[DISC] Using YouTube for your games instructions

I was thinking about how to make tutorials on different elements of my game, which may be too complex for a Flash game altogether. I’ve made a interactive tutorial for some parts, but I started thinking about using video for my tutorials instead. You can control the pacing of the tutorial instead of the player. This may look like a negative, but this can also cirumvent problems like the player not understanding an instruction through text and getting stuck. With a video the pace wouldn’t get stuck with the player but would continue. Also this would open up the possibility to make instructions alingual.

Why I started thinking about YouTube is a economic reason. Flash files really shouldn’t be too big and load reasonably fast, so the option of hosting it externally and loading it in when the player needs it appeals to me. You load it in only when it’s needed, reducing data costs. The reason to resort to actual video and not a ingame animation is also economic. Instead of coding a animtaion or create one with movieclips, you could play the game in a very basic level for a few minutes and you’d have footage which you only need to add in some comments to function as a tutorial.

Then about the technical side. Has anybody tried embedding YouTube videos in a Flash file before? Does it raise conflicts with other parts of Flash or perhaps other external services as MochiAds? There may be an alternative then YouTube which can suffice, but I was wondering if someone had already pioneered this before.

What are you guys thoughts on this?’

ps Ascendancy springs to mind