Video tutorial

[Entropy]

I am looking for someone to make a few video tutorials of the game, which will be embedded on the main page, so that people can watch them while downloading the game.

We need the following:

1. Tutorial showing how to start the game, click on the new char button, read and accept the rules, then the character creation screen, all the way until the game is started.

2. Tutorial showing the game interface, stuff like walking, harvesting, tab map, console, harvesting a flower, killing a rabbit, etc. This tutorial should also show going to the IP tavern, selling some rabbit fur, then exiting the tavern. Optionally, it should show using the encyclopedia and the configuration menu, as well as various useful keyboard shortcuts.

 

REQUIREMENTS:

1. NO background music (copyright issues). Using the game music is OK though.

2. The video quality should be as high as possible.

3. It should be voiced over by a native English speaker, with good diction. The voice over should explain all the actions taken.

4. Feel free to edit the video to add arrows pointing to GUI elements and so on. This is not required, but it is encouraged.

5. The final video should be free of watermarks (stuff such as "video capture trial version").

6. Ideally, the maker of the video should keep a non voiced over version of the video, to allow other people to translate it in different languages.

 

Now, BEFORE WE START, let's see if we have any volunteer who wants to do that, and let us discuss other aspects of the tutorials. If someone has sugestions, please post.

 

At the end, the winning videos (those that we will oficially use) will be awarded, and their maker will get some in game prize.

 

P.S. Do you guys know of any high quality video site that allows free video uploads, and embedding the videos in a web page? Something like http://www.stage6.com/

[Gildrig!]

Can we use Microsoft Sam to voice over?

#edit: i suggest we use the test server in day time for best light and no chat.

Oh and I'd like to volunteer

Edited May 2, 2008 by Gildrig!

[Entropy]

I am not sure, if the quality is good, then yes.

[Rayna]

Great idea, i wish i had better equipment and a great voice.

 

It would be nice to have just screen shots and text too, for those with dial up? And not in a pdf file.

 

There are some free vid players and recorders that are nice. I dont have the links handy but will look for them.

[Entropy]

I think a video would be best. It's not going to be on Autoplay, so no problem for the dial up people.

[Guest Normidore]

I was thinking of using Macromedia Captivate, its an older version that i have but i have used it many of times to do tutorials for my own products.

 

Basically is just takes a video snap shop of what is actually happening on the screen, once you have completed capturing everything you want you then add the voice over (Or just play text in Caption bubbles), in the areas you wish to point out.

 

I am not sure if this is suitable for what you want, but i will try to work on something this weekend.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

EDIT: If i start from the beginning as if i was a new person signing up for the first time, is it possible to provide the user name that is created and have it deleted?

Edited May 2, 2008 by Normidore

[Banedon]

I was thinking of using Macromedia Captivate, its an older version that i have but i have used it many of times to do tutorials for my own products.

 

Basically is just takes a video snap shop of what is actually happening on the screen, once you have completed capturing everything you want you then add the voice over (Or just play text in Caption bubbles), in the areas you wish to point out.

 

I am not sure if this is suitable for what you want, but i will try to work on something this weekend.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

I will offer this up if someone makes the video and audio I have professional hardware and software editing equipment and can work on the editing if needed.

[Schmurk]

The video idea is great but I think that a screenshot based version should also be nice because if you haven't done the translation in a language and if someone speaking this language want to learn the basics of the game, a text version will be more understandable for him. And it's also the same for deaf people.

 

The best guide I've seen so far is the one they made for silkroad online. It's a kind of comic that explains you all the aspects of the game and it's really enjoyable. The same could also be done with screenshots rather than cartoons.

[Entropy]

The problem with the text based tutorials is that some people are too fucking lazy to read them..

[Revelation]

I can convert the video into flash so it would be easier to embed on a site and be more browser friendly. Could even add text desciptions, translations and other features as well. The person would only need Flash Player to view the video.

 

*EDIT: typos

Edited May 2, 2008 by Revelation

[Stormie]

The problem with the text based tutorials is that some people are too fucking lazy to read them..

 

is what happens when u expect some people to read things

Edited May 2, 2008 by Stormie

[conavar]

Wouldnt it be practical to have subtitles on the video for those deaf/hard of hearing players ?

Edited May 2, 2008 by conavar

[Roja]

Well I don't see anything wrong with having both a video and a text-screenshot tutorial. It'd probably be a good idea if these tutorials were basically the same though, so let's wait until someone does video tutorials and then if someone else is willing to make a text version that can be done afterwards.

[Guest Normidore]

OK i have done something up that is very basic, however here are some pointers.

 

(Usual crap, Disclaimers, notes and other nonsense)

 

1. I have not had the time to edit it properly, this is just to find out if the concept is inline with what was wanted before i put in too much time on it to find out i was way of course.

 

2. Spelling and grammar is mostly likely going to be all over the place, i repeat again this is a first draft, almost totally unedited and quite raw.

 

3. It is also only text based,however in saying that it can have audio combined with the captions, or just audio on its on and no captions, there is more then one combination available to the video, however considering that it is already done to be supported in SWF version 9 it is already quite a size (Approx 54MB), however be it that it is in SWF format, whilst it is playing the first slide it is already buffering the others, so it should be a seamless transition video (Notice the word should).

 

4. No voice was added because (a) i don't like hearing my own voice (Who knows why and who cares i guess), ( Voice dictation software that i tried all sounded robotic and actually quite stupid, © it is my belief that someone with an accent natural voice should do the dictation, but that is just my opinion and it probably is not worth much

 

5. This was done on a 17" wide screen laptop so i have no idea what it will look like on other systems, i am not sure if Macromedia keep to HTM/HTML publishing standards or not, but i guess we will see shortly

 

NOTES: I toyed with the idea of publishing it in SWF version 7 so that way it would be compatible with any older OS systems or browsers, but then i thought about security and decided not to do so.

 

I also state, i am not a professional which i think the work is evident of that, i am just happy to help out and i have done quite a few of these already. However in saying that, this was done in under 2 hours and i started the project @ 1am. To make it look proper, i project it will take about 6 attempts, and possibly about 5 weekends to do it (And some spare time after i come home from work), but if it has the desired effect that is being sort after, i am all too happy to put as much time as needed in getting this right.

 

Last note: It sucks trying to upload this on a 128K upload cable connection stupid Telstra (Australian Joke)

 

(End of Rant)

 

Here is the link: http://lionguild.com/eltutorial/eltutorial.htm

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Normidore.

 

 

[EDIT] At the time of testing HTM file it was able to stream ok, however it seems sluggish now, either my internet is just crap, or the server is a slow one (Which is very possible as it is just a cheap and nasty hosting package), mean while i will work on making the file size smaller, i think 54MB is just a tad too big.

Edited May 3, 2008 by Normidore

[The_Piper]

Yeah, i just watched the first few minutes, it is slow like hell.

 

But what i have seen from your draft looks fine IMO. Keep up the good work

 

(and why is that 54 MB big? its nothing than text/pictures and the text bubbles.)

 

Piper

[Gildrig!]

Im working on a few different versions, ill put one on youtube to show you guys, i found a good screen record program too,

CamStudio

To download

Download CamStudio

Its quite good, a feature in options to highlight the mouse.

 

A good voice recording program if you want to change the sound of your voice is

Audacity

[Gildrig!]

Ok, heres what i have so far.

[Entropy]

Umm, the video resolution of youtube is very small as it is, and the EL window is not even full screen, so it's very hard to notice anything.

Can you try again in full screen? And skip the clicking on the application icon to start it, I am sure that most people should know how to start it

[Aislinn]

And skip the clicking on the application icon to start it, I am sure that most people should know how to start it

Ehhh you would be surprised. That's been asked more than once. Personally I think that should stay...and actually I was going to ask him to move the .exe icon further into the middle of the screen so people could see it better.

Also to not speed through each step so quickly, it moves to the next step before we can finish reading the instructions.

 

Edit:

Also maybe you could add some of your own bigger arrows to show better where your cursor is and where the viewer should be looking.

And yeah I agree that the text needs to be bigger a bit and a better contrast color. The white is fading into the image a lot.

 

You are definitely on the right track though.

[Kornholio]

i agree with Aislinn, the text moves to fast, and if english isn't your native language, you could read only half of the text before other comes to screen, and also dunno how it would look like on full screen but i think text size should be a bit bigger, or use a better contrast (text color) with background.

other thing. full screen should be used, or at least big resolution , so you could see what is shown or where currsor is ( spelling?)

erm and could you skip loading EL after clicking EL.exe? it takes a bit of time till it is fully loaded. hope u understand what i mean

[daiske1]

i like the idea.

 

lots of new players woudl then get interested in it.

[Guest Normidore]

OK just so i understand...

 

Do you require me to slow down the transitional periods of the captions? Is the speed i have on them now sufficient? Let me know if they need to be speed up or slowed down a little.

 

How is the readability? I found that to be a reasonable size, but that is on my screen but it might still be ok on other smaller screens... Any feed back on this will be much appreciated.

 

Is the Process enough or did i chop it down too much? I wasn't sure if every single little detail should be added, i cut out some finer detailed stuff. Or am i to try an idiot proof the tutorial? (No offense intended, its a figure of speech).

 

The_Piper... I am sorry about the speed, i will see what i can do and try to get the server to dish it out quicker, it is hosted on a server in east coast USA on an OC3 Link, bandwidth should be enough, but i am not sure if the server itself is happy enough to serve up SWF-9 contents, i might try it in version 7 as well and see if that has less CPU requirements.

 

 

I will start working on version 2, most likely do it from scratch, but i hope to get a little more feed back to try and get it as close as possible to all requests.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Normidore.

[Atlantis]

Now, BEFORE WE START, let's see if we have any volunteer who wants to do that, and let us discuss other aspects of the tutorials. If someone has sugestions, please post.

I would be willing. Made a sample video for character creation, 1:44 min long

Posted it on zhsare, since I dunno how to put it on a website.

#edit: Updated versions

New link for high quality: Link

New link for low quality: Link

 

 

REQUIREMENTS:

1. NO background music (copyright issues). Using the game music is OK though. done

2. The video quality should be as high as possible. [/b] 25 fps [/b]

3. It should be voiced over by a native English speaker, with good diction. The voice over should explain all the actions taken. Done

4. Feel free to edit the video to add arrows pointing to GUI elements and so on. This is not required, but it is encouraged. Put a few

5. The final video should be free of watermarks (stuff such as "video capture trial version"). I purchased the software I used, so no watermarks

6. Ideally, the maker of the video should keep a non voiced over version of the video, to allow other people to translate it in different languages. Did

 

 

Since it is separate clips joined together, and the text can be changed too, everything is easy to edit. Will try the 'in game' tutorial if anyone has any recommendations.

Edited May 4, 2008 by Atlantis

[Gildrig!]

Umm, the video resolution of youtube is very small as it is, and the EL window is not even full screen, so it's very hard to notice anything.

 

Yes, i agree. The youtube quality is far too low, ill let you know if i find a place to upload HQ videos. The video i posted was just an example of what i am doing. ill post a better one soon with full screen, i had a bit of a bug where the recording program wasn't able to get it full screen, ill fix that when i film another. I think ill add voices at a later date too And ill show them how to get to the start menu folder. (Lots of computer n00bs out there )

 

Thanks

Edited May 3, 2008 by Gildrig!

[Aislinn]

Now, BEFORE WE START, let's see if we have any volunteer who wants to do that, and let us discuss other aspects of the tutorials. If someone has sugestions, please post.

I would be willing. Made a sample video for character creation, 1:44 min long

Posted it on zhsare, since I dunno how to put it on a website.

High Quality (14MB)

High potential, I have a few comments:

1. Keep the image corresponding to what you are saying. For example, I'd like to see a shot of the shortcut icon on your desktop when you say "locate the shortcut blah blah blah". Never assume the user knows anything, I have had people ask how to start the game after installing. Better the extra step than not enough.

2. Breathe You are talking a bit too fast and fading out at the end of your sentences.

3. Your arrows are disappearing a bit too fast, and I can't always see where your cursor is going. (minor note on selecting player name and password, can you show how when you start typing a player name the word Player over their head goes away and the new name takes it's place?)

 

Otherwise, excellent job. If they don't get it after this one, they never will.