As a close friend of Dr. Veronica Weser’s, it’s been really exciting to follow her work and research with VR and perception. I love being able to try out the latest VR tech, participate in her studies, and play through innovative games together.I also love trailers. Movie trailers, video game trailers, u-haul trailers. Well, maybe not the last one, though they are useful. I probably watch way more movie trailers than watch the actual movies. Same with video games. That being said, I’ve never worked on a trailer before, so I was really excited when Dr. Weser asked me to create the promo video for Invite Only VR.
First, I watched as many clips as possible (normally I would have loved to play the game myself, but my travel schedule prevented me) and then I asked myself a few questions, the most prominent being “how do I show enough to intrigue viewers without making them feel like they’ve already seen everything?” This is always a difficult question, and something I constantly think about when watching film and video game trailers. Most of the following questions follow from this; how do I communicate the story without spoiling it? What gameplay should I show while leaving room for surprises? What are the key features and how do I communicate them clearly?
That last one proved difficult for this project, and I think it’s unique to VR. It’s an entirely different experience to play a VR game, because of how immersive it is to have the camera and gameplay respond directly to one’s bodily movement. Turning my head to look at something instantly makes me feel like I’m part of the world when I play VR games – in a way that I don’t experience in any other media format. Unfortunately a traditional, 2-D trailer can’t communicate this, so I had to figure out how to make the game look as exciting and intriguing as possible.
Luckily the game has some really great features that make it super compelling. Voice recognition, a groundhog-day like structure, pro-social interactions and information, and of course, Space Cats!
I hope you enjoy the trailer as much as I enjoyed making it. I can’t wait for the positive change that will come of this game!