Short-form clips

Load video-craft first (pipeline, tools, QA gate). This skill decides what the clip is and how it is cut. Beat sheets for every format: references/formats.md.

What a short is for

• Until the Steam page exists, a clip earns follows and tells you which hooks hold. Short-form is a booster and a test lab; the demo, festivals and streamers sell games (video-craft channels.md "Expectations").
• Find the levers that travel for your game. Fear reads in a second, and so does a striking image. Deep strategy doesn't read in a feed, so a clip shows a feeling and one visible consequence, never the rules.

The hook

• Frame 0 already shows the thing: a strike mid-swing, a monster's eye opening, a number racing up. No intro, title card, dialogue window, logo or slow establishing shot. Every documented miss opened with one of those.
• 3 s retention is similar across clips; what separates hits is the 3→5 s drop. The second beat must pay off or escalate what frame 0 promised.
• Hook types: an impossible image; a number in motion; a threat line ("It can't die."); a question over the picture ("Which one is the hero?"); the result first, then how.
• Any series tag lives in the post text or title, never in the first frame.

Length and framing

• Make one master per moment and cut each channel's version from it: same footage, own framing and own text.
• Vertical comes from a native 9:16 camera where possible; cropping 16:9 keeps 31.6% of the frame. Compose tall: threat in the top third, the clash in the middle, the player's side above y 1380. Fallbacks: a tracked crop on one subject, or a stacked split (boss above, team below) (tools.md). Blur-fill only for wide shots, and it reads like a repost.
• Loops: if the last frame can meet the first, make it seamless. Replays count, and a hidden detail earns rewatches.

Cutting a short

• One idea, one moment. Cut on events; hold the payoff. 1.5-3 s shots in a hype cut, 3-6 s for one readable mechanic.
• For card games: a card choice and its consequence in one shot or two adjacent shots, card art big and held ≥ 1.5 s.
• For horror: normal → wrongness → hold → sting → the response. One sting per clip, after silence, with a visual twin.
• Sound on, survives muted: SFX on each key action (about one every 2-3 s), licensed audio only, −14 LUFS.
• On-screen text: ≤ 6 words a line, one line at a time during action, in the post's language, inside the safe box. On X the words mostly go in the post, and the video stays pure picture.
• End: cut on the high point. An end card lasts 0.7 s at most; the follow or link ask goes in the post or a reply.

Choosing the format

Pick from formats.md by the material you have and the feeling it serves:

Run each format 8-10 times before judging it.

Checklist (on top of the video-craft QA gate)

• Frame 0 is the strongest moment, and 3-5 s pays it off.
• One idea; the choice and its consequence are both on screen.
• Each channel's file is cut for that channel (frame, length, text language).
• Muted at phone size, the sentence "it's the game where…" comes to mind.
• At most one sting; the clip ends on a payoff.
• Not the same footage as a recent or queued post.

Reading the result

Read at 24 h and 7 d: X views and % watched, Reddit upvotes in the first 2 h and comment quality, Shorts stayed-to-watch and average % viewed. Compare with your own median, never with one viral case. A curve that cliffs early means the hook failed: recut the hook, don't repost the same file.