This week, Panic released its last video update and I was in there 🌠. I'm very 🙏🏻 thankful for being invited for a segment. It consists of presenting who we are and what is the game in a minute.

👋🏻 So this is me in the video with a real Scrolling Enigma newspaper for the occasion! 👋🏻

Hey You! Have you noticed the reference? 🎸

You can watch the full video right here among other awesome devs (or you can jump at 05:16 to see my... performance 🎭). 

Making a video

I have no talent to speak in front of people neither on video so it wasn't easy to shoot. Also, it wasn't easy to explain the game since I don't want to spoil anything and show solutions. So my plan was to get a memorable segment using real newspapers and telling some jokes.

My goal was to get noticed and have players adding the game into their wishlist on the Catalog or buy the game here. So here was my idea.

Personalizing

By using real newspapers and using traditional newspaper animation that we can see in all movies or cartoon, I make something more personal than just me in front of the camera. For the record, my game is about enigmas set in a gamedev diary taking the form of a newspaper, so I was right on topic! 👌🏻
For the animation, I've used the video editing capability of Blender for the first time! 👏🏻

💬 Live chat comment : 

ahaha the newspaper prop is awesome!

Game content

Well, obviously, I can't show too much the mechanics because it will reveal the solutions, spoil and shorten the game experience. So I thought about starting to show the scroll through the newspaper where you read the lore and find and solve the enigmas. Then I show how hints pop out when you loop through the whole newspaper. And finally I show a little bit about an enigma: the vampire enigma 🧛🏻! I remember it was one of the most satisfying enigma in my playtests 🎮, so I could share how most players actually played it. 🤣

💬 Live chat comment : 

damn, twisting the knife

Jokes

I'm not good at memorize a speech and I usually say a lot of uh. So I was more confident making jokes instead of discussing the game 🙃. After the vampire part, I thought it was great to use the good old Steve Job meme 🤳🏼. Not sure if somebody noticed, but I think it fits pretty well.

If you are blocked in the vampire enigma and you read this article, the joke is not a hint.

Inciting to wishlist

I'm not sure if my cat joke improved the numbers (I can't check on a parallel universe sadly 😺🐈‍⬛), but at least I got few nice comments on the youtube live chat. 

Galathae helping promoting my game

💬 Live chat comment : 

I see a cat, I wishlist. Pawprints

Equipment

Of course, my equipment could be better. I need a good external microphone 🎤 because my smartphone's built-in one is pretty bad. I shot the video during the evening with minimal lighting. Even the ring light I bought for the occasion wasn't enough. I'm not sure how to improve, I'll take any advice! 🤔

The Lucas Pope effect

This video update #5 got already more views in 4 days than the previous one did in 3 months (15.4k vs 13,4k) but less than the #3 in one year (21,7k). While I'm not sure what it means yet, it's encouraging. I got far more than x10 wishlists comparing to Itch. However, in terms of press coverage, things are different. All games got 🥷overshadowed by 👽Mars After Midnight (by Lucas Pope): they talk about Mars After Midnight and 16 other games without even bothered naming them 🙈. Sometimes Midnight Raider got spotlights 🎯! So congrats for the developer, he did it great! 🎉
To fix this I'm going to list all the games in the comments below.

Catalog

If you haven't buy my game on Itch yet, you can wishlist The Scrolling Enigma on the Catalog. I'll try to make a last update 💪🏻 on the game before releasing on the Catalog (smoother loop, inform when it's the last hint available). You can still buy it on Itch, game and price will be the same.

Get in touch

If you want to share some thoughts about the game 📰, discuss about playdate games 🟨, or have a sneak peak of my next game (hope to share the first pic in few weeks or months 👀), come join my discord or connect with me on twitter or bluesky. Thanks for reading. Cheers!