Signs of the Soujourner Trailer

Trailer Conception and Editing

Signs of the Soujourner is a conversation driven card game created by Echodog Studios. I was brought into the project to create a trailer shortly before the launch of their IndieGoGo and Steam page.

Process

I always start trailers for games by playing through the demo (if available) and talking to the client about the mood of their project. SoS is a narrative driven and introspective experience that examines how you change as you travel further and further from home. I determined with the client that they wanted to create a somber and thoughtful trailer, that highlighted their card gameplay, unique art and impactful narrative.

Since the turnaround on this project was limited, I created a rough board, and talked it through with the client. Once approved I began animating.

The intro of any trailer is the most important part to me. For indie trailers, I always try to make sure my audience is hooked within the first 3 - 5 seconds. The intro went through several rounds of revisions to best incorporate the intro copy.

I ended up using the separated game assets to rebuild the game footage in After Effects. This allowed me to fully control the timing, and play with the overlay of the characters and text.

I wanted to incorporate all of Signs of the Soujerner's colorful character designs and settings, show off unique gameplay mechanics and keep the flow of the trailer. Therefore I determined a match cut sequence was the best way to go!

Sos gameplay made this easy for me, since the card UI does not shift between gameplay scenes. So I was easily able to cut together several sequences of gameplay, and align the cards so it appears one continous hand is being played.

In Signs of the Soujourner, the card's suits represent your conversations and how you speak to the other characters. I wanted to make this extra clear by incorporating the final text effect where I change the suits into the copytext.

I accomplished this by creating a custom font using the card suits. I then applied a text animator in After Effects - letting it do the heavy lifting to swap out the text.

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