How Do I Make a Professional Indie Game Trailer? 4 Essential Steps to Make a Steam Trailer
These are the 4 simple steps to help you create a more professional Steam launch trailer. This article is for indie game developers and small studios working on their own game trailer for a Next Fest demo release, gameplay launch, or update trailer.
First make sure you have the following set up:
- Your Game Build (with debug options to turn off GUI)
- Gameplay Recording Software - OBS Studio (Free)
- Video Editing Program - DaVinci Resolve (Free), Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro (Paid Subscription)
Quick note: I have released 4 games on Steam and I’m a freelance video editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. My game trailers have gotten over 6.3 million total views across Steam and YouTube and have also been featured on IGN, PC Gaming Show, and Best Indie Game Showcase. Credentials. Credentials. Blah. Blah. Blah. Let’s get into it!
1. Get The First 5 Seconds Just Right!
More players will watch the first 5 seconds than play your game, so make it count! Not to mention that on social media, if people are clicking away after the first 5 seconds, your video will stop getting recommended to people quickly. We want to focus first and foremost on making the trailer great for Steam, since this is the platform that matters most for converting viewers into players. It is now more important than ever to think about how well your trailer can perform on social media, mainly YouTube, since it converts the best and can take you from 0 interest in your game to millions of eyes in a matter of days.
You have probably heard this advice before but that is because it works skip the logos, location shots, story moments, and titles. Get straight into the most visually interesting gameplay moment and make that the focus for the first few seconds (you can create a short cinematic that transitions seamlessly into gameplay, but this is a bit advanced).
In film, we call it the establishing shot so viewers understand where we are. For games, we want to establish the genre of the game so players understand what kind of game they are seeing in the first 5 seconds, and ideally the trailer will show off the core gameplay verbs. Imagine placing the viewer right into the core moments of your game. For example, if it's a horror game, you are walking through a creepy building and see something suspicious; if it’s an action game, you are using a combo to take down an enemy; if it's a dating sim, you are talking with your crush, etc.
Never show GUI in the first 5 seconds unless it is an idler or a game with GUI as a focus of the core gameplay; even then, only show the GUI that players should be focusing on. The idea is that we don't want to distract players from understanding the genre and the main player actions of the game with other elements that will pull a viewer's attention away.
2. Take Your Time with Music and Sound Effects
Here is a simple trick to make your trailer feel more cinematic! Turn off all music and only record game sound effects (you will add the music in your edit). Make sure the sound effects are not too loud or quiet; usually, 50% works.
When it comes to making gameplay trailers, you don't need to make your visuals cinematic because you want players to understand what kind of game they are potentially buying, and they will skip cinematics anyway. You DO, however, want to use sound effects to make your trailer FEEL more cinematic.
The purpose is to emphasize how the player feels when they are playing the game, so don't be afraid to add sound effects that won't be in the final game. Players that watch trailers won't remember these cinematic sound effects, but they will subconsciously believe the trailer was more dramatic than it would have been without them.
For example, if there is an explosion, have a riser that increases in volume before the explosion and slowly drops after the explosion occurs. It’s a way to emphasize and create anticipation in the viewer. I also recommend taking a long time to find or produce the right music track for your trailer (also make sure you have the rights to the music).
Picking tracks with some percussion will add some energy to the music to help give the trailer a sense of rhythm and keep it more engaging. The right soundtrack can take a good trailer and make it amazing! I find the track as soon as possible and edit around that, even listening to the music as I record the gameplay capture.
3. Use The Core Gameplay Loop to Structure The Trailer
If you are stuck on how to edit your trailer, I will make it easier for you. Most of your work should be cutting down your recorded footage for the best possible moments, then placing footage together in this order:
- Starting with your best-looking core gameplay moment
- Then simply make a sort of visual tutorial for how to play the game, showing one mechanic at a time and ending with the completion of your core game loop
- Then you can make a montage of other gameplay moments that are not part of the main loop to show off variety
- Finally, end your trailer by creating some sort of curiosity gap, like the players are about to open a mysterious door, and right before we see what is inside, you cut to the title card
- End with a title and a strong call to action like ‘Play my Game!’
Start simple, start slow, start small, and build! A great trailer is like a rollercoaster ride (even the chill ones). Drama is in the dynamics; if you want to make your trailer memorable, then use the mechanics to tell a story about the player. If you are still struggling with the structure of the trailer, think of where the peaks and valleys are and pick clips that fit those moments appropriately.
In my opinion, the best game trailers make you feel like you are experiencing the game yourself but in a far more condensed timeline. This way, players are left understanding what they will be playing and they don't need to be Googling gameplay videos to learn more. You are saying: here is the game, here is what you will be doing most of the time, here are some other cool features, and here is a teaser so you'll need to play the game if you want to see more!
4. Focus on Visual Clarity and Simplicity
A lot of my points above are actually about making the trailer focus on the gameplay over everything else; the purpose of this is so players can immediately understand the game genre and the main gameplay verbs in a matter of seconds. This is easier said than done, and the key to making this work is visual clarity. When it comes to trailers, less is more, and players only need to see one gameplay action at a time.
The reason you need to remove GUI is because players should only be focusing on a single thing on screen at any given time, so GUI is only taking away attention from where you want it to be. For Steam trailers, if you think it's important for players to see GUI to understand the genre, then have it in your screenshots where they can take their time to parse the info on screen.
Another rule that you should follow if you are not a professional editor and your game has a camera is to just center the player and everything the viewer should be watching, so they only need to focus on the center of the screen for the entire trailer. This will make editing so much easier since you don't need to match takes to make sure viewers don't lose track of the action.
Thank you for checking out my article on how to improve your Steam trailer. If you want to reach out and talk about game trailers feel free to email me and have a wonderful day!
- Jerome
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