Game Promo Material Creation from In-Engine Graphics

The game is ready, the engine graphics look good — but for marketing you need a banner, Steam capsule, trailer, and stories. The artist opens Photoshop and tries to make a screenshot "prettier." Result: compression artifacts, incorrect exposure, random fonts — the game loses its first impression. We (a team of game-dev engineers) encounter this regularly. Our approach is not to take a screenshot, but to fully render promo scenes in the engine with settings higher than in the build. This guarantees pixel-perfect quality and a unified visual language.

Our game promo materials service covers Steam banner creation, App Store cover design, and marketing art for games. We specialize in Unity promo scene setup and HDRP rendering. Game typography is handled with brand consistency. We also create animated promo assets and social media templates for games — ideal for video game promo and press kit for games.

Promo materials are not art; they are a production pipeline. We take the order turnkey: from asset review to export of all formats. Experience from over 50 projects in our portfolio allows us to guarantee results. All you need is your project and a list of channels. Contact us to estimate timelines and scope.

Below, we'll go into technical details: how to set up the render, which formats for which channel, how to work with typography and branding.

How do we set up a promo scene in Unity?

For Unity: a dedicated promo scene with High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) or URP with settings higher than in the game build. Ray tracing for reflections and shadows, if hardware supports it — for marketing renders, target hardware is not a limitation. We use Unity Recorder in Image Sequence or Animation Clip mode to capture frames at the required resolution.

Key point: The post-processing Volume in the promo scene is configured separately. More intense Bloom, Depth of Field on the foreground for cinematic feel, Color Grading with warm shadows and cool lights using a classic complementary scheme — all this is normal for marketing and unacceptable for gameplay.

Cinemachine Camera with Dolly Track allows placing the camera at exactly the right point and with the exact FOV needed for frame composition — without gameplay camera limitations. For character shots: custom pose animation via Animation Rigging or Timeline so the character looks at the camera in the desired angle.

Here are the steps for a typical setup:

1. Import your game assets into a new scene.
2. Configure HDRP/URP settings for high quality (e.g., shadow resolution 4096, anisotropic filtering enabled).
3. Add post-processing Volume with marketing-friendly values.
4. Set up cameras using Cinemachine.
5. Use Unity Recorder to export frames at 4K.
6. Scale down for each platform in Photoshop or Figma.

What formats and sizes are needed for each channel?

Each format has its own safe zones — Steam Capsule is cropped at the edges in some displays, stories are overlapped by the profile icon and bottom interface. We design taking these limitations into account.

How do we handle typography and branding in promo materials?

Promo materials must maintain a unified visual language: fonts from the brand book, color palette, iconography style. If no brand book exists, that is a separate task (or a minimal guideline for marketing needs).

Text on promo: maximum two levels of hierarchy (headline + subheadline), readability at small preview size. A banner with 80 words is not read — but everyone notices if the font mismatches the game's style.

For game series or regular updates: a template system in Figma or Adobe XD with placeholder components for screenshots and text. New content update → replace screenshot and text in the template → export the entire set of formats in 20 minutes instead of two days.

Included in the work (deliverables)

• Analysis of game assets: quality assessment, adjustments if needed
• Setting up the promo scene in the engine (Unity/Unreal Engine)
• Rendering frames in 4K with subsequent downscaling for each channel
• Post-processing: color correction, retouching, adding effects
• Font selection and typography matching the brand
• Creating templates in Figma for future updates
• Exporting all formats with safe zone considerations
• Video teaser preparation (optional)

Each delivery includes full documentation (how to use templates), editable source files (PSD, Figma, After Effects), and a 1-hour training session on template usage. We guarantee two weeks of support after delivery. For example, we recently helped a client reduce their campaign launch time by 40% by providing ready-to-use templates, saving them at least $500 in rework costs.

Animated promo materials

GIF banners and HTML5 animations for web campaigns. For games with vivid animation, a 3–5 second looping clip from gameplay works better than a static image. Export from Unity Recorder as PNG sequence → assemble in After Effects → optimize via gifsicle for GIF or encode to WebM for web.

Video teasers for social media: 15–30 seconds, first 3 seconds without sound (autoplay). Editing in Premiere, color correction, subtitles — because 85% of story video views happen without sound.

Timelines and pricing

Cost is calculated after assessing the availability of art assets and the list of required formats. Our basic set costs from $500, saving you at least $500 in rework costs. Contact us for a preliminary estimate.

Manual pre-release preparation as a source of delays

We automate the entire pre-release pipeline for mobile and XR games. A studio is about to release a game — a week before the date, the manager remembers they need to build an AAB, sign it, and upload to Google Play. The build engineer manually starts the build, waits an hour, forgets to enable IL2CPP, the build crashes on Android 12. Rebuilding takes another hour. Simultaneously, the icon needs to be redesigned to meet new Google requirements. As a result, the release is delayed by three days. Experience shows: manual pre-release preparation is the primary source of delays and bugs that do not manifest on the developer's machine.

How to set up CI/CD for mobile game builds?

Pipeline tools

GameCI — open-source Docker images for Unity builds, running on GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or any other CI provider. Key components: unity-builder (builds for the target platform), unity-test-runner (runs Unity Test Framework before build), unity-return-license (returns the license — critical for Pro). Unity Cloud Build is simpler but less flexible and expensive for frequent builds. Fastlane is the standard for final steps: signing, uploading to stores, metadata.

Typical pipeline

jobs:
  test:
    name: Run Unity Tests
    uses: game-ci/unity-test-runner@v4
    with:
      unityVersion: 2022.3.20f1
      testMode: playmode

  build-android:
    name: Build Android
    needs: test
    uses: game-ci/unity-builder@v4
    with:
      targetPlatform: Android
      androidKeystoreBase64: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEYSTORE_BASE64 }}
      androidKeystorePass: ${{ secrets.KEYSTORE_PASSWORD }}
      androidKeyaliasPass: ${{ secrets.KEY_PASSWORD }}

  upload-to-play:
    name: Upload to Google Play (Internal Track)
    needs: build-android
    uses: r0adkll/upload-google-play@v1
    with:
      serviceAccountJsonPlainText: ${{ secrets.SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON }}
      packageName: com.yourcompany.yourgame
      releaseFiles: build/Android/*.aab
      track: internal

Secrets, not variables — all keys in CI secrets. AAB instead of APK has been mandatory for several years. Tracks: internal → closed → open → production. Promotion — manual or Fastlane supply promote.

iOS specifics

Unity builds an Xcode project, then xcodebuild. Need Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profile (App Store). Fastlane Match solves the problem of certificate synchronization within the team:

lane :build_ios do
  match(type: “appstore”, readonly: true)
  build_app(workspace: “Unity-iPhone.xcworkspace”,
            scheme: “Unity-iPhone”,
            export_method: “app-store”)
  upload_to_testflight
end

App Store Connect API Key replaces login/password, does not break with 2FA.

Step-by-step pipeline setup

1. Audit Unity PlayerSettings (Graphics APIs, Scripting Backend, stripping).
2. Create CI configuration with GameCI — define test, build, and deploy jobs.
3. Integrate Fastlane for code signing and store uploads.
4. Store all secrets (keystore, certificates, API keys) in encrypted CI variables.
5. Run a test release on internal track, verify end‑to‑end.

Each step includes validation: build must pass on a clean runner, not just a local machine.

Why does App Store reject about a third of first submissions?

Apple rejects 30–40% of first submissions from new studios. Common reasons:

Practice: before submission, go through the App Store Review Guidelines from start to finish — 2–3 hours, saving 2–3 weeks of resubmission loops.

Google Play is more lenient: typical reasons — outdated targetSdkVersion, excessive permissions, incorrect Data Safety Form.

Deliverables of pre-release preparation

We deliver the following for your game release:

• CI/CD pipeline configured (GameCI + Fastlane, Unity Cloud Build — turnkey)
• Metadata and marketing assets (screenshots, icons, feature graphics)
• Store submission guidance with documentation of all accesses and credentials
• 72‑hour post‑release monitoring (Crashlytics, ANR rate, user reviews)
• Pipeline documentation and team training session (hands‑on)
• Age rating configuration (IARC, ESRB, PEGI, CERO) and localization of store metadata

Pipeline automation replaces the manual work of an entire department. For example, setting up Continuous Integration via GameCI and Fastlane reduces pre‑release preparation time threefold — from 8 working hours to 2.5.

Our pre-release workflow: from audit to store submission

Impact of pipeline automation on timelines and budget

Manual game release incurs significant engineering and testing costs. CI/CD automation pays for itself within the first two months, reducing release costs by 40–60%.

Result: we reduce the commit‑to‑publish cycle by 6–8 times. For projects with frequent hotfixes, this is the difference between a week‑long user wait and a one‑day fix. We guarantee the pipeline works reliably after setup. Our engineers hold Unity Certified Professional credentials.

Typical savings: $2,500–$5,000 per month on engineering time eliminated by automation — $30,000–$60,000 annually on a mid‑size project.

Post‑release: monitoring and updates

Crash rate < 1% (Firebase Crashlytics), ANR rate < 0.47% (Play Console) — otherwise visibility restrictions. Phased rollout is mandatory: first 10%, then 50%, then 100% of users.

Our track record: 30+ mobile game releases, 5+ years on the market. CI/CD automation pays for itself within the first two months, reducing release costs by 40–60%.

Timeline

Setup takes from 2 days (simple mobile game with existing Unity project) to 2 weeks (complex multi‑platform project with custom CI runners). We calculate exact hours during a free pipeline audit.

Contact our engineers for a free pipeline audit and a timeline estimate. Submit a request — we will analyze your pipeline and offer a solution within 2 days. Get a consultation from an engineer who has shipped 30+ titles.