5 secrets to a VIRAL indie game trailer (my experience!)

hey guys my name is Thomas brush and the creator of a game called pinstripe I'm also working on a game called once upon a coma that we'll be launching in a couple of months everybody wants to stand out when they're making an indie game and when they make their trailer they want to make sure everybody is sharing it all over social media and kotaku and Gizmodo and Washington Post in Time magazine and everyone notices the game well good luck in the ocean that is steam and the new ocean of Nintendo switch it's really really hard to make a wave let alone a ripple so I'm gonna try and explain five ways that you guys can make an epic trailer that actually stands out and get some attention hopefully add some wish lists to your game and in the end makes you some money for your game now guys before we talk about the five things that are gonna make you have a viral trailer that

actually stands out for your indie game I want to talk about Skillshare I'm really really thankful for Skillshare not only because they're so supportive of this channel but they're so closely aligned with your mission and my mission and that is learning how to make and sell indie games so guys head on over to Skillshare there's a ton of courses whether it's 2d animation 3d design 3d modeling audio marketing just coding and c-sharp there are a ton of courses available so if you guys want to three months of Skillshare click the link below guys Skillshare supports this channel and honestly guys they're just a great brand to work with so head on over to skill share if that's something for you the first rule of making a viral trailer is show something awesome immediately this is obvious right you would think that it's obvious but it's not obvious people like me when I released my first game pinch strike it was started out with my name for like 10 seconds Thomas

Rogers presents people don't care about me people don't care about me they care about is this game worth my money so start out with something cool some examples of things that are cool are I mean if your games an action game show some really cool action sequences or maybe show some beautiful artwork if your game is a artsy atmospheric game show what stands out the most in your game if it's the best part of your game the best scene the best sequence don't be afraid to just show it immediately because that first 10 seconds of your trailer that's really whether your trailer is actually going to survive because most people if they don't like what they see within the first 10 seconds and that includes you when you're watching trailers if the first 10 seconds doesn't capture your attention you're out and I don't blame you there's a lot of content on YouTube and all over the internet we don't have two minutes to watch something we don't really enjoy so make sure that the first 10 seconds is something special immediately guys there's a lot of indie games out

there seriously guys you will be tempted to start slow with your game because it's your baby it's something that's really special to you right well don't treat it like your baby treat it like you are a consumer what would you as a consumer want to see in the first 10 seconds of a trailer the second thing you want to do to ensure that the trailer is viral is ensure that you show accolades if you have any at all now the thing is is a lot of you might not have accolade for your game but that's okay you know sometimes there's a local events local meetups that you can show that you participated in so even though for both my games Pinstripe and once upon a coma none of them actually won a thing they were showcased in a lot of events they also participated in a lot of contests so if you were nominated for anything include that award Laurel or the logo so if it's South by Southwest for example you'd have the South by Southwest logo and then you put some laurels around it and then you'd explain exactly what it is showcase 2019 or if it's as simple as

something like a local meetup so I actually had an event in Columbia South Carolina it wasn't big it wasn't a very popular event but I drove down went to the event and my game was in a little showcase it was called indie bits indeed bits and I just got the logo indie bits put laurels around it and said showcase item 2017 so there's a lot of things that you can participate in guys trust me there are hundreds of contests and events if not thousands every year that you can submit your game to to add some kind of credibility to your trailer so add those accolades at the beginning hey if you even want to do a big splash with like 20 accolades or even just five that's totally fine five seconds splash people don't need to read it if they want to read it they can click pause and see what these accolades or nominations or showcases actually are and then just jump to the action sequence so that's the second point is show some Award laurels give your trailer some kind of credibility now the third way to ensure your trailer gets

attention and goes viral is I need to plant a seed a question in the mind of the viewer this is a really important point in fact I think this might be the most important point to ensuring that people actually want to buy your game the importance of planting a seed or a question in the mind of the audience is simply so that they want to get the answer right you're basically putting an itch on the audience and hoping that they actually scratch that itch I've talked about this before but one of the best ways that this was achieved was actually in the film the village and a lot of you probably hate the village but I actually love the village it's one of my favorite movies well M night Shyamalan did so well is he had a little black box at the beginning of the movie and you didn't really know what was in the black box and if you hated the movie you would still watch the entire movie just to get to the end to see what's in that black box what's in the box to

figure out what is this black box all about because it's pivotal to the entire movie you can put a black box in your trailer as well so an example of this is in pinstripe my game pinstripe the trailer it talks about the kidnapping of your daughter a mysterious silhouetted man kidnaps your daughter and you go to hell who is this man right that's the question that's planted in the audience's mind and they hopefully will spend fifteen dollars to get that answer another example is in once upon a coma the question is are you in a coma are you not in a coma because the game looks a lot like a coma but the trailer says you woke up from a coma so there's a question that's being planted in the audience's mind think of a question if it takes you eight hours to think of some kind of question to plant in your audience's mind make sure you do that and guys you want to be planting the seed the entire length of

your trailer and I would say a minute 30 to 2 minutes is a good length so through that minute 30 to 2 minutes be planting that seed so that at the end of the trailer they don't get an answer and they want to click the link and actually play your game to find out what that answer is for this is really important guys this is really really important the fourth way to go viral with your trailer is to let the music guide the trailers footage not the other way around see a lot of times and I've done this before I I get a bunch of really cool footage for my game I record it all in OBS and then I bring it in to premiere and I'll just cut up the footage that looks cool that looks cool that looks cool and I'll put it all together and then I'll put the music in second and I'm like wait I have to rearrange all the footage to hit the beats of the music so what I would do if I were you is get the best song in your game the one that makes you feel alive excited energetic put that into premiere or final cut and let the music

guide the footage so you're gonna want to hit all the beats so most songs are 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and you have the footage hit the beats as often as you can and when the energy hopefully Rises and Rises and crescendos in your trailer you will actually start to cut a lot more start cutting more and more and more get more and more excited start zooming in zooming out we'll talk about that in a second so that you're gaining and building energy the important thing about a song in your trailer is honestly it's gonna sound weird you want it to be kind of orgasmic right you want to build up start out with a little foreplay build up build up build up what's the word climax like everything is sexual in a trailer it is I'm sorry it needs to be sexual start with the foreplay build to the orgasm and right that's how you want

your trailer to feel okay and the music a lot of songs a good example of this is fix you by Coldplay a lot of songs have that build up that crescendo that climax and then pop right and you want to find a song in your game that does that if you don't have a song that does that consider going to epidemic sound or production create calm and see if there's any songs on there and frankly guys even if the song isn't in your game who cares you want to build a motion you want to get the player and the audience excited the fifth and final way to ensure that your game goes viral is this is gonna sound really simple but don't be afraid to zoom into your footage okay a lot of you want to be purists and this is definitely true of me as well when I was working on my first trailer Pinstripe I wanted to be a purist I want to zoom in or zoom out or pan or do effects I wanted to be honest with the game and show it exactly how it's being played but the truth is is we all want to get excited and we all want to be entertained by a game so if the music is

exciting don't be afraid to zoom in and out of your footage and guys this means even zooming in to 1080p footage it might get a little pixelated but that's okay you want to be giving motion to your trailer so what I tend to do is if I have three clips of the player running left to right in a platformer I'll actually pan the camera and zoom in and pan a little bit more than what the actual game is doing and then I'll zoom into the footage really quick crescendo jump back zoom in jump back so that panning actually gives a lot more action in motion to your game the player is gonna feel all of these emotions when they're playing the game but a trailer because the music is so intense because things are quicker and faster and you have a minute 30 seconds to two minutes to actually tell that emotion and story it's totally okay to be zooming in and out and doing a little bit more effects to ensure that the trailer is exciting and catches the audience's attention alright guys what did you think if you enjoyed this video if you thought it was helpful please hit the subscribe button hit the bell icon hit the like icon and leave a comment

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