1. Concept
The first thing decided upon for any trailer we make is the overall concept of the trailer, what’s the purpose behind it, what we want to show and how we want to show it. In order to fit with the game’s artistic mood, it was clear from the beginning that we needed to have beautiful trailers with strong music to really move people when they watch it.

2. Music
Once we have an overall concept and idea of where we want to take the trailer, we then need to select the music. Music is one of the most important pieces to a trailer as all the shots require editing to fit with the musical transitions as well as giving the trailer a mood. We test a variety of different styles and genres to work out what fits best for our concept, often going through dozens of different bands until we find something that works well.

When we have something that works well for us we then approach the artist in order to sign the track for the trailer and in this case we’re using Sia – Breathe Me.

3. Storyboards
At this stage we work out what we want to show in a trailer and when.  Through these storyboards we create an overall rough structure and timeline and then see how well things will flow together. This process involves going through the timings over and over to find out what works best both for the concept and getting the music working well together.

These storyboards give a near-final idea of what’s going to happen and when inside the trailer, all linked to the music. At this time we finalise what sort of transitions we show between key moments of the trailer and how to keep a strong flow throughout.

4. Captures
It’s interesting to note that up until this stage we’ve not actually captured any in-game footage – everything so far has been hand written, reworked, rewritten, talked/argued over and discussed at length. When we reach this stage we’re now able to start capturing all the gameplay sequences required to build the trailer we’ve been planning.

A key tool for this is what’s called the “Capture Camera”. This is a free roaming camera made for our games for the specific reason for taking screenshots and capturing gameplay footage at specific angles. The Capture Camera is an extremely useful tool as there are simply some shots which are impossible to capture without and it gives our video editors a large degree of creative control with the trailer. This camera can be managed through a separate controller so you we can sometimes find we have to have one person playing the game whilst another changes the camera angles, in order to get the shots we want.

Once we’ve captured the gameplay footage we edit it together as per the Storyboard timings and then see how things work with this new footage. This is a key step to making a trailer as if something worked on paper but doesn’t work when you have gameplay in there we need to rework it.

5. Final Captures
This is one of the most time intensive steps to making a trailer as you have to capture gameplay footage exactly as you want it for the final trailer. This involves setting up very specific shots and making sure that it’s as perfect as you can make it so it looks like a final trailer. Sometimes we can spend hours capturing shots only to move the camera just slightly which ruins all that work as you end up with different perspectives.

At this point you see the trailer truly come to life with the music and gameplay footage working well together and you have a feel of what the final trailer will look like.

6. Audio Mix
Once we have a final captured version of the trailer with all the final shots in there, we give the audio studio the trailer to perform the voice-over, sounds FX, music and audio mix. Their job is to create and mix everything together so it works well and you can hear everything in an optimal way.

7. All Done

Then our final step is to release the trailer for the world to see. To compliment this short look at how trailers are made, we made a version of the Tokyo Game Show trailer which has an alternative ending to the version you’ve already seen. You can watch this by clicking through on the following links and please let us know what you think of it on the forums.

Watch the TGS Trailer Alternative Ending