Best way(s) to make an intro in a game ?

[Schlangan]

As I was thinking about improving my current project, I realized that I was clearly lacking an introduction. Indeed, for now, the game start with one soldier in a military base, but we don't know much of where he is, or what he is doing. We get an understanding bit by bit, but without specific knowledge of the setting of the universe.


To solve that problem, an introduction after the player hits the "New game" menu. But, how to do that ? What would be the best ways to make in introduction ? Is it cutscenes or simple dialogs ? Or something I didn't think about ? Let's discuss what is your opinion on the subject, and how you would be proceed.

 

[EternalShadow]

Just throw them in and introduce the plot over time, don't infodump it all at once - and keep it interesting enough for the player to want to continue to play.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

The way you describe your intro doesn't seem overly bothersome to me.

Personally, with intros. The sooner we get to playing the game, the better. A little bit of text at the beginning is fine. But I think at the start of the game we need to get invested in the character's experience right away, encounter things that make us ask questions, and then get the info dump. 

For me, it's sort of a bore to be given a bunch of information at the start that doesn't pertain immediately to the view point of the character I control.

 

[Ramiro]

You know, there is a resources called In medias res wich throws your player in the middle of the action, without explaning too much untill later.

This is an useful resource, because your player will receive the best first impression.

This will help you to skip the presentation until later, like how Final fantasy tactics did.

So probably "the best introduction" may sometimes be "not using one at the start"

 

[Schlangan]

I'm glad I asked the question here, since I didn't know what to do; and in fact I've been using in media res without even knowing about it. The NPCs in the base speak about the events in the universe, and help to give the setup. And further explanations are given throughout the missions, and will appear in memory lapses later in the game too.

 

[Valkyriet]

A big wall of text is probably going to bore a player; same goes for lengthy dialogues explaining things you don't necessarily need to know. I've played a few games which had NPCs explain some of the mechanics of the game, but I always skipped through the dialogue after reading the first line or so. It was more fun to figure out how to do something myself.

You could have your NPCs set with curiosity-inducing statements, for example, "Did you know [insert game/exploration/story-related knowledge here]". If the player wants to know more about it, you can give them a choice to read through the rest of the dialogue. Story revelation could be nice if presented as a detective novel - you can choose to flip to the end of the end of the book and discover who the culprit was, or you can do your own digging along the way.

 

[rpgdreamer]

I think introductions are amazing because there are so many ways that you can tackle them, especially in a video game. I have a love-hate relationship when a game throws me right into the middle of things: it's an exciting start, sure, but half the time I'm asking "WHAT IS GOING ON"?! I guess it also depends on how you want your player to feel.

If you want their curious nature to come out, sometimes not explaining things in the beginning is good, especially in games like horror, mystery, etc. Now, if you're setting yourself up for a good epic, I rather like introductions... especially in the forms of tales or poetry. I know the newest thing I am working on, I want it to start with a poem at the beginning to hint at what the game is going to be about, but otherwise the player is going to have to figure out everything else on their own.

Also, the beginning allows you to set up the atmosphere you want, so if you're having trouble deciding what to do, sometimes a good question to ask is how you want your player to feel. 9 times out of 10, that feeling is going to correlate directly to what the actual genre of your game is. If it's a horror, you probably want them to feel on edge/creeped out/sccared. For RPG, you want them to feel heroic and ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead. Action = Tough/Prepared, Romance = Wistful/Happy, etc... etc... I think taking that into consideration will help you with what style of intro you want to go for.

 

[Ramiro]

That is true also, both options are tools, it may depend on te game.

Sometimes the 'WHAT IS GOING ON?!' is something the developers actually wanted you to think too.

Parodies of this are in games like 'There is no time to explain'.

In RM game doesn't happend, but in other games you could use the loading times to explain things.

You can show the controls, you can show pieces of the story, how to use an item, usefull tips, etc.

Still you know, you may have the "mario & luigi syndrome" if you use in medias res, where if you are starting a new game and are a famous general in the middle of the battle, someone there asks you 'hey, do you remember how to do this, right?'

Your game actually tries to make abuse of the option of not knowing anything as a mechanic, but you would need an excuse to do that without rising the complains... The easiest way to do this is of course, amnesia, and that's why there are so many protagonist with it.

 

[Schlangan]

Hmmm... Seeing all your replies, I finally decided on what I'm going to do. It will be a kind of cutscene with the characters speaking to the author (since the 4th wall will be broken a lot of times in that game), in a humorisitic way. Doing so, it should be a little laugh right at the start, briefly introducing the context. It shuold convey the sci-fi/serious/stupid sides of the game. With a small dialog only, so it won't be long.


Thank you guys