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[Chris Koźmik]

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.

Well, that would be me... I see not much difference. This time it is slowed down so I can see (after watching it longer) that I'm some guy that shoot at things (could not decipher which one through, the second one was a pet maybe? :D ). Now I see it is about shooting at things. But what for, how, and any details are a mystery to me. Note that I'm not fan of this genre through (if this is some kind of genre).

[ludist]

Man, I really like those dinosaur ghost crystal things.  Really nice.  I would like to shoot at those things in pretty much any context, which is a good thing, because I still don't really understand what the game is about.

I found even the second version of this trailer to cut between scenes way too rapidly to figure out what's going on.  I think if you started out with a long segment that shows a little bit more of the arc of a play session, then switch to the short cuts to show off some flashier elements, it would be much easier to understand.

[spicy gyro games]

Ok, I only watched the most recent trailer you posted. Here's what I got:

It's a twin-stick style shooter.

The cuts are pretty rapid, but it's pretty on par with what I see from the big studios. That said, they have a lot more going for them on the advertising side. You have more to prove to your audience.

I know that if I see a trailer like this, and it gets me interested, the first thing I'm doing is trying to track down an actual gameplay video, like a let's play or something (preferably one without irritating commentary).

The first video I released of my game was simply a playthrough of the first level.

People are smart, they know that the rapid-fire cutting of trailers or the cinematic renderings in videogame commercials have little to do with the actual gameplay. You're better off just giving them what they want from the start, a simple gameplay video.

After you've built your audience, go for a highspeed trailer showing a bunch of different environments or situations, at least then the viewers understand what they're in for, but are seeing that there's more to the game than just the first stage playthrough.

[BorisTheBrave]

You are constantly getting the tempo wrong, because you have a constant speed throughout the video. The trailers I like are more of a crescendo:

Start out slowly, showing the name, genre, premise.

Then some longish gameplay to get an idea what it is actually like. Often this is from an early or easy part of the game, where the player has a similar level of knowledge to the viewer. Ideally you introduce a twist or catch at this point, which for your game might be the difficulty rating system.

Finally, a maddening array of shots showing what a visual feast and large game you've got - if people tune out by this point, it doesn't matter, they've already got the idea, but for those hooked, you can pack a lot in for them to speculate on.

Some trailers then finish with capper that reminds you of some thematic element or mystery, but I don't think you need that.
That

trailer fits my description fairly closely. The first gameplay shot is 6 seconds, and shows the player doing relatively little. You can clearly see it is a platformer, and that you wield a whip. By the end they are flashing bosses for less than 1 second, and showing multiple screens at once.