Best Places to Post Trailers

The team behind "Darkest Dungeon" said the main key to their successful Kickstarter campaign was posting a trailer which generated over a thousand mailing list subscribers and got them media attention. They apparently posted their videos on GameTrailers, which doesn't exist any longer.

I know from experience that posting stuff on Youtube generally doesn't generate many views unless of course you can bring viewers in from some other source, but that just means you need to find that other place where actual viewers will come from. Is there a good place to either post trailers or post links to them?

 

Everywhere. I mean it. Spend a few days finding any high traffic source you can think of. tigsource; reddit; submit to games journalism sites; post them in the Made With Unity section here; if you frequent a discord, check if they allow promotion and post them there. You're an indie, you can't afford to give any less effort than that.

But above all else, make a GOOD trailer. Like, I can not stress enough that if you want a good trailer and you're an indie, hire somebody. Filmmaking (and cutting trailers is filmmaking) is a craft that needs to be learned and honed over loads of experience. It is not something you can half-ass because this is something you want everyone to see. You want people to see it and go "whoa." You want people to see it and show their friends. You need to carefully balance the tone and aesthetic of your game, the tone and aesthetic of your trailer, and the intersection of the two.

I know I'm going on about trailers more than "where do they go" but if you go out with a bad trailer, it's going to be a nightmare to recover.

 

Depends on the platform, for instance if your making android games, then find popular android forums, as most of them have a section dedicated to promoting new games and apps. If your aiming for a console, try and find the most popular forums for that particular console. Also it's a good idea to try posting on social media sites (might make a page for your app then get "likes" over time so you have a user base to post the video link to).

EDIT:
Oh - there is one other thing I can think of to help boost social media spread - but let me preface this with "it is kind of shady".

One could theoretically create a new facebook account, and use a picture of a beautiful woman (or man) as the profile picture, and make said dummy account an admin of your facebook page for the app. Then you have the dummy account add lots and lots of very random people. After this hypothetical facebook account reaches 5k friends (which, if your doing this hypothetical scenario correctly - it will get) you can spam them with "like my page" requests.

Is this an ethical thing to do? That is questionable

Would this upset facebook or violate rules? Probably.

Does it even help in the bigger picture? Maybe not a whole lot... you can pay for a whole lot more advertising than 5k friends for a reasonable price - buttttt I thought I'd put that idea out there in case somebody is really desperate

 

What type of game is it and what platform is it on?

 

I'm not sure if I agree with hiring outside talent to make a trailer.

Realistically on super low budget scale - the process of prepping video clips and coordinating with someone to compose the trailer is rife with potential problems.

Especially with an unfinished game. I can't imagine how this would really work in practice, other than producing a trailer that feels like its trying to be high budget but falling down.

I think you need to meet a certain budget/team size threshold to really consider a third party for trailers.

 

In an ideal reality, I would gladly post it everywhere and also hire George Lucas to make the trailer. But the sad fact is that I have limited time and even less money, so I need to prioritize, which is why I asked about the best places to get viewers. Red Hook (the guys who made Darkest Dungeon) said they got a large number of views and email subscribers just by posting to Game Trailers alone, so I was wondering if anything equivalent exists today (Game Trailers is defunct). I would add that Red Hook was a new company at that time and posting their trailer was the "first public act" they ever did as a company (according to their Kickstarter postmortem), so they were literally starting from ground zero.

Note that I'm not expecting similar success and I'm not delusional enough to think that there's a quick fix that will substitute for hard work; but I need to narrow down the list of options to a manageable subset that might get a decent return for the effort. I don't have infinite time.

 

Even if it was ethical, it would be a scattershot approach that isn't likely to find many people who might be interested in a specific type of game. I've tried Facebook advertising (which IS ethical and does allow for some refining of the target audience) but it doesn't do much good even if you narrow the audience to people who have a stated interest in video games.

 

Yeah, that is true - the best approach I can seem to see anybody doing is just throwing tons of money at it. Mass marketing from AAA companies can be seen in so many ways and on so many platforms its nuts. Just thought some people might get a chuckle out of the idea at the least

 

I generally agree that indie game devs *should* outsource the game trailer work. However, it is not quite that simple. The really talented game trailer people are all extremely busy, and many of them are out of budget for most indie game devs. For most game devs, it will be easier to learn Adobe Premiere Pro than to find a really good game trailer person who is available and priced right.

 

But as Murgilod says, it's not just learning the program, just like "learning how to type" is not in any way analogous to learning how to write.

And if someone doesn't know video production, they're probably better off making something fairly simple and straightforward rather than making something fancy and terrible.

 

I've made two trailers, so I am definitely not an expert. In my experience, I can't imagine the process for making a trailer using a third party. The clips from in game are so crucial and especially if the trailer is being made pre-launch when the game is incomplete, the process of working with a third party just seems like a nightmare.

Has anyone working on a low budget/small team trailer actually outsourced the work, and if so can we see the examples?

 

I create video content, trailers and marketing/promotional material for a different industry, as part of my day time job and I've created two trailers for kickstarter projects and one for a personal friend, athlete.

I agree 65% with @frosted working 3rd party on a trailer is a pain in the butt, from the video editors perspective;
For the reasons he pointed out plus - getting the storyboard aligned with the 'vision' the developer has, getting the content for/from the game - screenshots, all assets in the best format for video, gameplay renders at a proper framerate, audio queues, music, sound fx, creating the 'extra' content on top of the gameplay/cinematic clips, and this is a big one - creating dynamic, visually pleasing transitions between scenes, and lastly syncing/timing it all up in a tight presentation. It is not easy - but it is doable IF the game developer provides all this content up front and is either very clear about what they want, or are very lenient about the trailers creative direction if the game developer does not provide enough upfront direction.

Often times the amount of content needed for a trailer is far more than what the game developer provides. 5 seconds of one shot is a LLOOONNGGG time when the tempo of the music or the narrative piece is screaming for a new/different shot/image. Another time consuming process is post/video effects (fire, debris, fog, smoke, explosions) to match the style/look of the game.
Mentioning narration - don't ever use ONLY Uncle Fred - because he has a cool sounding voice and will do it for a 6 pack. Record the narrative piece (if the trailer has one) at least 3 times with different people. Voice talent should be matched to the tone/vibe of the trailer.

A complicated point sometimes appears when a less creative individual (designer, producer, community manager) who is "in charge" of getting the trailer produced - is in charge of getting the trailer produced . Not to despair - they just aren't really great at story telling in such a limited time (required for a trailer to deliver the info and end!).

It is also often the case - the trailer needs to be done by Friday and today is the end of Monday.
Unless the video editor already has all the content needed, the expectations for transitions are not over the top, and the trailer only needs to be 20-30 seconds in length, expecting a trailer to be completed in less than a week is unrealistic, especially if the price quote is reasonable/low.

Lastly kickstarter videos are 'different' compared to gameplay trailers, or cinematic trailers. Don't attempt to force one into another type while tacking on a 'we are game developers' spiel at the end of the creation. That doesn't work.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243681071
Video editing only.
I edited this trailer initially for a kickstarter 'attempt' in about 8 hours over the course of two weeks. Some of the issues cautioned about were experienced for this creation and reflected in the final result.
Note: None of the Greenbrier games table top creators were involved in this process.