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CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS - SHORT AND SWEET OR EXPLANATORY?
Posts
kitten2021
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CloseOK, I've hit a moment in my game that made me stop and think, "What do people like more in a game that makes you play more than one characters story?
So, I figured I'd post the question and see what everyone really thought...
Do you like to see a short splash screen that introduces you to the knew hero your going to be playing with a intro of only a minute or two, or do you want to see a nice explanatory introduction that explains everything to you in a nice little movie?
Lets hear it peeps, I'm sure it will help to guide others in their intro-movie/scene making futures as well. :)
So, I figured I'd post the question and see what everyone really thought...
Do you like to see a short splash screen that introduces you to the knew hero your going to be playing with a intro of only a minute or two, or do you want to see a nice explanatory introduction that explains everything to you in a nice little movie?
Lets hear it peeps, I'm sure it will help to guide others in their intro-movie/scene making futures as well. :)
Short splash. Explanations should all come spaced throughout gameplay as that person, not in a giant text dump on top of your head.
Shinan
4314
Characters totally need to be introduced with cool title cards like in the movies. (Like this!)
And that's also all the introduction they really need.
And that's also all the introduction they really need.
Small quick stuff at first. Show your characters personality, quirks, and traits throughout the game, not a mass unload when you first see them. Show who your characters are, don't tell!
thernz
582
Just do small stuff. Use that chunk of story for story spread throughout in-game. The best course would be something extremely minimal like Shinan's example. Let the character's actions introduce themselves.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
At first? I just want to know his personality. The character's backstory isn't going to matter to me until I care about what he's doing now, and I won't care about what he's doing now until it's what I'm doing now; that is to say, until I've been in control of him long enough to get attached.
short
always
for everything
characters, tutorials, battle animations, reaction sequences, cutscenes, bosses
short, intense, to-the-point
short
always
for everything
characters, tutorials, battle animations, reaction sequences, cutscenes, bosses
short, intense, to-the-point
short
Crystalgate
694
I'll also echo "short".
Here's the deal, you can not hook the player by a long story. You need to hook the player with your character's mannerism, the situations the character gets into and how she/he handles those situations. Trying to get a players interest with a long movie is a poor move.
Here's the deal, you can not hook the player by a long story. You need to hook the player with your character's mannerism, the situations the character gets into and how she/he handles those situations. Trying to get a players interest with a long movie is a poor move.
author=Crystalgate
Trying to get a players interest with a long movie is a poor move.
This is something I have noticed a lot of people trying to do with their games; I don't think they realize that most people really only want to actually be 'forced' to watch a 2 minute to (what would you say?) 5 minute long intro to anything. Anything longer than those and your game is pretty much going to start loosing 'favorite stars' basically.
You guys think so as well, or am I looking at this wrong?
If we're talking a cutscene where another character joins up with the party, you'd be doing well with a 30-second dialogue between the party and the character. You don't learn much about him at first, but over the course of the game, his actions and speech, his playstyle, and his reasons for sticking around, the player learns everything he wants and needs to know about the character. For example, a lot of SNES RPGs have mere 30-second "introductions" when the character joins, but the character has been mentioned before by other people (Paula, Earthbound), joins "temporarily" because he has a similar goal (Frog, Chrono Trigger) or teams up with the party for reasons that are explained later (Geno, Super Mario RPG). These games stayed away from lengthy backstories until they became relevant, and it worked out very well for them.
I'm curious as to what you mean by intro - can you give me an example of this?
P.S.:As a side note, a 2-5 minute intro would be very long intro for each character joining your party. I can't speak for anybody else but around the second or third time I had to sit through a huge character intro I'd hit the power switch.
I'm curious as to what you mean by intro - can you give me an example of this?
P.S.:As a side note, a 2-5 minute intro would be very long intro for each character joining your party. I can't speak for anybody else but around the second or third time I had to sit through a huge character intro I'd hit the power switch.
Everything indlucing tutorials/exposition/plot/ etc should be given in a slowly-upward-scrolling yellow walls of text.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Intro to Contra 3: 0:00
Intro to Chrono Trigger: 0:30
Intro to FF6: 2:00 plus skippable credits
Intro to FF7: 2:20
Intro to Tales of Symphonia: 3:30
Intro to FF4: 6:00
Intro to Metal Gear Solid 2: 10:45 plus skippable noninteractive tutorial
Intro to Xenosaga Episode 1: 13:45
Xenosaga and MGS2 get pretty grating - MGS's less so due to mostly being immediately relevant to your mission, though not all of it is, and the parts that aren't are the grating parts. ToS's intro is actually far more obnoxious than FF4's despite being much shorter, on account of ToS's intro being a classroom lecture about mythology, while FF4's intro is an invasion followed by a conversation with heavy political significance.
I think if you have more than 3 minutes before the player gets control, the intro needs a good amount of action.
Intro to Chrono Trigger: 0:30
Intro to FF6: 2:00 plus skippable credits
Intro to FF7: 2:20
Intro to Tales of Symphonia: 3:30
Intro to FF4: 6:00
Intro to Metal Gear Solid 2: 10:45 plus skippable noninteractive tutorial
Intro to Xenosaga Episode 1: 13:45
Xenosaga and MGS2 get pretty grating - MGS's less so due to mostly being immediately relevant to your mission, though not all of it is, and the parts that aren't are the grating parts. ToS's intro is actually far more obnoxious than FF4's despite being much shorter, on account of ToS's intro being a classroom lecture about mythology, while FF4's intro is an invasion followed by a conversation with heavy political significance.
I think if you have more than 3 minutes before the player gets control, the intro needs a good amount of action.
@slashphoenix Well, in my game you play as 5 heroes; you play their stories first before any of them actually meet each other. Example for you, the first 30 minutes (give or take a few) of game play surrounds 2 of the first heroes, 2 soldiers. You play their little story and then when you get to a specific point, their story ends and the player gets transferred to another part of the world/game and gets introduced to a new character that you end up taking control over and playing his/her story until he/she gets to the same place as the soldiers or to another specially designated location where he/she will meet up with another hero you'll play as.
In the end, all 5 heroes end up meeting up in one place and this is how they all end up plopped together to form your 5-man/woman party you keep through-out the game.
So see, this is why this is so interesting to me - I have 3 other heroes I need to introduce the player to, but not introduce them to the other heroes yet; that's done rather later on into the game - about 1 1/2 - 2 hours later into it. (Yes, that's a long time, but the game itself is a rather large game.)
My original thought was just to have a splash screen come up and have something quoted on there that somehow relates to the character that your going to be playing. Such as for the assassin in the group, my thoughts for her would be it popping up and saying Prologue, then saying something like "Do not allow your dagger to linger on the tiger’s throat long, for soon the heart will no longer wish its death." - which has a meaning a little later into the game. But again, that's just an example of what I mean...
In the end, all 5 heroes end up meeting up in one place and this is how they all end up plopped together to form your 5-man/woman party you keep through-out the game.
So see, this is why this is so interesting to me - I have 3 other heroes I need to introduce the player to, but not introduce them to the other heroes yet; that's done rather later on into the game - about 1 1/2 - 2 hours later into it. (Yes, that's a long time, but the game itself is a rather large game.)
My original thought was just to have a splash screen come up and have something quoted on there that somehow relates to the character that your going to be playing. Such as for the assassin in the group, my thoughts for her would be it popping up and saying Prologue, then saying something like "Do not allow your dagger to linger on the tiger’s throat long, for soon the heart will no longer wish its death." - which has a meaning a little later into the game. But again, that's just an example of what I mean...
author=kitten2021
In the end, all 5 heroes end up meeting up in one place and this is how they all end up plopped together to form your 5-man/woman party you keep through-out the game.
That's actually a pretty solid plan and it sounds like a lot of fun - and it clears up what you meant earlier.
My take is that when you switch focus from your first set of characters to your next, you should make it very clear, maybe with a black screen saying "Meanwhile, in Citysburg..." or "One Week Earlier..." if possible.
From there, you could do one of many things:
1) The easiest way to introduce a new hero to the player would be through a dialogue cutscene between the new hero and someone else he knows. This allows you to drop the hero's name, establish some of his personality, his profession, mission, etc.
2) You could drop the player right into the control of someone else, maybe with a small transition, or the quote you mentioned above, without even explaining it to the player. They'd have to figure out what's going on themselves. I have seen this done wrong, but when it's done right, it's very cool and effective. For example, you could put them in control of the assassin in the middle of a mission, and they'd figure out that the hero was an assassin pretty quick (when they themselves murder someone). Very fun.
author=slashphoenix
...you should make it very clear, maybe with a black screen saying "Meanwhile, in Citysburg..." or "One Week Earlier..." if possible.
Lol, that is actually an AWESOME idea! I hadn't even thought of doing that!
Throwing the player into the fray with another *new* hero is also a very short and quick way to introduce the player to that new character they'll be playing through-out the game. Just as short and quick as the splash screen and intro... Another nice idea for people to use. :)
No splash screens or character info boxes, for god's sake. Characterize your characters by having them do things in the story. Show, don't tell. That way, you're killing two birds with one stone.
And you've only GOT one stone so kill as many birds as possible with it.
And you've only GOT one stone so kill as many birds as possible with it.
Well it depends on the game, to be honest.
If the game is meant to be long, and (a) character(s) may have some big history, then I'd rather knock off a lot of the story at the start, than when I'm 'REALLY' getting into the game.
Final Fantasy X actually did too much 'cut scenes' and a lot were about the history of the characters and it got annoying when you're enjoy actually playing the game, instead of a an hour here and there in-between character introductions and other movies.
If the game is meant to be long, and (a) character(s) may have some big history, then I'd rather knock off a lot of the story at the start, than when I'm 'REALLY' getting into the game.
Final Fantasy X actually did too much 'cut scenes' and a lot were about the history of the characters and it got annoying when you're enjoy actually playing the game, instead of a an hour here and there in-between character introductions and other movies.
