10 Common Indie Game Trailer Mistakes & How to Fix Them
This video has some overlap with the article, but additional insights too, so it’s worth both watching the video and reading down below!
Most indie game trailers aren't very good because most indie game makers aren't trailer editors. After years of watching and making game trailers it became pretty clear the most common mistakes people make. Well, these aren't mistakes because if it's something you're not aware you're doing, it's just lack of experience and knowledge, so please don't beat yourself up if you do any of these things.
Here are the 10 most common "mistakes" I see in indie game trailers. Hopefully you can use this as a guide to check your work and improve your trailers! These are ordered roughly from the easiest to most difficult to fix.
Unknown Logos and Names
Difficulty: *
Indie game devs who haven't established their name and brand should not start trailers with their logo because it doesn't mean anything (someday maybe!). Think of yourself as the inexperienced and vulnerable stand up comedian going to an open mic for the first time. No one cares about you, they just want to see if you can make them laugh. For games, the audience wants to see if your game looks cool as soon as possible!
Solution: Don't start the trailer with your logo or "[Developer Name] Presents..." Put your logos or name on the end slate, and start the trailer with gameplay footage.
What game studio does this logo belong to? Probably none since I just downloaded this off of The Noun Project, but most indie game studios' logos will mean about this much to anyone unrelated to the team.
Slow Introduction
Difficulty: **
This causes the same problem as the unknown logos. Slow introductions aren't generally as engaging, especially when it's a trailer not viewed during a live event by a captive audience. Game trailer audiences really want to know what the gameplay looks like, so starting with even ONE gameplay clip will help engagement and earn you good will.
This is why all those movie trailers start with the six second teaser for the trailer. It kind of sucks because slow intros can be cool, but if you're the new kid on the block people have less time for you.
Solution: Make the first shot(s) of the trailer at least one clip of what the game looks like when it's being played.
Tough crowd!
Repetitive
Difficulty: **
Nothing will make your game look smaller than repetitive content. This is why it's best to make your trailer as short as possible. The second you start repeating content is the moment the audience realizes "Huh, did they not have enough variety to fill 60-90 seconds?" A shorter trailer with no repetition won't read the same way, because they can't know for sure if the game is small; it might just be a very tightly edited trailer!
Some things like player verbs and other content DO need repeating for emphasis, but try to not include shots where just about all the content like the player verbs, enemy types and background art looks the same.
Solution: As much as possible don't repeat content like level art, enemy types or just entire shots that look very same-y.
Don't user test your trailer with a cat though :P
No Game Audio
Difficulty: ***
Including game sound effects gives the audience a much better FEEL for the game (and makes your sound designer happy). Sound is so important to the tone and feel of the game. A game trailer with no game audio will be flat, and give a much worse impression of the game.
To be clear, it is easy to turn off the music of the game and record the game audio, but it is more difficult to integrate sound into a trailer well. But I think it's worth the effort, because SO much is lost when there is no game audio.
Solution: Turn off the game music when capturing footage so you can include the game audio in the trailer. Bonus points for being very judicious about which game sound effects are audible in the trailer.
Might be epic with music, but you won’t FEEL it as much
Bad Eye Trace
Difficulty: ***
Eyetrace is being aware of where the audience is looking, and not forcing them to constantly move their eyes about the screen to see the primary focus of the shot. For example: if the audience is looking at the right side of the screen, and the next shot's focus is on the left, they have to re-orient their eye to the left. But if instead, the next shot's focus is on the right, they're already looking in the correct place! Bad eye trace is one reason why some shaky-cam fight scenes are so difficult to watch. The same goes for fast cut trailers.
Solution: Match the position of a shot's focus at the. Watch my tutorial for an easy way to check for this in your editing software.
Bad bad bad terrible eyetrace, also bad for many other reasons.
The Music Isn’t Structured for Trailers
Difficulty: ****
Trailer music needs to have a good beginning, middle and end with a lot of dynamic beats and changes which build and build excitement or emotion to a final climax. The problem is a lot of game music is designed to loop endlessly, so by its very nature doesn't really have the necessary structure for a trailer.
This is why there are a lot of indie game trailers where the energy of the music at the end of the trailer sounds exactly the same as at the beginning. Composing music for trailers is a specialized skill which will take adjusting for the game's composer. But it's worth it to create a dramatic arc for the game trailer. Music is the lifeblood of a good trailer, so dedicating the time to make it good is one of the most valuable things you can do.
Solution: Make or find music designed for the unique needs of the trailer.
The music needs to feel like it's going somewhere, not just looping.
Unfocused Game Capture
Difficulty: ****
A lot of game trailers are made of footage comprised of someone who played the game for several hours and used some of that raw footage for the trailer. This can work, but a better approach is to first map out the ideas within the trailer's story structure then capture to those specific needs.
I usually do a first pass of "normal" gameplay just to see the content of the game, then once I know the moments I want to create and capture for the trailer, I go back in and do take after take to get that moment just right. That includes what look like accidental deaths or game over moments in the trailer!
Solution: Rehearse and capture until you have something which best illustrates the idea you're trying to communicate with each shot of the trailer.
Footage not purposefully captured for a trailer can be very confusing.
Information Overload
If you look at a typical game screen, depending on the genre it might have a LOT of information on it. It could be HUD and UI elements, subtitles, dialogue bubbles, narration, mission text prompts, damage numbers, status effects and a lot more.
Trailers need to have as much information stripped out as possible in order to be comprehended because trailers are cut very fast and there's not a lot of time to absorb any information. So the more overloaded each frame is, the less likely people will remember anything they saw.
This is why I say to turn off the HUD, remove text from the screen which you don't intend to be read, and generally to intercut text with gameplay footage rather than showing them in one shot. Don't expect someone to be able to read text AND look at gameplay in the same shot, especially if the shot doesn't give them enough time.
Solution: Reduce each shot to the essentials necessary to communicate its idea. Anything which doesn't serve that idea should be removed.
As a player, this shot will provide necessary information, but in a game trailer it’s overwhelming.
Generic Title Cards
Difficulty: *****
Title cards which point out quantities of game content, genre descriptors, player verbs and features are boring and unoriginal. For example:
50 AMAZING LEVELS! ROGUELIKE ADVENTURE! PROCEDURALLY GENERATED LEVELS! RUN, JUMP, CLIMB! 10 GAME MODES!
Making title cards which communicate ideas about your game and ONLY your game is difficult because it's the result of well written messaging. But it makes the trailer so much stronger and unique. For example:
NOW YOU'RE THINKING WITH PORTALS TALK YOUR WAY OUT OF HELL TIME MOVES WHEN YOU MOVE A GOD-LIKE ROGUE-LIKE STAY HUMAN
A good way of thinking about it is to think about the dream, not the job. Another exercise recommended by my PR Marketing Strategy and messaging friend Dana Trebella is to think of only THREE words which describe your game and try to use that mentality when creating text for your trailer. Another way to go about it is use my friend Chris Zukowski's method of turning features into benefits.
Solution: Don't list out the features, especially if they can be understood from just looking at game footage. Remove all the trailer's title cards to see if it works without them. Use language which sounds like it describes your game only.
If I had a nickel for every trailer I’ve watched with a title card which said this…
Scattershot Story
Difficulty: *****
If your game has a story you should just put a bunch of story scenes into the trailer and people will be curious and get an idea of what is going on, right?
NOPE!
A random assortment of story scenes which don't line up to create a story idea for the trailer is just as confusing as a shot which has a lot of HUD, subtitles, text and busy game capture. Story scenes should ideally connect to one another creating through line for the trailer. This is a problem not isolated to indie games, I've seen AAA game trailers which don't succeed in conveying a narrative in their story trailers.
Solution: Read through all the story related text (dialogue, title cards, narration) from the beginning to the end of the trailer, and see if it tells a narrative when read in that order. If they don't connect or have structure, find a way to reorganize them or rewrite specifically for the trailer so it has its own structure.
Story trailers should tell a story, not show random sections of one.
BONUS: Not Differentiated!
Difficulty: **********
You know this is happening when you're watching a trailer where the game doesn't seem to be appreciably different from other games you've played or know exist. Except for outright clones, people usually don't set out to make something which is exactly the same as another game, there's usually at least one different thing which is the reason they made it.
The all encompassing thing a game trailer needs to do is differentiate the game from other games on the market or games which exist in a similar genre space. This does NOT mean every bit of design and content of the game has no comparison. What this means is there is SOMETHING in the game which is unique in a surprising and desirable way; this is the game's hook. Ryan Clark of Brace Yourself Games talks a lot about game hooks and has just started a series of videos about this very topic.
The reason this is the highest difficulty is because the fundamental design of the game is where this starts since the trailer cannot fabricate a design feature which doesn't exist in the game (not ethically, at least). The hook of a game can be the design, art, animation, story, music, sound design or any combination of them.
Even if a game has similar qualities to other games doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to make it look as much like them as possible.
Assuming the game has a good hook, the trailer's job is to bring attention to that hook and show why it's interesting. A lot of game trailers feel like they're in a hurry to point out generic features and content, but those things are meaningless if they don't exist within the context of an interesting hook.
If the trailer only focuses on features like the number of levels, secrets, player upgrades, variety of enemies, and boss battles, that will make the game sound like almost any other game.
BUT what if those features were for:
A platformer game where you can't jump (Captain Toad)
A dungeon crawler where you move to the beat of the music (Crypt of the Necrodancer)
A steampunk cyber heist game where you have 100 days to stop a government run surveillance system (The Swindle)
A game where you play a goose
Solution: Show the unique qualities of the game as soon as possible, then flesh it out with the ways it overlaps with other games.
Just because these are common mistakes doesn't mean they have easy solutions; start at the top and work your way down. Making good game trailers can be very difficult, but I think once you start thinking of how to make game trailers you'll realize the qualities which make the process much easier! Some of the best game trailers I've seen made by developers are from people who very clearly think about trailers a lot, especially from the beginning of the process of making a new game.
Time to fix ALL THE THINGS!