HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR GAME IS INTERESTING AND IF YOUR INTRO IS GOOD?

Start by figuring out what it is that's interesting about your game. What questions (and answers) does it raise about society or human nature that you've never seen addressed (or at least, never addressed the same way) in another work before? What is it about your game that will change the way people will look at the world?

Coming up with an interesting idea is a lot harder than figuring out how to convey it. Look at some of the best intros you've ever seen before and take notes on what makes it so effective. What techniques do they employ? What is it, specifically, that grabbed your interest?

Sailerius
Start by figuring out what it is that's interesting about your game. What questions (and answers) does it raise about society or human nature that you've never seen addressed (or at least, never addressed the same way) in another work before? What is it about your game that will change the way people will look at the world?

This doesn't just have to be society/human nature, as long as you know your game's central theme or concept and make it apparent the second the player loads up the game. Think about the original Final Fantasy -- it had a ThE wOrLd iS DyInGgGggG intro to establish the crystal-bearers, and then they went on their quest. They killed the bad knight guy and saved the princess and hooray happy ever after.

But... wait. The game didn't end. Saving the princess would be the end to most other games in the era, but instead now you get to cross the bridge to the north and the TRUE intro plays. FF established that it was a game about defying expectations and breaking the rules of the game industry, which it has done in many, many different ways since then (that intro was the introduction to an entire franchise, you could say, if you were gonna go crazy).

Compare to FF7's intro. The very first thing you see is almost a full minute of stars. Just panning around, looking at stars. Then you see little specks of lifestream fly around a girl who looks like she has pointy ears, which seems pretty alien (yes, that's her bow, but it LOOKS like elven ears).

there you go. that's it. that's ff7's plot in 60 seconds: stars, glowy bits and aliens. but still, if you watch for another 30 seconds or so, we pull back through midgar. we can see the sky again, but the lights and smog dim it out so it's just black. the comet logo appears over this dismal starless night sky. and if the first bit wasn't enough, now you know the entire conceit of FF7. congratulations, now you understand the intro that hooked an entire generation of gamers.

(also 3d is important to the power of ff7 but i wanted to keep this short)

author=djbeardo
One common complaint I see on here is that people generally don't like games that start with draggy cutscenes or weirdly long tutorials. Of course, if your game is more of a visual novel, it's going to be all cutscene... so that advice may not help. But I would give the player an opportunity to do something quickly after the game starts.
Also, if your intro does start with a cutscene (even an exciting one), be sure things are spelled correctly and the attention to detail is generally high. If there are hitches, typos, dead events, wrong busts, etc., people will tune out.

That's generally true but if the intro is really gripping and engaging, you can get away with anything. The opening sequence to MGSV is astounding, even though it's what, 15, 20 minutes long? but it keeps you so engaged that the time flies by, and it builds your anticipation for when the gameplay starts.

I do agree in theory though. I recently started playing Trails in the Sky and it was an hour and a half before I got to the first battle, and if you asked me to summarize what happened in the intro, I couldn't really tell you anything. It was just a whole lot of nothing.

author=Sailerius
Start by figuring out what it is that's interesting about your game. What questions (and answers) does it raise about society or human nature that you've never seen addressed (or at least, never addressed the same way) in another work before? What is it about your game that will change the way people will look at the world?

Idk if every game should be Planescape Torment. You're talking about a specific direction that probably wouldn't apply to say... Megaman Legends where all it's trying to do is create an inviteable charming world and nothing more. I think it's better to phrase it in such a way that the entire game's concept is established at the start of the game so that you're not confused. The concept being whatever feeling (simple or complicated) you want to convey throughout the game. (A sense of adventure, an intricate thinking experience, a mysterious horror or even a relevant societal theme like you mentioned).

author=Craze
(also 3d is important to the power of ff7 but i wanted to keep this short)

Functionally FF7's intro is perfect. But it is true that 1997 meant that you could surprise people very easily just by having anything imposing or impressive. So I think a good intro can benefit from being relevant, because THE TIMES. I remember MGS1 feeling really important because of the gaelic opera music during scuba diving in the water, it was fresh and unique for what I thought would be a military action game. It certainly wasn't the standard, and idk if "BE ORIGINAL" is the best way to sum it up, but there's something about the execution and current day context combining together to make something that feels "ahead" of the audience. It's very hard to do that nowadays in movies I think.

author=Sail
That's generally true but if the intro is really gripping and engaging, you can get away with anything. The opening sequence to MGSV is astounding, even though it's what, 15, 20 minutes long? but it keeps you so engaged that the time flies by, and it builds your anticipation for when the gameplay starts.

Keep in mind you're playing metal gear solid fucking five, you don't care if kojima sits you in a bed listening to david bowie cover music for a straight 2 minutes. You'll see to it to the end just to put whatever following of the series story you have to rest. Personally I found the intro quite horrible, but the hospital bed sequence at lest felt relevant content wise like "what could kojima be up to now?". So I see it as, as long as you're the director of a long time established series you can get away with anything.

author=Darken
Idk if every game should be Planescape Torment. You're talking about a specific direction that probably wouldn't apply to say... Megaman Legends where all it's trying to do is create an inviteable charming world and nothing more. I think it's better to phrase it in such a way that the entire game's concept is established at the start of the game so that you're not confused. The concept being whatever feeling (simple or complicated) you want to convey throughout the game. (A sense of adventure, an intricate thinking experience, a mysterious horror or even a relevant societal theme like you mentioned).

I would argue that, even if you're trying to make a game just for pure fun and entertainment, every game is making some statement about society, whether or not you intend it to, so the onus is on the creator to distill what their gameplay/story is saying and ensure it's a message they want to tell. For instance, almost any JRPG where you can overcome challenges by grinding is in some way conveying a theme about hard work, determination, bootstraps, etc; that genre of gameplay inherently reinforces a libertarian-capitalist worldview where the worth of a person is judged by how hard they work.

...But that's probably a discussion for a different thread and I agree with the spirit of what you're saying.

Also Re:MGSV, I was talking specifically about the hospital bed part and not the tutorial as a whole.

author=Sailerius
Start by figuring out what it is that's interesting about your game. What questions (and answers) does it raise about society or human nature that you've never seen addressed (or at least, never addressed the same way) in another work before? What is it about your game that will change the way people will look at the world?

I would like to make that advice more generic. Rather than going with society or human nature specifically, I would advice thinking about what is good about your game period. Is an aspect of the story, the gameplay or just atmosphere? Whatever it is, try to show that (non awkwardly) in the intro. Your intro is good if it convinced me that the rest of your game will be good.

Other than that, a lot of rules that applies to other scenes also applies to the intro. Are you good at making various scenes interesting, exiting, intense or whatever? If so, then chance is you can do the same with the intro. If not, then expect that you will have mediocre success doing any of those in the intro as well.