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[Paul Eres]

one disagreement on the no budget required -- the software required to make trailers can be expensive. there are free ones but those aren't as good as the expensive ones (e.g. virtualdub and windows movie maker vs adobe after effects etc.)

it also requires a computer capable of recording game footage at a good speed, and software for recording footage. this cost shouldn't be underestimated. fraps is pretty good and inexpensive (about 35$?) but even with that you need a good computer to record game footage without hiccups or slowdown; a solid state hard drive helps that enormously (and those are still pretty expensive)

[Graham.]

That's true. I may have made some assumptions about piracy.

An alternative is to pause your game in ticks. Have a counter that counts up for every 1/24th of a second (I think film is conventionally at 24fps?). Take a screenshot every time the counter progresses. You can run the game at any speed.

You'd have to play through the scene once, saving your inputs, then play it back in slo-mo with the recorder on. It's like grill cheese on the radiator. Any computer would be able to handle it.

I think the most important part about a good trailer is choosing your shots wisely, editing the in-game sound, and making a good music overlay selection. Great trailers can come budget. I just wanted to over-emphasize the importance of shot selection. Indie trailers - and some triple-A's - are notoriously bad at this. You want the viewer to understand the game without having to think about it, and to raise questions in their mind about what else the game might have to offer them. I very rarely see any trailer and get a good indication of what it might be like to play the game without invoking my long history of experience with similar titles. Obviously when this isn't the case I'm in love.

Great trailers are clear. They show you how to think about the game in order to enjoy it. They are a dispersed snap-shot of the ideal play experience with a tease to the rest of it. You don't need fancy things for that. You need to understand your game's experience.

I think the process of making a trailer puts the question squarely in front of you: why would someone want to play your game? Learning to express the answer simply is a good process to go through. If you can't make a great trailer your design is probably contradictory.

I liked the Limbo trailer. That's just a random one.

Maybe I'm repeating myself...

[Paul Eres]

that screenshot method could work but is impractical for games that use delta time rather than a fixed frame rate. some games compensate for low frame rate by speeding up the game, so that a lower frame rate doesn't appear to actually slow down the game (it just slows down how often it's drawn rather than how fast everything moves); for those games, if you record a screenshot 24 times a second, you are going to slow the frame rate, which would then try to compensate by making things faster... so you'd still come out with an uneven frame rate. although i suppose one could temporarily disable that compensation and switch to a pseudo-fixed frame rate while saving those screenshots. also, if a game has any "fps-saving" devices, such as displaying fewer particles when the frame rate is lower, you'd have to turn those off too

[Graham.]

Yeah, it could take some work depending on the game. You might have to write some code, but it's always possible.

[laserfire]

IMHO, this is the best indie-ish trailer I've ever seen.

[Monstr1337]

IMHO, this is the best indie-ish trailer I've ever seen.

I second that! The reason why this trailer stands out is because it's different. Unique, and special blending real world backdrops and the game. It' reminds me of the short bit on Youtube by the Robot Chicken guys ; "Stoopid Monkey"! I love this trailer :D

[Paul Eres]

the cthulhu saves the world trailer is also pretty good i feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YlLNoLrwks

it starts out a bit slow but after that it does a good job

[Graham.]

I kind-of liked that trailer. It was indie and it wasn't bad.

[Gentleman Owl]

One thing I'd like to add is that I feel that good trailers don't overstay their welcome.

Try not to use footage in order to fill up "music space". Showcase the best moments the game has to offer (without spoilers of course), and trim down whatever else is excessive. If the music is longer than what you can fill up with exciting / interesting content, then don't be afraid to cut the music shorter.

However I do understand that at times cutting music short may actually weaken the piece. It will take some time and experience to develop a sense of where to cut music shorter, if at all. In my experience, fades generally work well in many cases.

Also, try to show your trailer to people who don't know anything about your game. Get their reactions to it - Would they be interested in playing your game? What kind of impression did your trailer leave on them?

Just my two cents.

[Graham.]

A trick I'd do is host a trailer on your site then see who downloads after watching it, or how many more things they look at or how long they stay looking at stuff.

Interpreting the numbers would be a little subjective, because you can't release trailers too often, and there are other factors with each release that are hard to account for, such as the type of people entering the site and so on.

A possibly dirty trick... make 3 trailers that represent your 3 best attempts to make a good trailer. Each trailer should follow a distinct philosophy about how your trailer should be built. Then you randomly serve them up when people come to your site. Then you can really tell which ones are preferred.

You don't have to lie about it. You could serve them up randomly, then underneath explain that there are others that can be viewed. People won't care that much. If all 3 are good, and legitimately represent what you think is a good trailer, then people will get a good trailer. And you will learn a lot.

Just make sure your site is set up well first. You can use this same tactic for learning about the best way to present all information, screen-shots, extra info, wording, whatever.

Alpha builds are acceptable because you need the feedback to make the game better. The above is like an "alpha press release." .

I'm liking this idea.