Vector Thrust Marketing/Promotion Pla Thread - Vector Thrust

Okay, it's 2014 and the release date is coming up soon. One of my concerns about VT is that we haven't done much promotion or marketing about it- and being a business studies/economics student I can appreciate how vital marketing and promotion are to ensuring a respectable volume of sales.

The problem is we're pandering to a very niche audience right now- as it's not even the flight sim fans we're aiming for- it's the arcade action fans of that genre as well. The purpose of a marketing campaign is to play up the game's strengths and garner interest in the game's contents (we might want to address the game's flaws first.) Right now our facebook groups is pretty crappy, I will admit and the Iceberg people seem content about posting random pictures of planes and generally doing nothing much, so I think it's about time we step up the promotion and get VT's name out there.

First off, social networking presence needs to be stepped up. I know we have a FB and Twitter, but both aren't updated frequently and are really stagnant as of now. Posting tiny little snippets of new aircraft, maps, etc. etc. to show that yes, we are alive can go a great way in maintaining fan interest in the game. If there are other places we can advertise, we need to take advantage of those sites as well.

Second is the big one- game trailers. I'm thinking a 3 part project addressing the main three components of the game: the campaign, the multiplayer, and the moddability.

The campaign trailer is pretty standard- bring out AirLand, Strike Force, all the awesome music, have people acting cryptic, pretend to be deep and symbolic, explosions, etc. etc.

Multiplayer trailer might have to be a bit more complex- showcase most or all of the different game modes and gameplay in a nice, punchy and exciting piece that both effectively demonstrates the game engine, the gameplay and the graphics. Ace Combat Infinity's Beta Trailers did it pretty good.
Youtube.com

Third trailer will be the longest- a showcase of the game's ability to be modded. This will the main selling point of VT and we need to milk it for all its worth. Instead of having traditional trailers, I think instead we should have a voice-over/tutorial explaining just how the mods work and maybe a showcase of some community-made mods from before to show that there is a modding presence and to encourage new modders to join in as well.

Finally, there's been a lot of questions about a demo. I think releasing a cut down version of the current build with one aircraft from each family, the updated graphics and stuff, as well as one or two missions in the campaign, and Survival Mode battle scenario will help maintain existing fan interest in the project.

I like that idea! I was also think in something similar, as VT has a lot of "unique" stuff, it would have been bad to condense it all in a single trailer.
but besides those three I have a couple more suggestions for other three trailers:

-one only about aircrafts, while this is far from being the main selling feature, I´m sure the quantity of aircraft will capture some interest.

-other for unique/unusual game mechanics, like jamming, command menu, dynamic stealth model, etc.

-AI difficulty. this can be played around, like saying that even the most skilled player will feel challenged with this AI, no cheats, just skill. or something like that.

one other could be the variety of game modes, but while it is an important point, I´m not sure if it would work that well as a trailer

AI difficulty is a gameplay mechanic, and I'm not sure how you could show this in a trailer because the best tactics are usually the least cinematic. Sure, I'd pay to see a war movie where the infantrymen engage each other from far away and use suppresssion fire, and and hand-to-hand fights look like actual struggles instead of dancing, but I'm in the minority.

I think more than 3 trailers would be good, everyone wants more footage. Here's six possibilities.
-Story
-Aircraft
-Gameplay mechanics including AI
-Multiplayer modes
-Narrated video on modding and possibilities
-Q&A responding to questions on a moddb thread and a facebook thread, with more game footage.

I think that a nice way to make a quick plug about modding would be to feature a supremely cinematic intro shot of that paper airplane that someone added to their game.

^
WHEATON* WHERE ARE YOU
hang on he closed his yt account 3:

Edited by: szboudreau01

he did? Damn. Anyone have a mirror of that video where he remade Megalith in VT?

The AI trailer might also have to be narrated as well.

I still have the megalith video on my hard drive. Two of them, in fact, I made two playthroughs. I still have the map itself, which I can improve, but I no longer have the mission file ( shame on me for thinking people would no longer need it ... )

I don't have the paper plane anymore either; a "recent" ( desura version ) update broke it :< .

As for the reason my YT account was shut down: two words: Copyright Infrigements. Enough of that cr*p.

Wheaton_Adams wrote: Copyright Infrigements. Enough of that cr*p.

Ahhh yes, another good reason not to believe in YT crap anymore and encourage us not to delete the videos as soon as we upload them.

I think from now on If you make a video of anything to do with VT be it a mod test, skin display, even if it's fan made tutorials etc. You should upload them on Desura no matter what, cause it will help with the publicity and marketing of VT. My 10 pence piece right there.

Edited by: mittsommerschnee

Great point. I don't want to have anything to do with YT / Google anymore since.

Don't forget that pesky NDA we signed...

I'm fine with the NDA. All the third-party content I work on is exclusively made on the desura build so i'm within safe limits.

Remember when you film the trailers you need lots of enemies on screen. The training mission at the beginning of the demo campaign isn't fun to watch.

Actually it might be a good idea to make one or two standalone missions specifically for a trailer. You could even make a modding trailer where it cuts between the mission editor and a player playing that mission ingame, so it kind of looks like the player is editing and playing at the same time. Player ass ace squadron in editor? Cut to gameplay footage of the player engaging said ace squadron, complete with radio chatter saying saying something like "ace squadron entering our airspace!"

There's not a lot of means to make a cutscene-style cinematic approach to VT yet. Right now, best guess is a macrocommand to move the camera through simulated keyboard/mouse inputs.

Bornloser's idea is good though, about the ace squadron coming in out of nowhere.

It wouldn't even have to come out of nowhere, all you have to do is splice footage from the game and the editor and add some radio chatter on top of that. Will save a ton of work and most people won't notice the difference. Also halfway through the trailer the player could go back to the aircraft select menu and choose a superplane with a garish paintjob.
Best thing to do would be to make a relatively nonsensical mission with a recycled map specifically for the trailer, and film yourself using the editor to make it. (or just delete objects from the mission after you're finished and then film yourself putting them back.) Then film one or two playthroughs of the mission, possibly with different planes. No cinematic camera required.

Thanks bornloser, that will help in my own videos

Edited by: timeSymmetry

Slightly relevant: Here's how you should make a trailer, even if this is a RTS

Whilst I'm most certainly interested in the game, there's one eency, weency, tiny little problem I have when I try and show someone this game:

Indiedb.com

Graphically... Well, the anti-aliasing just, ee...

They're great screenshots, really, each of them has a level of artist merit that goes between showing how awesome the game is and how good it can look as a cell-shaded title, but any time I look at close an aircraft, the jaggedness really kills my appreciation for the art style without a god awful amount of filters poured over it to distract or add fuzz the image, like Okami.

Sure, it's not really a big issue, but, on some level, while I don't necessarily appreciate graphical fidelity as much as my Skyrim (and the mods I refuse to take out that make it less than stable for the sake of being pretty) would suggest, jaggies are one of those things that bugs me. Especially on something that I want to look closely at in the subject media, like the jets.

Is it an issue of the rig running the game? The game itself? I'm really pretty curious, since I feel like it might be something of an issue as the issue of trailers come up. A trailer that details the huge number of planes isn't going to be as well received if they don't look their best, or, so I feel.

I think in the screenshots the AA is simply off. Even 2x AA does a pretty good job at smoothing the cel-shaded edges out.

I’m not completely sure, so don’t know if this is the case, but there was a batch of these screens that I forgot to activate the anti-aliasing in that machine before taking the pictures.

It seems like there's just one or two either particularly flattering screenshots that are, at most, subtly jagged, and then a lot of quite jarring ones, so if that's the case, don't keep making that mistake!

It's kind of hard to tell where the anti-aliasing problems begin and the art style not quite meshing with the subject media ends, too, without having actually messed with the game's graphical settings and see what the results are.

Something like this is definitely worth drawing from.

flyawaynow wrote: Youtube.com

Something like this is definitely worth drawing from.

Hey times, didn't you say you were thinking of making a game like this? (I don't get the appeal of flying mechs though, why do they even need legs?)

Sometime, somewhere, he said something about a cross between Armoured Core (the old awesome) and Strike Suit Zero - flying mechs that walk!