Brief
To create a concept and craft a kick-ass product launch trailer for a game with its own unique, dynamically brutal and gritty vibe. It’s all about capturing the excitement and raw emotion of the game's transition to VR, while also highlighting its killer features in a way that keeps the energy pumping without losing the emotional connection.
Story
To dive into this case, let's talk a bit about the game itself. Bulletstorm – a modern classic released in 2011, has won over a huge fan base primarily due to its unconventional style: lots of profanity, it's brutal, and there's plenty of gore. We suggested to the creators to stick to the roots, and Playsense won the pitch with a pretty bold idea. We deliberately wanted to highlight the game's originality through its brutal setting and proposed a concept where a player puts on a headset to play Bulletstorm VR and starts freaking out with excitement at what's happening in the game. We settled on the concept that the game delivers such bright emotions that, apart from the profanity so inherent to the style and tone of the game, the main character is left speechless. Here, the line between the game's hero and the player, the game world and the real world, is blurred.
In the game, there are exclusive features unique to the VR version, such as the ability to dual-wield different weapons, play as female character Trishka with her Energy Blades and much more. These are the elements we definitely wanted to showcase. The game boasts a special leash mechanic, which we incorporated into the trailer's narrative too. You'll notice in the final shot that the game's logo is pulled out with the Energy Leash, which adds to the overall impact.
To create the most epic moments and fully convey the idea of player-character/world fusion, we decided to include several CG shots. In the beginning of the video, we also provided a preview of the entire story for those who might not watch until the end, ensuring the presence of the logo. This led to the concept of a character exploding into pieces against the backdrop of the logo, or in the censored version, into confetti. Following this, we continue with the main storytelling.
In the narrative, we connected the main character’s lines within the game with the sensations felt by our main character in a VR headset. We listened to the entire audio library of all the lines in the game, selecting the iconic moments that help drive the plot forward and intensify it with each repetition. If you watch the trailer again now, you'll see how we start with a calm story and then ramp up the dynamics.
Production
We start by saying that shooting high-quality gameplay footage on VR isn't the easiest task. We brainstormed various approaches to create quality content.
Simultaneously with the gameplay shoots, we organized live-action filming and searched for the lead actor. We had 2-3 weeks until the live shoot; we had to conduct auditions, determine the location, fill it with props and prepare a draft gameplay for the trailer. All the scenes with actor Ian McQuillan-Grace, whom we selected, were shot twice in different headsets for different platforms, plus each had censored and uncensored versions.
Essentially, the trailer is a showcase of in-game mechanics; there are quite a few detailed ones, and the gameplay part is more or less understandable. The trailer should convey all the dynamics of the gameplay, its epicness and brutality, essentially making our trailer almost like a music video. There was a desire for a classical track in a modern interpretation; we tried out several sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, etc. In the end, the client settled on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in modern interpretation. That's how we ended up with a dynamic launch trailer.
