46 replies to this topic

[Terrified Virus]

Hey guys, I was just wondering, after seeing a bunch of trailers, what makes them good? What makes them interesting? I never really understood this. Is it good editing, graphics, what? You guys can talk about it here, and hopefully teach others. Also, would you mind telling me if one of my trailers is intriguing or fascinating? You can find it here. I used Camtasia Studio, and its built in audio to make this. Thanks for the help guys!

Edited by Terrified Virus, 08 July 2012 - 03:32 AM.

[Mr. Munchkin]

First of all, this doesn't belong here.
It'd either belong in Game Design or the subforum in Off-topic. But I'm sure someone will move it for you

Secondly, it all depends on what your primary goal of the trailer is.
Obviously you want to get people excited for you game, for some trailers it's the official announcement of the game, others a marketing scheme [then again, that probably covers all trailers].

You want to make the trailer inviting. Show off the best parts of your game. Checkout the borderlands 2 trailer. That got a lot of people excited for that game. It has good music, humour, new information about the game and gameplay. It seems that your game is more of a gameplay preview as opposed to a trailer.
Every trailer has to be different though - but they mostly have one thing in common: have a clincher preview, fade to black with the title of the game, then fade to the release date/website/credits for trailer.

Just mess around with things, ask your mates/parents/someone on the GMC if they like your trailer and see what could be improved. Heck, if you sent me a PM I'd even give ya some tips

[Terrified Virus]

Thanks for the info, sorry about the wrong spot for this topic... I wasn't even thinking...

First of all, this doesn't belong here.
It'd either belong in Game Design or the subforum in Off-topic. But I'm sure someone will move it for you

Secondly, it all depends on what your primary goal of the trailer is.
Obviously you want to get people excited for you game, for some trailers it's the official announcement of the game, others a marketing scheme [then again, that probably covers all trailers].

You want to make the trailer inviting. Show off the best parts of your game. Checkout the borderlands 2 trailer. That got a lot of people excited for that game. It has good music, humour, new information about the game and gameplay. It seems that your game is more of a gameplay preview as opposed to a trailer.
Every trailer has to be different though - but they mostly have one thing in common: have a clincher preview, fade to black with the title of the game, then fade to the release date/website/credits for trailer.

Just mess around with things, ask your mates/parents/someone on the GMC if they like your trailer and see what could be improved. Heck, if you sent me a PM I'd even give ya some tips

[FatalSleep]

Depends on the game you are making.

For example:
A TDS game you could show the player shooting zombies, switching to amazingly awesome guns, or show a massive explosion taking place in slow motion.
Even showing funny dialog and pictures helps.

Anything else other than a shooting/fighting games I don't know what really makes a good trailer.

[Terrified Virus]

Depends on the game you are making.

For example:
A TDS game you could show the player shooting zombies, switching to amazingly awesome guns, or show a massive explosion taking place in slow motion.
Even showing funny dialog and pictures helps.

Anything else other than a shooting/fighting games I don't know what really makes a good trailer.

This is what I mean, I made a trailer for my platform game, and it was hard to make very interesting. I just edited it to sync with music, used cool transitions, and that's about it...

[FatalSleep]

Draw text on the screen. Something catchy!
I mean that is all a cut scene is. Something
to get your watcher's attention.

So whats important is you keep it short (30sec to 2min), make it look flashy (explosions, blood splatters, good conversations, good use of lighting(siren lights work)), catchy text. Oh and a link to the game in the video/video's description helps. XD
A nice zoom sometimes works nicely.

[kburkhart84]

A trailer is to a game as a portfolio is to an artist. Generally, an artist puts his best work, and only his best work, as in the work that is more attractive to the audience, in said portfolio. A trailer for a game does the same. You are not going to want to show the options menu, rather the player doing all the fun stuff in the game, and only the most fun stuff, not the boring sections. If a game is meant to be a hard-core bullet hell shooter, you are not going to include the beginning of a level with no bullets, rather the middle with several enemies on screen, and hopefully the player shooting the best guns he has at the time. If a game is a heavy platformer, you aren't going to show a flat section, rather sections with lots of jumping around and avoiding/shooting enemies. A tetris game wouldn't show the beginning where the blocks first fall, rather intense moments where the player is about to lose, and slams a 3 or 4 line drop that saves him.

The same applies to eye-candy. If you game has some, make sure plenty appears in the trailer. Like was stated before, show off the nice explosions and particle effects. Show off a boss or two, but only the good ones, and only bits and pieces, because you aren't doing a "let's play" you-tube video.

The music should probably be music from the actual game. If it is an intense action game, you might use one of the level's tracks if it is intense enough, and if not, maybe some boss music. You don't have to use the music and sound effects from the clips, but it isn't a bad idea if you can get the flow right. You may want to turn off the music from the clips, and just keep the sound effects, and then have the music track you select be over the whole video.

The text between clips tends to be descriptive, so should describe something coming up in the next clip or group of clips. So first advertise bullet mayhem in text, then have the clips be with a ton of bullets. Then advertise massive boss fights( or epic or whatever wording you want) and then show clips with bosses. Text out "awesome weapons" and then show a few. See what I'm getting at?

As far as actually getting the clips, I would record an actual human playing the game, probably the developer because they know everything that is coming, and know what is the cool stuff. So, I'd record whole levels at a time to keep things easier, but making sure I had impressive parts. I wouldn't show off the cool weapons without actually shooting at something. Then, you can go through and pull out the good clips, and maybe repeat the process until you have enough clips showing everything you had wanted. Finally, use your video editor to add music(if you went that route) and add text between clips and groups of clips. Of course, at the end, make sure it is very clear what the name of the game is, who made it(company name if you have one) and where to get the game. You may want to include other information, including a planned release date, but that part is more optional, as long as you have a place for them to look for more information.

[Terrified Virus]

A trailer is to a game as a portfolio is to an artist. Generally, an artist puts his best work, and only his best work, as in the work that is more attractive to the audience, in said portfolio. A trailer for a game does the same. You are not going to want to show the options menu, rather the player doing all the fun stuff in the game, and only the most fun stuff, not the boring sections. If a game is meant to be a hard-core bullet hell shooter, you are not going to include the beginning of a level with no bullets, rather the middle with several enemies on screen, and hopefully the player shooting the best guns he has at the time. If a game is a heavy platformer, you aren't going to show a flat section, rather sections with lots of jumping around and avoiding/shooting enemies. A tetris game wouldn't show the beginning where the blocks first fall, rather intense moments where the player is about to lose, and slams a 3 or 4 line drop that saves him.

The same applies to eye-candy. If you game has some, make sure plenty appears in the trailer. Like was stated before, show off the nice explosions and particle effects. Show off a boss or two, but only the good ones, and only bits and pieces, because you aren't doing a "let's play" you-tube video.

The music should probably be music from the actual game. If it is an intense action game, you might use one of the level's tracks if it is intense enough, and if not, maybe some boss music. You don't have to use the music and sound effects from the clips, but it isn't a bad idea if you can get the flow right. You may want to turn off the music from the clips, and just keep the sound effects, and then have the music track you select be over the whole video.

The text between clips tends to be descriptive, so should describe something coming up in the next clip or group of clips. So first advertise bullet mayhem in text, then have the clips be with a ton of bullets. Then advertise massive boss fights( or epic or whatever wording you want) and then show clips with bosses. Text out "awesome weapons" and then show a few. See what I'm getting at?

As far as actually getting the clips, I would record an actual human playing the game, probably the developer because they know everything that is coming, and know what is the cool stuff. So, I'd record whole levels at a time to keep things easier, but making sure I had impressive parts. I wouldn't show off the cool weapons without actually shooting at something. Then, you can go through and pull out the good clips, and maybe repeat the process until you have enough clips showing everything you had wanted. Finally, use your video editor to add music(if you went that route) and add text between clips and groups of clips. Of course, at the end, make sure it is very clear what the name of the game is, who made it(company name if you have one) and where to get the game. You may want to include other information, including a planned release date, but that part is more optional, as long as you have a place for them to look for more information.

Wow, that was incredibly descriptive and helpful. +1
Loved the comparison at the beginning, it made me think of trailers differently. I will remember this text when making trailers. Thank you for this!

[Terrified Virus]

Bump

[PanicBomber]

i think this really belongs here cause it goes hand in hand with distributing games.

[theweirdn8]

You see something awesome and are given the opportunity to be part of that awesomeness.

[Chris_Devl]

Gameplay footage, not just friggen cutscenes (god damn modern game dev companies annoy me to hell with that).

And be sure to show off the key features (what makes your game stand out) that you'd be advertising your game with (probably point it out with text like what movies do, all epic and ****).

Oh and including phrases like "award winning" or positive quotes from reviews is impressive to viewers (so long as you don't lie of course).

[Terrified Virus]

Gameplay footage, not just friggen cutscenes (god damn modern game dev companies annoy me to hell with that).

And be sure to show off the key features (what makes your game stand out) that you'd be advertising your game with (probably point it out with text like what movies do, all epic and ****).

Oh and including phrases like "award winning" or positive quotes from reviews is impressive to viewers (so long as you don't lie of course).

I agree with this, I hate when I see a COD trailer and it shows the best cutscenes instead of 10 year old kids trying to cuss out everyone in multiplayer, which is what the game really is about.

[DemeGeek]

I think that all trailers need drama music and a voice over, it may just be me but I think that would get Dudes to watch Chick Flicks more often.

I edited your trailer to show that: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=SHzBidx_L-E It is far from professional but I think it is good.

I can take it down if you disliked it.

Edited by DemeGeek, 22 July 2012 - 06:25 PM.

[Terrified Virus]

I think that all trailers need drama music and a voice over, it may just be me but I think that would get Dudes to watch Chick Flicks more often.

I edited your trailer to show that: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=SHzBidx_L-E It is far from professional but I think it is good.

I can take it down if you disliked it.

No, that trailer is awesome. It is actually not far from professional, but really good

The only thing I noticed is that the release date was extended due to a different game, but you don't have to fix it. Thanks!

[DemeGeek]

I think that all trailers need drama music and a voice over, it may just be me but I think that would get Dudes to watch Chick Flicks more often.

I edited your trailer to show that: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=SHzBidx_L-E It is far from professional but I think it is good.

I can take it down if you disliked it.

No, that trailer is awesome. It is actually not far from professional, but really good

The only thing I noticed is that the release date was extended due to a different game, but you don't have to fix it. Thanks!

I can redo it, I messed up with the dimensions any ways.

[Terrified Virus]

You don't really have to redo it, but if you do, could I use it on my website? I would give you credit

[DemeGeek]

You don't really have to redo it, but if you do, could I use it on my website? I would give you credit

I'm willing to, it's very simple to fix. What is the new date?

[Terrified Virus]

You don't really have to redo it, but if you do, could I use it on my website? I would give you credit

I'm willing to, it's very simple to fix. What is the new date?

I am actually not sure, but you could just say "Coming soon..."

Thanks so much for helping me with this!

[DemeGeek]

Here is the new video: http://youtu.be/FP5Eo9GCXdg

Updated the voice-over and end screen.

TIL I am what makes a good trailer.