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[Ramos]

Hi Gentlemen,


I am writing a case study regarding our trailer debut in hopes that it will help some of you in your game development endeavors and cast another positive light on my branding.


Our first goal was to have a high production value and at the same time to mix multiple elements during the development of the trailer such as:
- Trailer content(actually its more of a teaser)
- Game startup menu(where the player chooses new game bonuses)
- Intro cinematic
- Credit screen

Bassically our debut teaser should cover the exact first minutes of the game.
Now, everyone to whom I talked said the trailer should not be longer than 1 minute, and I agree I had the same opinion but this time I wanted to experiment outside the box and take a leap of faith.
So the trailer ended up having 4 minutes, and I must say right now: I have no regrets about this decision.


Considering that the trailer is more cinematic and shows very little gameplay this was because we aimed it more for our already existing fan base, "Welcome Back, Commander" is the last game from our "Chromosome Evil" franchise.

As to the funding, we had 0 funding.
Now you are going to ask how can we make a high-value production with 0 funding.
Well, it's simple, I did the design, coordination, and artwork, my partner did the core animation and programming and then we searched for volunteers for voice acting, we received much support from the Mud&Blood community, Newgrounds, and some content creators friends.
For music, we found free-use music from the internet.

Work on the trailer took 2 weeks of full-time.

Now on to some bad news, we synchronized the trailer release with the release of the coming soon page from Steam, the problem is we did so at the same time Steam Next Fest started.

And results:

As soon as we released the trailer on YouTube we started getting traffic and the traffic immediately went high.


After 6 days we reached these stats:

- 9000 views
- 500 likes
- 60 comments
- + 60 new subscribers to my channel
- + 300 Wishlists so far



32% of the people watch the video until the end.
87% of the video visibility came from organic YouTube recommendations
10% Impressions click-through rate



And the stats still keep growing

For me, these results are fantastic considering that we are a small 1+1 game development team.


Source: https://youtu.be/SMLu1Xd81EE?si=qyryI_E6zYLvUyYI


What I think caused it:

- Community boost: after the trailer got released we posted about it on our Discord community
- Thumbnail colors/design: I think using bright colors in the YouTube Thumbnail helped a lot and the yellow/orange combo was often used in movie poster design for a reason
- voice acting: I am not sure but I suspect the YouTube algorithm detected multiple voices in the video which automatically boosted the quality perception
- video length: I read somewhere that videos longer than 3 minutes tend to also boost the YouTube algorithm







 

Kind regards,
Cristi P. - 16 BIT NIGHTS

[michaelplzno]

Impressive results! Congrats. I have around the same number of subscribers to my channel, and around the same amount of people in my discord and I can never seem to get a video to do that well.

I often have videos with both my wife and me talking, so I'm not sure what the dual voice algorithm is helping. Of course, if having 2 voices helps the algorithm, I don't know why YouTube wouldn't let people know that. If they like 2 voices, just tell the people to do it that way, right?

I guess after all the stages of grief I just must accept that I must be bad at making videos.

Here are 5 flops we did of distinct types:

Gamedev interview:




Recorded playthrough with commentary:




Video Essay/Compare and Contrast:
https://youtu.be/nwjIOTwCvzw

Couple's Diary (Jammin with Lily):
https://youtu.be/X3tc0ZIBrTw

Game Dev Diary (Coffee Radar):
https://youtu.be/_mPCSi_HgEs

Apparently, no one likes any of it. Or the algorithm won't show it to people, or something I can't figure out: aliens? A secret phantom realm? Alternate universes? I'm already secretly dead and just haunting the mortal plane?

If I could figure out how to launch a video with 10k views in a few days, I would be so happy about it. I've been trying to get numbers on my channel for years now. Seems like even when I post Seinfeld clips, I don't get good numbers.

Anyway, glad you broke through.

[Ramos]

Thank you for the kind words!

Sry for the late reply, my activity on Tigsource is minimal lately since I try to concentrate my efforts on my own projects.

My answer is the same as the main post:

What I think caused it:

- Community boost: after the trailer got released we posted about it on our Discord community
- Thumbnail colors/design: I think using bright colors in the YouTube Thumbnail helped a lot and the yellow/orange combo was often used in movie poster design for a reason
- voice acting: I am not sure but I suspect the YouTube algorithm detected multiple voices in the video which automatically boosted the quality perception
- video length: I read somewhere that videos longer than 3 minutes tend to also boost the YouTube algorithm



To give you a small example based on what you posted:
You placed a thumbnail of 2 people in a podcast - except for your own fanbases no one will care to click on it because they do not know you. SO its better to make a better thumbnail with attractive art.
Your video can do good on your fan base but will not attract new people in this state.

Just my rough opinion.

 

[michaelplzno]

Just as a test, I'm curious if you will let me post your video to my channel, with its thumbnail and description and all, just to see if it flops.

But it may be your community that did it, seeding the algorithm, but I've done 142 videos, some of them have my face on the thumb, some of them don't: one of my latest video's thumbs is a picture of sonic the hedgehog, who is kind of famous.

Actually, I'll start using famous people as thumbnail images just for kicks. Any stars you think I should choose?

[Ramos]

Sure, post whatever you want although I think YouTube also has a safety measure when it detects duplicate videos.
I have seen in the past many channels that re-upload trailers and they get 1-2 views while the original gets 10k + views.

Famous Person?
That will be deceiving and you might get reported so be careful.
 Rammstein + Aliens

[michaelplzno]

See but here we have two theories:

1) The video you posted, Ramos, is great, and the algorithm loves it because of its high production values and the thumbnail is an orange/blue combo which sells the click. But also, if someone else reposts it, the algorithm will block it because it detects a duplicate. That's why if you post a Mr. Beast video on a small channel it won't get clicks.

2) The algorithm is rigged to give some people visibility (Mr. Beast, etc.) based on some unknown juju that no one fully understands, but if you are flagged as a "DO NOT SHOW TO PEOPLE" channel then you are cooked and no matter what you post, forget it.

We know they won't tell people what you need to do to trigger the 10k views. And so, we can go crazy spinning our wheels trying to figure out what it is that gets the algorithm hot and bothered. Maybe I need to sit in front of my computer's camera and light a candle and pray?! We don't know jack.

Here's another video that I've done that probably isn't worthy, lmao:

[michaelplzno]

If Mr. Beast really wants to expose the algorithm, I challenge him to premier a video on my channel and see if it flops, lol. The fact is that Mr. Beast has super good connections to the management of YouTube (which I'm SURE he deserves because his videos are so good.)

My point is that it's a chicken and egg type situation. We don't know if a video is good and the algorithm is bad, or if a video is bad and the algorithm is good.

[michaelplzno]

In Kafka's "Before the Law" the main character is trying to access the law and there is a giant hulking gatekeeper who stops him. He waits his whole life trying to appease the gatekeeper and giving gifts and so on and trying to get through. As an old dying man he asks the gatekeeper "why did no one else try to get through?" and the gatekeeper says, "this door to the law was made just for you, I'm going to close it now."

[Ramos]

Is this the mr BEAST you mentioned?

https://youtu.be/Fqr-UE5PHHM?si=ZSuEtd5LmLwPfun4

[michaelplzno]

Yep, if I were paranoid, I would say my harping on his success had something to do with it, but yes, he is one of the biggest if not the biggest youtuber and he always has something to say about the smaller channels who need to shape up and make good videos like him.

I actually don't wish he got cancelled, instead I wish there were a path to the stars that made sense. I never want to say that we should tear down the famous (except for people who are criminally scumbags.) I'm always more about lifting up people like you Ramos and other smaller devs who are hardworking and talented. I know some people who are famous work behind the scenes to lift up other devs, so I shouldn't rail on people blindly. It's more of a "if the shoe fits, wear it" kind of thing.

Another example is Braid Anniversary selling poorly. We know that under different metrics the game is a hit, but was it because the algorithms were different? Or because there was less competition? Or the game is no longer relevant? Getting to the truth of this is quite difficult. But you wouldn't say, "oh you just need to network and make a more interesting game that follows the trends" to someone like Jon Blow... right?

[michaelplzno]

Even when I say Steam is a sucker's deal, it's not to call devs on steam dumb, it's that steam is a giant monopoly that is trying it's hardest to make as much money with as little work as possible and they don't care about the games they gobble up to win more cash... which is all they care about, more cash.

[Ramos]

He is introducing gambling habits to kids, not very cool this Mr Beast

[michaelplzno]

What really kills me about beast is that he goes on the youtube creator channels and explains that his videos are very good and that is why he gets the views. They spend so much time on the thumbnails, and trying to appease the algorithm, and that is why they are the best.

Which I'm sure I would do if I were in his position (making so much money on videos that he can afford a staff of several people, one devoted to just thumbnails) but it doesn't show anyone how to break through and get to that level.

He also tells people not to copy him. Which is another annoying bit, one of the youtube creator video says "well we don't want to copy other creators, but... well let's replicate what they did"

I don't want to be the "everything's rigged" guy, but I do kind of think that it's at least partially true.