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Author Topic: Star Control on HypaSpace help  (Read 3636 times)
Anthony
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Star Control on HypaSpace help
« on: January 18, 2007, 04:48:57 pm »

HypaSpace is a television show on the Canadian Science-Fiction channel called Space.  The full 30-minute show is played every weekend, and they always talk about the latest info about movies, comics, toys, TV shows, and games.

It would be totally amazing if they took a moment to talk about Star Control.  They take suggestions based on the posts on the Space Channel forum:

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Where do I send programming suggestions?
Please check out SPACE's Discussion Forums for any and all comments about our station's programming. The postings on this part of our site are checked regularly by our staff and we truly are influenced by what our viewers ask for. Please tell us WHY you love the show, and why you think we should get it. Convince us!

So, the first thing I did was create a post about Star Control, and I explained why it's worth mentioning.  If someone could say "Star Control" on TV, that would be one way of getting the name "Star Control" out there into the spotlight.

Unfortunately, not many people have responded to it; Star Control doesn't seem very popular in the TV station forum.  I was wondering if there were any Canadians out there (and I know there are Cheesy) who could take a moment to register for the Space forum and reply to the topic, in hopes of raising the popularity of it, which would definitely grab more attention to the people who work at Space looking for show ideas.

The Star Control post is at http://forums.spacecast.com/forums/thread/297993.aspx

We can do it!
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Ludka
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2007, 06:53:49 pm »

I'm from the US, but I wouldn't mind posting.  Do I have to be Canadian?
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Anthony
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2007, 09:41:56 pm »

No, you don't have to be Canadian; it's just a Canadian television, that's all.  It won't restrict people from other countries if that's what you're asking... Cheesy
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2007, 01:25:31 pm »

Thanks youBastrd Cheesy
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2007, 05:23:02 pm »

Hmm, I think I qualify. I'm Canadian, but don't watch TV. I suppose _they_ don't need to know that.
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2007, 04:23:46 pm »

I was looking at the Spacecast forum, in the HypaSpace section, and the most popular tag in there is Star Control!  Also, the Star Control topic itself is one of the top 3 posts in the section, so this is pretty good. Cheesy  I also e-mailed space@spacecast.com about talking about Star Control oh HypaSpace, and I just hope that someone out there who works for the Space channel will help get the name Star Control out there.

If there's anyone out there who would like to help that forum thread raise in popularity, or if there are any Canadians out there who have the Space channel, it would be great if other people could post their support about HypaSpace taking a moment of their time to mention Star Control, and TFB's desire to make a brand new Star Control game...
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2007, 02:49:30 pm »

Sorry it took so long.  I had trouble logging on at work.
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2007, 04:31:35 pm »

Ludka, thanks for your support.  With every post, we become closer to grabbing the Space Channel's attention with Star Control.

I plan on writing another letter to space@spacecast.com about Star Control.  I'm gonna tell them how much I love their show, and how awesome Star Control is.

If anyone can think of anything that I can add to the e-mail, that would be awesome.  And if anyone out there wants to post on the Space channel forum, feel free to do so; you don't have to be a real Canadian; anyone can do it! Cheesy

Star Control rules, and we can't let anyone forget that!
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2007, 10:21:23 pm »

In case anyone hasn't seen the show, it's a sci-fi / fantasy / movies / geek news show.  They push things like tv shows, movies, video games, etc. It's targetted at less hard core "geeks" for a lack of a better term. Smiley 

Examples they will talk about: any new star wars dvd release, any new star trek news, stargate, battlestar, movies with a fantasy theme (whether they're actually good or not, curiously) like Smokin' Aces, Pan's Labrinth, etc; the live action Lord of the Rings play, etc.  Examples they don't talk about include: latest computer hardware or software, "real" news, etc. 

So here's what the show looks like :

Last week's episode: http://www.spacecast.com/videoplayer_3347.aspx
Other smaller segments (in case someone's on dialup): http://www.spacecast.com

So generally the format of the show is roughly (times here are minutes):

0-1: intro
1-2: very short announcements. 
2-20: main features.  usually these are shots of the movie or whatever, interviews with some its actors or creators etc, behind the scenes footage, etc.  The idea here is not just to show trailers, but add some value.  This is usually done by big companies, ie through their marketing department or something similar.  Expect a professional level of quality.  Each segment is about 5 minutes. 
~ 20 - 22 : A section called "The Scoop."  Here lesser known little factoids are presented.  Usually this is not done by big companies directly, it's more like interesting bits of facts they've found.  The format is the announcer talking while showing mostly still pictures or short clips of the topic.  Each segment is about 30-45 seconds. 
~ 22-24 : Segment about collectable toys etc
24 : close

It's worth noting that they are not used to dealing with distributed groups like this.  They're used to calling up the PR department of companies, or a producer, or more generally one person authoritative person they can talk to on the phone.  They're unlikely to make forum posts looking for volunteers etc.  We'll have to be organized enough to give them everything they need.  Also, this is one of those rare opportunities to show what an open, networked group is capable of.  Some people out there in television land have no idea that such groups can be successful. 

So what are we asking them to do exactly?

1. Ask to appear as a segment in their main section, including footage, interviews, "behind the scenes" (whatever that means in this case).  That means providing footage, pictures, a "news release," and the potential of an interview with someone interesting and knowledgable on the topic.  Who could that person / those people be?  How would such an interview take place?  TDB. 

2. Ask to appear in "The Scoop" section.  Provide enough info, footage, pictures, etc that they are empowered to have something interesting and postivive to say. 

And what are we asking them to say?

1. Go download UQM.

2. Go sign the petition.

These types of decisions should not be done by committee.  Rather, we suggest away, and a decision is handed down to us by the powers that be (ie Meep-eep). 
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #9 on: January 28, 2007, 02:37:29 pm »

First a clarification. I may be the most visible core team member on this forum, but "the powers that be" include McMartin, fOSSiL and Gwl too.

While I do think it would be nice to have a bit of media attention to this project, I doubt it would be suitable for a program like this. There isn't much to show. We don't have a development studio where people can be seen all doing their thing, and the game itself doesn't produce pretty pictures.
And if they want to show the concept of Open Source games, there are better representatives of the genre. We didn't make this game from scratch, and there are other Open Source games that produce much prettier graphics.
The only realistic way to make something like this work, would imho be if they did a special on Open Source games and and showed a number of games. UQM could then be an example of how some game makers release popular old games, which fans update and improve.
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2007, 12:19:03 am »

Ok, we'll respect and support l whatever requirements you guys come up with.  Smiley

That spin of covering more of the open source games in general, rather than UQM, is interesting. 

Most of the best open source games do come from closed source roots, either by open sourcing a closed, commerical game or making a clone of a commercial game: Quake 3, Dink Smallwood, ScummVM, etc..  FreeCiv, Stratagus, etc. are all clones.  There are only a few good OS games that are original: TuxRacer, FrozenBubble, etc.  So UQM is actually a good example of the way the OS games are made: even though OS games are separate from most commercial game interests, we're still dependent in some ways on commercial games for good game implementations.  Maybe that's one spin to put on things. 

There actually is a fair amount of stuff to show off in UQM itself.  A verical slice of gameplay might go a long way to show off the major gameplay elements: exploration on a big map, talking with aliens, combat, landing missions.  This is interesting to viewers.  Also, by capturing footage in a game resolution closer to the final output video resolution, jaggies etc start to be less of an issue. 

As it is right now, UQM is a good game in absolute terms.  It's fun, complete and stable.  The single player is competitive with new, modern games.  Compared to other shareware or freeware games, UQM blows them out of the water. 

In any event, if you guys decide you want some kind of media push, just ask. 
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2007, 12:34:00 am »

It isn't "our requirements" what I'm talking about; I'm looking at it from the perspective of the show's producers. They need to have something to show their viewers. Viewers that are used to fancy graphics. Even if you say gameplay is more important than graphics (with which I agree), they can't show that in the short time they have. Graphics and interviews are the only thing they can show.
Unless they do a special on "Open Source", or retrogaming perhaps. In which case the outdated graphics can be justified. And even for Open Source, as I argued in my previous post, other games will have more to show in a short tv segment.

As for media push, UQM doesn't really need any media attention for itself, but it may be good for TFB's chances of getting to make a sequel.
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Re: Star Control on HypaSpace help
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2007, 10:16:06 am »

Most of the best open source games do come from closed source roots, either by open sourcing a closed, commerical game or making a clone of a commercial game: Quake 3, Dink Smallwood, ScummVM, etc..  FreeCiv, Stratagus, etc. are all clones.
Clarification: Quake 3 and Dink Smallwood are commercial games that have been released later as Open Source (like UQM). ScummVM is a reverse-engineered reimplementation of the SCUMM engine (and Stratagus started as one for Warcraft II and Starcraft). The only clone in this list is FreeCiv, as far as I can tell.

Quote
There are only a few good OS games that are original: TuxRacer, FrozenBubble, etc.
Not very good examples: Frozen Bubble is a clone of Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move, while Tux Racer went closed source/commercial after version 0.61.
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