Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

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rerout
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Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby rerout » 16 Feb 2014, 02:38

Hello, I know I never really post on the forum here but I thought I would try to ask. Me and my friends are going to start our own Let's Plays pretty soon, and since I only watch a couple of Let's Players I thought I would ask for some general advice and some do's and don'ts before we really get started.

I just figured I would ask here because anyone who watches LRR has a similar sense on humor, and because fellow LRR fans are generally very friendly and helpful.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby My pseudonym is Ix » 16 Feb 2014, 02:42

From my (albeit limited) experience, the main thing is to just explain everything. Read every dialogue box out loud, explain your every decision, explain every game mechanic as it becomes relevant. Otherwise it can get rather confusing for your viewers. It may also help to do some experimental run throughs of the game itself before you stream- nothing fancy, just enough so that you almost know your way around before you get going.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby rerout » 16 Feb 2014, 03:00

Wow thank you for replying so fast.

I guess I should have clarified in the op. Our original idea was to just LP games we could either poke fun at, or games we just really like when we want to play something good. I don't know that we will be any fun to watch, in fact we probably won't be, however there are so many walkthrough style LPs out there it would be even harder to be noticed by anyone. Besides, this style of doing is more fun for us, and personaly more entertaining to me. So even if no one else watches us, we will still have fun with it.

But I still appreciate any advice I can get. I suppose it might be a good idea if I would get used to a game before I attempt to bumble my way through it like I did with Soul Calibur V.

Also, in case it matters. The method we have to use to record these LPs is, I pre-record the video and record the Skype chat while we all watch it together. I know it's not the best method but given that all of us live in different states, it's the only method we have.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Lord Chrusher » 16 Feb 2014, 03:54

Try to put as much effort as you can into the audio quality. People will watch video that look like ass but have good audio. The will not, however, watch videos with terrible audio, even if they look amazing.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby RedNightmare » 16 Feb 2014, 04:00

Find a style that works for you. This can be both pre-recorded video and then response audio to that or just recording as you play.

Also think about something that makes you stand out in some way. My friend and I, for example, try to approach our LP's as sort of game design lessons.

And what Crusher said: audio really is that important.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Lord Chrusher » 16 Feb 2014, 04:14

Who is this Crusher person? ;)
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Dutch guy » 16 Feb 2014, 04:58

It's your evil scientist twin. Or were you the evil one, I can never get that right...
THE DUTCH!! THE DUTCH AGAIN!!!!!
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Jimor » 16 Feb 2014, 05:04

Another thing to keep in mind is that very few people are good at speaking for an audience off the top of their head when they start out. If you look at a lot of the popular LPers' early videos, they're usually awkward as hell. So don't get down on yourself if you don't have their current kind of flow right away, it will take practice. I started doing LPs myself primarily because I want to improve my "public" speaking enough for a variety of other video projects I plan to do that will need voice-overs and such.

One thing for sure, you will quickly discover and stamp out a variety of vocal quirks. I had the bad habit of clicking my tongue against my teeth all the time (still fall into it once in a while). And while "umm"s aren't as noticeable as most speakers fear, it pays to work out a more speakerly silence filler over time ("indeed" seems to be a popular one among lots of LPers).
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Ptangmatik » 16 Feb 2014, 05:59

Beware the Ides of March!!

Also, make sure your group has a good dynamic, and while taking the game seriously in general, leave room to dick around. This is why I think MoBAs are not conducive to an entertaining LP

Edit: I believe the 'Crusher' person to whom that lowly rapscallion was referring to was in fact your good self m'lud.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby RedNightmare » 16 Feb 2014, 07:08

Lord Chrusher wrote:Who is this Crusher person? ;)

Wow, I just realised that's not how you spell your name! Sorry about that man, not making that mistake again.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Robo4900 » 16 Feb 2014, 15:45

The one tip I have is to be as unique as possible. Not just in style, but also try to play games that people will watch, but there aren't already a load of LPs of(Such as Minecraft or World of Warcraft).

Also, try to make sure that the main entertainment in the video is coming from you(And your friends), and not the game you're playing. An example of this done right is TotalBiscuit and the Yogscast playing Magicka(Although Magicka is quite an easy game to do this with, but my point still stands).
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby King Kool » 16 Feb 2014, 21:44

My pseudonym is Ix wrote: Read every dialogue box out loud


That's not a good idea. It's better to let people read them, unless you're going to make a thing about it. It's getting the same information twice.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Robo4900 » 17 Feb 2014, 06:29

My pseudonym is Ix wrote:Explain your every decision, explain every game mechanic as it becomes relevant.

Don't go into too much detail, though. Also, King Kool is right; reading every dialogue box isn't necessary.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby RedNightmare » 17 Feb 2014, 07:40

One thing I forgot to mention: Respect the game. If characters are talking, don't talk over them. This prevents the viewer from being able to follow the story.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby NebulosDisconcertion » 17 Feb 2014, 20:15

Two people is a pretty good number. Three is fine if you're not cutting each other off all the time. Four, in my experience, is pushing it.
Oh, wait, if it's over Skype four will be fine because it'll keep dropping people.
Pre-recording gameplay is totally acceptable. You can edit out death sprees, getting lost, extended inventory rummaging, etc.
The footage should come from somebody who already knows the game (to some extent), and at least one of the co-hosts should be unfamiliar with it. It's easier to explain the game to them then to try to guess what the audience will need to hear.
I'll put in another vote for 'don't read out dialog boxes'.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Lyinginbedmon » 17 Feb 2014, 20:22

Co-op is always a great move, we can see this in the streams with Cam & Alex and most recently with the Crossing the Streams event. Basically having someone who is experiencing the same things you are at the same time lets you really bounce off one another and make some interesting banter. If you're by yourself, then you need to more or less either be very informative and interesting or a complete buffoon.

A rule of thumb I like to keep to is "never do the same thing twice". If you're doing the same stuff over and over, change it up. Don't do what can be found on a dozen other channels. If channels are being flooded by the latest game on the block, you might lose out on the new content but you'll also be distinguished against the sea of videos on it.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby rerout » 18 Feb 2014, 04:52

Thanks everyone, I will try as hard as I can follow your advice. I know right now we really suck but I'm starting to pick up on my own bad habits at least so hopefully given enough time we will be somewhat entertaining.

We already recoded our first video before I made this thread but I'll make sure we take some of this into account before doing the next part.
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Re: Me and my friends are starting our own LPs. Any advice?

Postby Darkobra » 18 Feb 2014, 07:07

Read out funny lines of dialogue boxes if there are any. But not the full thing. Just something that makes you laugh every time you read it.

Also, your first few videos will just be testing grounds for the future. You will improve with time as your dynamic improves. Don't forget to listen to your established audience but also to know when to draw the line to still make it your project and not theirs.

Criticism is important but also knowing when to say no because it takes you too far from what you want.
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