Creating Short Form Video Content: A Gamer's Guide

TikTok, IG Reels, and YouTube Shorts are huge platforms. Read here to learn how to make short-form gaming videos and grow your audience.

Social media has changed the world for gamers. With the rise of platforms like YouTube and Twitch, it’s more feasible than ever for gamers to make a living doing what they love. But the content creation game has changed in recent years, so it’s time to adapt and learn how to make short-form video content.

Simply put, short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have billions of active users every single day. It’s where the audience is, so you need to start posting content there if you want to continue growing your following.

So today, we’re going to talk about creating short-form video content, why it’s important, and how you can do it in a way that’s easy and fun. Keep reading and learn how to grow a wider audience across all of the biggest platforms.

Why Is the Short Form Video Format Important?

It’s no secret that TikTok (and Vine before it) have absolutely changed the social media world forever. It’s more than likely that you’re hooked on TikTok right now. There are a few reasons why TikTok is incredibly important in the social media world.

For one, it’s amazing to use. The algorithm is incredibly good at feeding users an endless stream of curated, bite-sized content that they’ll love. It’s also a fun platform with a culture of its own, from memes to trends to audio bites. User-generated content, or UGC, is the primary type of content we consume now, thanks to TikTok.

Second, short-form video platforms like TikTok are vital for creators. Because of the way the For You Page algorithm is set up, it’s the best in the business at getting your content out to as many interested viewers as possible. Never before have you been able to get your content in front of a new audience’s eyes as easily as you can now.

Beyond TikTok

As you know, it’s not just TikTok that’s in the short form video game. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are also on the rise, following a similar model. YouTube Shorts, in particular, is an incredibly important platform for gamers and streamers to utilize.

If you’re a streamer or content creator, you’re likely spending a bunch of time making long-form videos to post to YouTube. The great thing about YouTube Shorts is that you’re still reaching your target audience, but they also give the viewer a way to subscribe to your YouTube channel right from the video. So Shorts are also a great way to get conversions that build your YouTube following.

At the end of the day, think about short-form videos as a form of video marketing. Each video a user scrolls through is like a billboard, and they’re just waiting for one to capture their attention. So make quality, interesting videos that utilize these important digital marketing principles!

What Type of Short Form Content Should You Make?

There are all sorts of different types of short-form content that gamers can jump on. People are itching to see hilarious, skilled, and interesting gaming content on their social media platforms, so this type of content does really well.

If you’re stumped on what type of content to make, here are some ideas to help get the juices flowing so you can leverage short-form video as much as possible in your influencer marketing strategy.

Gameplay Highlights

Who doesn’t love to see skilled players pop off and get insane kills? It’s one of the biggest reasons why gaming creators are so successful. We love to watch people be good at the games we play!

This is why short videos that compile a few great kills or victories make for really great content. They show your audience that you’re a seasoned gamer that has something major to offer. They’re also great for showing off and building your audience’s trust, which is important for any streamer or creator.

When you do this, make sure your clips only show the good stuff. It’s hard to capture the viewers’ attention span on these platforms, so your video needs to grab their interest quickly. (And Powder can help you do just that.)

Memes

We all love a good meme, and the gaming world is full of them. We’ve all been in games with absolutely wild teammates who make us laugh or have encountered crazy glitches that ruin the game in a funny way. And we all love voiceovers, sound effects, and graphics.

Meme content does super well on short-form platforms. Laughter is the best way to make a person remember you, so making funny content should definitely be a part of your media approach.

We’ve all seen clip compilations with cheesy audio bites scattered throughout the video. Little laser noises with each bullet, fart noises when an opponent dies, and ridiculous two-second voiceovers might sound ridiculous in theory, but they can make a video pop off if done right.

Short Tutorials

We all love learning more about the games we love, and there are a lot of casual gamers out there looking for quick ways to learn skills in the game, discover how to beat a boss, or find out secrets about the game.

Tutorials are useful and practical, and they help your viewers take away something from your platform. And while it’s true that detailed tutorials are more effective than short ones, something is better than nothing. If you post a longer video, you can also use our Powder for Creators software to repurpose your hours of footage into a quick 10-second explainer video to use on TikTok.

For short-form platforms, make your tutorials quick, fast-paced, and interesting. Hit the bullet points, and don’t feel the need to dive into every nitty gritty detail of how to nail that tech or the dozens of different tactics you can use for a boss fight. Give them the short and sweet, and let them work out the rest on their own.

Patches and Updates

This is especially important for popular MMOs like Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, Fortnite, and other games with a battle pass model. Games are constantly getting updates that change the way we play.

These can include map changes, character tweaks, new weapons and skins, and fixed glitches. All of these are incredibly relevant to your followers, who are devoted players. So when your game gets an update, read the patch notes and make a short video giving your viewers the details.

These videos are not only helpful, but they’re a great way to build engagement. People get heated when it comes to patch notes, so take advantage of that and let them tilt in your comment section to boost engagement!

Reactions

We all love a good reaction video — it's so entertaining to watch your favorite influencer's honest reaction to something they’re seeing for the first time. It’s one of those short-form video trends that won’t go out of style any time soon.

Whether you post reactions to new teaser trailers or reactions to other creators’ gameplay footage, this type of video makes for great content. It’s also a great way to get your name next to another creator’s name, which can be a great social media marketing strategy to build your brand.

Coaching

If you’re a more established creator and you’ve taken up coaching other players, you can make educational videos to post to your platform. Take the most important clip from your coaching session, chop it up into a small video, and share it.

It’s generally a good content strategy to make content that benefits your audience, and this does that to a T. With this method, it’s easy to accidentally make those videos a bit too long — so make sure you watch your video length.

Tips for Making Short Videos

Making short videos might seem like a laborious task, but there are lots of resources out there that can help you make videos quickly and easily — you just have to know what they are. So here are some important tools that will help you with video editing.

Powder

If you’ve never heard of Powder PC, we’re about to blow your mind. To make all these short-form videos, you’re going to need a good bit of in-game content. This normally requires recording your gaming sessions and chopping out clips later or getting software that lets you program hotkeys to make clips.

Powder is a far easier and more practical way of getting all the content you need. This AI software is trained to detect important in-game moments like kills and victories in your stream videos.

If you’re a streamer, as an example, you would import your VOD to Powder, and Powder will show you the best highlights from your multi-hour stream, allow you to change them from horizontal to vertical, and even stitch them together into a montage. All done in a flash, using the power of AI.

This makes editing a breeze. You’ll have dozens of short clips of your best moments that you can put in a montage tutorial with the click of a button. So check out Powder PC and never worry about running out of content again.

Pick the Right Software

You know your limits when it comes to editing. For most of us, editing videos is no simple task, so it helps if your software is easy to use and lets you do everything you need it to do. That said, everybody has different preferences, so you might have to try out a few different software before you find one that makes sense for you.

There are a ton of free video editors out there. Vimeo, CapCut, and Filmora are some of the bigger ones, but there are dozens out there. Lots of these platforms also have templates that make your life easier if editing is a challenge. So explore and take advantage of all the features you can find.

Utilize Short Videos To Grow Your Audience

Short-form videos are content creators’ bread and butter in this day and age. They’re the fastest way to build your audience, and they can work wonders at driving people to your YouTube and Twitch channels, where you can monetize. It’s all about conversion!

So take these tips and get started making some incredible content. Before long, you could have a TikTok video sensation. For more help with content creation, sharing videos, and becoming a video game creator, visit the Powder blog!  

--

💡If you're a streamer looking to save time and money extracting highlights and creating montages from your latest streams, get access to Powder Studio for PC (Windows) now.

💡Learn more about Powder at our website or join our Discord, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn communities!