Creative thinking about Screenshots

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Hi all,

I was hoping to pick everyone’s creative minds on screenshots:

Obviously most of us are in the business of creating text-based content. If a choicescript game had 4 - 6 screenshots what would you pick?

And if you thought they might not be interesting enough - how would you think creatively about creating screenshots / or explainer images that were?

An example - http://yachtclubgames.com/shovel-knight-press-kit/
Where the example came from (more examples) http://www.pixelprospector.com/contents-and-examples-of-press-kits/

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Most of the games do have screenshots in the app stores and steam. Can you look at those and see which ones have been picked?

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Sorry @FairyGodfeather , I should say - yes I have

Here’s choice of Alexandria on steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/466430
Choice of pirates: http://store.steampowered.com/app/476490
and I would expect maybe

  • a pic of an exciting choice
  • a pic of a page with an illustration on it
  • maybe a stats screen shot

To feature. I guess I’m wondering whether there’s any really imaginative approach lingering in someone’s mind :blush:
Exciting or visually cool ideas so we can compete with visual indie games.

I just ran the text from a run though of my WIP through a word cloud generator to see if the high incidence words created a cool illustration of the kind of experience a reader might have
( this isn’t particularly creative, but I hope it’s one of a few different approaches)

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I hadn’t thought of using word clouds…that’s a fun idea. I experimented with one of my scene files (I actually left in the code too) and the results were rather intriguing. Thanks!

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I think a stats screen shot would be really, really boring. And unless your game is heavily illustrated I’d think a picture of a page with an illustration might be misleading.

I’d suggest an exciting choice, a romantic choice, and maybe one with a cliff-hanger or something?

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My thinking too.
I think if artwork was present in the stats screen it might look cool split screen. But then every other split screen screenshot would look identical.

Think you’re right about a leaving it on something intriguing - and it might be a good idea to show 2 - 3 text choices showing the breadth of the writing - romance, comedy etc as you say.

Gotta admit seeing more than a couple of wall of text screenshots looks a bit offputting to me - even researching this at the moment I seem disinclined to open the thumbnails, they all look the same :blush:

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Not sure if you’re aware of this yet, but the nature of the example screenshots that are shown in the stores from the published games are actually chosen by the authors because they require a specific, different file in order for CoG to grab and post. At least ours was. I chose pages that I thought each demonstrated at least one of the following:
1.) showed a choice with several, very different responses to show the variety we tried to provide
2.) good flavor text to demonstrate the humor we tried to imbue the whole story with (or whatever tone/genre you’re aiming for)
3.) gave the viewer enough of an idea about the plot without giving too much away
4.) had a few lines of dialogue between two or more characters to sample their personalities
Hope that helps!

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Well-selected screenshots should give a person an impression on what they will encounter in the game, therefore I think the screenshots should include:

1)At least two showing choices with different options
a)one “character-building” choice from the early part of the game
b) another one where the MC has to deal with some typical situation.
2) the stat screen with all important stats.
3) the first page of a mid-game chapter giving some hints about the plot and/or major NPCs
4)If the game has achievements, the moment the player earns an achievement.
5) If the game has romance, a romantic scene between the MC and an RO, if possible including a choice.

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