Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Gameplay videos
It is important to have a video displaying the key elements of your game, in other
words,tohaveavideotrailer.Theeasiestwaytodothisisbyinstallingscreencapture
software on your main workstation and grabbing video from your game prototype. You
will get the video file with the correct colors and without any geometric distortions. But
there is a special problem caused by the fact that mobile games have no screen curs-
ors: input is based on finger touches. So, the video grabbed from the prototype has
no element focusing on the user's eye on a specified part of the screen. This can be a
problem because the video may look unclear. You need to introduce a graphic image
of a hand (or an arrow) to fix this; the image will play the role of pointer; it will simulate
player interaction with the game world. It is better to use simple and flat illustration,
without any complicated gradients, tiny details, and so on. You have to import that im-
age into video-editing software and adjust its positions; it will require minimum skill in
animation (the pointer should hover over the screen from one point to another). There
should be an effect for click or touch; for example, for a multi pointed star, the effect
will appear for a few moments behind the pointer.
The following figure shows the simplest light box, only a box with white walls:
The more creative and interesting way to make a video is to shoot the actual device
(an iPhone or an iPad) with the hands of a real player touching the screen. It looks
more authentic than the screen-capture method, but it has some pitfalls too. In most
situations, people take a camera, put an iPhone on a table, start the game and be-
gin shooting uncomfortably holding the camera by a free hand. A result generally is
far from perfect: the image is shaky, it is dark and blurry, and the colors are distor-
ted. And the most important point: the skin tone of the hand looks terrible. A viewer
