Setting the Stage, How do you do it? Options

[TheCableGuy]

Suppose, in your game, you have details, or maybe a short backstory that you feel that the player really needs to know prior to playing the actual game because this Information is critical to understanding the character, the Circumstances the character is in, or maybe even alluding to possible future events and\or "Easter Eggs" that the player may not realize it at the time but may become evident later in the story.

Now say, you would like to get as much of this into the Intro as you can without boring the player with details that is not self-evident and especially not creating, what I like to call, a Stars Wars Intro with LOOOONG Text on a dull, boring background.

For my little Project, I have the Main Character Enter from off Screen, Thinking to herself about where she is, how she came to be, a little of her past and who she is while walking through her home. It continues with setting the stage of her Circumstances while alluding to (but not directly revealing) the adventure ahead of her before coming up to her first decision which effects the direction in which her adventure progresses.

The whole Intro takes roughly 5 mins (give or take depending on how fast the player reads) before she's faced with her first choice (I'm thinking about adding in a Save prior to this but it interrupts the "Flow" of the intro.) But 5 mins still seams to be a bit much, even though I've tried to use as much visual "Tricks" as to where the Player shouldn't be too bored when watching it.

So I'm asking for some more "tricks" to doing better Intros where the Intro is pretty important in Setting the Stage.

This post has been edited by TheCableGuy: Feb 20 2012, 12:59 PM

[Kaust]

Using flashbacks to establish settings through action is pretty popular.
Also I'd strongly recommend against the character starting out confused, it'll confuse the player. Besides your character should really be able to remember what happened ten minutes ago, I remember my life, your character should feel as real to the player as if it were a real person. Unless of course memory loss is intrinsic to the plot or character.

[TheCableGuy]

Using flashbacks to establish settings through action is pretty popular.
Also I'd strongly recommend against the character starting out confused, it'll confuse the player. Besides your character should really be able to remember what happened ten minutes ago, I remember my life, your character should feel as real to the player as if it were a real person. Unless of course memory loss is intrinsic to the plot or character.

Oh no. I didn't mean to imply she had Memory loss, Rather she is thinking to herself (and thus, telling the Player) who she is, where she is and why and how she came to be there.

[KD648]

For what it's worth, a trick that I tend to use when I have a LOT of excess information the player should know (my plots tend to be complicated), is to actually NOT explain it. When done correctly by giving just enough information, it's a great way to generate tension, and then when you DO reveal the information it feels like a reward, not like the player is being punished by exposition. A great example of this in a game is Limbo (although I take issue with the ending). Some other non-game examples are "Ordinary People" which is a book and a movie, and "Ghost Hound", which is an anime. They start by letting you know that something is inherently wrong, but not telling you exactly what it is. Part of the story is uncovering the real problem.

As for your character, as long as her goals and personality are clearly defined from the very beginning, her motives can reveal themselves at any time. As long as the player is absolutely certain that her backstory is somehow important and that it will be given in time, it will motivate them to continue playing the game.

However, if the information is REALLY important to have upfront, I wouldn't shy away from exposing the player to a cutscene as long as EVERY SINGLE SECOND is important. If you ever played Half-Life 2, remember the section where you were trapped in a chair and moving through the citadel? It was a good five minutes of forced cinematics at the climax of the game, which every game design textbook will tell you is a mistake of apocalyptic proportions, and yet it not only worked, but was brilliant because the player was constantly learning. The key is that the player wasn't being told how he should feel, he was being presented with information and allowed to draw his own conclusion. The other key to this is conflict. As long as there's a sense of inherent conflict in your cutscene/opening, then the player will be too busy wondering what's going to happen next, rather than how long this cutscene has been.

In the midst of me standing on my soap box, my point is this: if you absolutely need to put the information up front, do it as quickly and artistically as you can, but don't feel the need to cater to the shortest attention span in the room. Do what's right for your game.

[TheCableGuy]

I think one of my main issues is that I'm a fairly poor writer so I'm not so sure I can manage to convey what I need to tell the player is a way in which the player would appreciate. Add to that, I'm torn between using Narration and Monolog during certain parts. It just seams a little odd for her to be "thinking" the whole time, so I have parts where she does sort of talk to herself and one or two cases of Narration, in which the game is 'talking' to the player. But I've also included a few visual events to also add to the "Life" or "aliveness" that I'm trying to bring out in the game (Which I plan to carry on throughout the game so it's more natural) but I also don't want to take the Lazy way and overuse the same ....... How does one say, "ways to keep the player's interest" (sorry. if there is word for this, I do not know.)

For what it's worth, a trick that I tend to use when I have a LOT of excess information the player should know (my plots tend to be complicated), is to actually NOT explain it. When done correctly by giving just enough information, it's a great way to generate tension, and

I think, one of the plot devices that I'm trying to imply is that she believes her life to be very simple and, at first it appears to be before is get complicated, even though the story starts out with on a single complication which is what first sets the stage.

This post has been edited by TheCableGuy: Feb 20 2012, 07:50 PM

[shinyjiggly]

At the beginning of my game, I have sort of an intro thing where you get to see a bunch of important characters (only one or two on screen at a time) doing their own thing, but there are no words on screen that are related to the scenes displayed; just the opening credits.
That way, the player will know that one guy is a thrill seeker not because it was explained though text, but because the game revealed this character snowboarding down a hill and had a closeup of the same character with a parachute and cool glasses.

After the intro, the main character just does her usual rounds around town while restricted by a tutorial that in-game, is supposed to have been set up by one of the more eccentric townspeople (which even goes as far as to physically block the player's path until they equip a sweater for protection).All the others in town show through their dialogue that they didn't ask for this guy to do this and don't appreciate any of his odd and counterproductive efforts to "get her ready for the coming month's events" at all. Also, because the player was given non-verbal clues about certain characters before they even got to begin, they will most likely try to seek out those characters first when lost in an objective of some sort.

Also, I stored a lot of other juicy bits of info in the town library, just in case the player wishes for some extra history and background info that probably wouldn't make its way into a typical conversation (though much of it does come into play later in the story).

So in summery, try to sneak in surrounding information (and gameplay basics) through ways that feel natural for the given setting/point within the story.

[spada2555]

Good post. I appreciate it! Thanks for guiding.