Wad/mod trailers

[Memfis]

What is your opinion on trailers for wads and mods that people sometimes post on YouTube?

 

Personally, I think most of them are laughable. They just repeat the usual "fast editing + epic music" formula, which belongs to modern movies rather than a 25 year old cartoonish game. And typically the action isn't even that interesting: it's just 5 seconds of circlestrafing around a group of revenants, and then the scene changes. That's not really informative and it doesn't hype me up.

 

I feel like the best trailer would be just an unedited gameplay video. Or you could do it iwad-style and string two or three short demos together. Let us see your wad in action.

[ReX]

I agree that IWAD-type demos work very well. But I think that movie trailer type of "cuts" with dramatic music are also enjoyable. I think the trick is to showcase some of the intense fights (unless it's meant to be a suspenseful, horror-themed mod) and some of the nicer map design & architecture.

[snapshot]

They do a good job at getting viewers "excited" to try them, I'm fine with that.

[Zanieon]

I have tried to make trailers for my mod in the past, the latest managed to have 2k views in a single week using the music + parts of some action happening, however the trailer had a buildup showing the maps only and finishes by showing bosses in their arenas.

 

All in all, i can say that trailers like what Kinsie did to Metadoom is perfectly fine when it's a gameplay wad or a total conversion, when you are presenting just a level set it's better do the walkthrough format like the demos does.

[seed]

I've no problem with fast edited + epic music kind of trailers, they usually do their job and get people excited, but other times longer trailers with more actual gameplay are better. I prefer the latter as of lately, or something in between.

[Danlex]

When i saw this topic, KDiZD came to my mind

[Xaser]

I've always maintained that the trailer we put together for The Adventures of Square is the most important piece of "promo material" we have:

 

 

[In retrospect this could really do with a proper thumbnail. Seems that YouTube just lets you upload one now, rather than it be a game of "how to trick YouTube's auto thumbnail into being a custom image." May do that later.]

 

I'm sure some of you are thinking "big whoop; just show me the gameplay", but the idea is to introduce the game to people outside the Doom community. Screenshots alone really don't do the game justice (you really gotta see the splooshy paint gibs in action), and a straight gameplay video with no context would leave non-Doom-folk wondering "OK, but what is this?" For better or worse, the Hollywood-esque trailer format works well as a hype train station, so that's what folks get. :P

 

An official no-commentary playthrough of a few levels as a companion piece may not be a bad idea, though, now that it's been brought up. It'd be ideal for people who already know what the game is (vaguely or otherwise) and are just interested in some gameplay footage. It's not something that can substitute for the trailer, but "why not both?" applies in full force.

 

As for the silly trailers I've put together for old gameplay mods (Necrodoom, et.al)? That's just me goofing around. :P

[Dragonfly]

With over 5k views I can't help but feel like the Skulldash trailer, linked below, is a notable contributor to the awareness of my mod. It's a mod about playing the game fast, so even though you critique 'fast epic music with speedy cuts' as 'laughable', it's an appropriate backing / style to the mod itself.

 

 

 

Personally, I feel that an unedited gameplay video wouldn't work honestly. Why? Well look, there's thousands of unedited let's plays of mods, full games etc which I've cleanly ignored because I don't already know what that game / mod is. If I wasn't already pre-interested in the game itself, or something related to said game (for example, I play doom, therefore may be interested in gameplay of a doom wad) then I just wouldn't click on the video, straight up.

 

Also, everyone consumes media differently, with different preferences. Some people like myself prefer being able to form an opinion on something by using very little of their time - the bitesize format of the trailer does exactly this!

 

Other people, perhaps such as yourself, would prefer to spend their time forming stronger opinions via videos such as lets plays as opposed to a curated trailer, regardless of the time that this can consume. :)

[valkiriforce]

Ah, this brings back memories to when I first announced Reverie on Doomworld - the only time I ever recorded a video to preview an upcoming project of mine.

 

 

I also agree the straight-up gameplay aspect feels a bit better to me, but I like that people would make any videos demonstrating gameplay at all - whether it was done in movie-trailer fashion cutting to different parts or if it's just more regular gameplay like mine was; I think both can be fun in their own ways and reminds me of the excitement of old websites in the 90's trying to hype their projects.

[yakfak]

not taking shots at anyone's videos here but the hard sell repels me absolutely. I like to hear someone slowly and thoughtfully talk about what they've attempted to do with their mod, or what they think someone else's mod does well... a press conference rather than an advertisement as it were. i find it really easy to mistake footage designed to catch the attention of the senses for footage that is really loud and annoying!

[Deadwing]

Hmmm for stuff like Skulldash or The adventures of Square, it makes perfect sense creating a trailer, since they both features new gameplay elements. I don't think it would work for a classic megawad (without new elements except levels), though, unless it's something really innovative that is worth showing in a trailer.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Deadwing

[Reisal]

Not a trailer but I did segment up multiple pieces of custom levels and completed them as fast as possible for the best experience for an older version of this mod for my "Doom Mod Showcase" videos. It's to bring awareness to some mods out there to my subscribers and to places I post the video (IE /r/DOOM, Facebook groups related to Doom, etc)

[wildweasel]

Considering I have a mod near completion that is probably in need of a trailer, the things I'm reading in this topic are giving me some thoughts as to how I should approach it. I have, like so many others, opted for the epic music fast cuts, even if intended in a joking manner:

 

Though given what @yakfak has said above, I wonder if I shouldn't do my next mod's trailer more in the style of an audio commentary-cum-instructional guide, since it has some unusual mechanics that are probably best understood via live explanation.

[ReX]

On 2/23/2018 at 7:41 PM, wildweasel said:

... I wonder if I shouldn't do my next mod's trailer more in the style of an audio commentary-cum-instructional guide, since it has some unusual mechanics that are probably best understood via live explanation.

Another way of approaching this is to showcase the unusual mechanics without providing an explanation. This would likely entice people to play the mod to see if they can figure out how it was done.