Watch tons of other game and film trailers, and copy that style and pacing. It really depends on the game, as different genres would be cut differently. A fantasy RPG wouldn't be cut the same as a first person horror. Most importantly, don't have 30 seconds of logos in the beginning, and include as much gameplay as you can. I would also chop it at the 2:30 min mark, but that's just personal taste.
The consensus among international indies is that a trailer is so crazily important to the first impressions people have of your game that you should pay a professional to do them for you.
We're still trying to figure out how to make a great trailer for Desktop Dungeons.
Beyond the first impressions of players... An entertaining/intriguing trailer is something that journalists will want to share.
A boring or amatuerish trailer won't be able to be shared on sites like Kotaku, they have standards. And it won't be shared as much virallly, friend to friend. People don't want to share things that reflect badly on them (and they DO want to share things that reflect well on them).
I mean, it's not just about getting people to form a good opinion of your game, you want to create a piece of content viewers actually enjoy on its own merits.
Things like this and the other thing about pathfinding and much more, etc reminded me - are we keeping a record of this stuff in the wiki? They're extremely valuable to anyone in or will be joining the community.
@Tuism ok well I just added the that blog post (along with some pathfinding and networking stuff) to the wiki. However I noticed that there is a phenomenal number of spam pages there... =/ Any chance we can get an admin to look into that?
Comments
Most importantly, don't have 30 seconds of logos in the beginning, and include as much gameplay as you can.
I would also chop it at the 2:30 min mark, but that's just personal taste.
We're still trying to figure out how to make a great trailer for Desktop Dungeons.
A boring or amatuerish trailer won't be able to be shared on sites like Kotaku, they have standards. And it won't be shared as much virallly, friend to friend. People don't want to share things that reflect badly on them (and they DO want to share things that reflect well on them).
I mean, it's not just about getting people to form a good opinion of your game, you want to create a piece of content viewers actually enjoy on its own merits.
http://blog.kertgartner.com/2012/03/making-entertaining-and-engaging-video-game-trailers/
Any chance we can get an admin to look into that?