This Animation For Wide Sky Raises The Bar On Beautiful iPhone Game Trailers

With over 1 million apps in Apple’s app store, it’s become increasingly hard for developers to stand out. So, much like their big-budget console counterparts, independent app creators are taking on the task of making their own game trailers.

This teaser (above) for Wide Sky by designer, animator and iPhone programmer, Marcus Eckhert might be one of the most eye-popping to date. In the video, we see a warmly lit and expertly textured 3D world juxtaposed with the more mid-century illustrated look of the game. The attention to detail in both the trailer and game are impressive: geometric explosions, gliding and sliding stats, deco typography.

Photo: Marcus Eckhert

In the game, you play a bubbly hedgehog who must climb through the sky to destroy orbs and collect the broken pieces. It's like Tarzan meets Sonic meets the UPA. Though the game mechanics are admittedly tough to master, Eckhert poured a lot of animation love into the intro tutorials that guide you through the story and rules.

Photo: Marcus Eckhert

While Eckhert's background is in animation, making a game was something of a childhood dream for him. "I was always a little disappointed that I had never done anything in the direction. And then smartphones came along, apps came along, and then I was a motion design freelancer who could use some time off."

Wide Sky was Eckhert's excuse to learn to code and learn game design. "I started reading up on coding in the summer of 2011, usually a couple hours at night, but I only started working full-time on the game in December of 2011. I never planned for the game to take so… long, but I kept improving and suddenly wasn't satisfied with what I had."

The trailer was made concurrent to the game over the course of about two months. "I thought, if the game bombs, I'd still have a (hopefully) nice looking video," Eckhert wrote us in an email. The trailer was a way for him to hedge his bets on the success of the game and push his abilities in the photorealistic realm of 3D.

Whether or not Eckhert will choose to be a full time game developer instead of an animator is still up in the air. For now, he’s committed to iterating and improving on Wide Sky. “It's nice to have created the illusion of having mastered anything but I just really go through and edit my work over and over again," he said. "After some time, you figure out shortcuts, but then your standards also improve and I guess you improve with your standards.”

Photo: Marcus Eckhert

Photo: Marcus Eckhert

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