My Favorite Summer Game Fest 2023 Trailers

Summer Game Fest 2023 aka not-E3 is just about over, so I wanted to highlight some of my favorite trailers from this season. The hardest thing about picking a handful of favorites is knowing all the really good work I'm choosing not to include. While writing this I ended up writing an entire post about the different qualities of a game trailer and what it looks like when each of them are executed at low, mid, or high tiers of quality. I'm going to save that for the next post, and keep this one strictly about the game trailers which stood out to me.

In no particular order!

En Garde

This is a very tight and fun trailer which has a lot of character. The music, title cards, art and character design clearly establishes the swashbuckling genre within the first 10 seconds. The gameplay is really tightly captured and the match cuts create great flow either by matching the character's direction of movement or combat animations. The different player verbs come one after another, making the fights always feel fresh and dynamic. The little cinematic flourishes also add some nice visual spice and punctuation. I especially love the closeup of the lute hitting the guard. The story structure is simple, but easy to get invested in because it presents a player goal. The trailer literally ends on a bang! 

This was edited by Adrien Poncet, Designer and Co-founder of Fireplace Games! By the way, they also nicely made a social media version of the trailer with a 5 second intro.

Baby Steps

This has a slow, but suspenseful intro where we overhear parents apparently arguing about their adult son lazing about in the basement. The difference between this sort of slow intro and the ones I talk about in my posts is that this one has slow pacing, but a story is being told right away. This was also part of an online showcase with a captive audience, so this one works as a trailer with a slower burn. About 25 seconds in the son disappears and appears underwater with the pedigree title card: "From the creators of APE OUT" which creates curiosity because this looks nothing like APE OUT. 

After emerging from the water, he very awkwardly and unnaturally takes a step forward, which seems to imply the cinematic presentation has transitioned to gameplay. He then face plants and everything clicks with the second title card: "and GETTING OVER IT" which is Bennet Foddy's famously difficult game about a man in a cauldron trying to climb a mountain by swinging a sledge hammer around.

What follows is a montage of scenarios as the simple act of trying to walk is a monumentally difficult task. I love the mix of in-game footage where the camera follows perfectly in sync with the player, and cinematic shots where the camera is locked off and the player moves through the space. The cinematic shots allow for some hilarious shots like the player's body comically sliding into frame on a mud slide. I have no idea if the scene where he argues about tipping over some rocks is actually in the game, but it's a very weird and funny ending to something that otherwise looks like it doesn't have much story.

This trailer was edited by Gabe Cuzzillo, one of the co-creators of the game!

Summerhill

This teaser trailer is beautifully simple. Just enough to communicate the game's vibe and hook. It starts with a pedigree card and then has its one and only shot where player and their dog runs out onto a field, to which sheep start herding. The camera lingers a bit to show the shore at the bottom of the cliff. Then there's a big tilt up showing the landscape in the distance as the player herds the sheep back towards their stone arch. The sheep disappear in a very "game-y" fashion, and it fades into the title with a subtitle: "A folktale about life, loss and livestock." 

The one shot with the leisurely pace is exactly what this needs to show the chill vibes, and the art and animation seal the deal.

Airborne Empire

When the voiceover started I thought this was going to be another Lore trailer with no discernible game genre, or setting which is unique in any way. But then they showed the sky city slowly getting built up. I love this "oner" presentation where the story is told in one shot. The implied building game mechanics are just enough to clarify the genre, and I love how things escalate from building the city to being attacked. Really good teaser which says just enough and in a tight and cinematic style.

Hermit and Pig

This is a trailer which hinges on its editing. The graphics are pretty low-fi, and it looks like a game which could look pretty dry with raw game capture. But the energy of the music, the closeups and story structure make it so much more. A hermit and his pig (in matching hats) walk around doing very typical "game-y" things like picking up objects, but it's put together in a way which feels like a story. Things escalate where they seem to upset an NPC and then suddenly they're battling a plethora of animals, talking to NPCs, and then things get weird as the music slows down.

This is a really well done trailer which in less imaginative hands wouldn't have nearly as much energy and charm. 

Resistor

This is a really nice trailer which is very movie trailer-like in structure, but there's just enough exposition to let us know what kind of gameplay to expect. Within the first few seconds we have an idea of the character motivation and that this is a racing game. The art, animation, direction, and cinematography are excellent with lots of style and energy. We don't see anything close to gameplay until about 25 seconds, but since we know it's about racing, that and the editing make the wait feel much shorter. 

I like how it shows a variety of antagonists and what they look like when the player is racing against them. Tightly made with really great racing shots, with well synchronized sound and editing on top of a well told story.

Venba

I've liked all of the Venba trailers and this one is no exception. I'm kind of a sucker for sound design and/or musically driven trailers, and this one fits that bill nicely. But it's not just sound and music for the sake of it, there's some great montage cutting which holds interest and makes me want more. Of course, the very specific music and art style makes this unique and interesting.

I also love the suspense of unveiling the food and how well the son asking: "It's it done yet?" pairs with the release date reveal. 

World of Horror

This is another trailer which lives and dies by its editing and shot selection. It looks like this is a very UI heavy game where it would be extremely easy to lose the eye of the audience, but the very striking images from the game draw the eye easily, especially when aided by judicious use of closeups to draw attention. The fast pacing tells me I shouldn't worry about reading the game text on screen in lieu of the often disturbing imagery. The trailer title cards carry us through what would otherwise be just a bunch of increasingly explicit images. 

Fable

This is the AAA game trailer which stood out to me most during the whole Summer Game Fest. I love the narrative framing of Richard Ayoade talking about growing vegetables which is intercut with humorous shots of the player going about their business. The twist at the end is what made it all come together in a very entertaining package. Great cinematic presentation, lots of humor befitting the pedigree of the game, and just a lot of fun to watch!

Little to the Left: Cupboards and Drawers DLC

Special mention to this trailer which I called out on Twitter and TikTok for its really good eye trace. Notice how the mouse cursor perfectly transitions from one shot to the next, creating a single unbroken line of movement. This makes it so much easier to watch, and is a great example of invisible editing (which takes planning and consideration)

Final Thoughts

There are so many more game trailers which were excellently made this season. You can look at my YouTube playlist where I gather game trailers which I want to add to GameTrailerDatabase.com, but don't necessarily fit into my favorites of the year. I'm probably still going to look at write-ups to see if there's anything that slipped through the cracks. 

Kudos to all the game developers and trailer makers for their hard work this not-E3 season. My Steam wishlist runneth over with amazing upcoming games!