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[Martin 2BAM]

Hi there, it's been a while since my last visit to the forum

I need some tips on which direction to follow regarding making a promotional video for my game. I searched the tutorial section but didn't find anything there.

What, in your opinion, are the DOs and DON'Ts to show in them and which programs are the best to make these kind of videos?
note: I never ever did anything besides splitting, joining and exporting with Windows Live Movie Maker and VirtualDub (vanilla).

Thanks!

[Netsu]

DO: Synchronize the action on screen to music.
DON'T: Break up the gameplay with long displays of text.

DO: Disaplay all the necessary information (links, credits) at the end of the video.
DON'T: Put a lot of splash images before you show any gameplay.

Personally I love this trailer:



It might start a little sooner, but I love how syced to music it is and how dynamic the text feels, it shows up for just long enough for everyone to read it but not long enough for anyone to be annoyed by it. And it switches to music, that's very important too.

When I was making a video I made the mistake of putting the text on top of gameplay and at the bottom of the screen, so it won't get in the way. As a result a lot of people just didn't notice them at all.

[Martin 2BAM]

I agree, that's a catchy video. Thanks for the tips!

Which program did you use?

[Netsu]

Honestly, I don't remember, we were doing it on a friend's computer

One more quick tip regarding music, always change the scene to the rhythm, most people don't have to be told this but I've seen some trailers that did it out of sync.

[Mittens]

Make it short, Anything over 1 minute has gone beyond the attention span of the viewer,
Don't fall into the temptation to go through and show everything. You want to show your hard work I understand and you think that showing even the less exciting features will convince viewers that the game is good value, its deep and full of features, It's far more effective to only show the features that excite people and let them assume the others features are there or not.
The trailer isn't meant to give people a clear and accurate description of the product so that the viewer can make an informed decision on their purchase (maybe), the trailer is meant to excite your target market to go buy your game now!

Make sure everything you show appeals to the people you intend to buy your game, does the music in the trailer match with the music tastes of your target market? if the video presented in such a way as to strike the right age group? does it have the same tone as the game?

Those are a few things that I've found important and probably done very wrong in the past, I'm sure there's plenty more on this topic out there

[forwardresent]

This is pretty much my favourite trailer. I really like the way the music fits. Although there's zero gameplay or even game visuals here. Show as little as possible whilst showing as much as possible if that makes any sense, make sure your trailer fits your games theme.

Get some awesome music.

[ThemsAllTook]

I posted this another thread recently... Awesome GDC talk about trailers by Kert Gartner: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015612/Trail-er-Blazing-Creating-the

[Toast]

I think the Hotline Miami trailer demonstrates you don't need to try to pack in info about your game. You don't even need to try to explain what the game is about, or why the viewer should play it. You just need to say "look how cool this is".

It could be an awesome short film set to an awesome soundtrack. It could just be a well choreographed gameplay video. It's about catching the viewer's interest. If they want to find out more useful information about the game then they can do so on the game's website/page, not in the video.

It's worth mentioning however that your trailer does need to be relevant and accurate. The Dead Island trailer is an example of something that looked really interesting but had absolutely nothing to do with the game whatsoever and ended up annoying alot of people.

[Netsu]

I don't like the Hotline Miami trailer linked here. The video itself is cool but it doesn't spur interest in the game for me. After watching a trailer like this and knowing nothing else about the game I will just go on with my day. A trailer absolutely should show some gameplay in my opinion, I want to immediately know if the game is worthy of my interest or not.

[rivon]

That is not the only trailer. There were gameplay trailers too:

[Netsu]

Yeah I know, I was just commenting on what forwardresent and Toast wrote.

[sublinimal]

Show us some gameplay. Specifically, show the central mechanics of your game in action. That's about it, shouldn't take more than a minute.

Of course it needs some context for the clips too, typically in the form of text overlays, but my point is that a good game "markets itself" without further gimmicks.

Besides, aren't trailers kind of obsolete? They bring to mind a darker age where games cost half your savings but you were otherwise in the dark about their content. Whenever I hear about some interesting game nowadays, I usually just search for Let's Plays, because they tend to be more informative and honest than some artificial highlight reel.

[J-Snake]

Besides, aren't trailers kind of obsolete? They bring to mind a darker age where games cost half your savings but you were otherwise in the dark about their content.

Good point, but only in rational space. However the purpose of a trailer is to exploit the lack of knowledge of the audience. And trailers are a cool tradition.

[Martin 2BAM]

Thanks a lot for all your comments!

I don't think trailers are obsolete, I never see "Let's play" videos because they're so slow paced, and I don't want to spend 20 minutes watching or guess-skipping to see the juicy parts. Good trailers are a concentrate of the cool parts, and maybe they're misleading sometimes, but at least catch my interest.

I'm not to fond of the real life trailer on Hotline Miami. Don't get me wrong, its really cool that it exists and it adds to the hype... but if it wasn't a cactus game or didn't have more teasers of actual gameplay around it would just leave you with a "Wow, cool! but wtf was that all about? a new movie?"

I'll check the GDC talk!
Thanks again!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think one thing others haven't pointed out in this thread is that the type of trailer you make depends heavily on genre and audience

for instance, the advice of not to use text and to show the core mechanic is not a good idea for a trailer of a visual novel or jrpg, which tend to be more focused on story and characterization. for that type of game, you need the trailer to highlight the characterization, style, central conflict, etc., since that's what the audience cares about for that type of game

similarly, generally having a short trailer is a good idea due to low attention spans. however, if your game specifically is for people with long attention spans (e.g. a detailed strategy game with lots of numbers and statistics) having a stylistic cool 1 min trailer isn't a good idea; the audience for that game wants to know about the game's depth, and that takes time

another issue is with the idea not to use logos at the start. generally that's a good idea but if the *main draw* of the game is who made it (e.g. someone famous) then it's a good idea to indicate that in the trailer. people don't care about unknown companies but they sure would care if you are sid meier; if you're sid meier put your name and logo in front of the trailer as big as you can

so basically, consider context like the type of game you are making and the audience of that game and the game's strengths and weaknesses before you make a trailer. there's no 'one size fits all' formula for trailers, any rule given here doesn't work for all types of games, i've seen good trailers that break most of the rules given in this thread

anyway, here's my personal list of my favorite trailers:







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M0FLAXXvRU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4djOPHAoCD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJYFbJDkqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEI5hpPpRio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGnG77eFeBw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GS8DqFevV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-JQx3gD9oM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ub0qiNFsxk

[rivon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M0FLAXXvRU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4djOPHAoCD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJYFbJDkqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEI5hpPpRio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGnG77eFeBw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GS8DqFevV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-JQx3gD9oM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ub0qiNFsxk

The worst and the most boring trailers I've ever seen... If you guys ever plan to make trailers, don't use these as your inspiration...

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think that just adds to my point. if you read the comments on this vids, and check the upvotes to downvotes ratio, the audiences of those games love those trailers. yet to people who don't play those types of games, those trailers look bad. my point was exactly that: that you need to tailor your trailer to a game's particular audience, not that you need to make your trailer look good to indie game developers. if every person who doesn't like that type of game hates your trailer but the game's fans love it, that's a winning trailer

also, blindly copying other people's trailers without concern for context or audience is exactly what i was advising against! i wasn't posting those so people could copy them and make trailers like those, i was posting them to show the variety of trailers and how each fits its particular audience (those are examples of trailers that fit their audiences particularly well)

[rivon]

Well played, sir.

[Martin 2BAM]

Thanks for all the help!

Now's time to learn how to technically make one, hehe.