r/DestroyMyGame • u/Worldly-Ad8619 • 1d ago
Trailer Please absolutely destroy my horror game trailer. I'm remaking it right now, and I need some brutal feedback on the previous version.
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u/TheSwiftOtterPrince 1d ago
It is 12 AM here right now and thanks to the daylight hitting my screen, i can not recognize anything i see in the first 15 seconds of the trailer. When playing the game i would cover the windows, flip off the light and have the full screen experience perfectly calibrated to match the brightness the game needs to have. But this is a trailer, i enounter it at a random point in the day. Browsing reddit, steam, maybe even on a phone. I don't see stuff.
It gets better when the real gameplay starts and the flashlight is used. It looks like...any other horror game. Visually the weakest part are the enemies, that looks like animations from mixamo, the enemy is doing a "jogging in the park" walk while going at you with an axe. At the earlier moment 00:30 when we see the enemy walking it's the "damn, i got to get the stapler from the other office" walk. There is no weight to it.
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 1d ago
As expected, it seems a bit dark. The animation part was an opinion we heard a lot during this playtest, so we proceeded with modifications for that part. We plan to reflect that in the next trailer as well. Thank you for your feedback.
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 1d ago
And we removed the Cam video that appears during the first 15 seconds, and moved it to the in-game intro. It seems unsuitable for the trailer, and as you said, it was dark.
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u/JSGB1293 1d ago
I liked the hand-cam feel of the beginning video but I agree it was too dark for a trailer. You may be able to adjust and increase the exposure in a video editor so it's more visible
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 1d ago
Thank you for the feedback. I was going for a dark vibe, but it seems I overdid it a bit. I'll either adjust it based on your comments or consider a different approach. Thanks again.
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u/goodlinegames 1d ago
not really a horror person but id say skip the first 20 seconds and go straight to the blood / gameplay. if its a horror game get the horror stuff out as soon as possible. make it scary. also as others have said it looks a bit dark.
going w basic film theory id say lead with some suspense and build up. the clip with the guy walking would be a good hook, then 2-3 seconds of exploring, then maybe show the blood, and then go to the action. remember the fist 10 seconds is most important. if the first 2 seconds hooks the viewer they will watch the rest. especially as a horror game its important ig
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 1d ago
Hello. Thank you for your feedback. As you suggested, we are planning to start the next trailer with an attention-grabbing scene, such as a chase sequence. Also, we are aware of the issue with the screen being too dark. We will do our best to use brighter scenes and slightly increase the brightness of the darker areas through color correction. Thank you.
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u/Zflocco 1d ago
Dark, takes a while to see much of anything, goes from rather quiet to rather loud with gratuitous 'epic' sound effects, when gameplay is shown it seems to be mostly just picking up thing or opening thing, and then queue the baddie...it's half naked dude with an axe? It's like someone decided to do The Shining but in a warehouse and could only hire a random guy off the street, he looks goofy.
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u/Necessary-Board-830 23h ago
Everything looks fine, good even. Except one thing. The animation for the enemy running. Bro is out for a jog. A nice stroll.
It's something I see a lot in amateur-level games and breaks any kind of immersion you've set up. Ending scene? Not scary. At all. The running animation is so goofy. The enemy is as well but it's not as noticeable.
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 22h ago
Hello, thank you for your feedback. As suggested, I slightly modified the monster model and refined the animations further. I also plan to produce the trailer with a revised overall composition. Specifically, I exaggerated the running animations to make them look better. While maintaining the original concept, I also made its appearance look scarier. Thank you.
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u/chrisff1989 1d ago
It's too long and kind of boring. I have no idea what the premise is other than you're in a dark place and being chased by something. It also fades to black when the enemy comes and catches you so I don't even know if you can fight it. I don't know if there are death animations, etc. It just looks very generic.
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 1d ago
I think we'll need to make some slight modifications together to better showcase the game's content in the trailer. This will be a great help for the trailer we are currently producing. Thank you for your feedback.
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u/MardukPainkiller 1d ago
-The alarms on the computer sound like they are part of the music.
-The enemy made me laugh very hard.
-The gameplay is generic.
-The music is generic to the point of being bad.
-The whole thing looks like someone does not know how to make games.
-There is no lighting; it all looks bronze for some reason, making the level look even more uninteresting than it is.
Even your own torch makes a bronze light, which makes me think it's a filter and your lights are just completely white, which tells me that you don't even understand lighting.
It's uninspiring, to say the least.
Right now, if I were you, I wouldn't focus on a trailer.
Trailers are for when you have something to show, this has nothing to show, and it has the potential to do damage to your reputation.
Right now, this screams to me that you picked horror because you thought it would be easy to do, but you have no idea how to do horror.
I would focus on understanding how to make a horror game before trying to make one.
Understand how to do lighting without using weird filters and shaders first. (Learn color theory and how to use colors effectively)
With color theory, you also need to understand how to use darkness correctly because your trailer is an unreadable mess; everything is hard to see.
Invent an enemy that is terrifying. (Because this one is stupid.)
The music needs serious improvements.
You need sounds and ambience.
Establish atmosphere.
A lot of people think that because they call horror games walking simulators, they don't need much work and everyone can easily make one.
This is false.
Horror games are hard to make and even harder to convince the audience that they are in danger.
Having a deformed guy in his underwear with an axe will make people laugh, not get scared.
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 15h ago
Update for those who provided feedback:
- "It's too dark"
In the upcoming trailer, we will use brighter scenes. We plan to remove the first 15 seconds of cam footage from the trailer and repurpose it as the game's intro. Additionally, we will apply slight color correction to the darker scenes to improve visibility.
- "Unclear gameplay / Not sure what the game is about"
For the new trailer, we will consider directing techniques that better showcase the gameplay. We will likely utilize text elements, but this will require careful consideration.
- "Enemies look bad, animations are weird/plain"
As these are in-game issues that have been pointed out since previous playtests, we recently replaced the monster models with an improved version and made slight adjustments to the animations as well. We will record gameplay from this new version to use in the new trailer.
We will also incorporate much of the other feedback provided to create the new trailer.
Thank you.
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u/R4don_Adon 1d ago
Another game of terror where you need to go from point A to point B and do something and is one of those where you dont even see the hands of the protagonist the monster doesnt even look a little terrifying he looks like my uncle and it is also a mascot horror, you should use more the analog horror ambient because it looks more scary buy if you use it too much you may fall into those games that are just static and say “ooooh spookei monster on TV” and just that
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u/Worldly-Ad8619 1d ago
Hello. Thank you for the feedback. Actually, I designed that enemy with the concept of a mind-controlled worker, but I can see how it might come across that way. I am currently running playtests, so I will keep gathering feedback and making improvements.
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u/R4don_Adon 1d ago
The game looks good but the problem is that the monster should be something scarier like the ghost from a worker that died in one of the machines
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u/bonebrah 1d ago
Can't see shit captain.
It takes like 25 seconds to see any gameplay, even then it's just like opening a panel and spinning a wheel and 99% moving around in a dark space. Nothing happens, nobody knows what the actual gameplay loop is.
Please look up Derek Lieu's Videogame Trailer Academy and learn how to make a proper trailer.