Thomas Gale

Assignment 3: Researching Media Production Game TrailersThomas Gale

26.9.11What is a Game Trailer?A game trailer is a type of video advertisement used for promoting an upcoming videogame. These are included with the first public news of a new game as a demonstration of the product, and usually more are released as development continues production right up until its release, and maybe even after the release of the game for additional advertisement.

The purpose of a game trailer is to persuade people into taking an interest in the game, and considering a purchase. This is done via using the trailers to highlight key points of the product that are unique, set it apart from other products, and are worth both attention and a purchase. These are accomplished through the use of pre-rendered animation, actual gameplay, or a mixture of both. Other features include voice-overs, music tied to whats shown, and other graphics and text inserted into the video, such as the logo of the game and the company who made it, to give a better idea of whats going on.

2009 trailer to the 2008 videogame Braid; already released on Xbox 360 and advertising the then-new PC port.What is a Game Trailer? (Continued)

The trailer for Braid that I provided demonstrates a few of the points that I discussed. It did the following:

- Showed that it is of the platformer gaming genre, using familiar elements that the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog established, including moving to the right to reach the end, jumping to reach higher ground and cross chasms, item collecting, and the standard method for defeating enemies in the genre, which is jumping on their heads.

- Highlighted the main features of the game, in Braids case the reversal of time to undo mistakes while learning from them without any consequences, an object that produces a bubble around it it that slows things which are closer to the center down and has a fading effect with distance, reversing time to produce a clone that travels to where you were before the time reversal, and a level where time seems to flow depending on which direction you move in.

- Included footage directly from the game, without using any pre-rendered cutscenes to interfere with the actual gameplay the trailer was trying to establish and advertise to the viewers.

- Only uses music that is featured in the game, utilizing three different pieces of music to bridge together the various scenes that are shown for a more powerful effect. It starts off with a soft tune to highlight the usual platforming elements, uses a dangerous tune to highight the time manipulation elements, and then uses a neutral track to highlight the burning city and the title logo of the game that fades onto the screen.

- Uses breaks from the gameplay with black screens and written dialogue without any voice-overs to advertise the kind of personality that the game boasts. One particular example from this is the break that occurs between the normal platforming and the unique time elements of the game: the viewer is given the message of What if you could learn from mistakes during the showcase of normal platforming elements, and is then given the message of but undo the consequences? after the player character is killed by falling into a spike pit, before then showing the time reversal mechanic and bringing them back to life. How are Game Trailers made?Game trailers are made through a variety of software, with each different component of the trailer made with a different piece of software. Despite the fact that most of the software that is used by companies to produce the content for the trailer are their own specially built ones, we can still get a general idea of what types of software they might use to produce them

- Gameplay and cutscenes that are directly from the game are recorded with the programs used to produce the game (professional videogame companies like Nintendo, SEGA, and Capcom all use their own specially designed tools), with most trailers using a debug mode version of the game where the Heads-Up Display/HUD (elements such as life bars, extra lives, score, collected items, and so on) is removed so that more focus is drawn to the gameplay.

- Music that is used will have either been from the game, and produced in-house at the company using live instruments with professional software such as Cakewalk to record and edit the music, or using music produced by popular bands/musicians, such as My Chemical Romance and Kele Okereke, to draw more attention from the public in.

- Graphics such as the game title or the company logo will have been produced in either image software such as Adobe Photoshop or in modelling software such as Maya, depending on whether the logo is a still image or if it has a 3D edge to it. What is a Game Trailer? (Continued)On the other hand, this trailer for Sonic Generations takes a different approach from what the Braid trailer chose to do. It is full of content besides gameplay and written dialogue, and features;

- Information about the game being the anniversary celebration title for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, explaining why it is using levels from past games in the series and both the current and original incarnations of the title character in terms of both appearance and gameplay styles.

- An equal showcase of both gameplay styles that the game boasts to show they have been split evenly, as well as levels that had not been showcased in other trailers and press releases prior to this trailer. - Glimpses of pre-rendered animation that will be in the final game in the form of movies/cutscenes.

- Written, pop-up graphics made specifically for the trailer that have been added over the gameplay; a particularly amazing example is at 0:30, where they seamlessly blend with the action going on.

- Music by popular musician Kele Okereke that wont actually feature in the game, and is used purely to attract more public attention towards the product.

Trailer to the upcoming 2011 videogame Sonic Generations; advertising its upcoming release on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo 3DS.Where/How are they normally shown?Game trailers are primarily shown via online distribution in this day and age. Professional videogame reviewing sites such as IGN and Gamespot are usually given the trailers to put up for people to see, before the company that produced the title uploads it to their own services such as the companys website, a website made specifically for the game, and/or the YouTube account of that company. Some trailers are adapted into TV commercials close to the games release, along with quotes from reviewers and the score the game was given by them.

The very first announcement of a videogame (which can take place on the companys website, a press conference, a convention, and so on) may include a trailer as well, though some companies opt to only tease what the game will be with a few screenshots, the title logo, or a strange, cryptic comment that contains a hidden message teasing whats to come.

Are they targeted to particular audiences?Game trailers can only really advertise the game for what it is, and thus only appeal to the audience the product is for. If the game is centered on a rather hardcore setting, like a shooter that focuses on wanton destruction and killing to move forward, then it will only appeal to the more hardcore gamers that are generally males in their teenager and adult years, and thus only be aimed at that specific demograph of people.

2008 trailer to the 2009 videogame Sims; advertising the then-upcoming PC and Mac releases.Trailers like this one for Sims 3, for example, dont make themselves stand out as anything more than what it is; a real-life simulator where you control the lives of the people you create. It doesn't try to appeal to the demographs for people that are into platformers or into shooters and so on, and only tells the truth of the game rather than lying to try and draw audiences than what it currently has in. Its true purpose is to appeal to its demograph, and show that it is simply a larger expansion over Sims 2 without detracting from the core gameplay.

Do they fit into certain genres or styles?Game trailers can be put into different categories, even though there arent too many to categorize them as. Trailers range from revealers that contain a minimal amount of content to give a very quick glimpse at the future content (Reveals), to teasers that are small in size and only features small pieces of pre-rendered graphics and imagery (Teasers), to normal trailers that just give a very brief look at whats coming and what to expect from the product (Trailer). All of these trailers can boast different styles to them; the trailers for Braid and Sonic Generations that I presented earlier are good examples of two distinct styles of trailers.

Braids trailer focuses on the strong, deep feeling that Braid gives to players through its use of only written dialogue to narrate the game, which the cryptic comments about freely traversing through time without any consequences add to and force the player to sit down and think what they could truly mean. While having an interesting and catching gameplay style, more attention is specifically drawn to its unique idea of making the player really think about what the game is trying to symbolize and enforce thoughts about.

Sonic Generations trailer focuses on celebrating the anniversary of the franchise, and showcasing its nostalgia-driven excitement for seeing stages from past games re-envisioned with the newer technology they use, and boasting entirely new layouts and design elements to make them feel fresh while also feeling familiar to what they are at the core. It only offers narrative to establish the minor story the game has and the content its revisiting from past years, and otherwise has a larger focus on the nostalgia the games using as its main selling point.

All in all, it really comes down to what the product is about. If the game is really serious with its setting and story, then a trailer for it cant really be made to try and make it stand out as more comical humor driven.How would I design a Game Trailer?The game trailer I am choosing to design for this part of the task is focused around a recent story idea. I have talked about this on the blog for this college year in an off-hand comment regarding my choice of steampunk for some of the previous work, and had posted up a variety of ideas for it on my deviantART gallery along with a rough sketch (that was poorly scanned, to boot) of some of the concepts. Also worth noting is that in the last two days of the Mr. Watt enrichment task, I simply exchanged my characters with the Mr. Watt characters and wrote out a quick, rough story to fit the Mr. Watt characters into it. This was all due to a lack of ideas and inspiration for what to do with them and actually have something for the task.

The idea of the trailer will be to highlight:

- The 2D platforming style of the game, inspired by amazingly inspirational and creative titles such as Braid, Limbo, Super Meat Boy, and Toki Tori; all of which have been praised for their unique takes on the 2D platforming genre after years of Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog clones.

- The alternate-Victorian steampunk look and feeling, which is my own personal highlight and what I feel would make this game particularly special.

- The games strong emphasis of the single Action button that causes a majority of the action in the world alongside the Jump button, and allows for immense interactivity with the world around you.

- Its use of physics-based mechanics so that, for example, box objects can be grabbed and pulled up a slope, then released and sent flying forward with the momentum it would be carrying.

- The comically exaggerated deaths that occur from failure, such as pushing the box up the slope as opposed to pulling it up from the other side, and releasing the buttons; this results in the box knocking the character over as it slides down, and running over them and crushing them. It does not feature any sort of gore or natural violence to it.Storyboard for Game Trailer ideaAction: Pan across Victorian LondonRooftops during daylightDescription: Shows London before theevents of the prologue, along with all thesteam-powered airships and othernoticeable technology gaps that exist dueto the Victorians vision of 20th centurytechnology being realized.Sound: Cheerful, gives a sense of worldpeace and prosperity

Action: Pan across a dystopian VictorianLondon during nightDescription: Shows London after theevents of the prologue in its state ofdisrepair from the worldwide-scaleearthquake strike.Sound: Dangerous, dark, gives a sense ofthe world being in ruins and facing a darkageStoryboard for Game Trailer ideaAction: Pan across Victorian rooftops andshowing a character vaulting over chimneytopsDescription: Gives the first view of whatone of the characters in the game will be,and going by the action that they aredoing, indicates they are likely to be themain playable character.Sound: See previous

Action: Gameplay of character doingnormal platformingDescription: Demonstrates the basicgameplay element of using the Jumpbutton to travel across obstacles, over pits,and so forth.Sound: See previous

Storyboard for Game Trailer idea

Action: Gameplay of character doingactionsDescription: Demonstrates the basicgameplay element of using the Actionbutton to interact with the world, such aspulling on the sides of moveable boxes todrag and move them to where you chooseto.Sound: See previous

Action: Gameplay of character accessingalternate routes through the level andhidden objectsDescription: Demonstrates the ability toaccess different ways through the game byutilizing Jumping and Actions to build newways forward. These will include thingssuch as a box being pushed over a steamvent, waiting until steam starts pouringoutside the bottom of the box, and thenpushing the box off and letting a burst ofsteam propel the character into the air.Sound: See previousStoryboard for Game Trailer idea

Action: Gameplay of the character dyingand time jumping backDescription: Demonstrates what happenswhen the player fails and does somethingthat would typically lose a life in a normalplatformer, instead forcing time to reverseback to before the unfortunate fate.Sound: Briefly pauses with the death,then plays a brief reversed version of thetune from before during the time reversal

Action: Montage of various othergameplay momentsDescription: Provides more quicklyalternating looks at the kind of gameplaythat will come up, and then switches to ashot of the main character standing to theside of a chimney, as a large airship loomsoverhead while releasing a massiveamount of black steam from its variousengine outputs at the bottom.Sound: Audio starts to take on a slightlymore dramatic tone with the newergameplay footage, and deepens with theshot of the character and airshipStoryboard for Game Trailer idea

Action: Far-away shot of Londons clockTowerDescription: The shots of the clock faceare made closer and closer with eachsecond that passes, with the clock justabout to strike the next hour. Screen fadesto black on the very last second, beforethe loud noise that comes up.Sound: Audio grows quieter and sound ofthe clock gets louder as it draws closertowards it

Action: Release of steam over black screen,logo appears after steam fadesDescription: As the clock strikes the hourwith the black screen, a portion of steamwith a hissing sound is released and fades toreveal the logo of the product. There is a lineafter Re at first, but rotates to reveal a Wshape, and then keeps rotating back into aline, then a M, and loops until the end.Sound: Sound of steam hissing, and smallgears churning in time with the rotatingletterCredits & ReferencesAll original information, videos, and images located at;http://www.youtube.com/http://uk.ign.com/http://mattepainting.org/http://www.aidan.co.uk/http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/http://critical-gaming.squarespace.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page