Recording Gameplay on Video

Can you guys recommend some *free* solutions to record gameplay from the desktop?
Back in the day I tried having Quicktime record my desktop...about 10 seconds of test footage ended up being a huge file.  Quality loss was also sometimes an issue.

It would be nice to put together a little promo video to keep myself motivated and to show people on my blog and other social networks that this game is going to be a reality.

Thoughts?

Search in google for "BB FlashBack", it's free and have many features, and may be this is the best free screen recording app

I looked and looked and couldn't find anything quality for free for Mac. The fact of the matter is when running a Flash game and a screencasting tool, you need to have optimized performace from both to have anything decent to show the public. I didn't need a tool that had editing since I use iMovie or After Effects, but if I needed editing software too, Camtasia would have been a no-brainer.

Software ranged from over $100 to $15 after testing them all out on my old MacBook (2009), here are my personal picks:

If Money were no object - Camtasia ($99) [Has a free trial with no watermark BTW]
Best for the money - Screenflick ($29)

Here are some links to help in your quest:
http://lifehacker.com/5410229/five-best-screencasting-tools
http://lifehacker.com/5839047/five-best-screencasting-or-screen-recording-tools
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/05/screencasting-to-help-your-mom.html

Good luck! Are you on Mac or PC? Let us know what you find!

I have Camstudio downloaded but haven't really used it enough to say if it's good or not. It is free, however.

Thanks so much guys.  Marcwilhelm, you're speaking to a proud Mac user 

I agree, optimization was a big deal for me.  When it's all said and done, the things I have tried are giving me videos with a blatant amount of frames missing.  And you're right, that's nothing worth showing to the public and expect them to take me seriously.

I have After Effects as well, so like you, I only need a solid way to record.

1MrPaul1 and Strasteo, I'll search the programs you suggested as well.  I'll attempt anything at this point.  Once again, thanks for the ideas fellas.  I'll update this thread again when I have found a match made in starving artist heaven.

Camstudio is very bad. It used to be okay, not ever good, but the latest version I tried messed the whole video up, ran parts in loops, and looked like I was on ecstacy. If ecstacy makes things look purple and have odd colors.

Camstudio is very bad. It used to be okay, not ever good, but the latest version I tried messed the whole video up, ran parts in loops, and looked like I was on ecstacy. If ecstacy makes things look purple and have odd colors.

Well, if I ever decide to do a Jimi Hendrix Woodstock RPG Adventure, I might look into that.

 

Success!  Check this baby out, if you need a screen recorder with good FPS:

http://bit.ly/p0mohC

It's called ScreenFlow for Mac OSX, and comes bundled with some editing tools such as crop, rotation, zoom and text, etc.
I don't care much for its editing tools since I'll do it on my own, but my videos are pretty smooth, and high-quality.  I recommend.

Is it mac only, or is there an exe version of this application as well?

Is it mac only, or is there an exe version of this application as well?

I'm not seeing anything in Google except a bunch of message boards wishing that it was available as .exe.

It seems to be a case of "You can't have it for PC, but here's the next best thing..."

Well, I did just find this...really, I don't know how reliable his method is for getting screenflow to work, but it may be worth a look. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRbSPSISKwU

He got it running on XP though, I'm not sure if it could work on later versions of Windows.

EDIT: Scratch that...he doesn't really give any useful info about it on his blog...what was the point of that?

Well, I'm on XP so I'll check out the video. I would've tried looking myself, but I completely missed the part in your previous post saying the name of the program.

No worries.  I apologize for the semi-bogus youtube link; he really doesn't show you how to do anything regarding putting the program on a PC.  His links look suspicious and a little vague. 


The main issue we run into when trying to record our gameplay is this:
Flash runs at ~60FPS
Many screen recorders run half that, at best.

There are a number of programs for Mac and PC that claim to run at 60, it's just a matter of weeding out the terrible ones and finding one that works for you.  I think a good rule of thumb here is, if you can't get 60 FPS out of it, look elsewhere.