Intro:
Welcome back to another round of The Game Maker Show. Today marks the start of our first series of weekly "Minisodes". Todays show is a review of the game Tower of Heaven, by Askiisoft.


Screenshots:




Playing Time:

2:31


Watch:

http://gmvision.tv/gmvision/home/2009/11/minisode-1/


Notes:

Expect more minisodes soon!

Thanks,
-The GMVision Team

Nice! I liked it.

I stopped watching when "she" came on.

Thanks

what do you mean by "she"? you mean Tor? if you cut it off then, then you missed all the great content. The interview, reviews, news, and deathmatch.

Lol, Whats so wrong about "she"?

Ill be writing this comment as I go through.


First off:
The video is extremely small, so I had to put it in full screen.
The news section was horrible. It looked like you shoved your sister in-front of the camera and told her to read a script. A lot of the news was about GMTV as well (for example you mentioned that we wont be able to meet our weekly deadline twice). I will talk more about that after.

Next was the advertisement. It was OKAY.

After that I saw josh again and suddenly it showed you in front of a curtain and the volume dropped. Very in consistent volume!

I skipped the "face off".

The review of deathworm: Why don't you review something newer?

You copied GMTV in some areas as well.


Overall, the show wasn't as good as it should be considering how long you took. However its your first episode so I can't judge you too hard. At least know you know why us at GMTV take so long to release things. I also found myself skipping alot of parts because they dragged on.

I couldn't stream it too well because of my connection but the 2 minutes that I watched I wasn't really impressed with. You seemed to choke on a lot of lines and when you were talking about the upcoming content you sounded a bit sarcastic. Tor choked a couple of times too. It sounded like you guys were reading the script for the first time off of a cue card. Maybe rehearse a bit more before recording? I'll try watching more later if my connection gets a bit better.

Can you tell us? we would like to know so we can change?

Revel,

Well, like the title says, this is the first Episode. I was kind of looking for maybe a little bit of positive support.
We worked hard on it, and yes, the news change was last minute. I was just going to record and then she decided that she would like too. After watching it, we both agree that we should rehearse a little more and move around less.
The Interview was going to be done by someone else, but they never sent in the video so I got up at 5:00 this morning and did ti myself. I can either release later then I would like, or I can release sooner but not as much/or as nice. Sorry again about the video transitions.
We picked the games we wanted too. I don;t know why we did deathworm, but we just did. We do however have some newer games planned for episode #2.
Also, if you compared this to GMTV episode one now tell me how I did?

One last thing,
this is a 2 man team! we don;t have a whole slew of people helping, making scripts. Alsthough a few people did contribute a little bit, 99% of the episode was homemade, and until You try to make your Own show, don't be to negative on me!

edit 466:
I even did a points scale instead of a stars scale to make users happy.

Something i noted about it, but it doesn't seem others have picked up on is that everyone in the video seems to be talking in an octave higher than they normally. Now granted i don't know these people, and that could be their normal talking voice.. but i doubt it. It was if they were talking in an excited tone of voice.. sort of forcing them selfs to act interested or put life in to what they were saying.

I also have to mention about Tor's moving around.. some of it was cringe worthy and rather off putting. I noticed shadows around people, this is probably because they were standing right against the green screen. You should stand away from it a little and light it correct so you get no self cast shadows.

Some of the news was really dated and became boring due to its length, i was tempted to skip past it. Also, when you're presenting a news about something, don't add on another bit of news like you did when you mentioned the PM flood.

The 3 way death match was really just 3 games reviewed at the same time against each other. The way the scoring was visually presented at the end of each round was really bad, and made no sense to me at all. Its more effective to keep it simple as it makes for less production time.

After the death match you reviewed 3 more games, which made it seem like you reviewed 6 games, It got boring.

When reviewing, you need to make the footage you record for the game longer and not loop the same footage over and over. The way the reviews were done overall (death match included) was rather quirky. You mentioned something about the game, but never really showed it. For example if you're going to mention the music then let us hear it too.

I think it would make for a much better review if you recorded the game footage (sound and all) then dubbed your review over the top of it with the game sound at 1/4 volume. Use lower thirds to show the score you gave it. You may also want to do this in the death match section.

While it was obvious you were putting a lot of effort in to the backgrounds for your show, the quality of the video made all of it not worth the effort. The sound through out the video varied up and down, at the end it was VERY loud. The viewer should NEVER have to alter the volume.

All of this aside it was a very good effort for a first time show and hopefully you'll work out some of the problems over time.

Good luck with episode 2.

Thanks for the feedback Chronic, Will will try our best next episode, This time we are not going to set a strict deadline, then we hope that'll produce the best content.

I am sorry about the volume at the end, I had asked Jono to fix it and he apparently forgot :/.
Thanks for all the comments, we do try to listen to everything. I just wish that people would realize that this Is our first episode. How do you reccomend I change the deathmatch so it is not reviews? Sorry about the visual presentation, We are beginners (Noobs if you will) and we are learning. I again assure you that I will read every thing and do my best to fix them.

I would love a serious Game Development show. Stop using colorful fake backgrounds. Stand infront of a picture of Master Chief blowing stuff up or anything gaming related.

so a show showing people in progress of making a game?

I've never been a big fan of reviews which have two or more games going against each other because i find in my occasions the games can't really be compared. Apples and oranges if you will.

Btw, i would stick to your release schedule. Many shows (tv and online) do this by recording, for example 5 episodes and THEN release them. This will give you 5 weeks (assuming you release weekly) to record and edit the next episode.

It looks like a very good show and I look forward to watching the first episode. The screenshots are very good, and good job on them!

EDIT: I'm sorry, but I spoke FAR too soon. Not to sound rude but I agree with all of the previous comments. It seems so much like you are reading off of a queue card and it was not well done at all. And I also agree with Chronic that the voices do sound higher. And another thing I found is that you guys are smiling FAR too much. Either you are high on something or you just won the lottery. I don't know which, but I would consider talking as if you were actually saying it, not if you were CBS news impersonators.

Overall I'm not impressed at all, but I hope you wont take the comments harshly. Try improving on things that people have mentioned for the next episode.

Lol, thanks for the suggestions guys.
Just for the record, My sister was trying to imitate Carrie Milbank from the Hockey Show. (look it up and you will have a good laugh at the similarities).

Yeah, I don't like reviews. What about making games?

I think making a game is beyond the scope of what this show has set out to provide.

Chronic is Right, my main goal for this show is to show people the latest news in a neat compiled way, interview members, and talk about games. Some parts are boring to some users and interesting to others, and thats ok. We may perhaps though do more new features in the future about members.

Tor creeped me out.

'Nuff said.

what about her creeped you out, so we can avoid that in the future?

Hmm, maybe these videos will give you an idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_jcmdHAvKc...re=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hd0re_I4o...re=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwtpUFINWoQ...re=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaSlqEptGpM...re=channel_page

I watched it to see what the fuss was all about. But I bailed out after a few minutes.

It was a good effort and Tore gave it her best. But her "enthusiasm" seemed very rehearsed and artificial. And I got the sense she wasn't really familiar with any of the GMC/YYG events she was reporting.

Maybe it would be better to get a reporter who's a GMC member and more familiar with the subject matter.

Yes, I like that idea.

True, true, but no one else would do it, does anyone want to volunteer?

Considering KC LC suggested it, Maybe she would like to do it.

Well, I pmed her once asking her to do an interview on GMVision (then called "GMCast") and she said somthing along the lines that she lived a very private personal life and did not feel comfortable being on camera, so I dbout that it is gonna happen

Something i forgot to mention about the reviews is how you commented on games not having unlockables. It was almost as if you were down rating the game because of it.

to a certain extent I did, but not much.
you see, I like games that you keep playing and more stuff appears, that you did not previously have.

But that makes your reviews unfair.

Perhaps we should take it out then?

If anyone has extensive ideas or suggestions then please add me on msn, ncpedrozas[at]aim[dot]com.

I don't think you should take it out, more along the lines of "improve" what you base your review on.

I felt the same way as KC, "tor" was all over the place, and essentially made me wait until she finished before listening or watching the show again, The interview with Larson was great and I hope to see more interviews like it. But you ruined my enjoyment factor when the death match came up, the reviews should have been more detailed and when describing something you should actually show us what your describing and not some loop of short gameplay footage from the game.

I hope things go better in episode 2, I'm sure you will improve the show for your next episode with all the constructive criticism.

Good Luck,

Sn1per~

We certainly will
thanks, we will do out best

-Caniac

Well, as a fly-by-night member of the GMVision Crew, I don't think it's overly fair for me to give an unbiased review of the first episode, but I will try my best irregardless. First off, I must publicly express my apologies (to both the team and LarsonCreativity) for being unable to perform the interview which I said I would be able to do. I do not feel like going into the specifics as to why I could not do it, but I just want to make it known that I plan on staying with the production team as long as they do not mind having me.

Now, onto the episode. To be honest, I thought the entire News section was a disaster. Specifically, "Tor"'s movements and 'rehearsed' speech (along with not looking directly at the camera) were so distracting and, in a way, annoying, that I had to skip through the rest of the section after a minute and a half of watching. That being said, I do not like to personally target a person, but her style of presentation does not fit with the camera, at least in the news aspect of a show.

As for the rest of the episode, it was so-so. It wasn't perfect, but it was not horrible. Some publications (both in audio/video and print formats) contain such bias from an untrained and uneducated review that it is sickening. While your reviews did have some rocky points (such as the 'unlockables' component, as Chronic mentioned before me), they were generally decent overall. But, that does not mean things couldn't be improved.

For the first episode of a show, I must admit I was somewhat taken aback at how well it actually played out. I know it took a while to get the actual episode out the door (over a month, and weeks after a trailer was released (which was not the best use of the team's time, I must admit)), but I hope that the GMVision team now has the knowledge and experience to get things done in a timelier manner, which can allow them to push out new and improved episodes in a shorter span of time.

The reason we made the trailer is because we couldn't do anything till the equipment came through the mail.

Thanks for the review on us Doc

We don't mind having you back, and fortunately we were able to get the episode out without Too much of a hassle, so I guess it's ok.
Like I said before, Yes, it is a disaster and I will work with Tor (and myself) on rehearsing scripts, and looking at the camera, but still keeping still, using a normal voice, etc. I was hoping for a better job on the reviews, but I had used up Most of my time with the other sections by this time, that I did all the reviews (script writing, filming, and recording) at 5:00 am, in one day. I Do have some ideas on how to present the reviews in a much cleaner format, that I am sure that users will like more.

Now that we have a few (even if it's only one or two) more people, we can distribute the work more evenly between us, and make a better production, and we will hopefully find a good release schedule and stick with it. Thanks for bearing with us there

-Caniac

@Jono,
that, and I wanted to get people excited. But we should have waited longer to release the trailer, (eg, till we had some actual video, and we should have waited till it was "perfect", not messed up as it is)

I didn't mean to imply that she was bad. She clearly put some effort into this. So let's not go too far here.

Rather than replace her, maybe a better solution is for her to get familiar with the news she's reporting by spending time on the GMC. Wait.. that's too cruel a punishment.

yes, thats too mean . I guess I will just get her to practice the lines a little bit more, and just have her read it every night for a few nights before we record. Same with me

Also maybe do two shoots, and send me the best one, and if there's best bits in both, send me both and I'll cut them together.

lol, more like 22 shoots .
but yeah, we both need to be more natural in front of the camera.

My experience is that rehearsing should either be a LOT or none at all. That is, you should either speak extemporaneously (without rehearsal), or you should rehearse a lot, to the point that it sounds extemporaneous.

Anything in between sounds scripted and artificial.

Remember: there's no substitute for sincerity. Once you learn how to fake that, you've got it made.

Lol, if you are faking sincerity, then it is not really sincerity

Nothing about this was good. Your reviews makes it obvious you have a somewhat poor taste in games, not because of the scores you give them, but because of your motivations. Thor needs to go back to Valhalla and ask Odin to teach her how to look into a camera when she's addressing it.

Sorry for being rude, but I think you guys are just wasting time with this. Both yours and others. I mean, twenty minutes? Come on. Aim for a condensed 3-5 minutes instead, and make it more entertaining to watch. If you're gonna embarrass yourselves, you might as well do it in an entertaining way. This is just prolonged misery.

Good luck with episode two

Like I said, we are working on it

Attention!
We have picked out a few games to review in episode #2, but if people want to suggest some, that would be fine too.
PS: We will do the reviews very differently this time

Also, if you want to help with the show, we can use any and almost all help, so send an email, with a description, what you're good at and why you think you should help to Caniac[at]gmvision[dot]tv.

-Caniac

Take the point system out of your reviews. "3.5" and "2" means nothing to me, especially as it's coming from one person. Numbers are weak descriptors. Also, avoid making the reviews sound listlike. Begin by describing the good/bad parts of the gameplay, then explain why.

And I agree with Cactus- shorten the episodes to 3-5 minutes and condense the information. If you want people to watch this all the way through, it must be short and entertaining.

Also (I'm just thinking of things as I write) the interview should have been spliced up. Answers tended to ramble. It got boring.

Good luck with the next episode.

that sounds good
I will do that then, and trust me, I have some other ideas for the other sections too.

I was thinking...

News section:
I think we will have the news announcer (tor in this case) talk a tiny bit about the story, and then we will have some one "cover" the story. (kind of like *real* news. We may possibly even have interviews mixed in, should this be possible, and if people like it.

reviews
I have thought out a better way to display it, but I can hint that I will be interacting with the reviews much more.
I will cut out the deathmatch and interviews (cause they will be in the news, but I still may occasionally include one) to make it shorter, but I will release more often.
Also,
GMVision will be releasing week, or bi-weekly "Mini" episodes, to crave peoples short-term wants for content, while other people put together long-term episodes, with more content.

The short term episodes will mainly consist of reviews, and Possibly interviews.

These won't be coming for a while because i am going to make a load then upload weekly.

This brings lots of lulz, never expected a Game Maker show....o.o

Its not the first, there have been many before this.