How to start your story?

[PixeLockeT]

Typically throwing me into a boss battle or a ton of battles will drop my interest quick. I prefer getting to know the immediate situations through reading/text/character dialogues and introduction/etc. otherwise I'll think your game is just battle mechanics hung loosely by "a story". And I'm here more for the story.

 

[rue669]

My game starts with a quotation from the Torah then leads into an establishing shot of the first area. Then the main character pops out, says a few lines of text and that’s it you can play as him.

The player will learn to move around and talk to NPCs, and you’re rewarded for talking to NPCs. In my game, you are pretty much rewarded for everything you do. It’s constant dopamine hits. The beginning builds up, unlocking various gameplay mechanics in between short story scenes (which play as tutorials to the battle system).

Overall, the best way to start a story is to establish the want of the main character and hint at the need/lesson the character will need to learn. A few scenes into the game, you should also hinting at the theme (or what the main character will learn or refuse to learn by the end).

 

[Scribblestick]

I think the most important elements of a story opening are to give the player a compelling hook and a compelling character to follow. The "hook" is something interesting the player will want to learn about. For example, my current project opens with the following text:

My name is Abigail. I'm a survivor.
I was supposed to get on the train that night...
But...
It didn't work out that way.

Cut to a dark alley. Abigail is out of breath and wondering if she is safe. A not-too-distant explosion and a blaring siren inform her, and the player, that she is not safe. Abigail decides to find shelter. A few steps later, an unseen creature roars, and the alley around her bursts into flames.

So here are the compelling questions (I hope) the player will have at this point. Who is Abigail? What is she running from? Why didn't she get on the train? And, of course, how will she survive whatever is going on right now?

Of course, your hook will depend very much on what kind of game you're making. Mine is more of an urban fantasy survival adventure story, so this somewhat mysterious and chaotic open (I hope) works well. Whatever you do, you'll want it to be a good representation of the overall tone of your story, and ideally introduce most of the major themes, factions, or players. That doesn't mean have the big bad evil guy show up at the front, but you'll commonly see their minions making mischief.

I hope that will be enough to get the player's attention, but what keeps me invested in a story is a compelling character. By that, I mean a character I can connect with and care about; I want to find out how they make it through whatever adventure the developer has thrown them into. That's accomplished by giving them strengths to rely on, flaws to struggle with, goals to work toward, and roadblocks to get in the way. There's no way to completely flesh all of that out at the start, in my opinion, but just like introducing the factions, I like it when storytellers will at least introduce or hint at these things.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Here are the rules I stand by and also look for when playing games;

1. Non-skippable info dump is bad, players come to play your game not read/listen to it's lore with no option to skip. This is especially a problem for people wanting to playthrough your game more than once. Either make the intro skippable or really short.

2. Start in the middle of something going on in your world. It doesn't have to be something big and grandiose like a war but the best way to hit the ground running and engaging your player in your story is by starting in the middle of someone else's story. A good example that I am guessing most people would know about is Star Wars a new hope.

3. It takes roughly 60 seconds to lose player interest, break up the dialogue with either small gameplay elements or with cinematics that draw attention (think big explosions or a shot of an airship rising from the water into the sky). The second option definitely requires more graphical work and isn't really viable for most indie/hobby game devs so generally speaking you want to go with the first option, give the player something to do at least every 60 seconds.

4. Show don't tell. Unless you are making a text based game, this is a visual medium and you need to take advantage of that. Don't explain how big of a sky fortress you are about to siege is, show it to the player. There are ways to show players info both subtly and blatantly and figuring out how to do both and when/which to use is a skill in and of itself.

 

[Tai_MT]

I've already posted this somewhere else, but it's worth repeating. It's from the "What are you tired of seeing in RPG Maker games" thread. It says why mystery intros and starting in media res are generally bad ideas and gives you advice on how to set up a story.

Mystery Intros/Starting In Media Res
Look, 99 times out of 100, doing either of this is a great indicator that the writer is a talentless hack with no experience. So, unless you're exceptionally confident that you're the 1 out of 100... don't do it.

If you're telling a story, you need to set things up. You don't set them up with crazy and mysterious events. If I get through your intro and the plot of your game is "figure out what's going on", then that's a bad thing. Random words that mean nothing to the player and then zapping heroes to unfamiliar territory isn't a good way to set up your game.

Likewise, starting your game with the players not knowing what is going on is equally terrible.

Your intro should answer:
Who?
What?
Why?
When?
How?

Who are the characters? You need names and primary character traits on display. These are bare minimums.
What is the setting and circumstances around the characters? You need to establish the "norms" of the setting and convey why the circumstances around the characters is what it is.
Why are things happening the way they are? Why are the heroes being chased? Why were they teleported to this new world? Why are they doing the things they're doing.
When will the journey be over? What is the primary goal? Is the goal to get home? Is it to defeat the big bad? Is it just to get some cake? When will this journey be over?
How will we solve the problem? How will we get home? How will we defeat the big bad? How will we attain our cake? You need to establish an objective. This is paired with the "When". "When" establishes how the player knows they've succeeded and "How" establishes what the player must do to get to that point.

If your Intro (including tutorials) does not establish all five of these, it is going to fall flat and player investment is going to be negligible.

Stop dropping me into combat in the first 3 minutes of your game against unknown people with unknown characters. Stop making your plot about solving the mystery of what happened to you. Unless your mystery is extremely amazing and something I would've never guessed until the moment you revealed it to me... it's a crappy mystery and it will feel shallow and weak and empty.

"Solve the mystery" plots rarely ever pay off in a satisfactory way. So, avoid them unless you've got like "Stephen King" levels of talent and books written.

 

[Dororo]

An RPG is quite about "make your own story" so the less you force on your players to begin with the better.

I think you can differentiate between Story intro and Game Intro.

The Story intro it's usually staged before or just after the title screen. It set the whole universe premise and probably something the player will face very late in the game. Usually this thing can be skipped. It's like the dragon eye of Breath of Fire or the Magi War story in FF6 (or 99% of scrolling intro text in Konami games). You can skip it as the thing will be faced later anyway, but can set the mood and avid readers will probably stop at least once to read it, creating a narrative cohesion with the ending (if someone care of, you can't force it on someone). Other examples: the dragon carvings of Legend of Dragoons. Early Shin Megami Tensei intro. Prof Oak telling you of Pokemon. The War of the Lions animation in Final Fantasy Tactics. Animations at the beginning of Xenogears. The text wall at Super Robot Wars just after starting a new game.
The Story intro focus on the global universe, not the main character.

Then you have the actual Game intro.
It work mostly like an indirect tutorial.
MANY RPG start in front of the elder that tell you 3 lines: something's wrong in the realm, go investigate. Take my fancy magical pants goodbye.
OR: wake up sleepyhead, the elder is waiting you to grant you a sword your 14th birthday!
OR: wake up, you dreamed of a dragon, let's go talk to the elder about the end of our universe!

...so, to me sound that everything begin with a SMALL dialogue and just after you explore a safe location (the 'haven') where you can practice with movement, dialogue, shopping and stole stuff. If you want to indepth the background, you can talk to people/inspect the Great Dragon statue, but if you're ok you can simply rush.

THEN immediatedly after have you move from the haven to the next city, practicing simple combat with low level creatures and map movement.

PROBABLY in the second city you'll get the first partner and you'll learn about party composition and magic (again, speaking with people/inspecting stuff let you know a bit more of the background, if you want for).

BACK to the haven you can practice mutliple combat actions and party management, probably status (poison), item use (antidote), and you should reach a far location, learning how to stock stuff and operate the map.

AND JUST THEN the bad one appear/your heritage show off/your father die/the village get pillaged and you have all the technical knowledge to pursue revenge...or go shopping first, whatever you'll like to build your own story.