indie game lore

this is my selection for the absolute best trailers for indie games that i’ve seen. it’s my own personal preference; feel free to comment with the ones you liked better than these. this list should be useful especially for indie game developers who are creating their game’s trailer and want some idea of some of the others out there.

1. barkley shut up and jam: gaiden teaser: https://youtu.be/1M0FLAXXvRU

- pacing is slow by modern standards, but i don’t think any indie game trailer will ever beat this one in my heart, or in the number of times i’ve watched it

2. brain-damaged toon underworld - teaser 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XinCZrZWnc8
- the never-released but much-anticipated game by cactus; i just love this one, so much unrealized potential in this video

3. quite soulless trailer: https://youtu.be/TmpNpjXIiWE
- little known mad genius who is literally an escaped mental patient from russia who fled to america to create indie games; if you don’t know of this game you are not indie enough

4. vvvvvvv trailer: https://youtu.be/FxuacwotoQw
- perhaps the best music in a trailer on this list, and gameplay that’s edited to fit that music very well; sometimes i think most of a trailer’s effectiveness is its music

5. zoo race trailer: https://youtu.be/e_MOX99ltoY
- i just don’t know what to think about this game, but it’s awesome. and yeah, this is over eight minutes long. but it’s worth every second.

6. iji trailer: https://youtu.be/33mxD4FjD3w
- probably the most ‘traditional’ or 'classic’ of the trailers on this list, it’s exactly what the game is without any gimmicks or marketing hype

7. transistor reveal trailer: https://youtu.be/GTik6sYT_BE
- the music especially makes it effective, it’s just a beautiful trailer. the fact that it’s by the same team who had just released bastion also played into the hype for this game

8. tim rogers presents ZiGGURAT: https://youtu.be/XwlTAJxOmx0
- reaction to this trailer seems mixed, either you hate it or love it. i thought it was a very clever, an experimental trailer, and i wish i’d see more of this type of thing

9. limbo teaser: https://youtu.be/08ncpwPAq2o
- this video, with no explanation, appeared long before limbo was released. people awaited the release with bated breath for years, based on this video alone

10. super meat boy trailer: https://youtu.be/ZQZeQSaXwR8
- push the buttons!

11. la mulana trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PnMoiaPzls
- cleverly uses graphics from both the original and the remake, interleavening them. art thou a wise man? or a fool?

12. 4 fourths: https://vimeo.com/10065429
- the sheer sensory stimulation of this trailer can be overwhelming, and the gameplay isn’t very clear from the video, but it leaves a lasting impression

13. mark leung trailer: iolforest: https://youtu.be/IdkP8LAQPs4
- can you tell i like camp yet? i mean, it’s a trailer that’s easy to hate and hard to love, but if you do love it, then you love it

14. joe’s game: https://youtu.be/yk31B07wvFI
- warning: strong language, not necessarily work safe. the game doesn’t even exist, it’s a joke really, but what a joke!

15. rogue legacy trailer: https://youtu.be/T0DKxOEikTs
- a really good trailer, just a really nice synthesis of explanation, action, and music

16. to the moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqkJuSV-23U
- there’s a saying that you should never use too much text in a trailer and never make a trailer too long; i think this trailer proves that is not *always* the case

17. fatale audio trailer: https://youtu.be/NXWcU81Ikz8
- the only trailer on this list that has no video at all, just audio. tale of tales don’t just create nontraditional games, they also create nontraditional trailers

18. rakuen official trailer: https://youtu.be/mXJqi2KmhCw
- two of the games on this list have music by laura shigihara; if the plants vs zombies music video trailer were technically still an indie game i’d include that one too

19. noitu love 2 trailer: https://youtu.be/XWGGybAEZkc
- just great; huge bosses and explosions, konjak knows how to make his games look exciting

20. hotline miami 2: “Do You Like to Hurt People?”: https://youtu.be/xJuR48PSCW8
- this bridges the gap between the almost cartoony (although still gory) violence in the game and real-life violence, with live actors acting out what could be a scene from the game

21. axion verge steam trailer: https://youtu.be/9oyj2VeuvGI
- this game is so great all it really needs to do is show some gameplay and everyone familiar with metroid wants it

22. braid trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfR2DVknaoU
- this is actually close to what i’d consider a perfect trailer. not my favorite trailer, but perfect in the sense that it does everything right, is thought-provoking, representative of the game, and memorable

23.  fez 2008 trailer: https://youtu.be/Y00P1hta4yo
- the game changed a lot since this video. the original 'turn in 3D’ camera twisting looked nicer to me than the system it wound up going with. the game also got less talky.

24. grapple buggy: https://youtu.be/7ub0qiNFsxk
- the game never materialized, but this trailer was so memorable to me that i had to include it in this list and still look forward to it one day being finished

25. sunset kickstarter trailer: https://youtu.be/kVTVAUKm-6Y
- okay, it’s a kickstarter video, not a trailer per se, but that won’t stop me from including this because it *could* and probably should be the game’s trailer

26. long live the queen trailer: https://youtu.be/IvmUuJVGcIM
- basically sums up the game really well by listing a bunch of possible princesses and the ways each one dies; a very dark trailer compared to hanako games’s usual trailers

27. aquaria trailer: https://youtu.be/IyZJo7RpCwo
- this video got me to buy the game, first day of its release, for $30, an absurd amount for an indie game even at that time, so it must be doing something right. never regretted that purchase either

28. nightsky trailer: https://youtu.be/icvkQHiOED8
- before limbo and silhouette games took the indiesphere by storm, there was nightsky

29. papers, please trailer: https://youtu.be/_QP5X6fcukM
- this trailer (and the game) sort of prove you can make anything fun, even paperwork

30. the witness: https://youtu.be/tk-RsawGjPY
- i remain unsure that this will be my type of game, but this trailer makes me want to believe in the developer of braid