Trailer Test Screening Questions to Ask

Almost nothing clarifies the efficacy of your trailer more than showing it to someone. I've found just watching a cut together with someone will immediately makes me see things I would otherwise never have seen. Because when I'm watching with another person, I'm trying to see it through their eyes. And regardless of whether or not my assessment of what they're thinking is correct, my brain is still watching it differently than when I'm alone in my office. 

The movie trailer industry has a long history of focus group testing where they'll screen work in progress cuts of trailers and commercials to people, have them fill out a thorough survey, and then make decisions about the trailers and commercials accordingly. The feedback could be as granular as: "People liked this one shot more than others, therefore we should use this shot in more commercials" or deciding which trailer to pursue out of the multiple currently being made by a variety of vendors. Incidentally, these focus groups are why trailers have a history of showing so much of the movie; the trailers which show more typically test better than the ones which are more vague. 

If you're going to solicit feedback for your game trailer, what questions should you ask and how do you choose to apply or ignore it?

Here's a list of questions which can get you started. Below the list, I'll explain my thinking in more detail:

• Did you like the trailer? Why or why not?

• Did you understand the story? What is the game about?

• Do you understand how to play the game? Explain.

• Does the game look appealing to you? Why or why not?

• What game(s) does this remind you of?

• Were there any scenes or ideas which were unclear? What were they?

• Which scenes did you like most? (If any)

• How would you describe this game to a friend?

• Do you want to know more about the game? If so, do you know how/where to get that information?

• Are you interested in buying this game? Why or why not?

• How much would you pay for this game?

1. What did you think?

It's good to get basic knee-jerk reactions and first impressions before trying to dive deeper into more detailed questions which might be more difficult to answer. If you're conducting an interview in person, this would be a good opportunity to ask a lot of "Why?" or "Why not?" questions if they say vague things like: "I didn't really like it" or "It was confusing." Either way, it can be valuable to get that very honest and raw opinion as soon as you can before they start analyzing their thoughts too much.

In this question you could also just ask if they enjoyed watching the trailer, and why or why not. Whether it was the music, the editing, the voiceover, or something else.

2. Did you understand the game and story?

Comprehension is the most critical thing for a trailer for a game or movie, because if they didn't understand what they saw then the trailer didn't do its main job which is to communicate something about a game. Imagine you hired a salesperson to sell something and the customer feedback was: "Well, they said a lot of words in an energetic way, and they were very lively, but I don't remember what they were selling." 

For the game you don't necessarily need them to understand and have extrapolated every game mechanic, just that they understood what you were trying to show in the trailer in an accurate way. I they have a basic understanding with a few gaps, I would consider that a win over completely misconstruing the gameplay or not understanding at all. 

For story you want them to understand the premise, the characters' situations and maybe their motivations and how they plan to resolve their conflict. What you don't want is a random assortment of disconnected scenes in their head which can't cohere into a narrative.

I don't have a rhyme or reason for this GIF

3. Does the game look appealing?

This is in line with just asking what they thought of the game, but it's a good next question to ask after comprehension. It's no good if they understood the game, but found it completely unappealing for whatever reason, whether the art, game mechanics, story, characters, or something else. This is also of course good feedback if you're in a position to make changes to the game itself.

4. What does this remind you of?

This question is a different way of learning whether or not the trailer was communicating clearly. If a game is a mix of Metroid, Hyper Light Drifter, Legend of Zelda, and Dark Souls, then the trailer is doing a good job if the viewer picks up on that combination. But if the viewer said of the same game: "It looks like a mix of Tetris and Final Fantasy" then something is clearly wrong.

5. Was anything unclear?

Again, more than anything I'd want to know if something was not being understood by the viewer. It could be a game mechanic, plot point, or an individual shot which felt completely random when it was intended to illustrate something very specific. Don't be afraid to go shot by shot or in slow motion to jog their memory, because if they didn't understand something, it's less likely they'll be able to recall anything about it. It would be like asking someone who got knocked over by someone on the street: "What color were their eyes?"

6. Which scenes did you like most?

As I mentioned before, knowing which scenes stood out most can help you know what is resonating most with the audience. Finding out why they liked them is even better. It could be the composition of the shot, the idea expressed in it, the action within the shot or just how pretty it looked. Based on their feedback, you might be able to extrapolate other shots which would be similarly effective.

7. How would you describe this game to a friend?

This is to figure out if the messaging and ideas of the trailer were interesting and clear. If the viewer finishes watching the trailer and the best they can come up with is: "It's like a JRPG" then that indicates the trailer didn't highlight any hooky game mechanics or story ideas. Or maybe you communicated too many ideas, but none of them were unique in any way. For example: "It's a platforming game with boss battles, multiple levels, and lots of modes" is a lot of games, and won't sound interesting to whomever you're sharing with.

If the viewer finishes watching and easily shares the core idea of the game mechanics or the story, then you're in good shape. For example: "It's a 2D game where you play as a fast blue hedgehog" or "You play as an Uber driver in a cyberpunk city."

8. Do you want to know more? Where would you find it?

Believe it or not, this is probably not the most important question to get answered (except for the part about where to find it). This is because someone could find a game trailer very entertaining, informative, snappy, and interesting, but still not want to play the game because it's not in a genre they typically play. But if they ARE usually fans of that genre, you might want to know why they're still not interested. 

The "Where would you find it?" is simply checking whether or not the trailer's call to action worked whether by where it pointed you towards a website, a Steam page, or another platform.

9. Are you interested in buying the game?

This is again, not necessarily so important as far as making the trailer better, because it could simply be a matter of incompatibility. But what you DO wand to check for is if the person who watched the trailer does typically like games in a similar genre, but aren't interested. Maybe you're missing one bit of information which makes the game look and feel much more appealing. For example, the trailer could've covered all the basics of games in the genre, but is missing a hook which turns everything on its head and makes the experience completely new and interesting.

Making Changes

When it comes to deciding whether or not to apply the feedback in a way to change the cut, what's most important is first that you consider if the issue brought up aligns with the goals you've set for the trailer. For example, if the primary goal of the trailer is to show the story and plot, but the comment said "I don't understand the gameplay!" that might not necessarily be a top concern. But if it's a story trailer where the comment is: "I don't understand the characters or their motivations" that could be a big problem."

If you're sending feedback to the editor, do your best to aggregate and filter the feedback accordingly. What's worked best for me is having one point of contact through which I receive feedback. If you simply send feedback from six different people you showed the trailer to, the editor won't know which notes to prioritize, especially if some of it is contradictory. Even when in a private Slack or Discord channel, having two or more people giving feedback can be confusing for the same reasons. This especially goes if the editor has less of a creative stake in the trailer and is essentially hired just to follow the instructions given.

Quick tip, if you're given a long list of change notes for a cut, I recommend working on the last notes in the timeline first and working your way backwards.

I'll fully admit I don't tend to seek out feedback from outside the teams I work with, because I often find it difficult to hear, but I do recognize it is something I ABSOLUTELY SHOULD DO if I want my work to be better. Even if most of the feedback isn't good or useful, if just one thing makes the trailer make that much better then it's probably worth doing!