CISC 226: Game Design


School of Computing • Queen's University • Winter 2022

Video Capture and Editing

To create a game video, you will need to follow three steps.

  1. Capture footage from the game. Both Windows 10 and MacOS have built-in tools for capturing video footage from a running game.
    • For Windows 10, use the Game DVR function.
    • For MacOS, use the QuickTime Player.
    • Alternatively, some people like the cross-platform OBS Studio available as donation-ware.
  2. Edit your game footage. You will want to select the parts of your game footage that match the script you will follow when presenting the game in class. This will mean cutting and combining the relevant parts of your video.

You may use the video editing software of your choice. For editing simple videos under Windows, the Photos app is easy to learn, and is free. For Mac users, iMovie is free and powerful.

For those looking for a more powerful solution that's still free, DaVinci Resolve has an excellent free tier.

If you don't mind spending money, consider Adobe Premiere, which is available at a discount for students. FinalCut Pro for the Mac also has a student pricing (but on a mac, stick with iMovie - it will meet your needs for this course).

  • Compress your video. Videos exported from video editing tools are usually far too large to work with. Compress your video using the free Handbrake tool. Select MP4 video format and the "720p Fast" preset.
© 2022 Nicholas Graham