Here are my favorite indie and AAA game trailers from 2021! Some you may have heard of, many more you probably haven’t, but I guarantee each and every one has something interesting and unique to say.
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When I watch a lot of trailers in quick succession I can’t help but pick up trends and tropes both good and bad. Here are some assorted thoughts from the 2021 Game Awards about what stood out and what probably could’ve been done better.
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Many people who make a game trailer are not professional editors, so it’s not the most useful advice to talk about editing techniques which can take years of practice to get right. So here is my list of what to prioritize in order to make a stand out game trailer. As best you can, start at the top and don’t move on until you’ve got each item locked down.
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Game capture affords the opportunity to layer many ideas into a single shot past the basic player verbs. Here are some suggestions for how you can give each shot in your trailer more depth
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Here’s my exhaustive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Psychonauts 2 story trailer!
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How do you make a game trailer when you don’t have any footage? Well, just grab your phone, webcam or any means you have to film something and get ready to make a very silly looking video which will help you make the trailer in many ways you may not even realize!
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The ability to quickly recapture a shot for a game trailer is a super duper valuable tool to have. Here are the tools I highly recommend which have helped me do this the fastest and most efficiently!
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It’s a rare position to be working on a game where there’s such a wealth of unique material you don’t know what to put in and what not to. It might be tempting to just include a little bit of everything, but you risk losing focus and at worst, overwhelming the audience and watering down the game’s strengths. Here’s what I recommend you do!
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This trailer is very well made and took all the right lessons from videos which display on social media muted by default. It does a great job of explaining itself simply and giving the audience room to understand without holding their hand too much. It’s also the rare video which I think actually works better when muted!
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I thought for my 40th birthday I’d look back at the past few decades to see what I was doing during each phase of my life so far, how it led to where I am now, and where I see things going! (Btw, I was technically around 30 in that photo)
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What particular set of skills does a trailer editor bring to the table that someone else or even another video editor might not have? I’m obviously tooting my own horn and that of my colleagues, but here’s a simple explanation!
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The straight cut is an under appreciated tool in the belt of a trailer editor. While on the surface it’s not as flashy or “trailer-y” as a dip to black, it holds the power to do so many things if you’re willing to give it a shot. Here are why and when straight cuts can be much more effective than the fancier tools at your disposal.
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Is trailer fatigue a thing, why might it happen, how can you possibly mitigate it through multiple delays, and does it even matter? Here’s a look at my analysis of the trailer campaign for DEATHLOOP!
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When gamers cry out “Just show me REAL gameplay” or “I just want to see unedited, REAL gameplay!” why does it matter if a trailer is well edited? Why not just make a music video montage with a bunch of clips and leave the hard work up to the viewer to piece it together? Videos of this style still get attention and interest, so why does it matter?
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Story trailers typically tell the story via in-game dialogue, omniscient voiceover and/or title cards. I’m a strong proponent for using in-game dialogue because I think it presents what feels like the most unadulterated form of storytelling which allows the players to see the game without feeling the hand of the editor or marketers.
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It’s important for games to have a “hook” but is it beneficial for a trailer to have a hook? Do you want the trailer to sound interesting when you describe it in a tweet, or make it into an article headline?
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Knowing your audience’s questions and the order they ask them is a good way to think of the structure of your game trailer! Here are the questions most game trailer audiences will have and how you use them to make your trailer.
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The trailer for Atrio: The Dark Wild (a survival factory automation game) is structured around a brilliantly script which focuses on how you play the game, but is also very funny, absurd, and entertaining.
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Cinematic game trailers give a means to announce a game before the gameplay is ready to show and also flesh out the story and world, but I think they’re also used for purposes which position devs and publishers in the market and give them the means to make bigger business deals.
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Directing voiceover for use in trailers is a niche skill within a skill, but here are some tactics you can use so both you and your voiceover talent get the results you want!
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