Do devs feel gratified from CG trailers and bullshots?
interpolator
Don't get me wrong. I think there can be a place for pre-rendered videos in gaming. But what I find annoying is when a game is first revealed and the footage shown is completely CG.
The problem with opening with CG is that it oversells the product, or gives it an expectation that the game will almost never live up to.
Now, I was watching this [ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FK8dgzW0o8"]trailer[/ame] for an upcoming PS4 game and while it's not gameplay, in the back of my head if I was developer for that game I would feel a sense of pride. I'd rather let people know that what looks impossible is actually possible to do. Especially since this is a next generation console where people are expecting it to perform better than last gen (PS3/360).
The same feeling applies to "bullshots". I don't see the need to touch up images with absurd amounts of anti-aliasing or down-sampling it from a really high resolution if it's not already there. People will eventually see the game for themselves and recognize immediately if posted press shots are indeed real or fake.
The problem with opening with CG is that it oversells the product, or gives it an expectation that the game will almost never live up to.
Now, I was watching this [ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FK8dgzW0o8"]trailer[/ame] for an upcoming PS4 game and while it's not gameplay, in the back of my head if I was developer for that game I would feel a sense of pride. I'd rather let people know that what looks impossible is actually possible to do. Especially since this is a next generation console where people are expecting it to perform better than last gen (PS3/360).The same feeling applies to "bullshots". I don't see the need to touch up images with absurd amounts of anti-aliasing or down-sampling it from a really high resolution if it's not already there. People will eventually see the game for themselves and recognize immediately if posted press shots are indeed real or fake.
Replies
Besides making the funding possible, a trailer also gives the team an idea of what they're collectively shooting for.
Incidentally, they can be used by the publisher as early marketing pieces. The game doesn't exist at this point, it's all buggy and ugly. So only CGI can represent what the EP/AD/CD thinks it will look like.
It's also not quick or easy at all to do neither content nor animation or rendering. And again, nowadays a game takes so long to develop that it's usually close to alpha by the time it gets announced with the trailer.
And there's a lot of attention payed to gameplay features vs. CGI content, too.
Im not sure bullshots are totally bad...maybe it just depends how much bull is in there and the motivation behind the bullshots. Look at the apple or google play app Stores for instance, on the app stores people often judge your game by screenshots alone! so Im not surprised if theres a little bit of bullshot going on in those images as they are core marketing material even though they are meant to be screenshots of the app.
Aside from the Trailer showing a visual style that is nothing like the game, i think it's a lot more annoying if the trailer is showing stuff that the game won't deliever on. Like Knight of the Old Republic (the MMORPG). Trailer and actual game differed vastly in how battles felt like.
A shameless thing is what some devs do with their ingame screens with such evident post-productions and fake effects that are not in game. Promises..
Anyways, i love to see cool cgs with scanned guys :P
dunno but I really like CG trailer,
good cg trailer compliment to the game itself. like starcraft trailer. or batman arkham city trailer.
I also don't mind live action.
maybe my eyes has been trained/tolerate enough not to think that they are trying to deceive me.
or perhaps Im coming from ps one era where I never compare CG to gameplay.
I don't get some people thinking all promotional d
but as a person looking to purchase a game id rather see actual gameplay too :P that 12-minute destiny trailer is amazing.
Honestly however, most of the time I noticed games that try and bullshot 'fully', kinda like the Dead Island videos, they always come out the most mediocre of the bunch, those would have to be the ones to be wary of, at least WoW videos show you what your adventure is going to entail.
But... but... there's so many good trailers...
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deus ex ( square enix cinematic team)
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star craft 2 ( made by internal blizzard cinematic team)
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batman arkham city ( blur studio)
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i really hope too all will be in game engime in the future,
but cinematic need some serious talents, who know good cinematic , camera works, etc that actually make great impact in 1-3 minute debut teaser video.
it is different for game developer even for experienced game artist.
Thats how i feel too. But when the Star Wars MMO Trailer came out everyone was nuts, eventhough it was pretty clear NOTHING from the trailer will be in the game. The game will play absolutly the same as every other MMO (as you described rather fittingly).
Thats how i feel about CG Trailer and a lot of CG in Games anyway. Like why do Square bother? Modern Engines can prdouce a lot and CG can rip one out of the immersion.
That trailer actually showed things that you could do in game. Gliding down to attack an enemy, using the grapple to disarm,engaging multiple enemies, breaking through walls to catch enemies off guard were in the trailer and all showed up in game.
Even when it's pure fluff though it's still pretty to look at.