Scripts and Setup

I started the whole process with writing down the key characteristics of the game:

Dwarves and their unique class abilities

Mining resources

Killing bugs

Teamwork/comradery

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After this, I began brainstorming some "recruitment" ideas, both from what I have been before in those types of videos and something that would work in-lore of the game. I initially came up with two projects: Cliché Corporate and Scared of the Dark.

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Cliché Corporate was to include upbeat corporate music with an HR rep voice narrating. Overall it was to feel more satirical.

Sacred of the Dark was based off military recruitment ads. High testosterone, gruff voices, intense images. This was set to be more in line with the game's intensity.

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I wrote scripts for both of these projects and even completed shots lists. Yet the more I worked on them, the more bland they felt. They felt safe and like many other people would have the same ideas. Thus, I took some of the best bits and made a third project that I saw all the way through.

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While doing some test shots, I found the ability to slow time in-game through one of the mods. This allowed me to get more interesting shots that would be good for the lower intensity moments. From here came the idea to tell the story of a failing team who are "saved" by the new recruit who joins the fight late. The aim being the prospective player sees themselves as a meaningful addition to the team.

 

The script set the beats: cold open with intense fighting where almost everyone gets injured, give background to the situation, introduce the new recruit/new player, the recruit saves the team and they work together to overcome the bug infestation.

Having completed the script, I made the shot list and called up my friend Sean to help with filming.

 

Filming

To call filming in DRG easy would be a lie. Through mods, I had some control such as invulnerability, the ability to use the same map seed repeatedly, and to wipe the map of enemies with a click of a button. Even with these, production proved to be very difficult. As we were still in an actual match of the game, certain mechanics still worked such as swarms (when an influx of bugs attacks you). We played on the lowest difficulty setting to minimize the hurt, but there was still plenty of Ibuprofen taken to cope.

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Due to this, filming took a large amount of time. Thus, I would plan a shoot schedule of 2-3 hours, shoot with Sean once he was off work, then edit what was recorded before coming up with a new schedule for the next day. This both gave me a sense of what was doable in-game and what worked timing-wise for the edit.

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In order to record, some shots were POVs which were simply recorded of myself playing with no HUD. The free-cam shots was accomplished with the Sandbox Utilities mod. Unfortunately, this mod doesn't quite work with the game's lighting system, creating a weird "lined" look to dimmer areas of the cave. Double unfortunately, I found out NVIDIA's ANSEL does allow live action recording in DRG (without weird lines), unlike almost every other game where it only acts as a screenshot system. That was a wonderfully sad discovery three days before turn-in. But at least I know about it now!

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Any shot that has 2 or fewer dwarves on screen was shot with Sean. For the group shots, I was lucky enough to have two other friends join to help - thanks Danny and Thomas!

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Editing

Knowing the time limit, I set the baseline of the edit with a mashup of music I made in time with the beats of the script. From here, I simply filled in the shots from the shot list like pieces to a puzzle. Only these pieces are easily adjustable!

With our rolling-editing style, I had a better and better understanding of what I needed out of the next shots the more we shot.

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Editing clips was fairly straight forward. The sound design was tricky but also rewarding. I ripped the audio files with the help of an Unreal Engine Export program. This allowed me to use all of the clean in-game audio. I did a few passes of finer and finer sound detail before things got too cramped. I pulled it back to a nice happy medium, and there we go!

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For the final title screen, everything was done in After Effects with simple techniques. I love working with CC Particles and had to make some embers both for ambience and for the text reveal of "Enlist Today". There were three layers of particles; one for the text reveal, one foreground and one background ambience to give depth to the screen of logos. The main DRG logo was a simple positional slam with some shake and motion blur. Fade-ins for everything else.

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While the quality of the footage is really frustrating, I am proud of the mini-story I was able to crunch into the time limit as well as the overall editing and sound design. That said, the trailer is complex and the viewer needs to be paying attention to understand what is going on. This final product is more of a micro-film than it is a trailer.

 

It unfortunately didn't rank in the competition, but I'm glad I have something to add to my reel. I would like to do more story-focused trailers in the future, preferably for a game that is more campaign focused.