Favorite Gameplay Trailers of 2020
Gameplay trailers are a very different skill than cinematic trailers because you essentially have to make a short film or highlight reel using a sort of virtual playground or film set with varying levels of control over the sets, actors, props and world. The trick is taking account everything at your disposal into account, and making something within those constraints. Here in no particular order are my favorite gameplay trailers of 2020!
Snow Runner: United We Drive Trailer
This trailer blew me away because it starts as a parody of Death Stranding's incredibly serious trailers, but ends up being a heartfelt tribute to drivers of big rigs. This trailer hit especially hard in light of people being isolated in quarantine due to the pandemic. Though a lot of comments are from people who only see this as a parody trailer, it's touching to see comments from people who belong to truck driving families who feel seen by this trailer. This could've easily began and ended as a parody, or something exploitative and tone deaf, but the script really carried this one home. I can only hope someday my brain makes the connections behind this trailer's direction to create something like this.
Spiritfarer Launch Trailer
I love this one so much I wrote an entire article about it. This is a top example of a trailer which takes you on a full emotional journey, illustrating what it is like to play the game, and leaving you wanting more. Top notch music, animation, and editing all around.
Deathloop: 'Two Birds One Stone' Gameplay Trailer
This is an amazingly well done walkthrough of the game mechanics framed by a grind house trailer sense of style (full disclosure, I'm friends with some of the creative team). The direction is tightly conceived and captured and edited to perfection. This shows how you can make something very informative, but also stylish and entertaining. The capture mostly stays in first person perspective, but uses cinematic angles as accents to help the viewer understand the game's mechanics.
Per Aspera Reveal Trailer
This trailer does a great job of making realtime strategy game easy to understand and entertaining to watch. Kudos for taking what during any moment could look like an overwhelming amount of visual information and systems and bringing it under control by slowly and stylishly introducing us to the ideas one by one such that when the shots get more complicated we know exactly what information we need to take in. I wrote more about this in my look at realtime strategy game trailers if you'd like to read more.
Carto Launch Trailer
This is a charming trailer which uses animation to introduce the world and game mechanics. Every single line of narration highlights either the narrative or a game mechanic or both. Many game trailers struggle because they focus too much on one or the other, but this one strikes a great balance!
Hardspace: Shipbreaker Reveal Trailer
This trailer immediately immerses you into the world of Hardspace Shipbreaker, where the job of tearing apart space ships in low Earth orbit for their spare parts is depicted by uncaring corporations as a job for glory and profit. This is immediately contrasted by the lived experience of the player which looks treacherous to say the least. By the time you finish watching this trailer you know exactly what you're doing, and the world you're doing it in.
Huntdown Launch Trailer
This is another trailer I loved so much I reviewed it this year. This is a pixel art game trailer whose presentation feels more cinematic than many trailers I've seen for games with 3D cameras and much higher fidelity graphics. The voiceover and writing are absolutely spot on, and clearly echo its pop culture influences. The gameplay moments are not complex, but nicely accent the story moments in the trailer.
Golf on Mars
This trailer is a simple depiction of the game loop of hitting golf balls into the hole. The environment swapping would've worked well enough to get the job done, but the music and sound design transport you into a weird and evocative place that implies there's something else afoot. The slow fade in of the elegant title adds additional gravitas.
BPM: Bullets Per Minute Announcement Trailer
This trailer will probably be known always as the game trailer which finally justified syncing every gunshot to the beat of the music. It's fun as heck to watch AND it informs the game mechanic of being a rhythm based first person shooter.
DOOM Eternal Launch Trailer
The DOOM Eternal trailers have been universally fun to watch (full disclosure, I'm friends with some of the creative team) and this one is no exception. While I feel there's a bit too many slow panning story scenes, I love the use of speed ramping, closeups of the weapons, and the kinetic motion tracked accolades with the added bits of motion animated to the beat.
Those are the last of my favorite game trailers for 2020! As always, watching this amazing work is inspiring and pushes me to do better in my own work. I hope you find it just as exhilarating to watch. As 2020 ends I find myself privileged and fortunate to say my friends and family have been pulling through despite the pandemic, quarantines and lockdowns. Please stay safe, wear a mask, and I wish you a Happy New Year!
