by Maureen Berho 14/05/2019

We’ve launched a new trailer! What did we learn?

Hello everyone! As you might know, we’ve just recently launched a new trailer for our collectible card game Causa, Voices of the Dusk. That’s why, in this new entry of our dev blog, we’ll tell you about this experience, and share some things we learned along with some advice.

First off, here’s the trailer:

Why did we decide to develop and launch this new trailer?

There’s no doubt that the trailer is a central piece of the promotion of an indie game. Alongside the game website, it may provide the first impression of the game, for both publishers and press, as well as for the gamer audience.

Therefore, although we had already published a preliminary trailer, we thought it was essential to launch a new one with updated gameplay, with the purpose of inviting more players to take part in the Closed Beta that will take place by the end of this month.

Some tips to develop your trailer.

Here are some advice and tips that we believe might be useful to you if you’re planning the development of your game’s trailer.

Regarding content and format:

Less is more! Don’t go over 90 seconds..

These days, people have many things to see, and are likely to give only a small fraction of their time and attention to your game’s trailer. Besides, this kind of content can be easily overlooked in social media feeds. Due to all of this, the first 5 seconds are key! Try to capture your viewer’s attention as early as possible, and leave logos and splash screens for later.

Include gameplay footage, not just cinematics.

Although cinematics are flashy, trailers are where players hope to get to know your game, not just view promotional elements. It’s likely that they’ll decide if the game is of interest to them or not based on what they can see of gameplay, so be sure to include appealing footage.

Use materials and assets that will also be included in the game.



Making a trailer can be very costly for an indie team, so we recommend you try and develop assets that will also be useful for your game. For our trailer, we included videos of the leaders of the world of Causa, and an animation of Maelkava with his amulet, which will be used for the game’s starting screens.

Nilset is one of the Leader's you'll see in Causa's trailer.

To end, include a clear call-to-action.



If you managed to keep their attention until the end of your trailer, don’t miss out on the chance of showing them the next step! For us, we invite them to Join the Cause at our website, which implies subscribing to our newsletters and the Closed Beta. At this point, it might be relevant to show what platforms your game will be available on, a link to your website, and your social media handle.



Our call-to-action.

Prioritize the games brand above the team or company.



This varies from team to team, but in our case we thought it better to prioritize the games brand above the team’s. It’s recommended to present the team’s brand if the team has previous launches, specially if they have an established presence and a community of followers.

Regarding general planification:

Launching the trailer is not enough. Plan a campaign!

Putting together a trailer requires a lot of time, work, and resources, which is why you must do everything you can to ensure it has a good reach and isn’t overlooked. In this sense, it’s recommended to link the launch of your trailer with an announcement or event that might be of interest for press and players.

For example, some developers aim to establish their presence in festivals and showcases by announcing the launch of their new trailer in that instance.

In Causa’s case, we decided to link the trailer’s launch with the announcement of the Closed Beta that will take place shorty on Steam. This allowed us to encourage players to register and be part of the process, and add the game to their wishlist on that platform.

You can already add Causa to your wishlist!

Get in touch with strategic collaborators to spread the word.

Before launching the trailer, analize which collaborators might help you spread the news. They could be contacts from organizations that have previously supported your project, specialized press, platforms, etc.. It’s very important that you do so early on, since the reply might take a while and/or there might be certain format requirements that you might have to consider.

For us, we spoke with the marketing people of the official platforms that the game is in development for. Thanks to this, the trailer was included in the Youtube channel and spread on the social media of Xbox One, which undoubtedly meant a lot more reach and exposure.

Chose the ideal date to reveal it.



It’s essential to check which is the best date to launch your trailer, avoiding situations in which it might clash with other important news of the industry. We obviously don’t think we’re directly competing with big titles and events, but it’s important to keep in mind that during certain periods press will be completely busy with other news. Likewise, it’s important that the date you chose doesn’t run into important festivities. Check out what’s happening in different regions!

For our trailer, we chose April 22nd because it was a relatively slow news day; but then we had to adjust the date of sending the press note in Europe to avoid an important holiday.

Prepare and spread a press note.



Regarding the previous tip, it’s recommended that you prepare a list of press contacts that may be interested in your announcement, along with an appealing press note that has all the necessary material

In our case, we revealed the trailer and sent out a press kit that same day, which allowed us to increase our reach in an international scale. For this, we worked with two PR agencies, one in USA and another in Europe.

Share a newsletter to your subscribers.

Don’t forget to let all of your followers know about the launch of your trailer. We used MailChimp to send a newsletter that had the trailer along with the other important announcements.



Share on the official website and social media of your game.

Although the Youtube channel will be the main way of spreading your trailer, it’s recommended to use all your social channels, since many of your followers will see the trailer there. That’s why we suggest you upload the trailer - or at least a portion of it - to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, including the Youtube link whenever possible.

Alongside this, for Facebook, you could benefit from spreading the trailer in groups of players and developers; you can do the same in some subreddits.

Our results

Since the launch on april 22nd, we’ve seen the following results:

Over 2,000 views of the trailer on our Youtube channel.

Over 2,900 views of the trailer on the game's Facebook Fanpage.

Over 3,800 views on Xbox One’s Youtube channel.

40 articles published in press media worldwide.

Over 800 new subscribers for the Closed Beta.

Plans for a next trailer?

There are still many things to define for a next trailer, but it will certainly be very important to develop one that includes details on functionalities and mechanics that you might find in the game. We'll have news about this soon!

Thank you very much for reading this article! We hope the tips and recommendations are of use to you. For more news and useful tips, we invite you to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on our social networks: Facebook - Twitter – Instagram – YouTube – Reddit

Also, don't forget to add Causa to your wishlist on Steam!