How to Make a Great Game Trailer

Game trailers are key to showcasing your game and attracting players. They're not just ads; they're an event that can go viral, generating hype and nostalgia. Think of the first GTA 6 trailer, with over 185 million views. Surprisingly, the most-watched trailer ever is for Subway Surfers!

Knowledge of how to make a game trailer is a make-or-break essential skill to have on your side if you’re developing or publishing a video game. On the other hand, a poorly made trailer can backfire, leaving players unimpressed. That's why knowing how to make a great trailer is crucial.

Thanks to Meredith O'Brien , one of our Motion Designers, we’re here to help. We’ll cover essential features, a foolproof process, tools, and software, along with useful examples and insider tips. You can also read the full version of our guide on how to make a game trailer on the Kwalee blog. Let’s dive in. 

Why Make A Game Trailer At All?

To make a successful game trailer, you first need to understand your goal. Luckily, this is the same across all game trailers and there’s just three main things you need to know. First, you want to showcase the individual aspects of the game - give a bit of the story, art style and core game mechanic. Secondly, you want to set it apart from anything else in the genre. Finally, you need to show what makes it fun to play! A well made, appealing game trailer goes a long way. It’s one of the assets that will be around as long as the game, no matter whether it’s at the start or end of its life. A great game deserves a great game trailer!

What’s Essential To Include In Your Game Trailer?

When we make trailers, we start by thinking about pacing. We usually kick things off with a fast-paced intro to grab attention, then slow down to explain the details, and finally, speed up again for a big finale. We even use a graph to help us visualise the pacing. For most trailers, around one and a half minutes is the sweet spot, but the length can vary depending on the type of trailer you're making - we talk more about the six different types of trailer in our blog. Gameplay is essential. Cinematic footage is often used and adds incredible production values but we believe that gameplay is the most fundamental part. Prioritise music and sound too since a trailer is not just a visual experience. Lastly, don’t ignore the essential housekeeping aspects like creating an end card, key art, a publisher logo if applicable and a legal disclaimer.

What’s The Typical Process?

Here's how we make a game trailer. First, we decide if storyboarding is needed and aim to fully understand the game's marketing pillars. Also, decide on key moments and visuals that you want to hold back so that players can discover them for themselves when playing the game.

Step two is to play the game. A lot. You will need to know the game inside out to capture the most essential footage. Step three is crucial. There should be a constant back and forth between the edit and the game, even up to the very end of the process. For example, for our game ROBOBEAT, we knew it had complex rhythm shooter mechanics so we knew we had to slow down the pace to help players understand. There were 75 takes in total of the intro shot to this trailer!

Are you itching to experiment making a game trailer yourself after reading this article? Meredith shares more tips about the tools you can use, the different types of game trailers and some of her favourite ones.

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