Attract Movies and Modes

[KaiserMk7]

Enticing cinematics and automated gameplay demonstrations that start to play if you idle on the title screen for a period. Should developers still spend the time and effort to make these? Why or why not? Do you have any examples of the practice that you're especially fond of, that you think are especially well-made or well-implemented, or that you think are done very poorly?

 

[Clippy]

It's an arcade thing, isn't it? At least that's where I've seen attract movies the most. That's where they make the most sense. Gotta show off some gameplay to make you want to spend them coins. I go 50/50 on whether or not those demo reels should still be a thing. On one hand there's not much of a point to have them since you already bought the game and you don't need to be convinced any further to fork over your money. On the other hand they still have the coolness factor and they're way better than a soulless black screen that says 'press any button'. Now that I think about it trailers have been filling the role of attract demos but it's not quite the same now is it.

 

[KaiserMk7]

It's an arcade thing, isn't it? At least that's where I've seen attract movies the most. That's where they make the most sense. Gotta show off some gameplay to make you want to spend them coins. I go 50/50 on whether or not those demo reels should still be a thing. On one hand there's not much of a point to have them since you already bought the game and you don't need to be convinced any further to fork over your money. On the other hand they still have the coolness factor and they're way better than a soulless black screen that says 'press any button'. Now that I think about it trailers have been filling the role of attract demos but it's not quite the same now is it.

Now I'm tempted to put a full release attract video in a demo and have it play at the end in addition to from the title screen.

 

[Frickinfrik]

Attract Demos are especially interesting when they show footage of an earlier build of a game. Like, i think the one in Mario Sunshine was footage of an earlier near-final build. I also think the one in Twilight Princess showed a near-final build in it’s attract demo (which was a recreation of the E3 2005 trailer), as it showed Link having the Hylian Shield in parts in the game where he hasn’t obtained it yet and Wolf Link in a cutscene that Human Link is in.