The rich, vibrant world of your video game deserves so much more than a simple, static image. That’s not to put down the many still images that will come to represent your game, of course. Posters, box art, screenshots are all important, of course, but when it comes to your game’s official site, what better way to instantly show off your game’s world, tone, and mechanics than a live video that greets players and the press?
While remodeling our own site, we at Mega Cat realized that while gameplay GIFs are wonderfully quick and shareable, and trailers can be stuffed full of detail, we needed something in between - say hello to looping video.
By using these looping videos where we might have formerly employed GIFs, we’ve discovered that we not only modernize the look and feel of our landing pages, but we also raise engagement and reduce bandwidth costs. It’s an all-around win. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll need to use looping videos on your own game’s website.
This part might seem obvious, but a surprising number of folks disregard how important it is to decide on what to show off with their website’s looping videos. You have to decide what the purpose of your video will be - are you showing off your gameplay, or just setting a mood on your site? If you’re going down the gameplay route, perhaps consider capturing a clip that shows off your game’s mechanics in a short amount of time. Your clip shouldn’t be particularly lengthy - you’re not trying to build a trailer here - you’re just demonstrating a mechanic!
The clip should be an MP4. This format offers higher quality and doubles the bandwidth efficiency of GIFs. Trying to use GIFs for this purpose could be disastrous for users on mobile devices.
The WebM format is another option for your footage. It offers similar advantages to MP4 while being open source and supported by a wide variety of browsers. The main advantage of WebM, however, is that while it’s on its way to being universally supported, it’s not quite where MP4 is now. It does, however, offer smaller file sizes and the majority of modern web browsers do support WebM playback.
If you’re looking to use a looping video to set a vibe on your site rather than to show off gameplay, you’re going to need a video that’s a little bit more akin to a poster than a trailer. Chances are, you don’t want a lot of fast or big motion, but something gentler and slower that fits well into your website’s overall design.
What you want here is a cinemagraph; we recommend taking a look at this tutorial for guidance on how to go about creating one. While it’s focused on creating cinemagraphs using live-action video, the same principles apply to your game.
When it comes to integrating the footage into your website’s code, you’ll either want to forward your footage to your web designer or get to work on it yourself, testing to make sure the video looks good both on desktop as well as mobile platforms. When it comes to the necessary code, we recommend taking a look at this resource on Stack Overflow for how to best integrate the video while hiding the player functions.
Have you integrated looping video into your site, and if so, are there any practices you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’re familiar with console gaming, you may have heard of the practice of “Region Locking”, which is a form of DRM that prevents media from one region of the world from working on devices from another. There are several reasons for region locking. Sometimes, it’s done as a form of censorship, to prevent media that’s considered distasteful in one area from being available in another. Other times, it’s done for business reasons - if a game is being sold for $60 on one continent and $40 on another, region locking discourages third parties from buying the $40 copies and reselling them for $50.
For gamers, region locking has long been a nuisance- there are many legitimate reasons to want to play a game from another region; perhaps a foreign edition of a game has features that weren’t included in their localized version of the game, or perhaps they purchased their console in a region where games don’t come with support for their mother tongue.
On the Nintendo Switch, region locking is a thing of the past. Nintendo’s latest console is not region-locked, meaning games from around the world can be played in any region. However, to play games from other regions on your Switch, it is necessary to change your region. This can be done without warranty-voiding hardware modification or sketchy software hacks.
Step One
From the Switch’s main menu, go to Settings.
Step Two
Scroll down to the bottom of the settings menu and select System.
Step Three
From the system, choose Region and select your preferred region; it will then be necessary to accept a new EULA, and your console will then need to restart. When it boots back up, it’ll run games from the region you’ve chosen. Using that region’s eShop will require a new user profile and eShop account that’s registered in said region.
And that’s all there is to it - changing regions on your Switch is fast, easy, and safe.
I was reading through one of my favorite start-up culture evangelists, Pat Riley of GAN, and he brought up something I’ve seen trending more and more the past year: no cell phone zones in offices.
As someone who’s holistically connected to their devices more often than I should be, it resonated with me, and I had to move forward with it.
Check out this photo that Pat was so willing to share from HATCH in Bergen, Norway. No Phone Zones are for refreshing your mind, switching gears, and keeping it analog.
I couldn’t resist but to collaborate with some like-minded champions who want to turn their no-cell phone zone couches into couch co-op zones.
Simple to learn accessible controls, whether you had a Nintendo when they were new, or are just playing it for the first time.
Game design that borrows the best from the past while looking forward to the future.
Fun for Fun’s sake to feed your creative side
Any startup accelerators, co-work spaces or offices looking for some retro indulgence to support your team, we’re eager to help. We’re selling a bundle at a cost that has everything you need to get at it:
A console of your choice, at cost.
Two controllers
A game of your choice, at cost.
Let’s support one another through a medium we can all relate to. Want to chat about it or share photos of your Mega Cat infused office? Let’s talk!
