Manifold garden game pass how to#

In his trailer for Manifold Garden, Derek “could've spent a lot of time in rooms showing the anchor: ‘Find a key and open a door’ without showing any of the game's unique architecture and MC Escher-like spaces. In this trailer he made for Nobody Saves the World , the first two shots “are to establish the genre, and the third shot is to show the hook of changing into different forms… After the intro, there's a lot of time spent on the hook of combining powers, while also showing the anchor of Legend of Zelda style combat.” Like many games, Ooblets has farming as a game mechanic, but Derek notes that “ the first thing I showed in this trailer being harvested wasn't regular plants, it was ! I could've spent more than half the trailer showing the anchors like: farming plants, talking to NPCs, buying items at a shop, walking around different places, decorating their house, and buying new outfits.” And that’s precisely what Derek does in his catalog of work, as follows: What do we want here? Practical examples of game trailers that utilize some of these rules. But if you lean too hard on anchors, the trailer can grate: “A lot of indie games build off the anchors of previous games (and that's ok!) But the longer the trailer goes without showing a hook, the more it will seem like the game is a lesser version of an old game without much reason to play it.” In the second article, Derek also introduces the concept of the ‘anchor’, as coined by Chris Zukowski, which is “the things that makes the game familiar at a glance.” For example: “in a Metroidvania game, an expansive and color-coded map screen is an anchor.” He thinks many people wrongly do it in this order: “Content… Mix of genre and hook.” In other words: “a trailer which - mere seconds after it's started - is already throwing up title cards which tout the features and modes of the game like: Couch co-op! Upgrades and powerups!” But the potential player is still trying to understand what the basic genre and differentiation of the game is. Content.” He says: “Genre helps the audience know if they're interested at all Hook tells them why it's notable beyond basic interest Content indicates scope and variety.” When you show your game visually via trailers, GIFs, and so on, Derek believes you should showcase its charms in this precise order: “Genre. Derek has spotted a particular issue here: “I see so many game trailers which seem to deem it necessary to cite all the commonalities before giving a glimpse into the unique qualities, and they're really boring to watch.” If you consider the ‘hook’ is what makes the game different, then that’s what you should be spending most of the trailer highlighting.

But here’s some clear takeaways I got from Derek’s two articles, summed up for you:

And I recommend Ryan Clark’s video(s) on hook if you feel like you don’t. Of course, this is presuming that you actually understand what your game’s hook actually is. That is: games not presenting their game’s hook clearly, up front.

Manifold garden game pass how to#

Specifically, Derek’s recent post on how to hook the audience with a trailer - and a related 2021 one on the best game trailer structure - get to the heart of a big discovery problem. And he said we could adapt content from it again, woo.

He has a cool niche ‘ game trailer tips newsletter ’ he sends out weekly. Some of you may recall that we ran an article from game trailer maker Derek Lieu (Among Us VR, Tunic, The Long Dark) a few weeks back. Getting to ‘hook’ quick - a visual perspective? In that downtime, I’m presuming that none of you will develop hobbies like developing a VR headset that could literally kill people, as Oculus founder Palmer Luckey just did (in tribute to Japanese manga Sword Art Online. As we approach the holiday season, we hope you’re all having a delighful time - and that you can take some downtime over Thanksgiving or Xmas. Welcome to another working week in the PC/console game biz, folks.