Steam trailer tips: how to win the first 5 seconds

Valve's own trailer guidance is blunt. A shopper going through their Discovery Queue may give you "less than 10 seconds to make an impression", and they may be watching without sound. Your trailer autoplays at the top of your store page, so its opening moments are often the first thing a visitor sees after your capsule.

That changes how you should edit. A film-style trailer that builds slowly towards a reveal works for big franchises with a fanbase already waiting. For an unknown indie game, the shopper has no reason to wait. The opening seconds need to answer one question: what do I do in this game?

Valve says it has found that "most Steam users are looking for gameplay" and recommends that the first trailer on your page is primarily gameplay, shown from the perspective the player actually plays from, often with the HUD visible. That last detail surprises people, but HUD elements tell a genre fan a lot very quickly: health bars, a card hand, a build menu, a minimap.

• No studio logo first. Put your logo at the end, or keep it to a second at most.
• No slow lore intro. Story can come later in the trailer once the player knows what kind of game this is.
• Open on your most representative moment, not just your prettiest one. If it is a deck-builder, show a card being played. If it is a survival game, show building and fighting.

Trailer editor Derek Lieu, who has cut trailers for many indie games, makes the same case in his guide to the simplest trailer you can make for a Steam page: start with gameplay and stay with it.

There is no required length, but most effective indie trailers are short. A structure that works for many games:

1. 0 to 5 seconds: the core action. Genre and hook should be clear even with the sound off.
2. 5 to 30 seconds: the core loop. Show the main things the player does, one beat each.
3. 30 to 60 seconds: variety and depth. New areas, enemies, mechanics or moments that show there is plenty of game here.
4. Final seconds: logo, a "Wishlist now" card and, if you have one, a release window.

If your hook is a twist or a mechanic that is hard to show, add a short on-screen line of text. Keep it to a few words, large and high-contrast.

Many people browse Steam muted, and Valve explicitly asks you to consider whether a shopper can learn about your game without audio. Check your trailer on mute. If the hook relies on narration or a joke in the dialogue, it is invisible to a large share of viewers. Short captions, clear visual cause and effect, and readable UI fix most of this. Good music still matters for players with sound on, so do not drop it, just do not depend on it.

Steam creates a 6-second looping microtrailer for quick-view spots like category hubs, sale pages and the homepage during seasonal sales. According to Valve, it is built automatically from the first video on your store page by taking six one-second clips from different points and stitching them together. You cannot customise it.

The practical lesson: the first trailer on your page should be dense with strong gameplay from start to finish. Slow title cards, black frames or long text screens anywhere in it may end up in your microtrailer.

The first two valid trailers appear before your screenshots, and any others appear after them. Put your best gameplay trailer first, and a second trailer (perhaps a story or cinematic one) next if you have it. When you upload, you can tag each trailer as Gameplay, General / Cinematic, Teaser or Interview / Dev Diary, and that label appears in the player. "Gameplay" is reassuring to shoppers who want to see the real thing.

For Next Fest specifically, Valve's curation team picks games for the official fest trailer only from trailers that are publicly visible on your store page, so the trailer on your page is the one that counts.

• Up to 1920×1080, at 30 or 60 fps (29.97 and 59.94 also accepted).
• High bitrate, 5,000 Kbps or more, in .mp4, .mov or .wmv. H.264 video with AAC audio is preferred.
• 16:9 is preferred, though 4:3 is accepted. Audio is mixed down to stereo.
• The most common failure is an unusual resolution. Use 1920×1080 or 1280×720, and 44 kHz or 48 kHz audio.
• You can upload a custom poster image, but it must be a 1920×1080 frame from the video itself.
• You cannot release your game while a trailer is still converting, so upload well before launch day.

Our free Steam screenshot and trailer checker checks your current page setup against these requirements.

Before you settle on an opening, show two versions to people who have never seen your game and ask what kind of game they think it is after five seconds. If they guess wrong, the opening needs work. The same thinking applies to your capsule: you can run a capsule A/B test to see which of two designs real players click. If you want the whole page handled before launch, our Done-for-you Store Page Service covers the page copy and translations, and the WishlistLab marketplace lists freelance trailer editors and artists.

A trailer is only one part of the page. The capsule art guide and short description guide cover the other two things shoppers see first, and a free Steam page audit scores all of them together.

How long should a Steam trailer be?

Valve sets no length. Most effective indie trailers run 60 to 90 seconds, with gameplay in the first 5 seconds. Shorter is fine if it shows the core loop clearly.

Should my first Steam trailer be gameplay or cinematic?

Gameplay. Valve recommends the first trailer listed is primarily gameplay from the player's perspective, because that is what most Steam users want to see.

How is the Steam microtrailer made?

Steam builds the 6-second microtrailer automatically from six one-second clips of the first video on your store page. It cannot be customised, so keep your first trailer full of strong gameplay.

What resolution should a Steam trailer be?

Up to 1920×1080 at 30 or 60 fps, ideally H.264 with AAC audio at 5,000 Kbps or more. Unusual resolutions are the most common cause of processing errors.