Game Trailer Structure - Genre, Hook, Content
This is the simplest way I can sum up what order to put the ideas in your game trailer:
Genre
Hook
Content
In my previous posts I've talked about the three act structure of a trailer, making outlines based on the genre you're working in, and also how to start a new timelinefor a trailer, but this is a more fundamental way of what order you should present things, and why.
The problem I see in a lot of game trailers is the order of ideas is more like:
Content
Mix of genre and hook
What this looks like is a trailer which mere seconds after it's started is already throwing up title cards which tout the features and modes of the game like:
Couch co-op!
Upgrades and powerups!
Lots of weapons!
Single Player Campaign!
Customizable characters!
Meanwhile, I'm watching the trailer thinking: "But what is the GAME!?" I already used this analogy in this post about making an announce trailer, but starting a sales pitch with features is like selling a food stand by talking about flavors before you talk about what the food is. I can't know I want a strawberry flavor of your food until I know what the food is. To make a more direct game analogy I know I like local co-op games if they're puzzle platformers, but I'm not interested if it's a realtime strategy game. I'm surprised how often game trailers start touting features before I even know what genre I'm in, never mind any sort of hook or unique selling point.
I love the premise for this game, but this trailer also mostly leads with title cards and shots about content and features. It's not until 40 seconds into the trailer do I understand what the game is (the launch trailer did a better job of showing the hook up front).
Players tend to stick to their favorite genres so it's important to quickly establish that space (which is one reason I find slow environment shots at the beginning of a trailer a bit frustrating). Depending on the game it can take only one or two shots to communicate the genre and then you can move quickly onto the hook of the game. But not all game genres are so easy to establish in a few shots; I think a lot of trailers either don't consider the importance of establishing the genre, or assume the footage speaks for itself, when often it does not.
If the genre is up front to help the audience understand if the game fits into their preferred genres, the hook is there to tell them why they should care. After all, there are already SO many games coming out every day which exist in the same well worn genres. We need that hook to help us understand why we should try this new game rather than just play our old favorites. Just like how if a new Chinese restaurant opens in town, my first visit will be to assess if it's even up to the standard of my favorites, and if it's just on par, it'll need something unique to get me to continue going there. It could be they have a nicer interior good for entertaining family, or maybe they have really good cheung fun :P
This game's visuals communicate its hook very well, but I would've moved the "Gear Up" part to later in the trailer because the variety of tactics possible from choosing your load out isn't interesting to me until I understand the core idea.
I think in general content and features should be highlighted no earlier than somewhere around the middle of the trailer. Certainly they should not be shown until the basic genre and the hook have been established. Content and features are like applying a multiplier to everything that preceded it; they're the promise of longevity and variety. But they cannot be effective unless the audience knows what is being multiplied. It doesn't matter how big the multiplier is if there's no idea which is being multiplied; twenty multiplied by zero is zero.
The Genre helps the audience know if they're interested at all
The Hook tells them why it's notable beyond basic interest
The Content indicates scope and variety
Each of these ideas build upon each other. Sometimes genre and hook are either interchangeable or inextricably linked, but I think content can never be the first part of the sales pitch because people cannot be convinced they want something simply by saying there's a lot of it in many varieties. ame.