Sneak peak of Kill Your Friends, and I need your help
Added 2021-02-28 15:59:17 +0000 UTCSo I've been hard at work editing the first pilot episode of Kill Your Friends, a gaming series on my channel that I hope to continue in the future. The edit is taking a while because there's a lot of fiddly stuff to do, but I want some feedback from you. My goal with this video series is to portray the friendships that are cultivated through games while also explaining the game and giving some minor tactical insight all the while not boring you. I'd love for you to read the section below here, imagining that it would be in the video before this segment. Obviously because you're reading and not seeing a video, there are visual aids which are mostly player cards. I've uploaded those here so you can look at them so the rest of the script makes sense. Then, watch the video clip and let me know a few things:
1. Did you get bored or are you enjoying the video?
2. Is the pace too fast?
3. This is only the first player's activation of the first turn. There are 5 turns and 12 total players. The run length of this video could be very long (I plan to zoom through some turns that are less exciting). Would a video that's 45min - 1hr be too much?
READ FIRST
This is guildball. It’s a 2 player game wherein both players control a team of 6 miniatures. On your team you have 4 regular players, referred to as squaddies, a mascot, and a captain. The objective of the game is to score 12 victory points before your opponent. You can get victory points in one of two ways either by scoring a goal which gets you 4, or taking someone out which nets you 2. A typical turn looks something like this: players alternate assigning influence to their entire team. Once influence is assigned, each player alternates back and forth activating one player at a time in a chess-like fashion until every player has gone. Influence is a type of currency that you use to do certain actions like sprinting, kicking or passing the ball, character plays which are kind of like spells, and of course, murdering your enemy. There are also actions that don’t require any influence at all. Let’s run through a passing and an attacking example right now. Let’s say skulk has the ball and he wants to pass it to Obulus. First, we need to look at Skulk’s kick stat which states that he’s a 3/6”. The distance value is how far he can pass the ball, meaning Obulus needs to be within 6” to even consider getting a pass, which he is. The other value of 3 refers to how many dice Skulk can roll when making his pass, in this case, 3. With 3 dice I need at least one 4+ to nail my shot and then Obulus gets the ball, easy peasy. This is referred to as a TN test, or Target Number test, the target number in the case of passing always being 4+. Various factors like intervening foes, or being on fire, can often make this pass harder or easier to accomplish. Onto murderizing my foes. Let’s say Graves want’s to send Brisket here to an early Grave, hehehehehe. To attack someone in Guildball, you need them to be in your melee range which is stated on the back of your card. Once you’re in range, you roll dice equal to your TAC stat on your player’s card. The value you’re looking to roll higher than is your opponent's defense score, which in this case, is a 4+. You roll your dice, find all your 4+ results and then remove a successful role for each point of armor your opponent has, in this case, 1. These are my net successes. Now, examine your player card playbook results. Each column of circles represents 1 success. Because I have 3 net successes I can pick any one result in the first 3 columns. These symbols and letters represent all sorts of actions like damage, dodging, pushing, tackling the ball, and more. No one character has the same playbook, they all vary.
That’s enough rule chat for now, we’ll discuss further mechanics as we discover them in game. For now, let’s check out the teams that are struggling for soccer superiority.
EDIT: Also, the audio has not been treated yet, so Jon is a little louder than me.
Comments
1. i have ZERO interest in soccer, or blood bowl... and i was bummed when the video ended... i was not at all bored. 2. Pace seemed right. even a slow reader like me had time to read the pop up video captions ;) 3. I might get lost in an hour long video. 45 would be ok if it stays the pace.
2021-03-06 08:14:25 +0000 UTCI enjoyed it quite a bit. Great editing and presentation with the "director interviews" and pop-up notes. I did not think the pace was too fast, felt like it kept going to avoid being too much downtime and potential to lose interest. I would definitely watch an hour long video, but it wouldn't be immediate. Would most likely be a weekend or late at night when I have time. Another option I've seen a couple other youtubers take, is dividing up longer videos into multiple parts. I believe this helps with the algorithm selecting against hour long plus videos. Excited to see what comes of it!
2021-03-03 04:31:14 +0000 UTCI was enjoying the video so got bummed when it ended.. I think the text bubbles could stay up a little longer as they I couldn’t read and comprehend them in time. I think instead of the cards showing a zoom in on the stat line or rule would be easier I watched this on an iPad Pro and couldn’t read the cards at all. Otherwise the production quality is awesome and I am really looking forward to the completed video
Donny Rongo
2021-03-02 14:16:39 +0000 UTCI really liked it but I have played GB so it may be more relevant to me. As a general rule I like the idea of seeing the models used for their intended purpose and not just the painting. Well, mainly I like the painting but this was a nice diversion. Would watch more of these.
Jesse Newhouse
2021-03-01 21:23:56 +0000 UTC1. I didn't get bored watching the video. I think what sets this apart from other battle report videos that I've seen is the talking head bits where you and Jon drop a little strategy on us. Those parts are really fun and insightful because you get some of the psychology of the game you don't often get exposed to. I liked the pop-up video vibes that I'm getting from the way you're cutting in the cards and rules and things. Also the set you made is wonderful, the chalkboard and the sword shoes and ball are very funny set dressing. 2. I think the pacing is good. Any slower and I think it would take too long to get through the game, and any faster it would be hard to follow. I agree with other comments about pausing to read (I found things would be disappear before I finished reading them). Also agree with the previous comment about some of the text overlays needing a white outline or something so they don't get lost in the background. 3. I think 45-60 minute long videos on youtube are really long, and you're probably going to have alot of drop off. But I think a lot of people would enjoy them. My guess is that for the time you need to spend to make these you probably aren't going to get the viewership of your shorter more succinct videos. Overall, I love that you're trying to diversify your content and as an enthusiastic patron I am here for it!! :-) PS. If you can see that I edited this comment like 10 times its because I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to push shift+enter for paragraph breaks.
2021-03-01 15:24:01 +0000 UTCTook some notes as I watched. Obviously if any of this is a result of the video being in a draft form feel free to ignore. I’ve given notes on suggested “fixes” though I assume you have better taste in editing than myself so, as always, do your own thing. - The highlight on card stats does not stand out enough and is probably much to small for mobile. Perhaps show the whole card only very briefly (like .2 seconds), then zoom into the relevant stat line? Or just show the card art with the relevant stat line. Both sound like more editing, sry. - When there is a significant amount of text on the screen I get a slight spike of anxiety because I don’t know if I need to pause or not. My finding thus far is that I can just complete a read and the text goes away as I consider my understanding of what I’ve just read. So I need to pause if there is any concept that I need to think about for more than a sec. Perhaps reading the text instead? I think you can read this part fairly quickly without losing anyone. - Along similar lines, some of the text can likely be more terse. Kill your darlings and all that jazz. “Momentum is another form of currency, like influence, in Guildball. You gain it when you do Cool things like successful passes, taking an opponent out scoring a goal, or when selecting playbook results that are filled in with color when making an attack. It is used fora lot of stuff in Guildball, which we’ll see in the future.” Can become: “Momentum is another form of currency. You gain it when you do cool things like successful passes, taking an opponent out, scoring a goal, or certain fancy attacks. Momentum has many uses which we’ll see in the future.” As viewers are unlikely to watch in order to learn the rules, I don’t know that you need to use specific keyword terms and can instead edit for gist of meaning over technical specifics. - Creators should create the content they want for the audience they want so again, grain of salt. I worry that the ball talk may reify worries that some viewers could have with respect to the hobby’s openness to them. Are the players all male? Do you care? Again, it’s your call. - At 6:45 where you bring up Obulus’s card in order to provide the text of Unpredictable Movement, I believe viewers may be better served by just placing that text on the screen. It’s quite small. - To answer your actual questions: - I enjoyed the video. The pace was not too quick. I find it very difficult to say whether a 1hr run time would be too long. I get the feeling that the banter is actually what I’m watching for. This could be a positive or negative. Maybe that means you’re succeeding at one of the stated goals, to “portray the friendships that are cultivated through games”. On the other hand is it a bad sign that you’ll need to find a cast for what is essentially a “just chatting” show?
Wesley Walser
2021-03-01 03:27:48 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed this video and would definitely watch more. I agree with all the comments above and the only thing I could think to add is maybe a quick showcase of the miniatures before the game starts. I look forward to seeing more of this kind of content. P.S. laughed way to hard at the seeing John's balls joke.
adam Kissinger
2021-03-01 01:20:12 +0000 UTCHey Scott, I was very entertained by what I saw despite not knowing the rules to Guild Ball. I had a bit of trouble keeping track of what was happening/what the intent of the actions taken was, but I can say for sure I wasn’t bored. One thing that I think would be helpful for gaining a better idea of the rules is to have the model and/or the character sheet visible more frequently and in a more readable way. Like when Jon is talking about Brisket near the start, I would love to have the character sheet up in that moment so I can see more of what he’s talking about. I would also be interested in seeing some sort of banner like in soccer and football that displays the score, the turn, the phase, etc. I think it would be helpful in unconsciously seeing progress even if someone isn’t actively watching every second of a longer form video. All in all I think this was really cool and I’m excited to see where it ends up and where this series goes over time. I think more of this form of cinematic/edited content is needed in the gameplay side of our hobby and I think you have a great vision to try that out.
Avery Ryan
2021-03-01 01:11:04 +0000 UTCI appreciate the feedback!
2021-02-28 22:52:13 +0000 UTCWe'll add in some pre-strategy talk for sure!
2021-02-28 22:52:03 +0000 UTCThank you for the feedback, gomez!
2021-02-28 22:51:50 +0000 UTCI enjoyed the video. I wasn't bored and was wanting more. I like the mix of game play, friendly chat, POV's, minor rule explanations. I am jealous of your set. I'm leaving to go hang a claymore in my game room.
2021-02-28 20:03:38 +0000 UTCI started this hobby about Fall of 2019 or so. I bought my first army, and wanted to play in an escalation league. Then covid came, so I never got to play a game yet. As someone who has tried to watch battle reports to only go crosseyed in minutes and not understand what I'm looking at I must say within the first two minutes the overlays, the pop ups, everything explaining the basics on top was perfect. The commentary from the player perspective of what they were thinking is perfect. To me this is the same quality as Tabletop with Wil Wheaton was before it vanished. It looks like a ton of work but this is an excellent way to introduce and keep you invested as someone plays something that is a lot of internal thoughts and dice rolling. But the pop ups of the cards, the rule being used, all that was super valuable and I would very much enjoy watching more. That said, looks like a ton of work so don't burn yourself out doing it either.
Tom Boucher
2021-02-28 20:00:41 +0000 UTCI like the way the layout is set up and how you go in depth for each action that is taken with info on the screen, I've never played guild ball so I wasn't familiar with the rules, but this looks like it would work great for warcry or underworlds as they are similar sized games, not sure how you would approach AOS or 40k though. Anyways great work as always!
2021-02-28 19:36:48 +0000 UTCThis is great. Agree with some of the others that seeing guildball is fun but figuring you can’t really buy it anymore seems kind of like a bummer. I’d love to see this same format with wh:Underworlds or warcry/kill team.
2021-02-28 19:08:09 +0000 UTCI generally never find your videos boring, but I always find gameplay videos boring (every game ever, even my favorites). This is boring to me, but take it with a grain of salt.
2021-02-28 19:07:38 +0000 UTC-I like the in game smack talk. - A cliff notes explanation of what your team wants to do would be helpful before the gameplay, because then when you do something that synergies with your game plan, you just have to explain the interaction with the game plan. You did one thing and then Jon did a whole bunch of things, I am a little lost on what is actually happening. - On the end of turn you could probably cut to a brief summery of the activation I am not sure if the same approach would work mid turn. - Overall i wasn't bored, but i was lost because of the lack of context to the plays. - I feel like 45 minutes to an hour is pretty reasonable for this type of video. The Command Zone has a series where they take a game of commander, which takes about 2-3 hours and trims it down into a reality show that is between 1.5-2 hours with beginning middle and end presenter commentary.
jackthemayor
2021-02-28 18:55:05 +0000 UTCHey Papa, neat video! I really dig the idea and the structure. My suggestions / observations are: - In the texts that indicate something, try to use a different color and bevel effect to create a distinction between a Number, an specific rule and more. Create more contrast for these. - Indicate the phase of the game / Turn of the player (Top Corner Left x example) - Add something to reflect the movement or action your doing: If movemnt, arrow with an simple animation or else, as you did with the angles. Even a closeup can help. - Pasing is good! but I think add a moment for a 3° person can help to diferenate who explain the rules, give more breath time to process the info: What is going on for example, and create the entity who interviews you and jon to make it more structured and increase a more fun flow of the pacing. - Your take during the interview should be flipped, to respect the position you are as Jon. (You in the left during the interview and Jon in the right). - Suggest to check the videos of W40K and Star Wars Legion / X-Wing to "check" ideas in how to organize the info or show it. I know is not a tutorial, but maybe can help to deliever some info for those who maybe want to learn / motivate to play guildball
Guillermo Gómez Zará
2021-02-28 18:52:47 +0000 UTCI'm the same way, I'd just pause the video! I'm trying to strike a balance right in the middle. Thanks for the feedback!
2021-02-28 17:09:19 +0000 UTCExcellent feedback, thank you! Are all the player cards too small to read?
2021-02-28 17:08:54 +0000 UTC- 1&2: The pacing feels good, there's just enough rules explanation to get a good grasp of what's happening, and enough banter to be entertaining. - 3: honestly 45Min to 1h feels like the standard lenght for that kind of skirmish game Couple more remarks/ideas: - I think having goofy esport player intros could be a nice touch for future iterations. - Some of the graphics (especially the influence recap) would maybe need a flat background to be better legible, the black and purple kinda melded in the background footage here - the character card was too small to read, but the rule snippets were fine
2021-02-28 17:07:10 +0000 UTCI would say it was too fast for me but thinking about the pacing of the vid I would take that back. I'm the type of viewer that would just pause the video if I wanted to fully read the info on the cards used. I was not bored (mainly because of the jokes.) and the atmosphere was kept light enough that it had me smiling. More of this is needed plz. Editing would be a chore for a battle report (assuming your point value is high). Good luck but I loved it!
Fizz of Insanity
2021-02-28 16:52:41 +0000 UTCYeah! Definitely want to show off the painted miniatures in more detail.
2021-02-28 16:39:54 +0000 UTCVery well done and edited, Overlay is fantastic, and the testimonial is a great addition, gives it a Tactica feel to it. your interactions are always great and you can really tell the friendship there is a long one.
Paul Curtis
2021-02-28 16:35:36 +0000 UTCDefinitely enjoying the video, the cutaways to you and Jon help my to understand what is going on and keeps me invested in what happens to y'all even though I don't have an interest in guild ball. Pace is good, but leave some of the text up a little longer or shorten it? Also a little intro showing the minis and their names might help. Definitely wouldn't be too long for my taste, but I usually like longer stuff in general.
dc
2021-02-28 16:35:31 +0000 UTC
