Aren't there more options? All the video's I'm seeing are usually blurry, badly lit (I get why they are but it's still kinda annoying), and slightly jerky.
The best way we could figure for our trailer for Gomi was to use iShowU ($20) and record the video of the iPhone simulator, and change the controls to work with a mouse. Youtube cuts the quality a bit, but the raw .mp4's we got were pretty much pixel perfect, and there's no shakiness from holding a camera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnyN8Yo1sGQ&fmt=18
Unfortunately I don't believe that I, not being a developer and owning only a Windows machine, have that option. (Or am I wrong?) I think reviewers/consumers have no other choice than getting out a video camera and recording the screen, right?
I agree that Slidetoplay.com has some great video gameplay on their site. I'd guess they have an overhead mounted HD camera so that they don't have to hug a tripod (which can cause the shakiness seen in most videos.) You really only have 2 options... Some sort of screen capture software, or using a camera that has decent video quality and a micro zoom lens. I found the real trick to the camera is not using my video camera, but rather using my Canon point and shoot 10MP camera since it has the ability to shoot close-up at a higher quality and without any blurriness or distortion. The biggest issue we came across was actually the content of the video. Our trailer (youtube link) was done with the iPhone simulator and some screen capture software... However, people didn't quite get how the game played out based on the simulator video. Thus, I made a simple gameplay video (youtube link) using the canon on a tripod. It's not to shaky or blurry, but I really had to pay close attention to the distance from the camera to get it looking right. Maybe Rolando nailed it with a best-of-both-worlds approach (youtube link) of using a stand-in finger on top of the screen...?
Gameloft did well with their Asphalt, Real Football and some other youtube clips too. Imho, better than Rolando.
Gotta say i'm not a fan of either gameloft's or ngmoco's promo vids. I suppose for marketing purposes they're ok, but real video is better. Even if its a little blurry, shaky or poorly lit you get a much better impression of what its really like to play it, which for me is most important.
