next »

[SunnyKatt]

...and I'm wondering if I did it right, and if I did, where to go from here to gather attention to the game.

I'm quite happy with the result of the trailer, personally. I think it turned out better than my other trailers by a long shot:



Opinions? Was there something I should have added on? Where do you guys suggest I go from here?

I've been trying to contact blogs with the trailer and the update that the trailer advertises, but like when the game released, I doubt they'll bother to even read my emails. :\

I'd also like to open up a discussion on trailer strategy, primarily, the right amount of buzzwords/text to use. My last trailer (

) tried to be descriptive and use text to point out features I thought were important. But now, I'm thinking that a good trailer should just be an attention-grab of gameplay, and you should leave the specifics in an obvious location that people can look at if they so choose.

What do you guys think?
-Zach

[Chris Koźmik]

A lot of explosions, everything was so fast I could not decipher what kind of genre it is :D Looked like some shooter (or a spaceshooter) or some tower defence thing. I have no clue after trailer what kind of game it is and if it is worth it, but I know it costs $3.99 and can be found on Desura

[SunnyKatt]

That's exactly the problem I'm afraid of! haha.

There's a fine line between confusing people and enticing them. *sigh*

EDIT: I added a few annotations to the video to explain some things. Hopefully that's enough and it isn't too distracting.

[HernanZh]

To be honest, I stopped watching halfway, because I had no idea what was going on in the trailer. You really need to slow down the pace and actually show what the game is about instead of just...explosions and flashes.

[SunnyKatt]

Yeah. I think for this reason I'll try and keep both trailers available to people. Some people thought there wasn't enough raw gameplay in the last one, which I tried to fix this time, but ended up making it too fast. Thanks for the answer though.

[Claw]

I liked it, cool music too.

But, 2 main points:

I'd keep it short, like 50 - 60 seconds is optimal for a trailer I think.

It was a bit to fast paced in switching scenes, but it was cool how it was in time with the music. I'd probably switch the scene half as often if I were you, like it currently seems as if the scene changes every bar of music, I'd do it every 2 bars so that the viewer can get a better idea of what's happening in that scene rather than just a stream of random explosions.

[SunnyKatt]

About 1/3 to 1/2 ish of the way into the video, I do switch briefly to every-other bar. I agree that it may have been better to do that from the beginning. :S

Thanks though!

[Hima]

I agree with the others that the trailer switches scenes too fast and too often, not leaving much time for me to understand what is going on on the screen.  It kinda gave me a headache and I have to stop watching it midway through though

While pointing out feature is not ideal, I think something to help telling us what's going on is fine, at least to me. Here's the trailer of the game that I like

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

starts with too much text, trailer is too long for the type of game that it is, but the individual cuts are too short to get a picture in your mind of how the game works

i'd suggest looking at your favorite trailers when making a trailer and trying to make something similar

here's a good recent one:

[SunnyKatt]

Thanks for the examples, guys.

[agersant]

I agree with the above posters and I would add that your trailer would look better if you disabled the in-game HUD when recording. It takes a lot of screen space, makes things confusing and is useless in a trailer.

[ionside]

Varying the timing of your edits is important. It's OK to have quick edits later in the trailer but up front you need to remember this is the first time the viewer has watched your video.

Time your initial shots up to 4 seconds. Then later on you can speed them up to create the tension and excitement you're trying to achieve! This way you can also remove the sub text you've added, which noone has time to read anyway.

[SunnyKatt]

Great points. It's really tough to achieve that balance.

[_discovery]

HUGE post from an IGS talk on trailers, well worth a watch and read. Comes with lots of info too.
http://blog.kertgartner.com/2012/03/making-entertaining-and-engaging-video-game-trailers/

The rest of his blog is also full of 'making of' videos and break downs.

[brettchalupa]

Kert is an Indie Game Trailer Genius.

Subscribe, follow, etc. etc.

And don't be afraid to ask him "uh how do I do that crazy thing with the cool thing?" because he will most definitely help out.

[bateleur]

The first 15s of this trailer should be cut and it should end at around (what is currently) 1:27. (The very fast cuts didn't bother me much.)

The text bar at the bottom was annoying. Start a blog for the game if you want to chat that much.

[TeeGee]

Drop the text box, make it shorter, maybe remove the initial segment and end it up with some big boom. Otherwise it's pretty cool. I think even now it's good enough.

[SunnyKatt]

@FuzzYspo0N - I read that a while ago, but it was nice to read through again as a reminder. Thanks for the link.

I've made some revisions based on what you guys suggested and uploaded a new version:



Let me know what you think!

[bateleur]

A lot better, but the bit between 0:02 and 0:05 still seems absurdly out of place to me. If you really want to say "different every time you play" somewhere, overlay it on some gameplay footage instead (and not in the first 10s either, because at that point the viewer just wants to see the game).

Also, the info that appears at about 1:22 doesn't stay on the screen for long enough to read. It's the end of the video, so you might as well leave it up for a good long time since you're not wasting anyone's time by doing so.

[tigreton]

Yeah. I think for this reason I'll try and keep both trailers available to people. Some people thought there wasn't enough raw gameplay in the last one, which I tried to fix this time, but ended up making it too fast. Thanks for the answer though.

I have a question:

The people that says "there wasn't enough raw gameplay" in the first trailer, have they played it before?

I asked it, because there are some people here that they didn't understand the game with the (second) trailer. That's a BIG problem.