Topic: Let's Play? -- the Tips and Feedback Thread

Hello, fellow Nintendo-lifers, I know that a few of you have probably made a Let's Play in your years (or at least watched one).

I recently started up one of my own, covering Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. I have watched Chuggaaconroy and Proton Jon's videos and they seem to have more effective and lively commentary.

Do you have any tips of what I could do to add some pizazz to my videos?

EDIT: By the way, if you want to look at the first few episodes, they are here.

EDIT: I reread this, it almost sounds like I am begging for channel views but I'm not! I just want some feedback!

Depends on the audience you're looking for. Many people's let's plays I've watched have them not even talking about the game, & generally playing very badly. Which is a reason I generally don't watch videos with commentary myself, but if I do I prefer HCBailly, Proton Jon, or Azurablade, since they talk about the game, give info about the game, & play the game really well.

So basically, be knowledgeable about the game you're playing, don't try to throw in lame jokes, don't talk about what happened at school, & be good at the game. That's what makes me watch.

i know these types of videos are pretty popular at the moment, so anyone who needs help with editing, tips on script writing, etc. and so forth -- feel free to ask your questions in this thread, and hopefully someone will have an answer for you. :3

I've beaten Mario and Luigi 5 or 6 times so I thought it would be a good game to start with.

I'm just getting the kinks in my screen capture and editing software worked out, so the quality is steadily improving.

Make sure you can enounciate clearly. That's at least 75% of the reason I haven't done a Let's Play at some point :3

_{Imma stumblin' into mumblin'}

Hey cool, my thread became popular. AND THE TITLE CHANGED!

Really, the only problem I'm having is setting my capture settings on SnagIt. I think 15 fps is the right choice.
Do you have any tips on the ffdshow codec, like settings to use on it?

I'm not a Let's Player, but I have watched quite a lot of Let's Plays. The key to success is to be funny and informative at the same time. If you are informative, but boring as hell, you will not get a lot of subscirbers. Same goes for only being funny. You also need to know which parts you need to cut out. People don't want to see you die dozens of times in the same area and if you are playing an RPG, be sure to cut out the repetitive random battles. Your first few Let's Plays should also only be games that have a place in your heart. Blind playthroughs are fun to watch too, but save those for later. I would love to watch a blind let's play from NintendoCaprisun for example, but not from a random dude.

My personal favourite is Clementj642, because he doesn't choose random games, he is funny and has an awesome voice for commentary.

Since I got my DVD recorder working, I'm gonna do some playthroughs, but no Let's Plays. I'm no good at commentary D:

_{now that I think about it playthroughs must be boring to watch, but oh well...}

Don't try to be funny. You can crack jokes and such but only when appropriate. Otherwise, you come off as trying to hard to impress.
_{Like some of the people I have around in my Fatal Frame LP cough cough}

And don't describe everything that is going on in the game... You can comment on it; don't describe it. This is the hardest part since that is just what comes naturally when you're out of things to say. You should also stay on-topic as someone has mentioned; so that means not talking about things unless relevant to your let's play. You also chose a hard first let's play. RPGs require a lot of editing so you can edit out all of the useless meandering, and this also means you should not be doing a live commentary. While less natural, it is certainly easiest to get started without live commentary. It gives you a chance to re-do a section that you just had nothing to say. Live commentary is usually best (for someone who is able to do it) for an action game since you get the best reactions from yourself.

Make sure that You have a decent mic, Plus one major thing to avoid ever using is "Unregistered Hypercam 2"

I prefer to watch playthroughs that DON'T have commentary on it actually.

Really? Nice, 'cause that's what I'll be doing

Yeah, don't talk a lot. Videos tend to get annoying when the player says unnecessary comments every five seconds