How to Hook the Audience and How Quickly to Do it

How quickly should a trailer get to the game's hook?

AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!

In this previous post I said Genre, Hook, Content is the most fundamental structure I can think of for a game trailer. The genre needs to be established first, then move onto the hook, then MAYBE spend some time on content (as in, number of weapons, number of bosses, variety of biomes, etc.)

But if I were to make a more accurate representation of what I think the trailer's structure should be, it would be:

Genre, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK, Content.

For example, if you're making a Souls-like 3rd person character action combat RPG game then it only takes on or two shots of the player slashing at an enemy for fans of the genre to recognize it. The camera angle and style of animation are distinct and most games inspired by Dark Souls or Bloodborne. 

If the hook of your Souls-like game is that you turn into different animals, don't wait to show it until after showing all the rote design features of Souls-like games like: skeleton enemies, dark dungeons, different weapons, different biomes, collecting currency to level up, and epic bosses.

This goes especially if your game's art and animation isn't anywhere near as good as games made by From Software (and few are) you need to show that hook AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Pretty much the moment people know what genre they're in, you need to jump to the hook. The hook needs to be within the first third of the trailer and certainly no later than the first half. Ideally it's within the first 10-15 seconds.

Dark Souls is so entrenched as a genre and visual style that a new game which look exactly like this would have to show what differentiates it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Let's revise my simple outline to:

Genre, Hook, Anchors, Content. 

The term Anchor was coined by Chris Zukowski from HowToMarketAGame.com to mean the game features people expect from each genre of game. It's the thing that makes the game familiar at a glance. For example, in a 2D platformer game, collecting coins floating in the air is an anchor. In a metroidvania game, an expansive and color coded map screen is an anchor. In a Souls-like game, the style of combat and animation is an anchor. In a point-and-click adventure game, an inventory of items you use to solve puzzles is an anchor.

If you can establish the genre of the game in 1-2 shots that's ideal, then it's time to focus on the game's hooks, what makes it different. I see so many game trailers which seem to deem it necessary to cite all the commonalities before giving a glimpse into the unique qualities, and they're really boring to watch. 

Also, depending on the game it is possible to show hooks and anchors in the same shot. 

So it can be more like: Genre, Hook/Anchors, Content (where Hook and Anchors are interwoven). 

But what you DON'T want is: Genre, Anchors, Hook, Content. 

Or even worse: Genre, Anchors, Content, Hook

Or EVEN worse: Genre, Content, Anchors, Hook

lol, or even WORSE: Content...

A trailer for Manifold Garden which focused on shots like this would be an example of leading with anchors. It would also be not terribly interesting.

For example, like many games, Ooblets has farming as a game mechanic, but the first thing I showed in this trailer being harvested wasn't regular plants, it was Ooblets! I could've spent more than half the trailer showing the anchors like: farming plants, talking to NPCs, buying items at a shop, walking around different places, decorating their house, and buying new outfits. 

In this trailer I made for Nobody Saves the World the first two shots are to establish the genre, and the third shot is to show the hook of changing into different forms. Since the game is heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda, I could've spent a lot of time on the anchors: Buying new items, fighting bosses, unlocking doors, talking to NPCs, walking through villages, and navigating through dungeons. After the intro, there's a lot of time spent on the hook of combining powers, while also showing the anchor of Legend of Zelda style combat.

In the trailer I made for Manifold Garden I could've spent a lot of time in rooms showing the anchor: "Find a key and open a door" without showing any of the game's unique architecture and MC Escher-like spaces. But instead the opening shot shows the infinite architecture AND the key being used to open a door, which is immediately followed by a shot of Manifold Garden's unique spaces. In fact, the second shot is a cheat, because that's not the room on the other side of the first room's door; it's from a different part of the game that was more dramatic and hooky.

Even Ooblets' art style makes their anchors hooky, because these plants don't look like anything you see in any other game with farming.

Ideally, you can show both hooks and anchors at the same time, but what you want to try to avoid is showing early in the trailer are "anchor" shots which have no discernible part of the hook in them. This is another reason striking art direction is so important, because if the art is part of the hook then almost anything you show will stand out. 

At the very least, you might need to establish the hook early on to give context to the anchors. For example, imagine a game that looks like the war game Call of Duty, but in addition to the typical guns, you have magical, fantastical powers like shooting fire out of your hands and freezing things in place. In this imaginary game it would be possible to show only the gun play for most of the trailer. But if the trailer first showed guns, then quickly showed magical powers, everything that followed (even if it looked like typical Call of Duty) would look different because the audience knows the player has magic powers.

But what if this shot was preceded by... giant killer geese!?

On a simpler level, what if it was a Metroid style game, but there's no combat? Well, that's this game called EMUUROM which popped up in my Discord recently after I gave a review on my Twitch channel. I think this trailer needs to tell people up front that scanning is the primary mechanic which define's the game's hook, but that simple change would give new context to the other shots which otherwise look similar to Metroid.

Getting to the hook as soon as possible is super important, ESPECIALLY when they're not very strong or the game's visual identity doesn't immediately stand out. A lot of indie games build off the anchors of previous games (and that's ok!) but the longer the trailer goes without showing a hook, the more it will seem like the game is a lesser version of an old game without much reason to play it.