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How YouTube could fit into your game marketing strategy

There’s no doubt the impact that YouTube and the growth in user-generated video content has had on 21st-century media. What started as a seemingly hilarious video-sharing platform for clips of your neighbour’s cat has fundamentally revolutionised how we communicate and share ideas, thoughts and opinions.

In the same way that advancing technology has enabled video games to challenge the status quo of books, film, and TV for narrative-based storytelling, the rise of digital media has provided us with ways in which we can build huge communities and attract global audiences in the most targeted way yet.

The rise of YouTube

YouTube, in particular, has grown to become a goliath in user-generated video content, elevating individuals with a passion for gaming into pseudo-celebrities that hold great sway over their audiences. Needless to say, video games and YouTube go hand-in-glove, with gaming content standing as one of the biggest draws to the site.

While the idea of watching someone else playing video games may be baffling for some, it has become a huge pastime for a global audience. According to YouTube’s recent ‘Rewind 2019’, Minecraft alone amassed over 100 billion views throughout the year, taking pole position amongst a diverse body of gaming genres.

The power and reach of some of the biggest influencers is reflected in the huge audiences they command and their ability to cross over into the mainstream. PewDiePie might be one of the most famous examples; he is currently the third-most subscribed channel on the entire YouTube platform with 102 million subscribers. Others, such as the Yogscast, Achievement Hunter, and Game Grumps, became vast businesses that support large headcounts. Like YouTube, Twitch – the popular game-streaming site – has many similar success stories.

Their influence is undeniable. Many developers can pin their success on the exposure given to their games by YouTubers whose success can be attributed to great video content that is dynamic and fun to watch. Would Minecraft be what it is today without all those videos that evangelise it’s complicated but intriguing crafting system? Would Fortnite be the mainstream-penetrating success if not for streamers like Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins who, as a case in point, became a big enough name to land an invitation to American talk show ‘Ellen’?

A lucrative opportunity

While these are outliers, there are still many examples of developers and publishers who have seen a sizeable uptick in sales as a result of being featured by a popular games channel.

For a developer or publisher, marketing a game through a successful YouTuber can be a symbiotic relationship – both get something out of the situation. Like any marketing, it won’t be free and will need to form a part of your overall strategy, sitting alongside the trailers and cinematics that should also form part of your approach. Any big-name channels that commands a large audience will expect payment for their service. Typically, they get this money and any income from their views, providing you with the opportunity to show your game to hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of people.

There was a time where there was an almost antagonistic relationship between YouTubers and game studios. In the past, some publishers would claim the income on videos featuring their games and Nintendo at one point had a YouTuber partnership scheme which siphoned some of the money. But most have come to see the value in YouTube, with Nintendo and others taking a much softer approach. Now they embrace these channels, sometimes even inviting them to press events that actual games press might not be privy to. Both developers and publishers have grown to appreciate video content that shows their game in a positive light – that is both engaging and entertaining – can only be a force for good.

The future of marketing?

Some might say we’re seeing a shift in how developers market their games. Large-scale press events are increasingly expected to have a presence online; simultaneously webcast around the world instead of remaining an exclusive event for those who happen to be in that part of the world. A good case in point is the XO19 event that took place in London in November last year and became a showcase for Microsoft Studios’ upcoming games. Such events (which happened to feature the trailer for ‘Everwild’) always provoke huge debate, both positive and negative. Youtubers can typically contribute hundreds of hours of commentary before, during, and after such large-scale events.

Regardless, such events reinforce the point that online video is a key tool in the armoury to promote, discuss, debate, and, ultimately, help sell a game. Prestige events such as XO19 and the many trailers they feature can fuel endless discussions, reverberating around the internet for months to come. Online video can take many forms – from enthusiastic influencers espousing their favourite game and slickly presented publisher webcasts to beautifully conceived CG trailers. Providing influencers with great video content can ensure your game is discussed endlessly for months on end, with Youtubers providing the fuel to keep your game in the public eye.

But this is just one part of your marketing strategy. Before you turn to YouTube, make sure you have a fantastic trailer for them to push to their audience. At REALTIME, we have a strong history of creating attention-grabbing trailers. If you want to talk about your next project, get in touch with me at [email protected].

The rise of triple-I games and how to get ahead

Every year we are treated to a slew of high-quality new game releases. Often the result of years of development, there is a huge expectation for the biggest titles to perform both critically and commercially. Typically regarded as ‘AAA’ titles, their release is the culmination of lengthy development cycles and enormous marketing expenditure.

The continual marketing efforts in the months (and years!) that lead up to their eventual release, and subsequent ongoing monetization efforts can seemingly make them ever-present; ensuring that all possible exposure to the public are taken full advantage of – from featuring on stage at one of the now many gaming conventions, right through to final launch trailer. Such is the typical marketing life-cycle of the quintessential AAA game.

There’s no doubt about the level of commitment and passion that goes into the development of ‘AAA’ titles from both the publishers and developers. But not having access to the huge levels of resources needed to develop such games is no longer a barrier to creating ambitious, high-quality titles at a fraction of the cost, that can still find a huge audience. The power and availability of off-the-shelf game engines like Unity, UE4, and Lumberyard, as well as many other tools, has led to a democratisation of games development, enabling the rise of some incredibly talented indie teams and the development of incredible gaming experiences.

Whilst they may not have the same level of bombast, nor the same level of marketing resources of your typical AAA release, they are no less important to the gaming landscape. So let’s celebrate the rise of the triple-I game.

What is a triple-I game?
How we categorise games – whether they be AAA, triple-I, AA, or even A and below – is largely subjective, but budget is often a major factor. There is no exact cut-off for how much must be spent on the development of a game for it to neatly fit into any one of these categories, but the amount of resource and scale of the team is a good indication.

Whilst triple-I developers typically might have a smaller amount of resources available to them, the scale of ambition and passionate commitment to the success of the game can deliver big results. However, if they are to achieve the commercial and critical success they strive for, they will need to make every penny count during development. Just because they have less resources needn’t mean a sacrifice to quality. We see plenty of triple-I releases every year, welcomed with great acclaim. One of the standout examples in recent years is Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which was lauded for its incredible script and unique way in which it addresses mental health issues.

Other examples include the acclaimed Subnautica and the recently released The Outer Worlds. There is seemingly a renaissance in their popularity, filling the gap neatly between behemoth AAA games and smaller scoped indie titles.

The triple-I secret
Often with a lower price point than your typical ‘AAA’ blockbuster, triple-I games still provide hours of entertainment for less; what’s not to love? And, freed from the constraints of the juggernaut publishers, the ability to create games for a fraction of the budget can let new ideas thrive.

Ninja Theory’s development of new performance capture techniques with Cubic Motion shows that innovation can pave the way to creating fantastically immersive experiences, fooling the player into believing the game has been developed by a huge team (it was actually developed by just 20 people).

Arguably, with so much money invested into a typical AAA release, it has to have a more ‘safe’ approach to its development and marketing in order to achieve mass-market success that is expected of such games. However, such an approach is no guarantee of success.

But triple-I games are free to explore new themes, experiment with different game mechanics, and generally dive into areas rarely explored. Arguably, there’s a greater freedom that can make for a more diverse range of games which can only enrich the wider market.

Bang for your buck
In order to compete against AAA games, developers of smaller indie titles often need to get more creative in the way they not only develop their game, but also market it. Bringing any game to a crowded market can always prove to be a challenge, especially when it’s a new IP.
But when you have greater budgetary considerations, it’s important to develop a marketing campaign that uses your available funds in the smartest way possible. Remember, regardless of how confident you may be about your game’s quality, you will be in competition against the many thousands of other games on the market.

A final trailer at launch is an absolute necessity. You could do it in-house, but the issue there is your staff will already be stretched thin and you want to avoid the crunch time to put out a trailer you know can be better. If you’re fortunate enough to be invited on stage by one of the big names at a games conference, this trailer is going to be your only way to make a lasting impact. Unknown Worlds have enjoyed huge success with their game ‘Subnautica’, thanks in part to their decision to create a hugely entertaining trailer that has helped propel their game into mainstream success.

There are definitely avenues you can explore to deliver a quality trailer within your budget. It’s all about choosing a company who will work within your limitations and dive into your entire ethos. Triple-I games are an essential part of the gaming landscape and they deserve every opportunity given to AAA games. So why not come out with a bang and let everyone know you’re here?

At REALTIME, we’ve worked with plenty of developers to do just that – deliver a trailer that leaves a mark. Take a look at some of our previous work to see what we’re all about. And when you’re ready to talk, get in touch with me at [email protected].

tyFlow Test

Our hugely talented Artist Danilo Lombardo has been testing some new tools that have caught our attention, tyFlow in particular got an amazing result.

Lucky for us he’s done a lovely little write up… take it away Danilo!

This scene started as an experiment, with the mossy forest of Wistmans Wood , in Devon, England, as our main reference.
A scene like this relies on some little but crucial fundamentals.

The main objective was to create a scattering system that could be manipulated and art directed while creating an interesting chaos throughout the scene.
In doing this, it’s really beneficial to come up with a hierarchy of growth that can be repeated across, and that helps us define the visual pattern for the elements.

In our scene we defined some elements that would act as main surfaces while the rest would simply grow on top and dress it.
These elements were the terrain, rocks and trees.

The first area is the terrain, that was achieved using Gaea powerful node based system and then exported as geo. The terrain was then scattered with rocks and trees using forest pack to have a fast random distribution , keeping a low poly version of those elements that would later serve as scatter base for all the vegetation.

The base layout is quite simple.

Trees and rocks were sculpted using zbrush and textured using substance painter, following a pretty standard approach for this kind of objects, always having the gnarly dwarf oak trees
from Wistmans Wood as a goal.

Only 5 different variations of rocks and trees were sufficient for having enough visual noise in the scene. Some smartmaterials such as moss and tree bark were developed in substance to be easily instantiated on all elements. The vegetation in the scene is a mix of megascan assets plus some additional ones obtained using textures atlases from textures.com mapped on simple planes. Every final tree is then converted to a vrayproxy and placed in the scene.

[All the trees are sculpted in zbrush and then dressed with vines , plants and leaves using zbrush fibermesh and tyFlow. The plugin “ultimate painter” was used to place some of the objects manually.]

The real fun starts with the infinite possibilities that scattering brings to the table. Forest pack was used on the ground, from small grass to bigger plants, using textures to drive the distribution and using the powerful forest material to colourise those assets.

The rest of the scattering was handled by tyFlow in order to test its capability. Although being mainly a tool for FX artists, I was blown away by the possibilities for environment artists alike. I have always been a fan of using particle flow in max for certain tasks, and tyFlow have the amazing ability of scattering a crazy amount of points to any surface and gives artist a lot of freedom in what to do with those points.

I’ve been able to create a moss system that would just work on every asset in the scene, and can be reused even in future projects. Particles are being born on objects using a position object operator, which has now been improved to take in account objects normals, material IDs and textures to drive the density of those points. Points are then converted to moss , using a shape operator with the out of the box “grass clumps” 3D template present in the shape node.

[particles are scattered on the objects using the z-axis to drive their placement. Each particle is converted to a grass clump at render time.]

This simple setup was all I needed to literally cover the entire scene in moss, with a display node set as “sprite” that kept the viewport extremely fast.
tyFlow was used to scatter all the moss plus many other smaller items like twigs on the rocks etc. and it proved to be a trustful help when it comes to scatter and art direct a huge number of points in the scene, without ever leaving max.

I was able to texture my moss using different custom V-Ray materials assigned to particle ID groups. A mesh operator then told V-Ray to treat each strand of moss a V-Ray instance.
tyFlow is fully compatible with V-Ray and is also able to output V-Ray proxies. Final lighting and fog were handled in V-Ray.

The final scene is quite light considering the amount of details involved. Different colours were used for different tyFlows.

Scattering and dealing with huge number of points is vital in 3D environments production, from creating garbage on the ground and piling of objects in a natural fashion,to parametrically dress a shelf full of items without having to do it manually to creating more complex setups with destruction in order to model decaying structures, the possibilities are endless.

I’m really excited about tyFlow and the power it brings to 3dsMax.

Here’s a little breakdown showing different stages of growth.

We have lots of lots of top tips in our insights take a look!

What can we expect from the next generation of consoles?

We are fast approaching the end of the current generation of consoles. Next year, we will most likely see the gaming landscape move into a new era. Both Microsoft and Sony will reveal and potentially release their newest offerings, and with Google releasing Stadia, the next generation could be less of a ‘war of the consoles’ and more a ‘battle of the streaming services’.

We don’t know what the future of gaming will look like but we can make some assumptions based on the trajectory of the market at the moment. So let’s don our hypothetical hats and delve into the potential future of the games industry.

Console wars

When it comes to the next generation of consoles, we’ll no doubt see the same game of Top Trumps we’ve seen before. Each will claim to have bleeding-edge graphics, unbeatable processing power, and a tantalising frame count. There are plenty of buzzwords already floating around in relation to the new consoles – ray tracing and SSD drives were particular highlights of Microsoft’s E3 wink-and-a-nod reveal of what they are currently calling ‘Project Scarlett’.

But what will the games be like? We’re already seeing a shift towards a ‘games as a service’ model with ongoing support planned for future releases like Square-Enix’s ‘Avengers’ game. Coming so late in the current cycle’s life, we may we see it become a cross-gen release. Will the next generation have fewer sequels, instead choosing to focus on advancing just one game? Or will a game continue to be relevant up until the point the sequel releases, meaning players have no downtime from said game?

It will also be interesting to see where VR fits into the landscape, which was, at one point, all the rage but has since taken a backseat. PlayStation hasn’t said much about their VR unit in recent months, though that may only be a feeling exacerbated by their no-show at this year’s E3. Of course, will consoles even stay relevant?

Enter Google

In Google’s own words, “the future of gaming is not a box; it’s a place”. While we have yet to see the long-term effects of Google’s efforts, you can’t deny they have the power behind them. What separates them from previous attempts to bring game streaming to the masses is their sheer size. The future of gaming could move from Microsoft vs Sony to consoles vs streaming.

How they fight that remains to be seen. Microsoft is planning their own streaming service; Sony already has one in the form of PlayStation Now. The alternative might be a ‘games-on-demand’ sort of service. Microsoft has Xbox Game Pass and if their E3 presentation is anything to go by, it will play an integral role in their future plans. They aren’t alone; EA has EA Access, Ubisoft will have Uplay+, and PlayStation Now allows you to download PS4 games to your console for offline play.

It all depends if Stadia can be truly stable. It’s biggest mountain to climb will be delivering a seamless, lag-free experience. If it can’t accomplish that for the majority of people, they may well stick with something that lets them avoid that issue. Stadia also doesn’t have the Netflix-esque subscription model other services have. In this age of binging, could a service that delivers hundreds of games at the touch of a button win out?

The future is bright

Regardless of which way the games industry goes, it’s good news for the consumer. Having multiple options is never a bad thing.

Whatever happens, there will always be new games. Traditional releases, games as a service, free to play – there’s something for everyone. What won’t change is the need for a quality trailer. With more options comes more competition, so you need to think now about how you will separate yourself from the pack. A quality trailer is your way of making your game known to the masses and could be the big difference between a successful launch and a damp squib.

At Realtime, we have worked with many great developers and helped them deliver a quality trailer befitting of their game. If you have an upcoming project and want to discuss it, get in touch with me at [email protected].

Making a CGI trailer for your video game

So you are developing a game. Years of passion are coming to fruition. Your heart and soul – your vulnerability – laid out for the world to see. The time to show your hard work to the general public draws near. It’s a moment you both dread and gleefully anticipate. It’s time for the marketing to begin as you only get one chance to impress.

Like anybody else, you want your game to sit on a pedestal for the world to see. But in a market rife with so much competition, it can be so easy to fade into obscurity. Kickstarting your campaign with a CGI trailer can be an ideal way to attract the attention your game deserves. But putting trust in someone else to deliver on your vision is a big leap. How does that process work?

The start of the journey

There is no paint-by-numbers roadmap that works for everyone. The first thing to understand is the journey is pretty much different for everyone. And that’s a good thing.

Producing a high-quality trailer is only half the battle. What separates the good from the bad is the level of dedication to accurately representing your IP and key USPs. This only comes from a company that cares about working collaboratively with you; as part of you.

You need a studio that maintains a constant line of contact. Whether this is through in-studio meetings or more convenient over-internet communication, what matters is they listen to you. Worried you don’t have your own in-house creative available? That shouldn’t get in the way; a good production company should mould to your situation and should be able to help with any script development and suggest creative solutions that won’t blow the budget.

The initial discussions should help outline the direction of the CG trailer. Working with you, the production company should pin down which characters or assets you’d like to feature in the trailer that can get across the USPs and distinctive brand of your game. If you have these ready to go then great. If not, then a good partner should be able to make these assets in-house, carefully updating you with their progress as the pre-production process begins.

Producing brilliance

The length of time a production may take will vary, depending on the scope of the piece. A typical pre-rendered trailer can often take several months, so planning on your side will be an essential element to the success of the piece. Even with this in mind, it is crucial to keep the studio up-to-date with your plans, allowing enough time for the studio to produce the trailer and apply the specialist resources to accommodate the project.

Also, be wary of when you want to enlist their service. In the run-up to any major industry event, such as E3, many studios will be fully booked up. With this in mind, you should look as far down the road ahead as possible to avoid disappointment. What matters most is that the final trailer is a creative testament to your game and an open line of communication can go a long way to help with this.

Collaboration

A consistent and collaborative attitude to communication throughout production will inevitably help you arrive at a CG trailer that all stakeholders are happy with. So having a permanent point of contact within the production company is key. The studio’s Head of Production should be your day-to-day contact who keeps you informed of any changes and respond to feedback.

Over the course of the production cycle, you should be privy to many milestones, initially beginning at the pre-production stage with concept art. Storyboards and rudimentary animatics are intended to give you insight into the direction of the trailer. These are created with the intention of providing your team with an opportunity for feedback. Over time, you should see the final product start to form, as the production company sculpts a work of art before your eyes.

If you have stayed communicative throughout, you should have a final product that trumps every expectation. A cinematic tour de force sure to capture the attention of any audience. Something that encapsulates your game with ease.

It seems like an almost impossible task; how can you find someone who can deliver on your expectations? How can a company ever truly understand your product? A specialist CG studio that understands games can – if you allow them.

RealtimeUK is that company. We aren’t just a production company; we are an extension of your studio. We work intimately with our clients from the start, working with a focus on open communication. If you would like to discuss your next project, get in touch with me at [email protected].