How to find game trailer editing work
Game trailer gigs get posted on IndieGuild, Work With Indies (under Marketing and Community), r/gameDevClassifieds, r/INAT and Fiverr, and it pays to post your edits on Bluesky, X and TikTok, where devs hang out. Wherever you look, the thing that gets you hired is the same: a reel that hooks a stranger in the first few seconds with real gameplay.
I founded IndieGuild, so keep that in mind when I talk about it. I've tried to be fair to everyone here, because each of these is the right pick for somebody.
- Lead with gameplay. Valve says a Steam shopper may give a trailer less than 10 seconds.
- Show the three jobs devs hire for: a Steam page trailer, a launch or announcement trailer, and short vertical clips.
- Want paid gigs? Check Marketing and Community roles on Work With Indies, and [PAID] trailer posts on r/gameDevClassifieds.
- Just starting? Cut fan trailers for small games you like and tag the devs.
- Want devs to find you? Make a free IndieGuild profile with your rates, and roles that fit land in your inbox.
| Where | Better pick when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| IndieGuild | You want indie devs to find you by craft and genre, and roles that fit you sent to your inbox with the pay type up front. | It's new, so there are fewer roles than on the big boards. |
| Work With Indies | You want paid trailer editor or short-form video roles at indie studios and publishers. | There's no separate video section, so you'll dig through marketing roles to find them. |
| r/gameDevClassifieds | You want paid one-off trailers, and a free place to post your own [FOR HIRE] thread. | Lots of editors post [FOR HIRE] there too, budgets vary a lot, and you need to watch for scams. |
| r/INAT | You'll cut a trailer for rev share or a credit on a game you believe in. | It's mostly rev share and hobby teams, and many projects never ship. |
| Fiverr | You want buyers who are already searching for editors to find your listing. | Trailer editor Derek Lieu notes that buyers there tend to look for low prices. |
| Bluesky, X and TikTok | You want devs to see your edits, like fan trailers for small games, where they already hang out. | It's slow to build, and posts can get buried if you have few followers. |
What devs actually hire trailer editors for
- The Steam page trailer. The video at the top of the store page. Valve's trailer docs say most Steam users are looking for gameplay, recommend that the first trailer be mostly gameplay, and warn that people may watch with no sound or give it less than 10 seconds while going through their Discovery Queue.
- Launch and announcement trailers. The big moments: a reveal, a release date, a reason to wishlist or buy now.
- Short-form clips. Vertical videos for TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram, cut from gameplay. Some studios and publishers hire for these as their own job, sometimes paid per video.
- Update and patch trailers. Games that keep getting updates need a fresh video for each big one, which is great repeat work.
One Steam detail worth knowing: Steam makes a 6-second looping "microtrailer" from the first video on a store page by stitching together six 1-second clips from different points in it, and devs can't customize it (it's in the same trailer docs). So a trailer that's strong all the way through, not just at the start, helps the dev in more places than the store page.
What your reel needs, starting with the first five seconds
Devs watch reels the way players scroll Steam. Open yours the way you'd open a trailer:
- Gameplay in the first shot. Not a logo, not a slow fade. Derek Lieu, who cuts game trailers for a living, puts starting with a logo and slow intros on his list of the most common indie trailer mistakes.
- Readable with the sound off. Steam visitors may be watching muted, so the opening should make sense without audio.
- Cuts that move with the music. Edit to the beat, and show you can handle sound, since so much of a trailer's punch lives there.
- Range, briefly. Two or three genres with different pacing. Horror can breathe, and action shouldn't.
- One vertical cut. A 9:16 clip shows you can do short-form too.
- Text you can read on a phone. Title cards and calls to action that are big and short.
Keep the reel short, then link each full trailer below it with one line on what you did: edit only, or capture, edit and sound.
About capture: some indie listings want you to record the footage yourself from a build, using the game's debug tools. If you can do that well, say so up front. Derek's trailer editor asset list is a handy checklist of what to ask a dev for, from the build and debug tools to music, sound effects, logos and end slate info.
Know the delivery specs: Valve's trailer docs ask for the highest resolution you have, up to 1920x1080, at 30 or 60 fps, with a high bit rate (5,000+ Kbps), in a .mov, .wmv or .mp4 file, and 16:9 is preferred. Files that upload cleanly the first time make you easy to hire again.
Where trailer gigs actually get posted
IndieGuild
This one's mine. You make a free profile as a video editor with your rates up front and tags like "Rev share OK", "Hobby projects OK" and "Human-made". Devs browse creators by craft and genre on Discover or use Find my match, and when a dev posts a role that fits you, it lands in your inbox. Every role on the Job board shows the pay type up front (Paid, Rev share, Paid or rev share, Hobby, or Not sure yet), and some show a budget in USD. Messaging is free, and taking the conversation off the site is fine. It's free, I don't take a cut, there are no ads, and nobody can pay to be seen first.
Better pick when you want devs to come to you. Not the best pick if you want the biggest pool of jobs today, since it's newer than the big boards.
Work With Indies
Work With Indies is a job board for working with indie game studios. It doesn't have a video section, but trailer editor and short-form video editor roles show up under Marketing and Community, posted by indie studios and publishers. I've seen listings there for a main gameplay trailer plus patch trailers, and for a steady stream of short gameplay clips for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Read each one closely, because some want you to capture the footage too.
r/gameDevClassifieds and r/INAT
On r/gameDevClassifieds, devs post trailer gigs under [PAID] flairs like Marketing or Other, so search "trailer" instead of filtering by flair. You can post your own [FOR HIRE] thread too. Lead with your best trailer, not a list of software. r/INAT gets trailer requests as well, including rev share ones. Read each sub's rules first, because they remove posts that break them.
Fiverr
On Fiverr you sell your services as fixed-price gigs, editors sell game trailers there, and buyers come to search for them. In his post on how to get indie game trailer gigs, Derek Lieu says it's probably an okay place to start building a portfolio, with the catch that buyers there tend to look for low prices.
Bluesky, X and TikTok
That same post recommends Bluesky, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit, and suggests posts that teach what you learned making a trailer, not just "hire me." In another post, he suggests making fan trailers for very small games you like and tagging the creators when you post them. Small devs notice, share, and sometimes hire.
Pitch before Steam Next Fest
Steam Next Fest runs three times a year, in February, June and October, according to Valve's Next Fest docs. Those docs say a game needs at least one public trailer on its store page before registration closes to be considered for Valve's own Next Fest trailer. So if you pitch a dev who's heading into Next Fest, pitch early, not the week before.
From fan trailers to studio work
Here's how I'd climb:
- Fan trailers first. Small games you like, posted with the devs tagged. It's practice and a portfolio at the same time.
- Then small paid trailers. A Steam page trailer for a small indie, with a vertical cut-down in the same job.
- Then repeat work. Studios that keep updating a game need launch, update and short-form videos again and again. Be the editor they don't have to re-brief.
- Then bigger teams. In his post on where to get a job in the game trailer industry, Derek says the full-time jobs are at trailer houses, publishers, and developers big enough to have their own video team, and that the roles he sees most are capture artists, video editors and cinematic artists.
- Learn capture. Debug cameras, hiding the UI, clean high frame rate footage. It's what separates "editor" from "the person we call for trailers."
- Pitch games you actually like. My guide to pitching a game dev has a first message you can adapt.
Rates
No made-up numbers from me. Trailer editors usually charge per trailer, per video, per finished minute or per hour. Quote the extras on their own lines: capture, sound design, vertical cut-downs and extra rounds of revisions. And settle the music before you start: who provides the track, and whether it's licensed for Steam, YouTube and social. My guide for devs hiring a trailer editor shows what they're thinking about on their side.
Red flags
- A free "test" trailer. A full trailer is the job. Point them to your reel instead.
- Music nobody can explain. If they can't tell you where the track's license came from, a mute or takedown later hits your work too.
- Endless revisions. No set number of rounds and no end date means the job never ends.
- "We'll pay when it sells." That's rev share, not a paid gig. It can be fine, but call it what it is and get it in writing.
- Fake job board emails. Work With Indies shows a banner warning that a scam is impersonating them, and says they only email from @workwithindies.com. Check who an "offer" really came from before you reply.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find game trailer editing work?
Check Work With Indies, where trailer and short-form video roles show up under Marketing and Community, [PAID] trailer posts on r/gameDevClassifieds, r/INAT for rev share projects, Fiverr, and Bluesky, X and TikTok, where devs can see your edits. Make a free IndieGuild profile so devs can find you and roles that fit land in your inbox.
How do I get game trailer editing work with no experience?
Cut fan trailers for small indie games you like and tag the devs when you post them, then put your best two or three in a short reel that opens with gameplay. Take small paid gigs from r/gameDevClassifieds or Fiverr to get credits, and build from there.
What should a game trailer reel include?
Open with gameplay in the first shot, make sure it reads with the sound off, cut to the music, and show two or three genres plus one vertical clip. Keep it short, and link each full trailer with a line on whether you captured, edited and did the sound.
Do I need to capture gameplay footage myself?
Not always, but it helps. Some indie listings ask the editor to capture footage from a build using the game's debug tools, so being able to record clean, high resolution footage makes you easier to hire.
What's the difference between a Steam trailer and a launch trailer?
The Steam page trailer sits at the top of the store page, and Valve recommends it be mostly gameplay, since visitors may watch muted or give it only a few seconds. A launch trailer is made for the release moment, with a date and a reason to buy now.
Is IndieGuild free for trailer editors?
Yes. Making a profile is free, and I don't take a cut of your gigs. You and the dev agree on pay and rights directly.
Let devs find you
Make a free video editor profile with your rates and what you're open to (paid, rev share or hobby). When a dev posts a role that fits you, it lands in your inbox. It's free, and I don't take a cut of your gigs.
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