Most people’s favorite parts of the gaming world are trailers. Our fascination with trailers probably stems from our feelings for cinema, literature, and music. You see a short film, that appears to be about video games, and you can rarely find an amalgamation of media like this.
Companies in the game development industry, music, cinema, and even those who write game narrations are all recognized for their efforts. On the other hand, trailers rarely get the attention they deserve.
There is no praise for trailers or promotional teasers. The creators of these trailers develop a calculated gist of the game that must be successful in drawing gamers’ interest. So, why aren’t their names mentioned anywhere? In this article, we’ll look at the art of creating exciting trailers so that their efforts can be appreciated to some level.
Sudden Start of a Thrilling Scene
You’re probably aware that not all trailers are created in the same way. We do not expect all trailers to have the same structure. Indie game development studios might sometimes consist of just one person, and they are not supposed to take you to the game with such a formula. There are also numerous types of trailers, such as launch trailers, gameplay reveal trailers, and so on, which are much outside the scope of this article.
Even if there are various approaches to creating trailers, famous studios prefer to use the Cold Open in the initial seconds. In this situation, as a spectator, you will encounter scenes and sequences that provide no information regarding the chain of coincidences that led to this point. That is, you are only exposed to some enticing aspect of the writer’s mental model or the main story of the game, which, regardless of previous occurrences, causes you or anybody else to continue watching the trailer.
It’s worth noting that the narrative story of the identical first Cold Open sequences frequently doesn’t exist in the following sections of the trailer and their role ends. This section appears to ensure that the following sections of the trailer are watched. For example, the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain video shown at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2013 concentrated on Big Boss’s death in the opening sequence, which stunned everyone.
The Trailer’s Intro and Climax
This strategy has been employed in many famous trailers. On the other hand, perhaps thousands of intriguing trailers have been created, and they have forgotten about their “sudden start.” Whether desired or not, all trailers contain an intro section. Anyway, the audience should be aware of what’s going on from the start. You can’t expect to engage the viewers in different parts of the game trailer if you don’t show the correct order of events. The introduction section introduces the game’s details and main elements.
The scenes move at a slower pace in this section, allowing for the appearance of visual and aural elements, the story, characters, and even gameplay. When the gamer knows the general idea of the work, the pace with which stuff is provided should increase. Even if the intro does a good job of providing the overall details, it should be done gently. But keep in mind that we’re only talking about a few minutes of video! And it’s not always practical to present information in a step-by-step fashion.
Now it’s time for the “climax”. Instead of broad information and the game’s main features, trailer developers focus on the game’s distinguishing features in this section. So, in contrast to the introduction, which focuses on quality, “Climax” focuses on quantity and, as much as feasible, presents more varied components at a faster pace. Red Dead Redemption 2’s debut trailer is an artistic effort that correctly uses the beginning and climax components.
Climax and Attracting the Audience
In conclusion, human life is summarized. Humans learned to apply this trait to everything. The music comes to an end somewhere, and the films intertwine any threads that have been spun by them. Trailers are the same way. After that ferocious start, developing clues and threads, and bringing the best and most diverse sections of the game together, it’s time for a climax.
Trailer developers are responsible for showing you a climax at the end of trailers. Do you recall the “Sudden Start” section? You were drawn to the trailer and the game’s possible premise at that point. Because you didn’t know anything, and humans are fascinated by unknowns. On the contrary, at the climax, you see the outcome of all the info that was conveyed to you, sometimes gradually and sometimes quickly. The Climax is a mix of the best scenes from the Intro and the best sequences from the Escalation.
The climax provides a reason to be thrilled about the game’s release. A reason to tell you when you can experience all you’ve seen, heard, and felt in every moment. Ellie looks at Joel after a pleasant guitar performance in the reveal trailer for The Last of Us Part II at PlayStation Experience 2016 and says, “I’m gonna kill every last one of them.”
Not Over Yet, Let’s Make the Players Mad!
After numerous powerful segments, the audience had a lot of questions. For example, what caused the cheery girl we met in Part One of The Last of Us to perform a sorrowful song and, at the conclusion, say these incredible sentences? This is the point of no return, not only in the trailer but also in the gamer’s mind. The trailer creators did an excellent job of making a large population of gamers count down the days before the release date.
However, every now and then, a developer or anyone involved in trailer development pulls an ace from their sleeve. They can include an additional scene at the end of the trailer that goes above and above and delivers a distinct situation. The situation in which players start dreaming up scenarios after watching a few minutes of a scene.
For example, the official trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 2019 accomplished the same thing. When we were waiting for the trailer to end after 3 minutes and 30 seconds of presenting thrilling information and even displaying the game logo, we spotted Keanu Reeves, the Hollywood actor. The gamers couldn’t stop guessing and sharing their theories after viewing this brief yet intriguing scene.
Imagine thousands of people doing the same thing before the release of the game. Gamers unknowingly become promotional machines, and until the game is out, more and more gamers are drawn to it. As a result, it remains on the tip of their tongues until the day of the release. And, without a doubt, this is one of Satan’s traps!
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