You need to promote your game… and what better way to do it than through a video? The world of gaming is very near to our hearts – given all the creativity that goes into making a game and the fact that we have an office full of gamers, how can it not be?? So we created this article to tell you more about promotional videos for games.
But how exactly can video game companies benefit from a video and why do you need one? More on that below.
Why do you Need a Video?
Video is a great way to tell people about your game and get them excited. These days most games are promoted online and video is a very effective online marketing tool. But promotional videos for games are about more than just showing off your gameplay and graphics – they’re all about telling a story and building excitement.
Types of Promotional Videos for Games
Video can be used in many different ways, depending on your goals and where your customer is in the sales cycle. For example, you’d usually use a different type of video to advertise on social media vs on your website. Here are a few types of promotional videos for games:
- Game Trailers: these are all about building hype and showing the audience how your game looks and what it’s about. These may be hosted on Youtube and shown on your website or elsewhere (think Steam etc).
- App Store Preview Videos: these are typically simple videos that viewers can check out in the Apple or Android stores. The stores have their specific technical and creative requirements and so it’s important to script and create your video accordingly.
- Investor Videos: Making a game costs money, that’s for sure! A video can be a valuable fundraising tool, whether that’s for Kickstarter or to show to private investors.
- Adverts: typically short ads (15 sec) shown on Youtube or elsewhere. The audience is typically cold and knows nothing about you so they need to be punchy and engaging.
Case Study: Kalquelord
We recently had the opportunity to work with an exciting start-up in the gaming world, Kalquelord. Mark and his team are veterans in the area of game design and have created a game to help teach maths in a fun, exciting way. Below is the video we created for them:
The Client
Kalquelord is a gamified web platform designed by some of the world’s best game developers to engage, assess, and reward educational achievement by offering a challenging and mature modern gaming experience. They needed a video to share with potential investors while they are still in production. When we asked Mark why he chose to work with Piehole.TV he said: “I was impressed by previous work, like the excitement I felt, that I was taken seriously, prices were affordable, and looking forward to having teammates around the world.”
The Brief & Scripting
The client wanted the video to show their features, their benefits and to create a sense of urgency – that this was an opportunity not to be missed! Since it’s a gaming video, he wanted it to be exciting and to build trust while still showing some kickass visuals. We put our amazing writing team on the job. Our talented writer, Manzi, was put on the project and was assisted by our senior writer Lee-Anne.
Production
Our brand manager Jess was project-managing the production with the client. Creative director Alma was also involved throughout.
Design & Storyboarding
We had a bona fide gaming nerd on the job as designer and animator – our team mate Lance! He’s Piehole.TV’s undefeated Tekken champ.
We knew right away that Lance would be perfect for this project and he couldn’t wait to get started. Like with any video production, he started by doing some rough sketches using good old pencil and paper. Here is a sketch he did while he was working on the concept for the character.
Once he was happy with his character concepts he created some style frames to be presented to the client. We were all amazed at the style frames Lance created and so was the client – it’s not everyday designs get signed off after the first draft! In order to get everything animation ready, Lance then created a rough sketched storyboard followed by a full graphic storyboard. It was important to show the artwork from the game in the video and so we worked closely with Mark to get Lance all the graphical elements he needed. Below are a few frames to show the process from going from a rough storyboard to a full graphic storyboard.
Animation
Finally after all the design elements were created, Lance got everything ready for animation. He used a combination of limited animation and cel animation (also known as frame-by-frame animation). Limited being the usual after effects style of animating rigid bodies using a puppet system and of course cel being classical hand drawn animation. The client was happy with the video and it was signed off on the first draft. This, combined with the style frames sign-off, meant a double first draft sign-off for Lance. This is the stuff legends are made of!
Client Testimonial
With the project all wrapped up, here’s what our client Mark had to say: “Thank you everyone! My team loves the video! You guys have been absolutely FANTASTIC and we’re already talking about possibly doing another video…! I will be in touch!”
We really enjoyed working with Mark and we’re a bit sad it’s all over – if you’re thinking of working with Kalquelord, do it! We wish Mark and his team all the best with their amazing product.
What about your video?
Are you interested in making a video for your game? Get in touch and let’s discuss!
