awesome! The Broken Sandbox (Test and get feedback on your LPs here!)

Oh, I thought you were talking about the thumbnail if you embedded the video. I forgot that you still get a thumbnail when you get to polsy.

Maybe it's just because I'm not logged in to YouTube, but it's only showing me four other videos in the sidebar, Anabanana, and none of them are related to the game (so I never have any temptation to spoil the game with other video LPs). You might wanna verify this with someone who's logged in before you decide to stick to YouTube. Just logged in real quick and it seems to be the same case with only four recommended videos, but you might want a second opinion all the same.

In the meantime, as far as video LPs are concerned, I'm wondering if I should possibly make some videos for my Aoi Shiro LP? Only because when I saw it in Ana's thread I thought she was a brilliant genius I end up summarizing the game as opposed to presenting the script verbatim. I actually prefer this, since it means I can turn five shots into one or two sentences. But at the same time, it seems a shame not to share bits of dialogue and characterization just because it's not entirely relevant to the update. Plus I like the sound/visual effects.

So I kinda want to add videos, but at the same time I don't know if it's really necessary. That, and I don't have any software to record videos save for fraps, and I've got the free version, so all the videos are watermarked. I'm sure I could find something if I needed to, but I'm not entirely sure videos would be relevant. They work in the Animamundi LP since the cast features so many well known voice actors, but I think there are only two VAs of note in Aoi Shiro (not that that means the other voices aren't well done, of course; otherwise I wouldn't even consider it). So... thoughts?

Hmm, I looked at it while logged in and it's showing me more than four. And I'd be worried about spoilers showing up anyway, haha. But thanks for taking a look for me, keifu!

As for videos for your LP, maybe only take videos of scenes or moments that you think would really benefit from your readers seeing them in video form? Like if there are especially cool sound or visual effects or voice acting or something. If you do decide to do it, I think that fraps is generally the most common way LPers to do it, but I'm personally using Microsoft Expression Encoder 4, if you feel like trying something different. :)

Ana, I watched the videos in Youtube too and even when logged in, it showed me seven completely unrelated things. Well, they were related to my account preferences, but there was nothing remotely Animamundi in it.

I also watched it on Photobucket with Adblock turned off and a reaaaally annoying flash ad popped up to the right. With Adblock on it looks perfect, but without it it looks pretty terrible to be honest.

All right then. I don't want people without Adblock to suffer, so I guess I'll be going with Youtube since there doesn't seem to be much risk of spoilers unless someone comes up with a better alternative. :)

So even though I was dumb and should have de-lurked long before I found something I wanted to LP, and thus must wait until privileges become privilege-like, I was wondering if I could test post the first post for an LP of Doppelganger DotIS now so I can work out some of my beginner LP kinks/mistakes 8D~ (Also to make sure I am not stepping on toes or anything if anyone was about to rev their own of Doppelganger LPsince it was just released like two days ago)

You don't need to ask permission! Just post whatever you want to test here if you want. :) Also there isn't a rule against two people LPing the same game anyway AFAIK.

Why this forum so nice?? I'm so used to having to step carefully when first joining a forum >: I love you all ;_;

ANYWAY creepiness aside here it is, with us all pretending that it is the opening post for a new LP thread, comments on screenshot size, frequency of screenshots vs summary and whether or not I can actually entertain you guys on top of it are all welcome~

----

Hello~ And welcome to my Let's Play of Doppelganger, Dawn of the Inverted Soul! brainchild of the creator of the Fantasia series, which has some LP's on here. I had been following this since its opening post on Lemma so needless to say I was super ecstatic about the fact that it is out.


Downloads can be found here: http://mementomori.vnovel.com/downloads

DONE. I thought going to the first decision point would be enough to kinda get the feel for how it'll go for me, I was going to ask a question about how many images is okay but the limit not letting me post answered it for me XD so I took two posts, sorry. I also tried to avoid full screenshots as much as possible, especially when nothing changed other than the text box, and I tried to cut a lot out so you wouldn't have to read every little bit :) Also I kept getting interrupted so that took forEVER, despite how short it seems to me now...

:D ?

Maybe proofread it a little to tidy up the grammar errors that aren't for comedy purposes? And maybe have a bit more summary of what you cut out, since the scene seems to jump around a little, making it hard to follow the story? Like the last bit about Lucia breaking the fourth wall, you should've put it where Lucia actually did it instead of at the very end of the update. Other than that, I think it's fine. You might want to consider using spoiler tags in the LP itself just because it makes it easier for some people's browsers to load the images.

Forgetmenot:
If I can suggest something? Try cutting it into multiple smaller posts.
Like, when it jumps between scenes, particularly at the intro video - you could cut it in two there.

I was expecting a break after the introduction video appeared, and got a bit confused and overwhelmed when it instantly moved on to the next scene. When there's a major shift, or another spot where you think a pause would be good, you could pause there. It helps add the desired tension/dramatic pause, too.
I don't like the spoiler solution, personally, it makes it more of a chore to read and I don't think I'd read a thread with every update spoilered.

Though, the only LP I made was the Advent Calendar Games thread... I'd ask for help with what I could have improved there so I know for the next game I play, but I think I already figured that out (PNGs, took some time to settle into a pace/style, couldn't exactly explain about the games beforehand, etc.)... So it's just my opinion rather than any professional advice.

Haha! You're talking as if ANY of us get paid for doing LPs. xD

And yeah, I agree that carefully choosing where to cut the updates might make it flow better. There also doesn't seem to be a huge need for spoilers for this particular LP, since the images seem fairly small (and you ARE using JPGs, aren't you?). I only mention them because some people seem to really like them.

Despite being completely American born and college graduated my grammar is one of my weak points, so I'll make sure to look over it a bit before posting.

As for the spoiler tags, from what I'm reading about in different places, I see different opinions. I know someone in the Corpse Party thread mentioned that all the images still load even though they are in the spoiler tag so it might not matter at all? I'm personally of the party of rather not if I don't have to as I like the way it looks better without it BUT I did want to make sure I could figure out how to do it, thus using it above.

Thank you for all the crits <3

EDIT: It's weird they were .jpg's at first and then they started saving as .png's and I'm not sure why. since they don't need to be nice quality I'm happy enough with .png's myself.

I definitely planned to cut it there actually, but I wanted to show more what how I was going to summarize/post (which is so much harder than it looks @_@ but I shall persevere!) as that's where I was most worried. It is good to keep in mind for the future. Thank you as well~

I'd recommend that you try and use JPGs if you don't need nice quality. PNGs are much bigger and load slower.

PNGs generally have more readable text. JPEGs are almost definitely not a problem if the text is on a solid background. If there's an image in the background and the text is small, JPEGs can make the text fuzzy around the edges. Just test a couple images out and see how they look.

If you're going to be converting everything to JPEGs, make sure you have a batch converting program (I use XnConvert).

GAH I meant to say .jpgs would be fine for me fail me, but I'll see how they look since the text box background is a little busy, but if it looks readable that will be my go to~

Hey guys, I was just wondering, what's a good software for taking pictures for LPs? Right now, I'm just print screening, which is pretty soul crushing to be honest. Also, does anyone know a good tool for batch resizing? That'd be great for my xcom LP. Thanks guys!

1. Fraps

2. Imgur has a batch edit that's really good for resizing.

I would like to second this question, with the small sad addendum of "...on a Mac" for it.

I haven't tried it, but maybe Snag It?

If you have Photoshop, I'd recommend using .jpg even if you care about image quality since it allows you to save your .jpg at various qualities. Even when I saved my .jpg at 8 or 9, which is pretty high quality and doesn't change the appearance of the images that much, my file size was still about a fourth of when they'd been saved as .png. I don't know if there are other programs that will let you do this as well. Does anyone know if Gimp or any other free/cheap programs have something like this? Because it's really useful, but Adobe products are pretty damn expensive, even if you have an educational discount, so I know that it's not a viable option for everyone. (I actually work in the technology department of a college bookstore and my specialty is selling Adobe software.)

Oh gosh, print screening. Why didn't you say anything before, Snark? I personally use Irfanview. Free, no-hassle screenshotting and batch converting. Though others may have their own favourites...

If you do decide to use Irfanview, here's what to do to screenshot.

1. Open Irfanview.
2. Go to Options.
3. Go to Capture/Screenshot. Here you can set what area you want to capture (foreground window - client area should work well for most games), what hotkey you want to use to screenshot, where you want to save the images to, and what format in which you want the pictures to be saved.

To batch resize, go to File > Batch Conversion/Rename. There are options to batch resize there, you just have to tick the "advanced options" box.

Though for resizing you can just use Imgur. I've been doing that for my Animamundi LP and it's been working out quite well.

EDIT: Yeah, Fraps is a good one too.

I do~ It's even legal~ (Because I graduated with a degree in graphic design and it's kinda important XD) I haven't used Gimp in so long that I don't know what the newer versions can do while saving. The main problem with using photoshop is well mostly selfish since it would take me a lot longer, than just uploading to imgur and change size and crop there *so lazy*

I personally just print screen everything and paste all of my screenshots for whatever update into one file. Then I can resize and crop all in one step. I guess that could be seen as kind of a pain, but I honestly don't mind using print screen since I don't always know what screenshots I'm going to include ahead of time, so it allows me to have all of my images and all the dialog right there and it's just a matter of going through the layers to decide which ones to use. Also, I don't always update my LP right away, even when I've had the scenes done for awhile (like you, due to laziness), so having the whole scene there makes it so I can remember what's going on in the scene so that I don't have to replay it to remind myself.

That's actually not too much of a pain compared to doing everything in a separate file, but since I was using Doppelganger and that's Ren'py I just used the save screenshot command so I don't need to crop out any of my screen.

I use ScreenHunter 6.0 Free. The most beautiful and fantastic screenshot program ever? No.

But you can toy with some settings (and it'll take screenshots of your active window) fairly simply.

I use Gadwin PrintScreen (lost the link, but a quick Google search should pull it up), which can take pictures of the active window in whatever format you want. Very helpful for not having to batch-convert from PNG to JPG.

I have a number of programs for taking screen shots. My favorite is fraps, but it doesn't work on all games, unfortunately. When that happens I usually use ShareX. but you have to remember to set the hotkey that takes a shot of the active window. Mine is BACKSPACE, which works quite fine most of the time, until I forget the program is open and I'm writing and I start mashing the BACKSPACE key and end up with five screenshots of Firefox. So, yeah, just remember to close it out and you're good.

For converting/resizing screen shots, I use Berberus Mass Image Resizer 1.5. It works individually or with multiple pictures.

I am now far wiser in the arts of taking pictures. Thanks so much guys! Will try a bunch of the recommended programs and see what works best for me :)

Ok, time for me to ask for an opinion too.
I'm LPing To the moon, and I wonder what I could to to make it better. The picture are small jpegs, but I reached 300 screenshots already and I'm still in the first page, I can guess that people might have problem to load them... can I make less posts per page somehow?

Also, you think that I should cut some of the dialogues or leaving most of them like I'm doing right now? I think that the dialogues are a very important part of the game and it' very hard to think what I could cut though...
I don't know, give me all of the advice hat you can think, I really want to make my LP enjoyable and make people discover this awesome game ç___ç

It loaded just fine for me. However, if you want to cut down on images without cutting dialog, you could type out some of the dialog instead of using an image whenever it's just the dialog that changes and there isn't a big change in the setting, like I did in my Heartache 101 LP. One place where I'd really recommend using this technique is when you examine the four paintings. The screenshots are practically identical, I really don't think you need a separate image for all four paintings. That said, I do think you could cut a little of the dialog. Dr. Watt's constant complaining gets a little bit tiresome and some of it is repetitive and could be summarized like, "Dr. Watt complains about how Dr. Rosalene is making him carry the box again."

Since you're going for a completionist approach to the game, you might as well go all out and make it a video LP with commentary in subtitles. You said that you wanted to stream it but your computer has a bad connection? Easy. Just record video footage of the game and upload it to Youtube (that way you can even let players turn off the commentary if they want) or whatever video hosting site you prefer, and then embed the vids into your LP thread. That way we get the full experience, what with the beautiful soundtrack and everything.

Uhm, I thought about the video thing, but I wasn't sure about that... youtube if full of To the Moon playthrough, in what mine would be different? I feel like I could post another person's LP and none would notice. Also it seems to me that video LP are not very popular in this forum, am I right? Just a few people tried to do that and stopped halfway through it... I feel people here prefer to scroll screenshots than looking to a video for a long time.
Am I right? I need you guys opinion, so I can consider to make a video LP XD

Yeah, video LPs aren't really a thing around these parts, even if they might suit certain games better than screenshots. But you're right though; youtube IS full of To the Moon playthroughs. Even though your LP might differentiate itself because of the convenience factor of screenshots, why shouldn't I just go on Youtube and watch one of the full playthroughs there? If you really want to stand out, you should really think about why you're doing this LP and what you're hoping to achieve with it - what can you offer us that we can't get elsewhere?

Don't worry about that too much if you just want to share the experience of playing the game with people here though. What you've been doing so far has been fine. They're small jpgs, so they load fine for me. You might want to add an update index to the first post so we don't have to scroll past all the images to get to the updates we want, but since this forum has a "go to first unread" function that's not at all necessary. Or you could spoiler all your updates so it goes easier on people's browsers, some people like that. Might make actually getting to the updates easier too.

Awwwww, forgetmenot you're going to LP Doppleganger?
Looks like I was beaten to the punch.

DDD: You're gif is so mesmerizing I feel bad now. But yes, it's happening right now *midupdating next post in fact* *Gives you cookies and cake to make up for it*

This is my LP from last year. It mostly withered and died due to lack of feedback. Maybe it was before this forum took off or whatever. It's a text only adventure (i.e. no screenshots) and that isn't something I can fix as the game has been passed along (plus PS3). Should I bump it/finish it (I have it written to the end in a goggle doc, just need to finish cleaning up and posting here)? Is there anything generally wrong with it? Should I let it rest in piece?

I don't think there's anything wrong with bumping your LP to finish it if you want to. :)

Paca Plus
Date an alpaca! I don't know if this is run off from Hatoful boyfriend, since it was created pretty recently. It could be decent though.
Lovely Video:


Has anyone tried this? I haven't started playing yet.

If it's written up already anyway, you should definitely post it! I think I skipped over your LP due to it being unfinished, but I'll read up when I get a chance.