Prologue or not prologue?

[Lars Ulrika]

So, I decided at last to start making that prologue in my game. For now it includes a more or less 3 minutes introductory cutscene (might get longer) + a short playable "tutorial" part with a character you will see later but most likely won't get to play except if finding the way to make her join your party. This playable part will help the player to understand why a precise character became what she is but it's not an absolute must to know about that either now as it will be mentioned later with less precisions. 

I realized that there are some rpgs where after having played it once I'm wishing I could skip the introductory cutscene that tells me stuff that I now already know , hence why I thought "if I don't like it there must be other players who hate that too so why not giving this option?" hence a "Skip Intro?" choice popping up after hitting "new game". 

On the other hand, I'm afraid that some people might take that as a bad first impression from the very first second playing the game like "oh wow he proposes to skip the intro it must be an annoying and useless one" (which hopefully isn't ).  

What's your opinion about this? 

 

[Sel Feena]

> I think there are scripts kicking about that can do this, so yes. If I've seen a tutorial once I should be able to skip it, but still watch the cutscene as that's still part of the story.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

I've seen commercial RM games have a skip intro option, and I never found it strange.

 

[mlogan]

I wouldn't find it strange at all to have that open up on my first round of playing. Many commercial games have this feature and I appreciate it if it's not my first time playing the game. If I saw it the first time, I would just chose to watch it so that I know the background of the story.

 

[Lars Ulrika]

Thanks! I'll keep the option popping up in first place then . 

 

[Mouser]

Tons of games have some sort of 'skip tutorial' feature.

Some turn it around 'Would you like some interactive help?'

As long as it works into the game well, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[arekpowalan]

Instead of a "skip intro" option, why don't you let the player press Enter or an action button to speed up the process or skip the whole thing? That's how most official games deal with introductory texts. That, or maybe you can place the intro as a skippable part before the title screen (scripts can do this). Curious players could watch the whole thing while more impatiant players could skip right into the game. Nevertheless, any playable sections which introduce the main characters should not be skipped.

 

[Eschaton]

If your prologue is consists of one-direction tutorials, then I'd make it entirely skippable.  There should also be a method for players to get caught up on the story if they choose to skip it.  Such as a Codex, for example.

YOU SHOULD NEVER MAKE THEM WATCH ANY CUTSCENE.  ALL PARTS THAT DON'T CONSIST ONLY OF CORE GAMEPLAY SHOULD BE SKIPPABLE.

 

[Deep Thought]

I don't prologue. I prefer using an in-game manual; it can be called up at any time, and it's slightly less obtrusive than watching/playing through a tutorial. If you must have cutscenes, making them skippable is a must.

 

[whitesphere]

I think it's a great option to have.  If your RPG has good replay value, through different classes/endings/etc, someone may want to play the game again, and would like that option.

Heck, even in Super Mario Brothers 3, which my friends and I are replaying on the Wii, we REALLY wish the dialogue had a "Press A to Skip" since we've heard the "Here is something to help you on your way" text a million times.

As for playable backstory:  the commercial game Final Fantasy IV (for the DS) had a tiny playable section which had no bearing whatsoever on the main characters, but was hugely important in terms of backstory (it relates to Cecil as a child)

So I'd say keep them both in.

 

[Yato]

You could use a conditional branch script option to see if a save file exists and only offer the skip intro if a save file does exist. This should avoid the "skip intro" possible bad first impression while giving the option for replays.

 

[Lars Ulrika]

As for playable backstory:  the commercial game Final Fantasy IV (for the DS) had a tiny playable section which had no bearing whatsoever on the main characters, but was hugely important in terms of backstory (it relates to Cecil as a child)

So I'd say keep them both in.

The first part is precisely a flashback some decades ago clarifying how one of the main characters happened to become what she is in the story. Ending up being more than a tutorial though. I think this part is keepable in itself as concepts are smoothly introduced. At least I hope so lol. 

The initial cutscene will be totally skippable though. 

I'll think about being able to skip other cutscenes. My game is far from being an rpg maker cartoon but I guess there are one or two parts for now that could help being skipped by people (hopefully) replaying the game. Thanks everyone for your insight

@Yato : Heck yes good idea, that's so obvious that I didn't think about it lol.