Equilinox Trailer Feedback

Hi Karl, long-time follower/patreon here; first off, a massive congratulations and compliments for getting to this point - it has been an absolute joy to follow you as a developer over the past few years :) That said, whilst I think this trailer is good/appropriete for your fans/followers, it might be less attractive/encaging/clear/motivating to people who are not yet familiar with the game. I recommend you try to ask feedback from people who do not yet know the game for the next iteration of the trailer, as these form the main demographic you (probably) want to appeal to / motivate to get the game. We don't need to be convinced by a trailer to get Equilinox; the trailer is aimed towards them. Following that train of thought, I think the trailer should be targeted towards the people who do not know the game. Less is more in this regards; UI/numbers/statistics tend to confuse rather than engage when shown in trailers. Again, I like the trailer, but I say that with the footnote that I am not the demographic you want to convince to get your game. I wish you all the best with the publication of your game :)

Hi! I feel like the trailer is a bit too much focused on the features of the game, instead of what the experience will feel like. It shows a lot of complicated UIs that we have no time to understand, and it makes the game look very complicated. I would personnaly prefer something that emphasize on the peaceful athmosphere and that takes more time to show the beautiful environments. Keep up the good work and I wish you the best for the game launch!

Hi Karl, I'm sorry to say I don't like it. I think it's kind of boring. It's too focused on listing mechanics and not enough on the feel of playing the game. But that's not much use, so here are some things I would change which I think would improve it: 1. I think it needs a voice over. I appreciate you might not want to add one so you can localise it easily but I think it'd be worth paying non-English voice talent for. Heck, you might even be able to get it for free from your many loyal followers. Adding a voice over would let you explain the game much better and make the trailer much more impactful than just displaying a few words off the screen. Two of my favourite trailers for Indie games I've purchased recently are the ones for Getting Over It with Bennett Foggy and Heat Signature: and they're both trailers that are totally reliant on the voice over to make them engaging. Now, it's true that AAA title trailers mostly aren't doing this (I've just watched the trailers for Just Cause 3, The Witcher 3, and Total Warhammer to check) but they (a) have stunning AAA quality graphics that Indie Devs can't compete with, (b) have gameplay that buyers are already familiar with, and (c) intersperse pseudo-game clips with quotes and awards from game journalists that you don't have (yet!). 2. You need to explain your game much faster. You've got 20 seconds top to draw me in. The first 6 or 7 seconds are spent on an indulgent intro giving the feeling of a relaxed, zen-like experience. I like this, but you need to follow it up with something punchy. Instead most of the next ten seconds is spent placing rocks and trees in the world. That's something that a million games have, and while the text says "create your own ecosystem" the footage doesn't really explain how placing some rocks is doing that. I would move your Create-Nurture-Evolve to the front. Voice over "Create your own ecosystem" with 3-4 seconds of placing different things, "Nurture it and watch it grow" over footage similar to that you already have for "Simulated Life Cycles" and then "Evolve New Species" over footage of, er, doing that. After that first second 20 seconds you can expand on tasks and stuff but I think you should actually aim for less than a minute in total for this trailer, which brings me to the next point: 3. I think you should consider make a more gameplay focused second trailer, perhaps 3-4 minutes long, with highlights of you playing the game and, of course, more voice over. Use the first trailer to wet their appetite and the second to reel them in. Because Equilinox is a novel kind of game, you need to explain it more to new players than if you've banged out another FPS. 4. You don't need to list numbers of biome and species, etc. Your footage already shows off real depth to the game. Listing numbers is meaningless to me if I don't already know about your game, and it looks like you having nothing more engaging to show me. Sorry I couldn't be more positive. I hope this helps and, whether you take my advice or not, I wish you great luck with the launch.

Dr Jack

I think it looks really good! The music did end a bit abruptly, but honestly that's the biggest thing that stood out to me. It's really awesome to see how far the game has come since I started supporting it! I'm glad I've had the chance to support this journey in some small way :)

I love the idea of the "Grand Gesture". Maybe at the end you could fade into the title and not scroll the background. Also, you probably do not need the click noises. Other than that this is epic man! Good work :)

Great Work! A few things I agree with the crossfading. Maybe I would try having the music start soft and grow and then at the end a sound to bring in the equilinox logo like a grand gesture of some sort.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll give it a try with the fading. The only worry I have is that it would kind of shorten the clips even more, seeing as the first and last part of the clip would be taken up by the fade-in/fade-out.

ThinMatrix

To me some of the cuts look a bit abrupt (in general the video feels a bit rushed, but I see how that is necessary to keep the trailer short). Maybe you could try to make it just a tiny bit smoother by adding in just a little bit of crossfading between some of the major segments. Would have to see if that works out well.

arch1t3cht30

Thank you very much! I'm very glad to hear that you like it :)

ThinMatrix

So I started watching this video imagining myself discovering and viewing it in the Steam Store, and I got to say it is very well put together. The Game was presented very well; features, environment and user experience in an attractive way. It was nicely concise and you've managed to have my attention to the end. Its a game I'd follow and put on my wish list (Which is important), if I don't buy it right away. This is based on my first look, Gamers tend to watch it multiple times to see if the game still appeals to them because they are deciding which game to start playing first. I'll be looking at it again and again in the future.

Amean Abdelfattah

Hi Karl, Maybe it would be nice to include the release date, and maybe a URL link to where one can buy the game? Very useful if the video is shared externally. For the rest I really like the trailer! I have been following you for a while and I can't wait for release.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I'll see if I can change that :)

ThinMatrix

The only thing that felt weird to me in the video was how the music almost seemed to just stop at the end.

Xaeyr

Well done! I love how you showed the different seasons and biomes 🙂

Xaeyr