Teaser

A teaser is generally any promotional material about a game that is released before the game itself is released. When done properly, teasers promote awareness of and interest in the game-to-be, so when the game is released, the gaming public is more likely to know about it, talk about it, and play it.

Examples

This teaser video was for a 3D adventure sequel to Planetfall that was never released.

This teaser website promoted Savoir-Faire (Emily Short; 2002; Z-code).

Amissville (A. P. Hill; publisher: Santoonie Corporation; 2002; TADS 2) was promoted in advance with several postings on the rec.games.int-fiction and rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroups, but these were not well received, resulting in accusations of spamming, trolling, sockpuppetry, plus a few mocking parodies afterwards.

The "blueful" promotion for the full version of Blue Lacuna (Aaron A. Reed; 2009; Glulx) involved postings on several websites, which readers could follow in a sequence from one site to the next. One significant downside of this type of promotion was that it wasn't very stable, since if any of the postings in the chain were deleted for any reason, the rest of the chain could not be followed.

Emily Short's "A Public Service Announcement" in September 2010 for a game yet to be otherwise announced.

Andrew Plotkin a.k.a. Zarf posted cover art in three stages in October 2010. First, we saw just the background of art. Second, the pictogram signage was added. Finally, text was added, and we now know the game will be called Hadean Lands. [Sorry to edit my own entry, but November 1 is not a release date. I will have more details at that time, is all I'm saying. --Z]