StarTropics - Behind The Scenes (Patreon)

WHY STARTROPICS?:

As mentioned in the video, StarTropics is one of those games that caught my eyes few years ago (maybe around 3ish ago) but I've never been in a position to actually play it.

Then Nintendo offered a free week trial of the Nintendo Switch Online service for merely starting the download of a demo for Splatoon 2 and just so happened to add StarTropics to the Switch Online NES lineup that same week!

Perfect timing for me to give it a try, and after finishing the game with only a couple hours of my free trial to spare, it got me thinking... which lead to the video happening!

I'm a sneaky lad and pretty much capture game play for any new games I play, which is a habit that came in useful here as I just ended up recording my entire play through, even if I didn't need it I figured it was best to grab footage as I only had the game for a week.

THE NITRO RAD INTRO

Before anything else, I think this take center stage as the most effort I've gone to for a single shot.

As you all know, I quite like recreating game logos for each of my videos (something fellow creator and friend Square Eyed Jak got me into doing) but for this one, the logo was for the most part fairly easy to recreate.

The only thing that maybe took time was finding a font that looked right, and copying the background colours at a higher resolution by hand so that it didn't look terrible when blown up.

Once I made the Petronious logo, I wasn't sure what else to do with it as the intro to the game was... well not to sound cocky, but it was too easy. I'd just have to fade it in.

I had a think for a little while as to some other StarTropics related things I'm aware of and then I realized the channel that made me aware of this game in the first place has branding that reflects the games style, with a cool logo screen that uses the same font too!

I then had a look around for some StarTropics remixes and just so happened to find this medley  by a channel called hazeri which contains several remix tracks, including the Sub-C track that Nitro Rad uses a remix of for his intro. I did ask permission to use this track and thankfully hazeri said I was free to use it, which is nice!

FILMING THE INTRO:

Straight away I had an idea of how to go about doing this all myself. Yes, I could have just cut out the TV and masked the hell out of the original Nitro Rad intro but then it wouldn't be MY TV and wouldn't be as impressive.

I wanted this to be something that people think "WHO would ever go to THIS much effort for one reference?" for me to say "...me"

But yeah for this, I emptied out my left wardrobe (which was made easier thanks to all of the clearing out I've been doing lately in preparation of more shelving elsewhere in the room) and used this space to place an old TV on a stand.

From there I placed my SNES and the box for Donkey Kong Country on top, with the controller hanging down, in a similar style to how it was done in the Nitro Rad intro.

At first I thought the static screen would cause a problem as this TV displayed a countdown timer to shut itself off after 5 minutes when there's no signal, but thankfully hitting the AV button on the remove turned the entire screen blue, perfect for chrome keying!

I went for DKC as I obviously don't have an actual NES or a copy of StarTropics so I just went for an old game that kind of defines my gaming tastes. Donkey Kong Country is the first videogame I recall ever experiencing, let alone playing! (note to self: must preview those games some day)

Filming the intro this way meant I could attach a lamp to the door frame above the wardrobe to go down onto the TV and give it a nice shadowed look. The main time consumer was masking the entire thing to remove everything but the TV stand.

I could have done this against green screen but I don’t have good enough lighting for it to have looked as good as this. There’s a few minor errors with the masking towards he end of the shot but by that point I was happy enough with it. Hopefully if people recognise what I’ve done, then they’ll enjoy it.

THE RETURN OF PUPPETRONIOUS:

April fools was only the beginning! The idea was from the very start to have him become a recurring thing on the channel from now on, with him essentially being a second “me”.

A lot of other YouTubers just use themselves dressed in other clothing to have a second, third or even a whole host of characters but I wanted something different, so I went with a puppet!

He still has my normal voice as the idea is that it’s literally a puppet version of myself, helping or hindering me through the videos.

AND I can get away with having him essentially host his own videos (which is what the ending was all about)

Changes made to the video during production:

One major change is that the ending was going to quite literally end on Puppetronious holding up a copy of Crackdown and looking very pleased with himself, then telling me to shut up after I start to complain about it off camera.

I cut this because for one, I thought the sudden cut of me being confused was a funnier way to end the video but also because I don’t like the idea of FULLY committing to stating what game I’m doing next (unless it’s something like a series of games) as thing often change. My next video at this rate is now likely going to be about my room, and the game collection within it, for instance. But I won’t be on camera so we can just pretend it’s Puppetronious doing the talking!

Remnants of this ending can still be seeing in the video as on the two occasions I throw a game case at Puppetronious to shut him up, those two games are Crackdown and Crackdown 2.

I have both games fully recorded with notes made on each so it’s only a matter of time those videos happen, and I’ll have Puppetronious attempt to review those on his own, perhaps.

At the moment I like the idea of having the next couple of reviews be about me teaching him how to make a Petronious review, seeing as he’s new to the channel!

WHAT’S NEXT?

Assuming we’re able to get the new shelving up in here I’ll probably end up having the game room/collection video out next.

After that I’ll try and spend a couple weeks cracking on with some other games I need to play for reviews before attempting a couple short videos on the Crackdown games… maybe!