Hired 2 Die Trailer Post-Mortem

Hi everyone! This month, I edited a gameplay trailer for Hired 2 Die, a co-op horror game. The developers at Electric Monkeys wanted a trailer to accompany the launch of their demo on Steam. I'd like to thank them for reaching out and being a joy to work with, and to thank my friend Sebastian for once again putting me in contact with them!!

The process of editing this trailer was a lot more complicated than my last trailer for Tanthious, and the deadline was a lot tighter too, since the demo had to launch in time for Steam Next Fest! How did I do it? Let’s discuss.

Preparing

As soon as the devs reached out, I started doing market research to get a feel for how other co-op horror games are marketing themselves on Steam. I watched dozens and dozens of trailers for games like Devour, Forewarned, Phasmophobia, The Blackout Club, Labyrinthine, Pacify, GTFO, Signs of Silence, Ghost Exorcism INC, and Ghost Exile.

I found that in most of them, the goal was to either investigate the monster (like in Phasmophobia) or defeat the monster (like in Pacify and Devour). This makes Hired 2 Die relatively unique, because your goal is to clean! You’re hired help, and you get paid for every desk you set up or trash pile you incinerate, and the funds you acquire from this work can merely pay for defense against the monsters. The developers had already made an excellent trailer that demonstrated this core gameplay loop, however, I felt that it wasn't all that tense. Good horror is about the tension moreso than the jumpscare, in my opinion!

So, I created an incredibly rough pitch for the devs using footage from the team’s previous trailers, and some stock music, to simulate the structure I had in mind:

They liked it a lot! And together we fleshed it out into a more complete picture. However, there were more than a few…

Complications

I mentioned this trailer was more complicated than usual! There were several reasons for this:

1. Time Limit
2. Co-op Gameplay
3. Voice acting
4. Music
5. VFX shots
6. Localization

Time Limit

The trailer was due by June 5th, and I wasn’t able to start recording until May 23rd. This was because the game needed some updates to get it ready for the trailer, including debug tools and a graphical overhaul. This left me with two weeks to record everything! On top of that was…

Co-op Gameplay

Hired 2 Die is a co-op survival horror game, so I had to incorporate at least a few shots that showed multiple players, which in turn meant I had to manage my recording time carefully, so that I could record with others. I ended up asking for a few extra codes to share with friends and family so that I could play the game with them.

Thankfully, an abundance of co-op shots proved unnecessary to communicate the multiplayer aspects of the game, thanks to the miracle of…

Voice acting

The devs thought voice acting would help them stand out and — having watched so many trailers with none — I had to agree. However, the developers needed the final script for the VO about a week and a half before the launch of the trailer, so that they could record the lines with professional talent.

While I'd had plenty of time to play the game and prepare ideas at that point, I’d only had a few days to actually record and edit. So I just had to accept that some decisions needed to be made a little early, and spent a day improvising voice lines over footage until I had something I was satisfied with, and I sent it to the devs with the caveat that everything after the 45-second mark would probably just be screams and gasps:

Music

The devs also wanted the game’s composer, Rapha to compose a piece of music just for the trailer. This gave me some trouble. I didn’t want to saddle the composer with any stock music to imitate. So instead, I put together a rough storyboard using text, and I edited a click track to simulate the changes in energy I had in mind:

VFX shots

There were also six VFX shots, wherein I had to edit the UI:

Localization

Lastly, the devs wanted to translate everything into 9 languages: English, Chinese (simplified), Korean, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil). After the final edit of the trailer was done, I went back through, subtitled everything by hand, and then replaced the subs with their translations.

Conclusion

This was an intimidating project that presented a lot of challenges for me, but considering the mountain of work and the time limit, things went about about as smoothly as they possibly could! The developers were a true pleasure to work with, and despite simultaneously prepping the game's demo, they were able to provide me everything I needed and more. For instance, they really went the extra mile on the debug tools, providing me a suite of cheats, some of which were instrumental in getting the shots just right. Honestly, seeing how much the game improved in just the month leading up to the release of the demo was a privilege.

As for me, I feel much better about my capabilities going forward. I was able to handle a project with a lot of moving parts and turn out a result I'm personally satisfied with. If there are any indie devs reading, please feel free to reach out at brettimaeus@gmail.com, because I'm looking forward to another project like this sometime in the future. 😊

12 June 2023