Saphire as the poster boy for Steam launch?

General discussion about anything related to Transcendence.
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Hmmm...
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neogoliath
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Regarding the poster for the first velocity, you got to remember that was back when of gaming was in its infancy, and the standards for game marketing had lower standards. By now the bar has raised. Look at modern advertisements, they show guns blazing for games with a heavy combat element, containers being loaded if the game has a trading element, several star systems in alliance colors if the game is about empire management, and so on.
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Song
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Eurgh. Frankly, I think the game's marketing material is good enough for the purpose. Transcendence really doesn't compare with many other games, so copying their ads isn't gonna do many favours. The bigger trick is getting people to actually see the game, either through ad placement, or from attracting coverage from press/youtubers. Transcendence faces the problem that because it's fairly unusual, it's somewhat hard to describe. Especially since "roguelike" has been watered down so much in the market that it tends not to be believed. But this is ultimately more an issue of substance, rather than of the postership for the game. But even on that note....

The sapphire is about the most iconic ship in the game. It's unique, elegant, and while there aren't many other ships in the game that look like it...that's good*. Maybe a slighty re-render at some point to up details or whatever, but given that George's truespace models warp spacetime around them and consume 1d6 investigators per round if you try loading them on anything that can't handle massive 3D model abuse, I'm dubious that there's much extra detail that could be added (besides maybe some unique textures for promo stuff to up the detail level on larger renders).

I think the next big opportunity for marketing Transcendence is when CSC America is launched (including trying to get some pre-launch coverage). If CSC-A is stable, fun, and marketed well enough to get some attention (and finished, without stuff going unfinished/unbalanced to meet the launch date *cough*Parts of Eternity Port), it can maybe be used to get peeps into the rest of the universe as well. True RTS games are not entirely common these days (certainly not as they used to be), so launching a solid product might be able to get some press....which is always good, even if the effect is fleeting. Other than that, a nice steady approach is probably best. The only really vital thing to do is not screw up. A bad advert campaign (yes, I am referring to the Kate Morgenboobs idea**) or a bad launch for CSC America could seriously damage the potential to grow the game.


*Although I would support more yachts turning up in the game. More pretty ships are always good, and the last two extensions have trended towards rather blocky playerships.... a nice large luxury cruiser by Zubrin would make a nice later-game playership if the "start halfway" idea gets added later, and make for prettier background traffic.
** Also, more pragmatically, I really do not want to see Uncanny Valley stuff in Transcendence. Plus at least have Decker in a mankini as well***, if we're going down the shameless and tasteless fanservice route.
*** Hey, at least I'm not suggesting the Teraton fabricator.
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We should keep the sapphire design, but the poster could be different, I'm not sure how, but I'd be very sad if this game fell into the sexy mascot for moar clicks category.
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Atarlost
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If we are going to get eye candy I'd suggest both Decker and Helios in snappy uniforms glaring at each other across a CSC bridge. Both should be fit and in their apparent thirties or forties depending on how good CW medicine is supposed to be. Old enough to have gravitas but young enough to look good on a poster.
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Atarlost wrote:If we are going to get eye candy I'd suggest both Decker and Helios in snappy uniforms glaring at each other across a CSC bridge. Both should be fit and in their apparent thirties or forties depending on how good CW medicine is supposed to be. Old enough to have gravitas but young enough to look good on a poster.
The majority of gameplay is in dogfighting between ships, and some of the effects in the game are downright spectacular. I'd say that an eye catching screenshot(or perhaps a .gif of several) would be the best means of attracting new players.

As an individual, I can honestly say that if a game's thumbnail or advertisement features actual gameplay, I'm much more likely to give it a shot. Indeed, a screenshot of a dogfight was what originally brought me to Transcendence. On the other side, if an advert is a picture of some characters, many potential players might be too jaded by stock MMOs that rely on art over gameplay to even look twice at it.

The current advert is clean and nice looking, but is unlikely to catch the eye of someone who hasn't played before, and the Sapphire doesn't really look like a warship or trader, the two most attractive portions of the game.
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The Wolfen's pretty sleek and it was what first caught my eye (it was the cover art on the site where I found it). For a poster, stick Decker and Helios as described in the bottom corners and have the center focus be the wolfen in a dogfight with something scary-looking (Ranx, maybe?) and have the sapphire and freighter somehow worked into the sides with the Transcendence logo/icon in the top-center.
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Perhaps, if we need something that really catches the eyes: We have the Iocrym Sentinels. They looks very cool, at least for me.

I would advise against using these ships in advertisements:

The Phobos. It is iconic, yes. And looks very cool. But I think it'll be better to leave the Phobos a surprise for those who actually get that far. The first time you see a Phobos, it makes much more impression if it's flying to you shooting big plasma guns.

The ICS. This is pretty obvious, I think. The final boss of part I should be kept a surprise until one actually reaches it.

The Worldship. Again, it'd make much more impression if the first time you see it, you see it flying about the system killing CW, with a fleet around it. You can maybe use the Ark. By the time one see the Ark one'd already be bored by the worldships, probably. And the Ark isn't much more than a stronger version of the Worldship.
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Song
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Hmm. I don't know how well Truespace can render it, but a battlescape in 3D could be nice. Especially for when it's time to market CSC America. Having the defensive guns of a carrier blazing away could be rather pretty. But it does depend on the limitations of the program.
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JohnBWatson
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Shrike wrote:Hmm. I don't know how well Truespace can render it, but a battlescape in 3D could be nice. Especially for when it's time to market CSC America. Having the defensive guns of a carrier blazing away could be rather pretty. But it does depend on the limitations of the program.
The models are designed for 2D, and don't look quite as pretty in 3D. If that could be worked around, however, it might work well.
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JohnBWatson wrote:
Shrike wrote:Hmm. I don't know how well Truespace can render it, but a battlescape in 3D could be nice. Especially for when it's time to market CSC America. Having the defensive guns of a carrier blazing away could be rather pretty. But it does depend on the limitations of the program.
The models are designed for 2D, and don't look quite as pretty in 3D. If that could be worked around, however, it might work well.
It would take some fine tuning, but look at how the Spartan looks in the EP intro.
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Atarlost
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CSCs look good form any "above" angle. Most capital ships look good from any angle. The playerships look good from any angle. It's the non-player gunships that are too flat. Ranx gunships, Britannias, Tundras, and Sandstorms are okay, though. I think the pirate/marauder gunships may be as well. You can make a battle scene out of those.
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StealthX051
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To be honest, CSC's are pretty flat. As most of the ships were designed to be 2D, a lot of the ships are pretty flat. The sung gunships aren't half bad, but their cyberwarfare ship is pretty boring and flat.
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CSC's are getting redone to be not-flat
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