Creating promotional materials based on game graphics

Creating Promo Materials from Game Graphics

Game ready, graphics in engine looks good — now need banner for ad campaign, Steam cover, YouTube trailer, and social media story set. Artist opens Photoshop trying to make editor screenshot "prettier". Result predictable: compression artifacts, wrong exposure, stock font — and feeling game looks worse than it is.

Promo graphics from game assets — not "take screenshot and write text". This production process with its own technical stack.

Rendering promo graphics from engine

For Unity: dedicated promo scene with High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) or URP with settings higher than game build. Ray tracing for reflections and shadows if hardware supports — for marketing render target hardware not limitation. Recorder package in Image Sequence mode or Animation Clip captures frames at needed resolution.

Key point: Post-processing Volume in promo scene configured separately. Bloom more intense, Depth of Field on foreground for cinematography, Color Grading with warm shadows and cool lights by classic complementary scheme — all normal for marketing, unacceptable for gameplay.

Cinemachine Camera with Dolly Track lets place camera exactly where needed with exact FOV for frame composition — without gameplay camera limitations. For character shots: custom pose animation through Animation Rigging or Timeline, so character looks at camera in right angle.

Formats and sizes for different channels

Each format has safe zones — Steam Capsule cropped at edges in some displays, stories overlapped by profile icon and interface bottom. Design with these constraints.

Working with typography and brand

Promo materials must support unified visual language: fonts from brand book, color palette, iconography style. If brand book doesn't exist — separate task (or minimal guideline for marketing needs).

Text in promo: maximum two hierarchy levels (headline + subheading), readability at small preview size. Banner with 80 words nobody reads — but everyone notices if font doesn't fit game style.

For game series or regular updates: template system in Figma or Adobe XD with component placeholders for screenshots and text. New content update → replace screenshot and text in template → export all formats in 20 minutes instead of two days.

Animated promo materials

GIF banners and HTML5 animations for web campaigns. For games with bright animation — looped 3–5 second clip from gameplay better than static image. Export from Unity Recorder to PNG-sequence → assembly in After Effects → optimization through gifsicle for GIF or WebM encoding for web.

Video teasers for social: 15–30 seconds, first 3 without sound (auto-play). Montage in Premiere, color correction, subtitles — because 85% social media video views without sound.

Timelines

Cost calculated after assessing asset availability and required formats.