I need to start off by stating how frustrated I am at the lack of change happening in this space. I will say there does seem to be more crossover now. As OpusClip is starting to work towards gaming clips, and Eklipse/Uncanny both I think are working towards doing anything (as in podcast clips too).
The world of gaming clips truly started with JoinCombo, or just Combo for short, and they were working on some cool automation features before they shut down.
However automation is only one part of it, if your tool is really crappy to work in. Then you won't have templates made, and therefore automations don't really help. This for example is why I find using Eklipse to be so difficult. The interface has fifty million things going on screen all at once.
Streamladder is working on their UI, but it still looks dated, and the site flow needs a bit of work. As there are too many "dead ends" on the site.
My Point IS, that these tools need to evolve, and to be honest copy each other more. Sure, they basically all copied the basic idea from Combo, but even that tool couldn't iterate fast enough.
What is the purpose of these tools?
Making clips for short form video platforms like Tiktok/Shorts/Reels/Pinterest is key to growth on the content creator world.
Using these tools dramatically decreases the time it takes to repurpose from horizontal to vertical formats.
As well as, adding text or various hud elements.
How do they work?
Unlike some podcasting tools like OpusClip, the process of gaming clip tools is a bit more manual. Generally you would put in an already cut clip, like if you did WIN-ALT-G on Windows to record the previous 30 sec, or did a record button on Xbox/PlayStation/Switch.
Then you take that horizontal video, and use CrossClip or Streamladder to transform it to vertical.
It is a manual process, that is slightly automated by making templates based on various games. Or if you simply wanted facecam and gameplay only.
I gotta say that process is really nice being able to highlight certain sections of the video. I wish more podcasting tools stole this feature.
I think Eklipse.gg/Uncanny.gg is doing a more automated approach like OpusClip, where you can automatically find clips from a long form video. By dropping the whole VOD/stream into it.
However the process seems to be a bit annoying due to their interfaces being clunky (note at the time of this writing I haven't used Uncanny in a while).
What can be done?
Podcasting tools have been around for longer, and the refinement of the UI/UX has gone a lot further. There can be a lot to learn from podcasting clip tool UI, that the gaming clip tools can copy.
Make the process simpler, although CrossClip is honestly TOO SIMPLE. It hasn't been updated in years. Other tools on the market like Eklipse and Uncanny have come out of the woodwork. Honestly is stealing the attention from the tools that came out first, and even JoinCombo died out because of that.
Is it a good thing? Sure, probably, and I'm all for innovation. I just think that we still need more competition not less.
That way these tools can continue to improve and get better for the users.
