SUBMIT your Star Control intro idea

I like the idea of it being inspired by the Starship Trooper recruitment commercial a lot, but I also like the example below a lot too.  Star Control is supposed to be funny.  As I understand it you have your story intro, followed by this second movie.  So the player just saw a "serious" introduction to SCO.  Instead of another "serious" movie, maybe the second one should introduce the player to the concept that SCO is partly a comedy through a movie inspired by this one.  It could have some quick "interview clips" with some of the most prominent aliens as if they are actors on a movie set being interviewed in between scenes, maybe a few words from the human commander.  Kind of like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0hW0A43n3Y

Are you on Discord? We were just talking about that yesterday.

No, me and social media don't mix well.  I don't speak Twitter;-)

Good ideas often independently come from multiple sources at the same time.  The telephone, for example.

After watching the Wormhole Extreme video a few times...

Whenever I take inspiration from something like this I always include at least one direct reference too it as a kind of tribute to the original inspiration.  If you wind up deciding to go this way with it, my favorite part of this video is when he says "Does my agent know about this?".  It's not just the line that makes it work so well, but the look on his face when he says it.

It seems like this line/scene could be re-created in a good way as a part of an SCO version of this concept.  I'd definitely go with that as the "tribute scene" if I were doing this.

I LOVED the Wormhole extreme stuff, but I don't feel like it's quite the right fit here. It's a little too slapstick. SC should be funny but not quite to that extreme, IMO.

I think that the intro video should be more in line with the SC2 victory video. It was funny, informative, tantalising, revisited all your friends you had made through the game for one final laugh, and was totally in theme. By doing something similar, you would be spiritually linking SCO to SC2 even though it's not actually a direct sequel or prequel. It would be a nod to the old timey fans, and it would be a perfect humor-filled scene setting for SCO. 

Obviously it can't actually include all the aliens since we start the game not knowing any of them, but the concept/delivery/theme of that video is, I feel, what should be aimed for.

actually, I wonder... if frogboy has the Avengers on blu-ray, there's an alternate opening scene.  Maybe incorporate that kinda thing with interviews with some of the aliens that take place post final battle (maybe ending each 1 if more than 1 with "here's how I met the humans") but are placed at the start that have no spoilers in them.

I came on here to say what Bleybourne just said up there. SC2 End Credits were hilarious and fun, fourth-wall-breaking interviews with the cast. 

HOWEVER, and this is a big "however", it very well might not work as an intro, since we had the whole game to come to know and love the Spathi, Syreen, Pkunk, etc. We knew their personalities, their quirks, and at the beginning of the game "we" know nothing of the alien characters, and also don't want to give them away.

The point is - I would imagine noobies playing for the first time wouldn't want to see and meet all the aliens right in the intro movie, without any context. 

So, I guess my other pitch would be to play up/off of whatever tragedy happens in the opening minutes of the game. 

We don't know how to game will open, BUT - Back when the game literally started with Mars being annihilated by a Scryve planet killer, there was a good chance for an opening movie. An awesome open would be advertisements for the new Mars colonies. Hopeful propaganda about what awaits you in your NEW HOME ON MARS! The excitement, the hope for a new dawn, the conquering of Mars as the next step for humanity, video feed of humans going about their day, tending to crops, building bubble-cities, making pies, everyone smiles.... but while the tape is rolling, the sky goes dark suddenly, and a very-telling red laser beam would cut through the crust while people started to figure out what was going on and the screaming started... the cameraman starts running too, the camera all shaky, heading for the nearest escape pod, while the planet cracks open, ruptures and expl- ****live feed cut****

- Warning, this is not a test - 

- Humanity is under attack by an unknown force -

- Repeat, this is not a test -

- ACTIVATE STAR CONTROL -

That is the best idea, cuorebrave

We need to remember Brad's request that this is for a general Star Control themed intro, not specific to the Origins story.

A recruitment ad works. Anyone remember the Galactic Empire Recruitment Ad? If we do a comedy variant or not, it needs a room full of Cadets at Star Control Academy learning combat through Fleet Battles.

Cadet: [blows up enemy fleet on Foolish AI]

Instructor: Expert combat skills! Give that cadet a cruiser!

Alternatively we could actually go across the multiverse with a Prelude to Axanar style documentary about aliens discussing Humans and Star Control, a seeming constant across the multiverse. Could piss a few people off, but some ideas:

• Druuge being really crappy about Star Control
• Tywom geeking out
• Spathi just hiding from the camera
• Syreen ladies (enough said)
• Measured just trying to get approval to talk

Yes Kavik, come join the darkside....

I've always had fond memories of intros that put you in the shoes of a character on the forefront of the frontier; the tip of the spear on an expedition or a lone scout encountering something they weren't expecting to find and unequipped to deal with. Characters or situations in the intro don't have to tie into the main story. An intro isn't the right place for being outright slapstick or goofy like SC2's campy credits but there could still be self-referential or humorous quips with some smart dialog.

Would love to see the desolation of space acknowledged to get a sense of the loneliness that Earthlings face when journeying deep into space before FTL travel is a thing. Survey teams would have to spend years just to reach the nearest interstellar destinations with our primitive propulsion technology. It would ground the story in a contemporary reality, showing the player that they are still just taking the first steps in a not-too-distant future. This would give a greater sense of adventure as new tech discoveries are made later on that propel the story forward at a faster pace as we look back on how primitive our tech was in the intro. UQM was engaging because you were just a regular being swept up into a larger-than-life story with incredible technology at your disposal, appropriated from elsewhere and unsure yet eager of its full potential.

I freely admit to not engaging in spoilers about the new canon, so I can't speak for narrative ramifications of an intro idea, but it would be interesting (if a bit tropey) to see a deep space exploration team conducting a patrol or survey far beyond where anyone has yet explored, when they encounter something they haven't seen before. Heaven knows it's an approach that's been used in countless intros but I think it's effective: something sinister happens, the survey ship is attacked and outgunned, and maybe the antagonist makes some snide comment taunting us for being unworthy of traveling the stars, a remark they'll inevitably live to regret. The survey ship's last course of action prior to becoming space debris is launching a distress beacon back to Earth that slowly vanishes into the inky blackness of space.

I think it would be neat to start with the original SC and show the Chenjesu event, the war, fast forward to SC2, show something of that.  Have a narration telling us about those times, then cut into a super rewind, but this is how it started...well at least in dimension XYZ. Something about trying to achieve the same stability.  The game can end with the comment that they are on their way to taking on the future threats of the universe.

Quick question Brad:

Is this intro for Star Control as a franchise or the in-game organization the Star Control program?

I think you can make something like the Worm-X thing work.  You would only interview a few of the aliens that are met early, the most prominent ones, and maybe 2 or 3 star characters from the human ship like the commander.   I call this general concept a "premonition video".  You might even show some brief clips of very memorable things that will happen in the future, by finding good ways too use them.  Like the interviewing asking about something that will happen in the future as if the scene has already been filmed, even showing a brief but very memorable flash of it, that will then be experienced later in the story.  There are a lot of ways too make it work well.

But a more game play related alternative would be a run-down of the player's mothership.  Maybe one of the other races has seen it and scanned it and the intro is like a computer is giving an admiral a militaristic briefing on the new human mothership.  This, of course, also gives the player the same briefing of the ship they will be using in the game.  But in an indirect way.

Yes, I actually like Whitepaint's idea, too.  So that makes three that I think could all be done really well.  I've spent many years making "5-minute movies" like this.  Literally a few hundred of them over the years.  And one thing I learned long ago is that there are, very often, half-a-dozen REALLY GOOD "movies" that might tell the same exact story.  Just in different ways.  Sometimes it can be very hard to pick between many different good ways of telling a part of a story with a movie.

This is one of those cases.  If this was for my story, I would have a file with all three of these options in it with a ton of notes on each.  Trying to work out which one is going to make for the best movie/message/experience for the player considering what is happening around them at that moment.  

EDIT: Actually four candidates, including the "mothership briefing" I had mentioned in my last post...

Perhaps we should get something clarified from the head honcho - can, or more pertinently should the intro include UQM aliens?

After thinking about this as if I was adding a new game to my own universe and just starting to work out the music/movies for it, here is how I see this.  There are four good candidates for this "second intro" movie and I like all four movies well enough to use all of them.  Maybe in the future one or more of these might get bumped out of the game for a better idea, where the story winds up going once the rest of the movies have been worked out, or just because I've gone of the 90-minute limit I impose on myself with most of the games (120-minutes for a few of the "more important" or "bigger" stories).  But, for now, all four of these movies would be in as a way of getting started.

Wormhole Extreme "fake documentary" - This is the easiest one.  This is, obviously, the "after credits movie".  You've seenthis in movies before.  You won the game, and even sat through the credits.  As the final copyright information is scrolling of the screen you are thinking it's all over... but then there is one last unexpected movie.  In this case, the Wormhole Extreme inspired fake comedy documentary.

Whitepaint's Prequel SC1/SC2 history story - This is what I would use as what Brad is asking for.  For now, something better might come along, but from the four choices available this is what I would go with for now as the "second intro"

Starship Trooper fake recruitment commercial - This would be one, if not the first, movie that you would encounter while playing the game.

"Mothership Briefing" - This would also be a movie seen early during the game, probably triggered by your first encounter with the alien species that is holding this briefing.

Any of these might change as the story evolved, but this is how I see using all four of these ideas as a starting point.  Before the rest of the story begins evolving in ways that might drastically change how you see these fitting in.

One thing that my intro does allow for, is that it can be merged into existing games if needed, orrrr, there can be logical other splits.  Another aspect, is that if there are several games based on splits, there can be a game that merges them with a story about collapsing universes/dimensions, with an outcome being something robust and rich in a final unified history.  It can also allow for the Urquan to meet these other races and wipe some of them out, as a scourge. 

I'm thinking something along the lines of below... yes I know some of it is mighty freggin cliche

Scene opens with a young cadet getting out of a simulation pod after scoring top marks, however once his head leaves the pod a person carrying a recently excavated alien sensor array with self contained power source and intelligent AI stumbles sending the device flying and slamming into the head of the cadet.

<zoom to 3rd person>

We then see the cadet drop to his knees while falling out of the pod and making the futile attempt to stay conscious then stand up, resulting in him falling to the floor and getting wheeled to infirmary

<zoom to first person scene that's fully black with a light moving towards the cadet>

Unknown entity:  Hello young man, I know you have a LOT of questions but we don't have time so just listen closely...

To protect my home, I had to use a large bomb which may have been a bit too powerful, so um yeah I may have changed your past and path to a potential future... sorry about that...

<multiple lights fly by>

Smaller spheres of lights: Beware!  The Ultimate Evil can see us!  We must run away and hide again!  The Shield isn't enough!

Unknown entity:  Don't mind them, they're just fearful of everything including their own shadows... now where was I...

Oh right, the bomb... kid you have potential and in another time and space you're my ancestor so I need to help you out.  We humans may be weak and have inferior technology, but others fear how we can bond with other cultures while making friends from enemies which will make them want to exterminate you before it can happen...

<beam of light passes between the MC & unknown entity>

Unknown Entity:  Time's up!  Mars is under attack, wake up!

<scene starts to fade>

Unknown Entity: Remember, make many allies and rely upon the strength of your friends, the fate of ... will... depend... on it

<as the scene fades more the entity looks more and more like an older version of the MC>

<New Scene, eyes blinking looking up at the infirmary ceiling with the captain of the starbase looking down at the MC>

Captain!

<MC jumps to feet>

Mars is under attack!  Get everyone...

<Beam of light impacts Mars causing it to destabilize and explode like Icarus base from Stargate Universe>

I... I... was too late

<Cadet slumps down>

Captain: Cadet I'm going to need to know exactly what you saw when you were unconscious, and why our best doctors and scientists thought you were both brain dead in areas and highly active in other areas at the same time.

<Cadet starts to tell the captain what he saw and what knowledge was imparted into him>

<Roll intro credits beside a scene of the Captain showing the Cadet the experimental ship she's going to have him fly>

You could take some inspiration from The Expanse opening credits.     A montage-based opening sequence wouldn't be original, but could "show instead of tell" the history between the 1950s to now and onto 2086.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krqqqgixNq8

It would be challenging to make something if it has to be reused for every Star Control adventure.  If history, ships, aliens, story, and tone can change from universe to universe, what ties them together from an in-game standpoint?  Even a 4x game has some foundation to make an intro about.

Fallout 4 SPECIAL video series style is unbeaten in my book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuo7AuDGNN8&list=PLmnj_FCyD5DOruoksv8KFSIHY0VxIKxgA

Just bumping.

A few pseudo-random ideas for concept/atmosphere/approach rather than the specifics others have given...

For highlighting the shipbuilder and universe creation, something like this timelapse for Besiege might work. Showing the building and then the implementation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_LXRF0myw

Tonally, I always associated SC with Discworld, the sort of sardonic humour of it. This is an animated fan trailer for one of the books, and I could just imagine Star Control being the equivalent of the City Watch (the sort of awkward underdogs who somehow still manage through the ridiculousness of the situation/levels of challenges):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKJz7Tm5_rU

For a more narration characters sort approach, something like the twins from Bioshock Infinite could be used to show/explore the element of multiverses and alternative timelines:
Short example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4VdWVKMWE
Longer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzteglDuAwg

And for something more on the serious side potentially, The Longest Journey, where SC is "the balance" in terms of keeping the peace the "first step on the longest journey" resonates to me with the concept here especially. Both in terms of galactic scale and that there's endless galaxies beyond that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTt6Tu-4KDk

I also agree with the montage-style opening sequence. It always seems effective when used for other sci-fi properties, and I feel it could adapt well to Star Control.

The intro to Star Trek: Enterprise, for example, was a quite effective use of montage (please disregard the schmaltzy theme song, though) to show how technology had brought society to its "current" level of development in that universe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbnTZREMEJI

Or, similarly, the intro to Valerian, which I found simply fascinating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68AAT34MbQ