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How do you make a Let's Play?


Redeemer

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Because I have no idea where to start on this.

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First and very important question, what platform is the game you'll be using?

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I was just intending on doing this on my laptop. Webcam is optional, just think my face while playing Slender would be kinda funnier than my face usually is.

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You don't normally have to have a webcam for a let's play.  I don't when I do them.  All you really need is a game, and some entertaining things to talk about while you play.  They don't necessarily have to pertain to the game you're playing, but imagine you're playing the game and there's a friend around that you're commenting to.  You don't have to be entertaining, but that's the only way people will watch your let's plays.  I'd recommend doing a scary let's play that people haven't done way too many of.  Like, when I chose my first game, I steered away from Slender, SCP Containment Breach, Amnesia The Dark Descent, and anything like that, because there were so many others who did LPs of the same game.  You don't have to, but it makes things easier and there's less to compare yourself to.  It's basically that simple though, play a game, record your screen and sound, make sure people can hear you, and comment on the game as you play it.  What I normally do is I use screen recorders with cameras, like Livestream Procaster, or Debut Video Capture.  It adds a small overlay in the corner of your screen to let you know how long you've been recording, and it doesn't capture that overlay.  I try to record in 10-15 minute segments because it allows for a good amount of playing time and a short upload to YouTube.  You may have to format the video files too, because YouTube has a habit of slowing down my MP4 files when I record to that format.  I have no idea why but the video will run at 50% speed but the sound runs at full speed.  

 

Anyway, that's basically what you would need to know to get started, and I wish you luck on your LP. 

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Redeemer doing a Let's Play? Excellent! I will enjoy your upcoming Retsupurae riff video, and make sure that above everything else, the video is at least fun to watch. Pick a game you and others enjoy, make sure the recording software doesn't make it look like a 240p mess, and above all go over the video before uploading it, that way you can edit out any repetitive shit that you know isn't worth watching.

 

Decent commentary is nice too, but we can't all do that. Mostly, it's just nice if you don't get angry and start cursing at the game.

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I dunno...to be honest, I don't really like face cams on lets plays. Kinda ruins it for me for when I always like to think what the LPer would look like rather than having a face cam in the corner reveal someone.

But eh, your call.

 

I'm actually quite camera shy, I would rather NOT have a webcam box thingy on the LP but I'm just thinking about what people might be expecting. Scary LPs are all about seeing the fear? I would never have a webcam box thingy if I was playing something like Starfox, Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc.

 

Shaper, glad to see you're interested! :D I was thinking about Slender as my first game, it's something I've never played before and I've never actually watched a playthrough either. And no, I don't swear at games when I'm playing alone. Mario Kart 7 multiplayer is a different story though.

 

Also Kage, I also use Procaster, will that make a high-quality video?

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Shaper, glad to see you're interested! :D I was thinking about Slender as my first game, it's something I've never played before and I've never actually watched a playthrough either. And no, I don't swear at games when I'm playing alone. Mario Kart 7 multiplayer is a different story though.

 

I think it's already been said, but don't play Slender. There are way too many LP's of it already, it's linear as fuck (there are two things you can do in it: find all the pages, and die), it really isn't a fun game to watch, and above all the game isn't interesting or scary. I know it seems like a good idea since it's a fairly popular game (for some reason), but a blind run of the game, or even a run where you know where to go and what to do, is simply not a unique enough idea to be entertaining.

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I think it's already been said, but don't play Slender. There are way too many LP's of it already, it's linear as fuck (there are two things you can do in it: find all the pages, and die), it really isn't a fun game to watch, and above all the game isn't interesting or scary. I know it seems like a good idea since it's a fairly popular game (for some reason), but a blind run of the game, or even a run where you know where to go and what to do, is simply not a unique enough idea to be entertaining.

 

Wow, reading this, it sounds boring as hell. :/

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Wow, reading this, it sounds boring as hell. :/

It is. The guy who made it admits that he made it as a test game for a new program, and made it over a weekend. It wasn't ever actually meant to be a great game that drives the internet crazy.

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Procaster won't make a high quality video.  If you set the recording size to anything larger than 1024x768 it crashes on startup.  I used it because I never had anything better, but if you want an example of how bad Procaster is, check out my LP of Space Marine.  

 

I'd recommend using Debut.  

 

Also, no, people don't expect to see your face during any let's play segment.  At least, I never did.  That's just a PewDiePie thing I think.  I normally just talk, I don't care about being seen.

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Procaster won't make a high quality video.  If you set the recording size to anything larger than 1024x768 it crashes on startup.  I used it because I never had anything better, but if you want an example of how bad Procaster is, check out my LP of Space Marine.  

 

I'd recommend using Debut.  

 

Also, no, people don't expect to see your face during any let's play segment.  At least, I never did.  That's just a PewDiePie thing I think.  I normally just talk, I don't care about being seen.

 

 

Debut huh? Thanks! And arrrrrrrgh PewDiePie, I hate that guy so much. His face is so irritating and he does this whole "I'll exaggerate my expression because I resemble something that could be a meme and people will love it and I'm just so funny" thing. In fact, everyone who has ever made a LP with their webcam in it has done that, and it makes them appear damn ugly. Think I'll spare my dignity and keep my face out of it.

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Y'know, I've been considering going about a Let's Play of Aliens vs. Predator (Classic 2000 on Steam), still to this day the scariest game I have played.

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I recorded the first two episodes of a Let's Play of Recettear with Fraps. It's nice if you want to output high quality video/audio and don't mind shelling out the money for a licence.

 

And no, I haven't uploaded it yet, because I cant get a program to stay open long enough to edit it. :c

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Fraps is good, but the video files -will- end up taking up more space than your game does.  Not only that but if you don't want to pay, you get 30 seconds of recording per video before it cuts you off.  

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Clementj642 has a tutorial about it. Look it up

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Debut does not like Aliens vs. Predator, haha. Can't complete a level without it causing the game to CTD.

 

Seems Livestream Procaster doesn't like to record it any better, either. This makes me sad since I use Procaster when I livestream.

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I have used Fraps for some of the videos I have made on youtube, but unless you have a large external hard drive to dedicate entirely to the recordings, I would recommend using other software that has a lower file size. I am considering doing game reviews and other things, so it works for small segments of footage, but recording a whole game will take an absolute S-load of space. So far as facecam, probably without it is preferable for the lets play format. Pretty much all you need is software/equipment (eg. a capture card like the Elgato Game Capture HD for consoles) and a good quality microphone, and you have all you really need.

 

That's my thoughts on it anyway, as that's how I would do it. Good luck! :D

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Also, if you wanted to monetize your lets plays, you can't monetize any first party Nintendo games anymore. Just so you know in case you didn't already.

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That's good advice, Pg, but please do be mindful of double posting.  

 

I'm not entirely sure who would want to monetize their let's plays though.  I'd never want to pay to watch someone to play a game, I figured people would keep that in mind.

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I'm not entirely sure who would want to monetize their let's plays though.  I'd never want to pay to watch someone to play a game, I figured people would keep that in mind.

The best you could ever hope for to make money off an LP is a sponsorship from Machinima or something like that, and even then you have to be fairly popular in order to hope for it. But I'm sure Redeemer isn't doing this for money, since that's an incredibly unreliable source.

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Also a lot of the revenue people get from youtube videos is from advertisements. Game Grumps makes money from advertisements, I believe, I know FPSRussia does as well, and livestreamers.

 

A famous League of Legends player who streams got back at people who use adblockers (because it does royally screw the people who's videos you're watching) by, when they were saying they don't watch ads and use adblockers in the chat, started watching ads himself and left it so the stream itself was playing the ads, and left it that way for a while.

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That's good advice, Pg, but please do be mindful of double posting.  

 

I'm not entirely sure who would want to monetize their let's plays though.  I'd never want to pay to watch someone to play a game, I figured people would keep that in mind.

 

Thanks, I will keep the double posting thing in mind for future reference.

 

In addition, I agree. I am not saying that Redeemer should or was going to monetize the videos, but I thought I should just mention it just in case. Plus as Shaper said, unless you get a large viewer base (eg. a few thousand people) or can get some form of sponsership, its not worth it anyway.

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I would never make videos for money, this would all just be for fun. I doubt anything I make would be worthy of an income source and if it happened to fit those standards, I wouldn't have the time to be regular enough to keep it up.

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For recording on PC, I cannot recommend a program called Bandicam enough.

The full version would be needed and it does cost money, but is well worth it. You can try the demo though. It just puts a watermark on videos.

 

It's so lightweight and works so well. You can record in full HD for a while without too much worry of >10GBs after it's all said and done. Then compress to x264 in a program like Avidemux and upload. Of course, I'm not a big 1080p HD xxxx fanboy like some people on the Internet these days, so I don't know how much quality loss you would be looking at after all that, especially depending on what quality is chosen when recording in Bandicam, then the quality chosen when compressing. Looks fine to me but I don't know about other opinions.

 

Also, I figure a big reason people do Let's Plays in shorter parts is due to file size. It's much simpler, quicker, and overall easier to upload <20 minutes at a time instead of (depending on your Internet, of course) hours at a time. Could be there all day doing that, and if it happened to screw up somewhere... there goes your day.

 

Anyway, good luck. I love Let's Plays. :D

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Let's Plays can be made in a million different ways, all according to what you want to see in an LP, and what you think others will want to see in yours. Depending on the genre, you could do it in screenshots, subtitled video, video with voice, video with guest commentary, etc. etc. etc. You could conceivably make an LP into a stage adaptation if you're into that.

 

For the technical bits and bobs, as well as some pretty alright suggestions as to what programs to use, workflow, and so on, this is a pretty great resource: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3486018

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