our view is that the trailer is too dated, and the montages not suitable for trailers, so we were going to go live with the page without a trailer. Do you think that will seem too lame?

I think it's bad to not have a trailer on the steam page.
But if you really think this trailer is completely unsuitable, then don't use it.

 

[ghostdog]

IMO you should make a new trailer before launching the steam page.

 

[Anthedon]

Depends on how much work the new trailer is.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Depends on how much work the new trailer is.

 

[baud]

Personally I don't care for the trailers on the Steam store pages, but I don't know how that's common. And even then I find that not having a trailer looks cheap, though you'd still have time to add a new trailer before releasing, right?

 

[MRY]

Any of you good at making trailers? I have some recollection of some Codexer with a knack for it.

 

[Infinitron]

Any of you good at making trailers? I have some recollection of some Codexer with a knack for it.

felipepepe?

 

[felipepepe]

Sorry, coronavírus hit my day job very badly, I've been working over the clock to keep things going, I really don't have the time or energy to make a trailer right now :/

 

[MRY]

Thanks -- hang in there!

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I agree it's a good idea to have a trailer. Can't provide an objective or detailed cost analysis of course, but my gut is that its presence will net you more than enough sales to pay for itself.

 

[almondblight]

We also have a couple montages we put together for publisher pitches, which are non-public.

Our view is that the trailer is too dated, and the montages not suitable for trailers, so we were going to go live with the page without a trailer. Do you think that will seem too lame?

Maybe it's because I'm not really a trailer person, but I don't see anything objectionable about the current trailer.

You could also include the montages in a separate video. I've noticed some games do this on Steam (a cinematic trailer followed by a gameplay trailer).

 

[MRY]

I too like the current trailer, but I'm in the minority of the triumvirate on that.

The issue is less one of recouping cost, and more just like... time and momentum, I guess. If I could wave my hand, pay a couple hundred bucks or whatever, and get a trailer, I guess I'd do that. But inevitably it'll require all kinds of micromanagement. We're juggling limited time, attention, and energy on our part, and a desire to generate some momentum for the game, hopefully to help with getting a publisher lined up. The tasks before us are: (1) finishing the game; (2) publishing the game's Steam page (which is otherwise done); and (3) making a trailer. If we put #3 before #2, I start to worry that it will delay and distract from #1.

 

[hello friend]

Most game-playing people I know ignore non gameplay trailers pretty consistently. People want to make an informed decision when buying a game. Your trailer is already better than 90% of trailers out there by virtue of not just being an expensive cutscene. I think it's fine as it is.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I too like the current trailer, but I'm in the minority of the triumvirate on that.

The issue is less one of recouping cost, and more just like... time and momentum, I guess. If I could wave my hand, pay a couple hundred bucks or whatever, and get a trailer, I guess I'd do that. But inevitably it'll require all kinds of micromanagement. We're juggling limited time, attention, and energy on our part, and a desire to generate some momentum for the game, hopefully to help with getting a publisher lined up. The tasks before us are: (1) finishing the game; (2) publishing the game's Steam page (which is otherwise done); and (3) making a trailer. If we put #3 before #2, I start to worry that it will delay and distract from #1.

Ah... not to put too fine a point on this, but are you implying Dave is uninterested? Because that is frankly baffling from everything I know about Primordia's sales figures and WEG in general.

 

[MRY]

I don't know why, but Dave never got back to us whenever we inquired about Strangeland. He may be too busy with his own projects and may be shifting away from publishing third-party titles, or maybe he just finds us exasperating.

Dave made a lot of money off of Primordia, so the economics certainly would seemingly favor publishing the game. I'll probably ping him again and see if I can get a response.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Question: We have a very old trailer:

We also have a couple montages we put together for publisher pitches, which are non-public.

Our view is that the trailer is too dated, and the montages not suitable for trailers, so we were going to go live with the page without a trailer. Do you think that will seem too lame?

Its okay I think

 

[Zombra]

I'm confused about what's "dated" or "unsuitable" about the current trailer. It showcases the sights and sounds of the game, gorgeous visuals, evocative music, and gives a strong sense of what the player would spend their time doing if they played it. Smear a sultry, surreal voiceover on top of it all and you've got a 2 minute work of art all by itself. Does the game look like it could have been made 20 years ago? Of course, but would a new trailer really change that? What would be different about a more "modern" one?

Every artist looks back with dissatisfaction on completed works, so of course last year's trailer looks dated, but that doesn't mean it really is. If it's desirable and practical to do a remix before release, then do it. But this trailer is perfectly good in my amateur opinion and it sounds like a remix isn't practical. You can tell the 66% Zombra said so. 5 years from now, will the team look back and say, "Boy, I'm sure glad we took an extra 8 months to change the trailer to something that looks almost exactly the same"? What's really important here?

Hell, if you do end up making a new! improved! trailer down the road, you can just add it to the Steam page; plenty of games do that.

 

[StaticSpine]

Trailer or not, it's still a

 

[MRY]

Zombra I'm with you. But the trailer is two years old, and in the intervening two years, we improved the visuals in Strangeland quite a bit, and Vic and James think it doesn't properly showcase the game. I honestly can't see the issue, but I'm simultaneously hypercritical and fabulously optimistic, and in this case may be erring on the side of the latter.

 

[Zombra]

MRY Been there. Personally, I'm still smarting from a 5+ year delay in publishing an album due to all kinds of dumb ideas about let's find a company that does high quality colored vinyl very cheap, no wait how about a CD release with a 50 page booklet, no let's buy a bunch of blank sleeves and do all the screen printing cover art ourselves which none of us know how to do but how hard can it be, in fact why don't we change the cover art and do a new photo shoot, I have a friend in Idaho with a camera and cool ideas, scheduling that won't be complicated, but first let's brainstorm 100 new ideas on what it might look like even though the original art is already done ...

Great ideas are great, and perfectionism helps make a good product, but at some point you have to pull the trigger. So this is more about me than you but if encouragement makes a difference, I encourage you and the team to pull the damn trigger!

 

[bertram_tung]

I agree 100% with Zombra and I want to re-emphasize what he said that you can always change the trailer later if you make an updated version. I think it's practical to include the already made trailer since it's available and effective. No need to be a perfectionist about this aspect imo and it would be less informative/less helpful for prospective buyers to include no trailer at all. It could also cost you some sales.

Then again I have no idea what I'm talking about. It just makes sense to me.

 

[almondblight]

Couldn't you just take the current trailer and swap the old scenes in it with new scenes? Or with scenes from the montages you already have?

 

[toro]

Busy name.

 

[MRY]

Yep. Not to mention Godfall!