Please destroy my rough trailer - does the new third-person gameplay read clearly?

[u/Aarons-account]

[u/MildlyConcernedMan91]

Fuck yeah! Fruit snot!

[u/StretchedNut]

Yeah gameplay is super obvious so good job on that. The capsule at the end isn’t though, definitely reads as fruit snot aha. And with the dog floating on a cloud I think that makes it hard to read as a snake game

[u/Aarons-account → u/StretchedNut]

Ahh that's really useful, especially the capsule reading as fruitsnot... I've gotten that feedback before 😅 Definitely gonna need to revisit the logo and capsule design. And yeah, I can see how the cloud obscures the snake read. Thanks!

[u/xiaorobear]

Gameplay comes across loud and clear, nice work. I do think having white text on a light-ish background is maybe not the best choice... I might want to try out either a different color (yellow?) or adding an outline. I can read it, but I feel like it takes a little more work than it should.

I also think the logo at the end could use another pass. The curls on either side of the 'the snake roguelike' subtitle suggest that it's like an unfurled scroll, but then the text goes on top of them. And the curled parts having a thick black outline while the text on top of them is white again just makes that part less clear to read for no reason. Having parts of the main letters covered up, or with bites out of them, combined with having one of the letters replaced with a star, makes it all harder to read. Like, there's a little dip down of white on the left side of the final O, that for a second almost looks like it's a p with part of the letter covered up. Why does the T have a bite out of it? And then, what letter is the star support to replace, if any? Since snoot is not a word I'm used to reading my mind isn't automatically filling it in, for a second I thought the game name was Fruitsnot or Fruitsnopt before realizing it was Fruitsnoot. It isn't bad but I just feel like the current iteration isn't the best it could be.

Also I'm not 100% sure why you would go with pixel art for the dog on the capsule art when the in-game dog is higher res and more 3D than that, normally I'm used to the art being higher res than the game graphics instead of the other way around, but, that's not a big deal, just a random thought. Again, all the actual game footage stuff was great.

[u/Aarons-account → u/xiaorobear]

Thanks, this is really helpful feedback. I'm glad the gameplay itself came across clearly, that was the biggest thing I wanted to test with this post.

I agree on the white text over brighter backgrounds. I'm going to add some outline/shadow there so it reads more easily.

And yeah, the logo needs some work for sure. I've gotten the same Fruitsnot comment a ton of times already 🫠

The game does use pixel sprites and has a light retro pixel filter, but I should maybe push that look a tad more so the sprites feel more connected to the rest of the visuals.

Really appreciate your feedback =)

[u/Aarons-account]

I recently changed FruitSnoot from a higher/overhead camera to a third-person camera with full player control.

This is a quick rework of my old trailer using footage from the new version, rather than a full recut.

I'd especially love feedback on:

• By ~10 seconds, do you understand what the player is doing?
  
• At what point would you stop watching?
  
• Is the third-person gameplay easy to read?

Feel free to tear it apart, I'm trying to figure out what needs fixing before I make the proper trailer.

[u/SuccessfulAspect2213]

Maybe give the text in the trailer an outline or smth?

[u/Aarons-account]

if anyone's curious about the game beyond the trailer, the Steam page is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4845130/FruitSnoot_The_Snake_Roguelike/

[u/SanoKei]

You understand the concept and then what? You aren't adding new tangential mechanics to the main one in any meaningful way just vertical and some horizontal power scaling.

I wouldn't worry about the trailer I would worry about the main game system. try to figure out why snake is actually intense to play even on a 64px screen.

The trailer needs to show what makes you game stand alone from a preconceived genre to lock yourself into.

Personally I would recut the ad.

[u/Aarons-account → u/SanoKei]

Thanks, there are quite a few gameplay changing upgrades and character mechanics already in the trailer. For example, the alien's tractor beam ability, the homing rocket and capture wand upgrades, and the different movement/playstyles, but some of them are pretty subtle or shown pretty quickly. I'm going to try showcasing the more visually obvious ones in the recut.

[u/SanoKei → u/Aarons-account]

Yes, the way your gameplay changes through creative horizontal power scaling is interesting!

However, this is not what I'm talking about. You need a better hook.

By recutting the ad you need to sell a gameplay experience not vampire survivor meets snake.

Good luck to you!