I was going to start contacting Youtube channels about the campaign. But I think for the YouTube audience, we need a different trailer. It needs to show off more about how Sonic 3 Remastered would be different from emulation. I was thinking about asking people to film themselves stating why they like the previous remasters. The clip would consist of quick 1-line reasons that had footage from the previous games. It would then end by showing Sonic 3 Remastered. I have a script below. The items with an asterisk might have to be cleared with Taxman and Stealth as they could send the wrong message to Sega. But it's not a rigid script. Ideally, I'd like submissions to be organic and come up with things I have not thought of. It should have plenty of personality and enthusiasm. If there is enough demand, we could hold a little contest for submissions. Ideally the whole video should be 20 to 40 seconds, so a lot of stuff would have to be cut out. The quick shots would only be on screen for a second. We could also do different language versions. Any thoughts? Announcer: What do you like about Sonic CD, 1 & 2 Remastered? Person 1: I like the Widescreen Graphics, it's a whole new view! [Quick shot of Sonic 1 Spring Yard Boss] Person 2: I like flying as Tails in Sonic CD! [Quick shot of Tails flying in the Metal Sonic Race] Person 3: I like playing as Knuckles in Sonic 1 and finding new routes! [Quick shot of Knuckles gliding in Marble Zone exclusive path] Person 4: I like the extra 2P Zones! No one can beat me in Chemical Plant! [Quick shot of Chemical Plant 2P] Person 5: I like playing 2P mode online with people all over the world. No one can beat me in Chemical Plant! [Quick shot of Chemical Plant 2P] Person 6: I like the lost Hidden Palace Zone that was deleted from the original! [Quick shot of Hidden Palace] Person 7: I like the save mode & level select! [Quick shot of Save Mode] Person 8: I like the different box arts! [Quick shot of Box art] Person 9: I like the secret Chaos Emerald stage in Sonic 1! [Quick shot of Special Stage 7] Person 10: And if you get the 7th Emerald, you can go Super Sonic! [Quick shot of Super Sonic in Green Hill] Person 11: Or Super Knuckles [Quick shot of Super Knuckles in Marble Zone] Person 12: Or even Super Tails [Quick shot of Super Tails in Spring Yard] Person 13: I like the secret Chaos Emerald stage in Sonic 2! [Quick shot of Special Stage 7] Person 14: I like playing as Sonic & Tails in Sonic 1! Fly Sonic, Fly Sonic! [Quick shot of Tails air lifting Sonic] Person 15: I like playing as Knuckles & Tails in Sonic 1! Fly Knuckles, Fly Knuckles! [Quick shot of Tails air lifting Knuckles] Person 16: I like the secret shield mode! [Quick shots of the different shields] Person 16: I like the secret objects! [Quick shots of the different debug extras] Announcer: What would you like Sega to do next? Person 1: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype - Title Screen] Person 2: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! And make it on consoles. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype - Mock up on Consoles] Person 3: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! And make it on PC. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype - Mock up on Steam] Person 4: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! And make the 2P stages in to full levels*. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype - Mock up of 2P Mode] Person 5: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! And include Blue Spheres 2*. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype - Blue Spheres] Person 6: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! And include Online 2 Player. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype] Person 7: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! And make Sonic 3 & Sonic & Knuckles into one game! [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype ] Person 8: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! You can change the music. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype] Person 9: Make Sonic 3 Remastered! Take my Money Now!!. [Quick Shot of Sonic 3 Prototype]
Honestly, all of the dialogue there is incredibly cringe-worthy and would probably cause people to make fun of the petition rather than support it. Trying to make it so as if people are "complaining" throughout the video like that would just come across as fake and badly done. The video that's there already shows the differences well enough.
Yeah just.. no. Very big no to that. If you want people to take this in any way seriously, do not use that.
Yes, on reflection, I forgot about the ridicule factor, especially on YouTube comments!! If the existing video is good enough, then I'll just email some of the popular Youtube Channels and let them know about the campaign. Hopefully we might get some extra signatures.
Regarding the potential Hydrocity themed second video there's nothing stopping us from faking it? By that I mean instead of shooting footage of a new build that Stealth has said he currently doesn't have the time and resources to work on we could just use emulated footage. Surely emulated footage of Sonic 3 is going to be near identical to Retro engine footage? Not a hundred percent the same of course but near enough. I think this second video idea is a really good one to the point that I think producing one could boost our campaign. We need a second push and a new video would be instrumental in forcing one. Just throwing out ideas here but at this juncture I think we need a second video. By the way turns out one of the writers for GamesTM has an account on GAF. Just PMed him asking for press coverage. I'll keep you guys updated.
Sorry, but that's a bad idea. Doesn't matter if it's nearly the same or not, if someone looked at that and saw that it wasn't actual footage (even if you put a disclaimer somewhere on the video) it loses credibility, which is the issue we're dealing with now. The campaign needs to be beyond reproach because a lot of gamers (and especially the ones that comment on Youtube) will just hammer that it's fake, that there's barely any done, and if worse comes to worst, start questioning whether the footage in the original video is emulated or not. No, it's not rational, but neither is a lot of the Sonic haters; they don't need much to deflate the argument. Stick to our guns, just continue pushing Youtubers to pick up the story. Maybe we can gift game keys for the existing Sonic CD, Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 to Youtubers along with the video to help sweeten the deal. We're not asking for a review, so such a practice isn't an issue; when we've boiled it down, we're offering compensation for advertisement.
I really, really think that you should not do this. Aside from dealing with whatever SEGA might have to say to me and Taxman about it, it's just plain dishonest, and we don't need more reasons for people to ignore the campaign
Okay. My bad. I was just throwing the idea out there. Not suggesting that we immediately subscribe to the idea. If the members here think it's dishonest and not constructive to the campaign then obviously we don't have to adhere to it. I respect Stealth's opinion a lot when it comes to this so if he's saying it's not a good idea then I suggest we follow his advice which has been profoundly helpful throughout the duration of this thread and campaign. To be honest I think the current video we have (which is genuinely based on Stealth and Taxman's real and honest work) is decent enough as is; I think the obstruction comes in the form of just not enough people seeing it yet. Imagine if for example the video had become a viral hit and had 500K views. It's highly likely we'd be in a much stronger and very different position right now. I'm also glad we're going back and forth with some new ideas because it's injecting some new energy in to the campaign and we're now getting a stronger idea of where to go from here. I say we focus our attention on pushing the current video then. It's strong, solid and uses honest footage and thus pushing it might breathe new life in to the campaign.
I've seen a few comments about people assuming these are just fancy versions of the roms. Why not get someone to do an article or video showing differences between Sonic 1/2/CD and their remastered versions? Show off the ability for widescreen/other different resolution enhancements, the redone audio vs the original or emulated versions, extra content tying to Tails/Knuckles, the mode with the Sonic 3 shields(which I assume was intended for a connection with a future Sonic 3 & Knuckles release), how the special stages were fixed up, Hidden Palace Zone, all that good stuff. Ideally do it in a 720p or higher format, hopefully showing off the fluid 60 FPS gameplay, maybe mention how well it works on weak phones? I'm not sure how many of those would apply to a Sonic 3 & Knuckles StealthTax version, considering they already had Tails, Knuckles, the items, etc, but it would still help to show that the team that could work on these would do far more than just an emulator, and might give just a taste of what could happen to those outside who wonder why people seem so interested in what they see as "Sonic 3 & Knuckles stuck on a phone and MAYBE more consoles eventually if people are lucky" that might be turning them off.
I think maybe it's getting a bit too desperate to spread the message here, it's important just to breathe. Nothing wrong with throwing ideas out, but be sure to think of things from a few different angles before posting. That said, doing that trailer that way would be a bad idea. That's almost the early Sonic 4 Ep 1 marketing strategy and I think we all remember how those trailers went down. I'm going to be making the FTCR video for the stream soon, March 15th at 3 PM EST is what we're going with. I'll keep it short like Josh said, short is best, I'll probably do a minute and a half video. Kick it off, mention who all is planned on being there in the first 40 seconds, then spend the next minute reminding everyone about the enhancements Sonic 1/2 iOS boast. I agree with the earlier sentiment that reminding people that a smartphone isn't the only way to play these is very important.
I think after everything that's been said here, I agree with the sentiment that getting popular youtubers to shout out about the campaign is our next best bet. Although we should continue to try for press coverage where we can as well. Politely. The simple truth is, we need more views. Period. If we can get them in a respectable manner, that is our best chance... but for that to happen, we need to reach out to a much wider audience than the typical fanbase that may have once respected the classics, even if it doesn't respect the current state of the IP. It is sad to say, but the Sonic franchise has had a lot of damage caused by the past decade. People like 90s Sonic fairly well, but after Adventure... the player-base notably shrinks. Boom has made it even worse. Try googling the word "Sonic" right now in google news. It took 9 pages to find an article even close to our campaign (mention of the Sonic X-Treme proto recovery), but on page 2 you see articles like "Sonic the hedgehog needs to die". If we can't get through that kind of press noise, it's no wonder we're struggling. Again, that doesn't mean those who would buy this aren't there... quite the opposite, but it does mean they need to be reached by as many mainstream sources as possible to overcome the sadly vocal noise of the trolls.
As I said however many pages it was ago - get some better screenshots on that "new features" page. You can't plug an HD remake with horrible MPEG -> JPEG compressed garbage - it's not "HD"! You want some pretty screenshots that look nice. Then when the news outlets come and plug this campaign, they've got some material to work with. Lots of lovely PNGs. This is particularly important when dealing with those which use video (e.g. the YouTube community) because caring about resolutions and bit rates is key in that industry. Arguably they don't have anything to work with right now - "look, Sonic 3 remastered exists but we can't really show you because the screenshots don't adequately represent the product". Also again reduce the amount of internet aliases (I.e. writing "TAXMAN" and "STEALTH"), because I'm not sure if that comes off as very professional. Also it might not translate as well? p.s. Dr. Squirrel says: "Reading YouTube comments can be bad for your health".
Yeah, I'm not even planning on addressing them so directly in my video. Probably just say something like, "The independent developers SEGA contracted to work on these games..." All that info's out there, I just need people to understand why they should care. I'm thinking I may also try to get an HDMI-out for my Nexus 7 so I can get really good video of the existing games, because I also agree that showing what an extensive upgrade this would be is really important.
I HDMI outed from Bluestacks last week and the result was pretty great. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebeSCCduic8 I say go for it.
Went to Best Buy, they had nothing. Went to HH Gregg, nothing. Radio Shack, nothing. Wal-Mart had something that appeared like it'd work, but as it turns out, the Nexus 7 doesn't use MHL. I also got a Chromecast, figuring that worst case scenario, I'd give that a try. It works! ...except it won't output any video when it's connected to my capture device, of course. I'm going to just go ahead and order the appropriate cable off Amazon. Which I really should have done in the first place. BlueStacks doesn't run at 60fps on my PC, and plus the HD PVR gets slightly weird colors when my computer's plugged into it, as seen here: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFTWRa9T0g[/youtube]
http://www.cultofmac.com/313342/two-sonic-fans-brought-ageing-franchise-back-life-ios/ ^ Cult of Mac interview with Stealth. Is this something you could help with? I have some new PNG shots, but because they are taking from the YouTube video, they aren't that sharp. Thanks in advance. I'm not sure about this. When I've been contacting journalists and mention Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley, a few have come back and said "Weren't these games made by Taxman and Stealth?". Now that the campaign is targeting Youtube, I think the Internet aliases will be more well known. I am happy to change it if someone can provide a good reason, but at the moment, it doesn't seem like a good idea.
While we're throwing ideas... I'd ask each of the Sonic Shorts guys to make a Sonic 3-related sketch, with a link to the campaign's site at the end. That may get the attention of a lot of people.
