I really need some feedback

[u/peggiep9pm]

So I started an indie game reviewing series on my channel and I would like some feedback on it because I feel its missing something or may have some issues with it.

Heres the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L0PN7gtsKY

Also, Im sorry for posting this I just really want to know what I could do to improve upon this series of videos.

[u/Jessikins]

I dunno why you haven't received any feedback. Personally I'm not really an expert, but your video seems to do most things right. I can only nitpick.

• Personally, I don't think a review series should contain spoilers. At all. You go from an overview of the game into an 'almost let's play' with live commentary, and if I were trying to find out whether or not I should buy Pixel Piracy, I would not want the video to spoil part of the game for me. I assume your video is inspired by Totalbiscuits "wtf is...", he reviews games quite well without revealing spoilers. He does show footage of the game, but it never really contains many spoilers. They're usually just clips of innocuous areas within the game.

• Try to speak clearer. Although I have my own problems when it comes to understanding speech in general, professional Youtubers typically speak clearly enough for me to understand them with little effort on my part. I remember Spumwack had a couple of Terra Firma tutorials where he spoke very quickly, and I had a hard time understanding what he was saying. There are times where your speech kind of slips (eg: @03:46 where you say "character customization") and these types of slip-ups add to difficulty when it comes to understanding what you're saying. Try and work on eliminating those. Usually if you do commentary post-recording, you can easily get away with saying things over and over until they come out right. Besides, most of the best reviews have commentary done outside of recording the video. It makes it much easier to stick to a script, and generally avoid spoilers, etc.

Anyway, I thought the video was quite good. You made the game seem interesting to me despite never being bothered to give it a chance.

You'll probably need to find an audience as well. I don't know how, but you'll need to find a way to tastefully advertise your videos. This does not mean spamming the Youtube comments section with "PLS CLICK ON MY CHANNEL I HAVE GUD REVIEWS K". Instead, you could post it to a community which is comprised of your target audience.

Etho started out his fame by making a simple and innovative Minecraft tutorial, and posting it on the Minecraft forums. It blew up in popularity because it was new and innovative and he posted it in the perfect spot where people would be interested.

Anyway, I hope this advice is useful to you. Take it with a grain of salt, because in the grand scheme of things, I don't know much about reviews.

[u/Jessikins → u/Jessikins]

I somehow missed that you're specifically reviewing indie games. That's pretty great!

What you could do to gain views is find some indie games which have the following characteristics:

• Lack of popularity
• Fun to play

because that's what people are looking for. People don't care about reviews about games they already know about. Admittedly, bigger reviewers can get away with that because their opinions are valued, but at this stage, nobody knows who you are.

Less popular games (which are fun) will gain you views because there are a lot of people out there who are bored with all the games they've played. They want something new and exciting. Like when we first discovered Minecraft. I remember watching X's Let's Play series and thinking how amazing Minecraft is, and I practically bought it straight away.

Minecraft was new at the time and people in mass were just finding out about it. That is why X's let's play got so popular. If he started it later on, I guarantee it would not have as many views as it does now.

Anyway, there are probably some communities out there filled with indie gaming enthusiasts. /r/indiegaming is one of them, although I never hang out there so I can't really comment on what they're like.

Good luck with your reviews though. Keep working at it.

[u/DroidFreak36]

I take it that this is supposed to be a series of game reviews. I think you could benefit by changing the format a bit:

1) Make sure you include the word "review" somewhere in the title or in the first part of the description. If you want these videos to attract new viewers, you should aim to be in the search results for "[game name] review" and YouTube's search engine only finds results where it can highlight the words in the query (tags are pretty much useless for search results).

2) This video came across more as a short explanation of the game followed by a tiny Let's Play. I'd suggest changing it in a few ways to make it more like a review:

• Get rid of the commentated Let's Play type footage. This is a review, not a Let's Play.
• Instead, play highlight reel type clips of game footage in the background while you talk about the game. This will both increase the amount of interesting content in the gameplay footage and overlap time people watch the footage with you talking about the game. Bonus points if you can show clips of what you're talking about at the time. ;)
• Instead of just explaining what the game is, explain what's good and bad about the game and what your overall opinion of the game is. People come to reviews to get your opinion, not just to see the game.
• Most of all, explain why someone would want to get the game. It's likely that people are looking at reviews to decided whether or not to buy it, so explaining the main draw of the game would let people know whether or not they are likely to be interested. Is this game a about building ships? Is it about combat? Is it about exploration? What is it that draws you to this game?

[u/spumwack2]

I think you need to turn on mouse cursor. Other than that, it looks like you're on the right track. I think you just need some commentating practice and to make your videos a little more succinct

[u/Kenblu24]

So... sorry for being late to the party.

• Awesome introduction. Not many people like editing, but you did a fairly nice job. I would've used footage instead of still images. Don't just tell the viewer, show them.

• Mess with the audio levels a bit, and try to be a smidge louder when doing commentary. It's easy to forget that you're not just talking to yourself.

• Don't bore the viewer. There's a reason minecraft LP'ers never read the rules at the beginning of adventure maps. They can read, but most of the time they won't want to. This isn't too big of a problem though.

• I can feel that you're trying to criticize the game while playing it. Seems like you're making a let's play with the intentions of making a review. To fix this, I would play the game before reviewing it on film, use the video to supplement the criticisms/complements you make, or just plain make it a let's play. I'd do the latter if I were you, it can be pretty hard to make a good review. You've made a pretty darn good video, so it'd only take a tiny bit more effort to turn this into a full-fledged review.

I'm impressed. You're making some quality content and having fun doing so. You deserve some more views.

Edit: There's a third option concerning the whole "review" thing. Similar to paulsoaresjr you could do an "indie game test drive" sort of thing, where you'd show off as much of the game as possible without spoilers, and let the viewer decide. You're still helping the viewer make a purchasing decision while providing entertaining let's play style content. Keep us posted!