MeridianMale

Join Date 02/2006

DVD Style Commentary petition

I'm moving this to its own thread since a few people thought it sounded like a good idea.

I think a petition is in order to politely convince our friends at stardocks to create a play-through commentary a la DVD director's commentary.

Get a few of the key developers (art, AI, design, UI, what have you) in the room and everyone plays through a game and comments on various things that happen, such as why X happens when you do Y or how you arrived at the visual style we're seeing, or how the AI is doing what it's doing.

If I were the one producing this video I'd either have the developers play the game and comment while they're playing, which is spontaneous, but might not lend itself well to commentary because they don't know what's going to happen next. The other way would be to have them play through a 1-2 hour game and then record commentary afterwards.

Would it help if I said pretty please?

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They already have something similar going, check here https://www.galciv2.com/Forums.aspx?ForumID=161&AID=101018#791599

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Um... that's the thread in which MeridianMale originally proposed this idea, and hence where this post is "moving from".

The idea is meant to be less of a gameplay example/interface walkthrough (not that those aren't good) and more of a general commentary on the design of the game itself. Like a DVD commentary, as he puts it, where the key people essentially get to ramble esoterically about whatever high-minded design principle influenced this decision or that decision, etc.

And, like I said in the other thread, I think it's a fascinating idea, and would love to see it happen. How feasible it would be, I leave in Stardock's hands.

- Ash

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I think that is a great suggestion, I know that Stardock will take note of it, and maybe with the new expansion, something like that can come out.

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the key people essentially get to ramble esoterically about whatever high-minded design principle influenced this decision or that decision, etc.

Call me crazy but that is exactly what I love about DVD commentary. You're right that I'm more interested in ramblings that than a product demo. Product demos are great, especially when the sales guys bring in food and stuff, but a DVD commentary is all about making people feel a connection to how something was created.

I think stardock is already doing a great job of that with this site. I originally found out about GalCiv2 from a link on Penny Aracade to the Journal Entries. I read the one about "human/drengin wars" and I was hooked. It's so rare that developers are so transparent about the whole process. That and I love space-based TBS games.

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Any Joss Whedon fans here? From what I've seen, I think Brad has the right sense of humour to do a pricelessly funny Joss Whedon-style commentary.

"And that's how we almost screwed that scene up. But fortunately, no one will ever know, unless I say something stupid on a DVD commentary. But what are the odds of that happening?"

- Ash

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Nathan Fillion: I just remember how hard I was trying not to blink in that shot.
Joss Whedon: You did blink. We CGI'd it out.

My favorite exchange from the Firefly commentaries.

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I agree on the Joss Whedon thing. I have a feeling that there may be an intersection of the fan base for Firefly and GalCiv, or maybe just TBS space games in general.

I for one am looking forward to seeing if the engine can model something similar to a firefly.

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I don't know about modelling a Firefly-class ship, but someone from Stardock has at least tried: https://www.galciv2.com/screenshots/gold/gold.h8.jpg

Take a look at the ship seventh from the top of the list.

- Ash

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Hehe. Not too bad. I image the curved neck isn't a very common type of hull style.

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Frogboy: In this menu I really tried to get the feel of hopelessness, the desperation of life. That whole resistance is futile, all your base are belong to us feel. I think I pulled it off quite nicely.

Umm, sir ... That's the windows desktop, the game hasn't been loaded yet ....

Frogboy: Precisely.

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Good one!

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lol but really if the developers have any spare time after there long vacations a DVD commentary would be amazingly cool even if it was just a short 15 minute thing posted on the site

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From the IRC chat that was done on Friday:

[19:29.52] (GreenReaper) (Grohyt) Q: do you plan on releasing anymore gameplay videos with commentary?
[19:30.07] (Frogboy) Yea. We want to do one that has more of the team involved.
[19:30.17] (Frogboy) Just have to figur eout the logistics of mxing all of us in.

- Ash

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Yeah, I read that. That's awesome. I wonder if it was my suggestion, or if they were already considering doing one.

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ScottTykoski

Join Date 03/2001

+132

We had discussed the idea in December when we say how cool the tutorials were looking, but having players ask for it definatly brought the idea off the backburner

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Either way, it's great. Looking forward to it.

- Ash

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Yep, but it'd better show up pretty fast, we're not going to waste time with it after Tuesday 3pm.

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Ah well. Guess you can't have all the good ideas first. Still glad you're considering it, though. The longer the better! I've done some video editing, so I'd suggest starting with a long game and editing out the "boring" parts, where you're just building up or rebuilding after an attack. I know that stuff isn't boring when you're the one playing, but it's pretty boring to just sit and watch it. Though I'm sure some people would be interested in a 5 hour long commentary.

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I'd love to see this DVD commentary style thingy. Also, Firefly rocks. Just thought I would throw that in there.

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I'd just like to add my agreement to everyone else's. I really love a good commentary. In fact, I can think of at least a couple DVD's where the commentary was the best part (*cough* Simpsons season 1).

Anyways, I would definitely be interested in seeing something like this.

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I'm with you, I love the idea. Hell, I'd pay five or ten bucks extra for it if it were available with the game. Knowing Stardock, it'd more likely be a free download.

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