I'm sorry to rip this of from you StixNStonz, but i thought that this was a really good idea, and wanted to show it to the E-team on their own forums, to bring attention to this topic. So guys... What do you think of this.. Would it be possible to pull this off, even though it may first be later, when more material has been released?

I still question if community made trailers is the best idea here.. I'd say that for the trailer part it would be best to invest a fair amount of money and hire some real professionals to do the job. Trailers are for many the most important thing when deciding wether to buy a game or not. Just see how excited people are about Crysis, and all the hype that was created around Hellgate London - not to mention TF2. The trailers of TF2 and Portal were basicly the main reason that I bought the Orange Pack.

Also, I don't think anything could hurt the game more than 10 fanmade not-that-amazing trailers find their way out to the public. Even though we might enjoy this tight "relationship" between the developers and the community, it will seem highly unprofessional to others if the community is making trailers etc.

If we're lucky however, there might be a few in here who actually work a fulltime job as a 3D or 2D animator, or just in general with motion graphics (like I do) who could provide some help to the developers. All those "I made a cs/wow-movie"-makers should just forget about it, and yes, I'm speaking about mechanima aswell. Even though Mechanima can be fun, it hardly fits for a nstrailer

Just my 2 cents

get wey to do it or no dice

I say go with Lit Fuse. Zachariah Smith is a wizard.

I was never talking about a trailer, only tutorials. Any number of lame in-game tutorials would be no issue.

The dev team is busy as hell, and on a fairly tight budget. The game will pretty much NEED video tutorials, otherwise it practically wont be worth buying (too dumbed down).

There is plenty of talent in the community who would be willing to do it for free. If even a couple hundred bucks was on the table for each video or for the whole package, you'd get talent from outside the community as well.

Tutorials are a funny type of video. Some people can make absolutely excellent shorts; but can they teach? They can make fantastic sequences and shots; but do they understand the game enough to know what needs to be explained and what can be left out?

Furthermore, I proposed a competition. This would not only offer a diverse range of talent and artistic ability, but also a lot of videos. From one sequence, perhaps explaining the Lerk, the devs would be able to see how clearly the movie producer can pass information, how much his video can grab one's attention, and how well he can work in the in-game movie environment. And simply how good he is.

All this, while taking only a relatively short amount of work by the competitors, since video tutorials are meant to be short and sweet, and the requirement is only one.

I don't know the dev's budget. But they DO want to purchase the assets of the game from anyone who can make them well. I'm sure that funding will rise as the game gets more visible, such as when a trailer or demo can be made (which really only needs a marine model with a few basic animations; an LMG model, and perhaps one or two of the alien models; if enough props for a quick demo aren't already done, they should be focused on asap, and a few sexy rooms could be made fairly quickly for the demo shots). Hence, I'd think that the ~3-5 minutes of cumulative video tutorials would fetch anywhere between $200-1000, which is more than enough for the hordes of people who would attempt them for free.

Well if anyones doing anything and needs any resources...

I have windows movie maker and you can take some screenshots or make some videos of the best of Natural selection 1, and maby say, something at the end hinting to Natural selection 2?
With some music ect.?

This would be incredibly easy to do. Just let some beta-testers make videos of their regular gameplay, with emphasis on particular lifeforms, the two types of marines, and perhaps an entire conept overview (Resource towers are needed, marines follow orders to accomplish goals, map-control, gorges, early-game, mid-game, late-game, etc.)

On youtube, there are probablly several different "tutorials" of different lifeforms, and this was all made without any prompting from the devs.

We can just let the beta-testers make videos that they think demonstrate "core" ideas, strategies, etc, and then let the dev team do quality control.

I remember the trailer for NS1 that was made using the ingame engine and had an awesome sequence where marines walked into a shady infested corridor, and after a tense build up, a skulk jumps out and it cuts to black.

I thought it was incredibly well done and could be done again (obviously not the same narrative) using the new engine and some really good animation. The rest of the trailer demonstrate the different roles a player can take in the game as suggested above.

I've cut trailers and 3d animation before and was thinking of submitting some ideas later on in development when the materials and the NS2 'universe' are more finalised.

As for the idea about a competition, as computer specs have improved over the years, video editing and animation has become far more accessable to people that don't work in the new media industry, so I wouldn't be surprised if some young talented and enthusiastic animators and editors come forward to contribute to this for the sake of their own experience and exposure, so that is also an option as well as hiring professionals.

Or am I way off ? Are people thinking more along the lines of a completely CGI animation like the Battlefield Bad Company trailer ? Personally I can't stand trailers that show a carefully scripted and rendered animation without any gameplay.

Its confirmed they will be buying maps, But I dont know about other content.

I think trailer is the best idea, tutorial is a sub

If you can get NS2 on steam to have a trailer and a website to Unknown Worlds, it's an ad for both NS2 AND NS it self, and once more people start to take notice about NS2, they'll most likely try NS1, and if they like NS1, NS2 word will be spread through more people. Plus, putting NS2 trailer on youtube will get you loads of free ads for free.. (if the trailer is good)

Kashio's trailer contest idea might solve the whole thing about the community-produced trailer issue.

But then, I agree with the point of how the trailer shouldn't be taken lightly; and that it plays an important part in getting people trying something (watching a movie, playing a game).

but allow me to quote myself:

*or something equally profound. It could be as simple as the camera panning to view a skulk in the dark, complete with alien noises. Then fading into the natural selection 2 logo "coming soon" "www.natural-selection.org" or whatever. People would wonder "...what the hell is this then?". Though it's not as good an idea as the humour or shock ones. Examples:

Shock (sorta*): same as above, but instead of just displaying the skulk, it would look the skulk straight in the eye, then the skulk would leap and bare its teeth. cue logo.
*I was thinking that it should -really- shock you, something incredibly crazy or out there, in fact the following suggestion probably has as much shock in it as humour.

Humour: some kid is sitting in his room 'pwning noobs' in NS2; then an Onos smashes through the wall and devours the kid whole. "mm, tasty". cue logo.

These teasers would just be on any regular site really, youtube etc.

(there's also the 'babe' factor that someone brought up in another thread. great idea.)