Get ready for a long read.
The game was originally designed to be based on the classic version of the game as far as graphics, music and dollar amounts were concerned. Since the game will (for the forseeable future) be solely on YouTube, it would be impossible to give the player an unlimited amount of time to answer the questions, so a clock was added with a 30 second time limit per question.
Last year, the system the game was being made on finally reached the end of it's rope and the hard drive burned out, losing pretty much everything that had been made for the game. At that point, the whole project was pretty much canned.
At some point after the new format of the show was released, the project was picked back up with the intent of using the new graphics and play style, and the name of the project was changed to "Millionaire Interactive 2.0." But, time was never really available to work on it. It's been getting put together very slowly piece by piece ever since, with quite a bit of progress in the last week or so. Many changes keep happening to improve the look and feel of the game. Most notably, the clock. The clock is now on it's 5th complete overhaul design and it looks like the current version is going to stick.
The next big issue was the question and answer layout which have also gone through several designs, and the current version looks like it's going to stick as well, barring a few possible lighting tweaks. The layout is not identical to the show which was intentional. With the way the game is setup and the varied internet connection speeds, the question lozenge was designed to be slightly bigger to help with resolution problems that some people may have, but the current finished design looks and feels fantastic to work with.
You can see a visual demonstration of the current layout (clock, question and answers) here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y83U-rAsiZkAs for how the game is physically played, it's just what you would expect from Youtube. It's a series of videos that are strung together with annotations. This means that when a question is presented, the "interactive" part of the game kicks in by allowing the viewer to physically click the answer they believe to be correct. They are then redirected to the next video with the consequence of their decision. Lifelines are not currently planned to be put in the game, and if you've been following along you'll understand why, but I'll explain anyway.
Since each question has four possible outcomes the viewer can pick, there has to be a separate video for each one. One for the question itself, and one for selecting each of the answers. That totals 5 videos per question, plus an intro video, for a total of 76 videos per show. However, for a viewer who "wins" the game, they will only see 16 of these videos.
Each video is created in 3 parts. The first part is the live host in front of a green screen running through the entire game with all possible outcomes (76 different clips averaging 2 minutes in length plus any time for re-takes.) The second part is taking all of that footage and keying it in - removing the green screen and replacing it with the lighting effects and digital background and overlaying all of the questions, clocks, etc. The 3rd part is super-secret and will not be discussed here, sorry
If lifelines were to be added to the game, then many new videos would have to be created based on the possible outcomes of having different lifelines (What if they have all 3? What if they have double dip and the audience but not the expert? What if they have double dip and the expert but not the audience? This problem persists for each question and a video would need to be made for each possible combination, adding an insane amount of production time.)
On average, after taping the live host segments, each video clip takes about 30 minutes of editing, and 60-90 minutes of compiling, 15-30 minutes of uploading, and 15 minutes of adding annotations and linking them to the other videos. That comes out to about 2 hours to 2 hours and 45 minutes of physical work for each video, which equals about
190 hours of physical work for each episode of Millionaire Interactive 2.0 without the use of lifelines. When you have a busy life and only have time to work on it a little bit each session, it takes quite awhile to get the final project pushed out.
Why am I doing this? Mostly because I have a passion for video editing. I'm pretty much self-taught with everything I have learned to do, and "Millionaire" seemed like it would be an absolute perfect medium for learning different aspects of video editing, and it is. I could write a book on everything I've learned about the subject from just working on this project. The fact that it's on track to become a fan-based game is just an added perk that gives me an excuse to show off what I've learned. (That, and I also enjoy the show enough to make a tribute to it.)
[glow=red,2,300]WARNING - ANGRY RANT[/glow]What really bothers me, however, is the fact that there is a group of people out there (who shall be nameless) who constantly nag me about the project and it's release date, feeling like I "owe" them this project for some reason and that I need to hurry up and get it done so they can have a 10 minute window of entertainment. I've said from day one that this project isn't something that consumes my life and it's something I work on in my
spare time for my
own enjoyment and learning. To those people, and you know who you are: cool it with demanding that I finish the project soon, you have no ground to stand on and I never promised you anything with this project. It'll be done when I feel it's done. Go outside some.
To the rest of you who keep giving me support with the encouraging comments on my sample videos and updates, I appreciate it. The fact that knowing that a few people are looking forward to the project and enjoy whatever I can give when I actually have time keeps me motivated to spending more time with getting it made.
Until next time,
-Mech
-Millionaire Interactive Webmaster & Creator
) I guess the next on will be Poland then...
If lifelines were to be added to the game, then many new videos would have to be created based on the possible outcomes of having different lifelines (What if they have all 3? What if they have double dip and the audience but not the expert? What if they have double dip and the expert but not the audience? This problem persists for each question and a video would need to be made for each possible combination, adding an insane amount of production time.)
