dereklieu - Network

Hey #gamedevDo you have a good analogy to why: "these indie devs did it, so the AAA team should be able to do it!" is just so...

Hey #gamedev

Do you have a good analogy to why: "these indie devs did it, so the AAA team should be able to do it!" is just so fundamentally not the reality?

(Someone in my TikTok thinks since Boneworks has melee combat that Half-Life: Alyx should have it too).

I know just enough about games to understand the scale of designing something like melee for a relatively low fi indie game is totally different if it’s a game as high end as Alyx, but not enough to articulate why.

#gamedevelopment

My game trailer making online course is 50% off for the next week! You can even purchase it with a 1-on-1 consultation with me for less than...

My game trailer making online course is 50% off for the next week! You can even purchase it with a 1-on-1 consultation with me for less than the price of a consultation alone 😮

Great for video editors who want to get into making game trailers for work (but lack the game specific marketing knowledge)

Or game devs who need a framework to pick apart the most unique parts of their game and show them in the trailer!

https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/117516/105268327139509447

My bi-weekly newsletter about making game trailers is just ONE subscriber away from 2000!This week I wrote about the three trailers I made...

My bi-weekly newsletter about making game trailers is just ONE subscriber away from 2000!

This week I wrote about the three trailers I made for Viewfinder and gushed about its debug level selection screen with its tag based filtering which made it dirt easy to find the levels with components I needed to capture.

If this sort of thing sounds appealing to you please subscribe!

Trailernewsletter.com

If you need to find good game trailers for inspiration, check out my little side project GameTrailerDatabase.com!It now has Steam tags, so...

If you need to find good game trailers for inspiration, check out my little side project GameTrailerDatabase.com!

It now has Steam tags, so you can search by your game’s genre to see how similar games made their trailers.

There are HUNDREDS of personally curated trailers.

There’re also thumbnails if you click gallery view.

Check it out! #gamedev #IndieGameDev

Akira Kurosawa's High & Low has absurdly good composition and blocking.Every time I think of it I'm just enraptured by the craft...

Akira Kurosawa's High & Low has absurdly good composition and blocking.

Every time I think of it I'm just enraptured by the craft on display.

Please watch it. You'll thank me later.

#film

If you want or need to make a trailer with a slow and gradual intro, consider making an alternate version for Steam which has a sampling of...

If you want or need to make a trailer with a slow and gradual intro, consider making an alternate version for Steam which has a sampling of gameplay at the beginning.

This is something A Space For the Unbound did for social media and their Steam page. Their launch trailer has a teaser on Twitter and Steam, but on YouTube, it doesn’t.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201270/A_Space_for_the_Unbound/

It was at first hard to hear this all as a game trailer maker, because I thought: “Oh no, MY ART!!!” But now I feel good making trailers...

It was at first hard to hear this all as a game trailer maker, because I thought: “Oh no, MY ART!!!”

But now I feel good making trailers I know will stand out amongst the crowd because they show gameplay as soon as they start.

Here’s an example with Noita https://store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/

AAA game Steam pages are also the biggest offenders of putting 4-6 trailers in their Steam carousel. This means the browsing experience is...

AAA game Steam pages are also the biggest offenders of putting 4-6 trailers in their Steam carousel.

This means the browsing experience is that much worse if people want to skip to screenshots.

AAA Steam pages also tend to have the worst description sections since they don’t have to optimize them like indies do.

Don’t put game trailers with slow intros on your Steam page!!!Don’t listen to just me; this Reddit thread is full of people who skip...

Don’t put game trailers with slow intros on your Steam page!!!

Don’t listen to just me; this Reddit thread is full of people who skip over trailers in favor of screenshots when browsing Steam.

I think most of these people are talking about AAA games, but even if they aren’t, a lot of AAA game trailers with lots of logos and slow intros have trained them to assume trailers will not show gameplay until somewhere in the middle.

#gameDev #indiegamedev
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/12raw4o/anybody_else_skips_the_videos_and_jumps_straight/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

My latest trailer is for Stray Gods! It’s an interactive role playing musical!I don’t typically dive into projects where my first...

My latest trailer is for Stray Gods! It’s an interactive role playing musical!

I don’t typically dive into projects where my first thought is: “This is gonna be HARD!” But for this one I made an exception.

I LOVE watching really well done musical movie trailers like Across the Universe, so I was excited to try my hand at it.

Especially because so many trailers try to HIDE the fact a movie is a musical, which is just odd to me.

#gameDev #indiegamedev
https://youtu.be/coQQ-K8Iwi8

That all said, using title cards to guide a viewer through the trailer can be MUCH easier than editing the footage together alone,...

That all said, using title cards to guide a viewer through the trailer can be MUCH easier than editing the footage together alone, especially with dialogue selected from the game where applicable.

This is why I recommend this approach if you're still getting started. There's tons of room to grow within this basic format.

For inspiration go to GameTrailerDatabase.com and search the tag "Title Cards Feature List"!

The next level within this framework is to write better title cards which are much more specific to your game.I'm a particular fan of...

The next level within this framework is to write better title cards which are much more specific to your game.

I'm a particular fan of Afterparty's series of title cards:

PARTY YOUR WAY OUT OF HELL, DRINK YOUR WAY OUT OF HELL, etc.

Pro: Better messaging makes your game sound more interesting and unique

Con: Less clear what to show from the game after each title card

The easiest, but most dull way of using title cards in a game trailer is to make the title cards player-centric, as in, what does the PLAYER...

The easiest, but most dull way of using title cards in a game trailer is to make the title cards player-centric, as in, what does the PLAYER do?

For example: CUSTOMIZE YOUR TEAM, LEVEL UP YOUR SKILLS, GAIN NEW ABILITIES.

Pro: Easy to cut to
Con: Makes your game sound like every other game in existence.

My newest post with what I'd consider the 2nd easiest game trailer framework to follow (in some way, the easiest)This is using title...

My newest post with what I'd consider the 2nd easiest game trailer framework to follow (in some way, the easiest)

This is using title cards as a crutch to guide you through what gameplay to show.

Leaning on title cards which tell the audience what they're gonna see, removes the burden of exceptional game capture and also editing which tells the story without explanation.

https://www.derek-lieu.com/blog/2023/4/9/tell-show-repeat-the-2nd-easiest-game-trailer-to-make

Chris Zukowski's research shows a lot of people don't even watch Steam trailers, they just click through the progress bar so they...

Chris Zukowski's research shows a lot of people don't even watch Steam trailers, they just click through the progress bar so they can see what the gameplay looks like, this this format should be all you need.

Again, this isn't necessarily a hype trailer with cutting to the beat, and lots of flash. And it's CERTAINLY not one with a slow cinematic intro preceded by a ton of logos.

If you're ready to make something more complicated, move onto...

Making a game trailer is hard especially for inexperienced video editors, so I'm continuing a series of posts to meet you at your level...

Making a game trailer is hard especially for inexperienced video editors, so I'm continuing a series of posts to meet you at your level of editing skill.

My first post in this series is for people who need something for their Steam page. Not a hype trailer for social media, or YouTube, just something which shows a variety of gameplay well enough so they can get their page up ASAP.

#gamedev #indiegamedev

https://www.derek-lieu.com/blog/2021/4/18/the-simplest-trailer-to-make-for-your-steam-page

Why bother making a great game trailer when a perfectly adequate one will do?It’s an odd choice to spend hundreds of thousands to millions...

Why bother making a great game trailer when a perfectly adequate one will do?

It’s an odd choice to spend hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars (and/or years of your life) making a game and to then phone it in when presenting it to the world.

It’s far less risky when you’re tapping a genre with very little competition, or have a very very strong hook, but…

#gameDev #indiegamedev

https://www.derek-lieu.com/blog/2023/3/26/how-bad-trailers-make-games-look-worse-than-they-are

I tried my best to make THE WORST TRAILER EVER for Firewatch using every common flaw I see in lots of indie game trailers.If you're...

I tried my best to make THE WORST TRAILER EVER for Firewatch using every common flaw I see in lots of indie game trailers.

If you're still on the bird site, please enjoy this exclusive much-worse-version which includes two extra logos.

If I were to truly make it worse I'd do all new capture and make it at least 30 seconds longer.

How did I do!?

#gamedev #indiegamedev

Hot dang I love this Pacific Drive Gameplay Trailer so much I had to write a review!It’s the rare one which just feels like a scene from a...

Hot dang I love this Pacific Drive Gameplay Trailer so much I had to write a review!

It’s the rare one which just feels like a scene from a larger film. Excellently shot, and also a great way to show off the gameplay.

#gamedev #indiegamedev

https://www.derek-lieu.com/blog/2023/2/26/pacific-drive-gameplay-trailer-review

I got to make the I Expect You to Die 3 Announce Trailer!I got to do some incredibly rudimentary planar tracking to insert a little Easter...

I got to make the I Expect You to Die 3 Announce Trailer!

I got to do some incredibly rudimentary planar tracking to insert a little Easter Egg.

I'm also feeling incredibly jealous of the PSVR2 games which have motion smoothing built into the monitor's window.

*side eyes Facebook*

#gamedev #indiegamedev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kFmrUfRDJg&ab_channel=SchellGames