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Thread: [DISC] Using YouTube for your games instructions

  1. #1
    Funkalicious TOdorus's Avatar
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    [DISC] Using YouTube for your games instructions

    I was thinking about how to make tutorials on different elements of my game, which may be too complex for a Flash game altogether. I've made a interactive tutorial for some parts, but I started thinking about using video for my tutorials instead. You can control the pacing of the tutorial instead of the player. This may look like a negative, but this can also cirumvent problems like the player not understanding an instruction through text and getting stuck. With a video the pace wouldn't get stuck with the player but would continue. Also this would open up the possibility to make instructions alingual.

    Why I started thinking about YouTube is a economic reason. Flash files really shouldn't be too big and load reasonably fast, so the option of hosting it externally and loading it in when the player needs it appeals to me. You load it in only when it's needed, reducing data costs. The reason to resort to actual video and not a ingame animation is also economic. Instead of coding a animtaion or create one with movieclips, you could play the game in a very basic level for a few minutes and you'd have footage which you only need to add in some comments to function as a tutorial.

    Then about the technical side. Has anybody tried embedding YouTube videos in a Flash file before? Does it raise conflicts with other parts of Flash or perhaps other external services as MochiAds? There may be an alternative then YouTube which can suffice, but I was wondering if someone had already pioneered this before.


    What are you guys thoughts on this?'


    ps Ascendancy springs to mind

  2. #2
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    Why bother with youtube when you can just embed your own video player in the game itself and load flash video into it whenever necessary.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Draxus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MikeMD View Post
    Why bother with youtube when you can just embed your own video player in the game itself and load flash video into it whenever necessary.
    Free bandwidth?


    Sounds like a good idea to me TOdorus

  4. #4
    ism BlinkOk's Avatar
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    actually youtube seems to be the popular option for this kind of thing. i've played a number of games lately that use youtube to do their walkthroughs
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    Still, there is no reason to use youtube. That is for people who don't really know how to make their own player, which is not hard at all.

    Since players are already on the game page, it makes more sense to include a video player in the game then to send them to youtube. If the game is on another site, again , it makes even more sense to send them back to your own web site ( you want the traffic ) and use your own player. Youtube should be the very last option. By not using youtube you have much greater control of how things are displayed, players stay or come to your site.
    Last edited by MikeMD; 07-10-2009 at 12:36 AM.

  6. #6
    Pencil Farmer cadin's Avatar
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    MikeMD: I think he's talking about importing the YouTube video into the game, not sending them to YouTube.com.

    I think it's a good idea.
    I've never tried it, but it should be do-able.

  7. #7
    Funkalicious TOdorus's Avatar
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    Way to be absent in the thread I myself started.

    Yeah I was talking about embedding it within the game. I've also seen some games using it for a walkthrough, but they go outside the game. In that case that's fine, as you can have the walkthrough running in a window while you try it out in the other, but with a tutorial I wouldn't want to break the whole experience by pulling the player out of the game.

    By using YouTube you'd also use a brand which the players know. They know the interface and can accept a small loading time, as that's what YouTube is about. Since such a known and accepted player which has it's own hosting is out there, I think coding your own player is reinventing the wheel a bit.

    Since I put forward arguments on the creative, economic and technical side if others also had ideas for the creative side as it's bieng a bit neglected right now. The developer just playing the game is a bit of a poor suggestion. I'm thinking about American WW2 safety and propaganda videos at the moment. They were great at conveying a message. Really compact and structured. I'm not that much of a moviemaker, but maybe somebody knows a thing or two about educational videos

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    OK, importing you tube videos into the game could work, but there could be some issues with this. I had to do it for one game, and youtube's API was screwed up. In the end had to use toobplayer.

    I don't know what the situation is these days. Maybe youtube fixed those issues. Anyway, toobplayer lets you import youtube videos without issues their own player had at that time.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Sietjp's Avatar
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    There is a game I can't remember that is entirely based on ingame youtube videos (a kind of guitar hero with youtube videos).

    I had looked at the Flash API of youtube 1 year ago and at that time there was only an AS2 API. Not sure if they added AS3 support.

    [edit] this looks like an interesting link : http://www.lostinactionscript.com/bl...-you-tube-api/
    Last edited by Sietjp; 07-11-2009 at 02:21 AM.

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