Adventure Game Beginnings Question

[MoodyBlues]

I thought about this as I started writing a basic storyline for my game:

What's the best way to begin an adventure game?  I've seen it done with either a long cutscene or a short text message followed by a simple task for the player, such as opening a door and initiating a conversation.  While I love cutscenes, it's too easy to turn them into "infodumps" in which the author explains everything but the very end of the story.  On the other hand, the cutscene approach can be helpful in fantasy or sci-fi games by helping the player ease into an unfamiliar world.

So which way is best?  Are there other ways?  Does it depend on the game? 

I'm new at this kind of thing, so I'd appreciate your help.

[ThreeOhFour]

There are heaps of different ways. Personally, because I like to talk about Simon the Sorceror whatever chance I get, I like the intro to that game... Day of the Tentacle's was excellent because of the sheer amount of work put into the animation there.

I think as long as it's not too boring, you should be fine. A little interactive part where the player has to talk to someone would probably make the player feel involved in the game a lot quicker, I'd say. If you're going to make a long cutscene, I'd be happier watching it if it was funny, so I guess it does depend on the game.

[Gilbert]

As adventure games could be geared towards storytelling (though not always necessary) I'll say they can follow the formulae of like, movies, that you may do it in whatever ways as long as it fits the context of the game.

So, yeah, I agree with Ben that there're many different ways. Now, as Ben mentioned DOTT, I'll add more, apart from the lovely long opening cutscenes, it actually follows with a playable intro before the actual gameplay:

Spoiler

(Though I think MOST people here know what I'm talking about already, I still manage to consider this as a spoiler for the few who hadn't played the game.)
The "kids" had to sneak into the mansion and "split out, commando style!" before the time-travelling business.

[close]

This is actually a nice idea (if done right), which is IMO better than forcing you to watch a 30-minute non-interactive cutscene before you actually have the control.


HOWEVER, though the intro part of a game may actually be what attracts a person to play the game I always think that it is equally important (if not more important) for a game to reward you with a good-enough ending, which at least should have the same quality as the opening. This applies to ALL games, not just adventure games (unless you're talking about repetitive looping games that are without endings). An enjoyable ending will give you a warm feeling of achievement, though (I agree) people argue that you should enjoy the progress of the game, not the end, but IMO it indeed is a let down when you beat a game and watch the ending you just say, "What? That's all?" Unfortunately, this is quite often the case (especially for conmmercial titles), where makers spent most of the time/budget/work on the opening of the game (in order to attract people to buy the game) and ends with disappointment (extreme case includes situations like just a single line of text "Congratulations! You beat the game!"), I always feeled cheated and wasted my time playing all the way over to the end of these games.

[ThreeOhFour]

Both very good points, Gilbot - Yes, that was an excellent feature of the DOTT intro, and yes endings are often terrible.

You now have me racking my brain to think of a game ending that was actually better than the intro! I must admit I liked the style adopted by Fallout and Arcanum, where it tells you what happens to all the small communities you visited while doing the game as a result of your in game choices, but I concede that this is not the most cinematic of endings.

[Radiant]

I'd suggest interspersing the infodump with parts where the player has actual control, and doing part of it in the form of one or more NPCs that you can ask questions of, and do another part of it by sheer immersion rather than explaining.

$.02

[Emerald]

It really depends on what you feel like. Fantasy and sci-fi often begin with some sort of overview of the world, so that you're not too lost in what's going on. But not always - take 'Beneath a Steel Sky' for example. That just drops you in at the deep end, really. (At least, that's what I remember - been a while since I played it)

Personally, I'm quite partial to cutscenes, but I think it's always better when a game/movie/book/whatever starts out with a bang - an action scene of some sort, which is proceeded by whatever introduction you want.

[lemmy101]

IMO the best openings are ones that set up an instant hook. Get straight in with some drama or put the player in an interesting situation they want to discover how they got into, be that interactive or in a cutscene. My least favourite openings are ones with two guys talking for 10 minutes with huge reams of dialogue. No matter how good that dialogue is I'll start getting bored and skipping text, which hurts my enjoyment of the game in the long run.

[Ubel]

Personally, I'm quite partial to cutscenes, but I think it's always better when a game/movie/book/whatever starts out with a bang - an action scene of some sort, which is proceeded by whatever introduction you want.

I agree with this. I personally don't enjoy games that start with long boring introductions of the game play or with scenes where you can just roam around without being told what you should do. Take The Longest Journey for example. Even though it starts with a rather short interactive scene it then continues with a lot of dialogs and roaming around that doesn't very much have to do with the story and the more exciting parts start later on.

Also, even though this doesn't really fall into the same category, I had this very same problem with Final Fantasy 12. First there's a short action scene and then it's just a lot of game play learning and fighting pointless fights. I sold the game after a few hours of playing...

It's very important that in the beginning you give the player something, a puzzle or a really intriguing question, that they really WANT to solve in order to find out more about the story behind the game.



Well, lemmy almost wrote the exact same things as I did while I was writing... Oh well.

[Gilbert]

You now have me racking my brain to think of a game ending that was actually better than the intro!

It is sad that, from my past experience (of playing ancient games), this rarely happens. Even when the game has a good ending, it's probably not as good as the opening.

And I think this is the most terrible badest bad possible ending in a game (and this actually happened):

Spoiler

Only the following line of text is displayed, nothing else:

To be continue...

[close]

(Don't highlight to see the secret if you have a weak heart!)


So, I beg fellow game creators, if you    cannot/don't want to     make a good enough ending for your game, DON'T MAKE A DELICIOUSLY DECENT OPENING, or at least, don't make it with a quality that is higher than the ending to boost my hopes for the game.

[Layabout]

I think the intro to Indy FOA was a brilliant way to start the game. The way you went through the college to find the statue thing and the fact it wasnt always in the same place. A good action start. And you played it.

[radiowaves]

Personaly, I haven't finished any games yet, but I'd use as few cutscenes as possible. I like it when the player has to interact with the game enviornment. But I guess some cutscene is neccesary at the beginning, a person just can't stand there for nothing...
Then again, think about Half-life beginning, where he was in train.

it really depends on a game I guess. Does it have some history involved or is the story evolving around some instant happening?

Maybe put the character there to do something, give his friend some sentence that gives you a task and make him interact with enviornment that way and slowly lead him to the main happening which causes the actual game story. But this type of gameplay requires some more thinking trough though.

[MrColossal]

I don't really know what makes the start of a game interesting for me. FoA's interactive opening was great but it wasn't really an intro to the story. DoTT was better as far as intro to the game and not just the mechanics. I loved Soviet Unterzoegersdorf but I had a hell of a time with the opening because it felt so slow, just picking up garbage... But then it picked up and grabbed me by the brain. The garbage bit was a part of the intro and got you into the world. Garbage on the lawn is treated as a terrible tragedy and picking up that garbage is seen as a valiant act of patriotism. But I guess I wasn't ready for understanding that at the beginning of the game.

The opening is so tricky because if you put me in the shoes of a character, show me his opening and I don't care about his plight, there's no reason for me to solve his puzzles.

I'm struggling with the info-dump problem right now and I think while writing this post I just decided that if I feel like I'm saying too much in the beginning... Just cut it. Tell the character the important stuff they need to know now and forget about the back story. The back story can be sprinkled throughout the game.

So I guess what I may have just taught myself is to wow the player in the beginning and not teach them.

[GarageGothic]

A beginning - in any media - has three main purposes, to introduce the main character(s), to establish the setting/situation and to kick off the story. And to that I'd like to add, with the least amount of exposition. Start off the story at the latest possible moment, and not a minute earlier. Any kind of backstory that's not immediately necessary can always be revealed later on, through dialog, look-at responses and by gradually uncovering of the plot.

This also means getting into gameplay as quickly as possible to get the audience hooked, and as several people have already pointed out, that's what Fate of Atlantis got just right. The introduction to FoA is of course modelled on the Indiana Jones movies, which in turn use the teaser style introductions made popular by the James Bond films. They start off in medias res with the hero in his natural element of action and adventure, on a mission which may or may not relate to the rest of the story. The character is established immediately, and we know what kind of wild, whip-cracking hijinx to expect from the rest of the movie. In an adventure game, this is also a great opportunity to teach the player the gameplay mechanics with a few simple puzzles (but with cool pay-offs). Once the player or viewer is hooked, the pace can drop a little to allow for exposition and introduce supporting characters.

Of course not all stories lend themselves to this kind of introduction. In many games, the player character is an everyman sort of guy who's accidentally thrown into some wild adventure. If at all possible, the game should start at the inciting incident which sets him off on that path (Broken Sword is an excellent example, literally starting off with a bang), but if that's not possible - for instance if his dull, everyday life needs to be established first - you might consider beginning with a flashforward sequence to give a hint of what's to come. Though not strictly a flashforward, the dream sequence at the beginning of GK1 has the same effect, letting us know that there's more to this young hack writer.
Compare the beginnings of Blackwell Legacy, where Rosangela's everyday world needs to be established before she meets Joey the ghost, to Blackwell Undbound, where Lauren starts off with a list of cases to investigate in her inventory. While Rosangela's story must necessarily have a slower pace, it would probably have worked better if the first puzzles actually had her doing her job, investigating a (non-supernatural) news story rather than trying to get past the doorman of her own apartment building.
The first Monkey Island starts out rather slowly, since it uses an open-world approach where you basically have to uncover the plot yourself, but the core of the player character, and the purpose of the whole game is revealed within the first minute: "My name is Guybrush Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate!"

In short, I think you should get to the gameplay as quickly as you can. And if at all possible, make that gameplay represent the tone and style of the game, get the player excited, give him a hint of how cool the rest of the game will be. Let's say you're making a cop game. Why waste time on the player walking around his apartment, finding his wallet and his keys before heading off to work. Start him off at a crime scene or on a stakeout of a drug deal, you can always let him return home in the evening to let us look at photos of his ex-girlfriend or read newspaper clippings about his murdered father.

[Snarky]

I agree completely with GG, even down to the Blackwell example.

And apologies to Radiant, but I have to admit, I think A Tale of Two Kingdoms is one of the worst offenders when it comes to starting off with an epic infodump. There's a ton of backstory exposition right up front, and most of it doesn't seem to be immediately essential. Then you're dropped into a kind of boring puzzle (I don't even remember what it was. Find something, perhaps? It might just have been to walk around the palace until dinner), and that's where I quit the game in boredom. I'd been "playing" for maybe 15 minutes, and I hadn't done a single cool thing yet. It seems a shame that such an ambitious game should fail to put in a hook to get players interested right away.

"Where are you gonna find a statue in all this junk?" - That's the way to go!

[miguel]

Remember how Gabriel Knight 3 started? The scene on the train? It was very cinematic and took you straight into the vampire mood, very dark and full of lightning efects. Gabriel gets atacked, arrives at the train station and he's driven into town. Next morning wakes up in a hotel room, there is light, morning light, and an entire town to explore. It's very well done and as some piano notes play, jazzy, on the background, you feel you want to explore everything, the paintings, your inventory, the bed, even the soap on the bathroom!
That's how I like a begining...

[GarageGothic]

The problem with GK3 was of course that you needed to read the graphic novel that came with the game to understand what was actually going on. But I agree, the title sequence was very atmospheric indeed.

[MoodyBlues]

Wow, you guys are awesome.  You make a lot of good points and suggestions - thanks!

Here's my introduction for my fantasy game right now: 

The two main characters, a father and a daughter, are having an argument.  (There's nothing on the screen but their dialogue.)  You find out that the daughter did "something very bad," and so the father is sending her away for a while.  The gameplay begins six days later shortly before the father returns for her.  Oh, and the daughter is human while the father is not.

Now, I didn't think this was so bad at first since it was short and gave the player only what he/she needed to know right away.  However, thanks to your suggestions, I think I might start instead with a flashback to the "very bad thing" that the daughter did.

And I think this is the most terrible badest bad possible ending in a game (and this actually happened):

Spoiler

Only the following line of text is displayed, nothing else:

To be continue...

[close]

(Don't highlight to see the secret if you have a weak heart!)

Crap, what game was that?  Don't tell me it was a commercial game!

[GarageGothic]

Didn't the original Bestowers of Eternity have that *special* ending?

As for your story, I think it sounds brief enough to work. Not too exciting, but it gets the job done. I don't think you should reveal the "very bad thing" right from the beginning though, it will intrigue people and make them want to find out what it is (providing it's actually something interesting, otherwise it'll just be an anti-climax). As I said in my earlier post, exposition works better when it's held back until the moment where it's actually of importance. If the information is powerful enough, you could even use it to further the drama by having the father finally reveal it at the climax of some heated argument between them or whatnot. Exposition is a bit of a pain sometimes, but if the revelation is handled right, it's also a great way of portraying character relationships - try watching the Indy meets Marion scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, or pretty much any scene with Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca.

[lemmy101]

I would agree that if the "very bad thing" is interesting enough to be a surprise later, then it should be used as such and not given up right at the start. It all depends if your ending is strong enough for the "very bad thing" revelation not to be needed to add weight to it, or indeed whether the "very bad thing" is just a means to an end, or the central point of the whole story.

I know it might be considered a bit of a cliche in some circles, and it's been used on at least one adventure game that pops to mind, but is there any exciting point in the future that could be used as a hook into the game instead of a conversation? that would be more instantly gripping and also maintain the mystery of what the "very bad thing" is? So instead of asking yourself "why is the dad so angry at the daughter?" (low stakes) you're thinking "what in hell could she have done that's so terrible that X, Y, Z!!! :-o:-o:-o)

that would set up two things for the player to look forward to: a) how did they get into that situation in the first place and b) what was the terrible thing she did that lead up to the start of the story... the game proper kicks off with that conversation between father and daughter, along with the extra dramatic involvement in the story.

It's a tough one I guess, as only you know what is the core important elements in your story and what is best to keep secret, and what is best to give up early to draw people in.

My 2c worth, anyway.

[MrColossal]

Gilbert's VERY BAD THING:  Spellbound did it, hooray!

Moodyblues, let me expand on your brief description of your opening.

Don't have the argument at all. Have the father and daughter in a tense scene in the foyer of the house, lamps are lit and things are clean but cozy. Maybe a housekeeper is there. The father speaks very little as if to signify that everything that can possibly be said has been said. The Housekeeper or whatever fiddles with the daughter's coat and explains little things to her "Don't go being a bother." "Speak when spoken too..." "...Stay out of trouble... Please..."The daughter is all packed and the room is dark, it is just about dawn. The daughter tries to apologize when a caller arrives at the door. The father, barely looking at her picks up her bags and brings them outside, the daughter follows him carrying her own smaller bag, the housekeeper bursts into tears...

Outside a huge dark carriage is waiting, lit torches in sconces are hanging, the sun is JUST about to break over the horizon, the horses are pawing at the ground and breathing into the chilly air. The father throws the bags on the back of the carriage, talks to or pays the Man In Charge, the Man In Charge gently pushes the daughter into the carriage, gets in, closes the door, reaches out the window and pats the side of the carriage and they leave.

6 days later we open on the daughter in her new room, starkly different from the house she just left.

The daughter obviously did something bad if her father won't even look at her let alone he's sending her away. After we gain control of her in the new room we can have her talk to other people or other people gossip about her and we'll learn why she was there. People's reactions to her will show us that what she did wasn't just break a window, people stop talking when she enters a room, etc...

Better yet have the entire opening be playable. The daughter is standing there, your father tells the housekeeper to tell you to pick up your bag, you do it. If you don't or trying to do something else the housekeeper will reprimand you. You have to get and wear your hat. Close up your bag. Say goodbye to your pet dog. Try to speak to your father. Get some dialog out of the housekeeper... Stuff like that. When you're father walks outside with your bags you have to GET BAG and then WALK outside. The player has to, not the cutscene. All with gentle prodding from the housekeeper to make sure you know what to do. "Better follow him out there love, it's best not to disobey him again, not after what happened..."

Just a quick thing that popped into my mind, I'm a much more visual thinker and when it comes to trying to explain something I default to pictures and mood and not words.

So that's a long post but I think it fits the topic of this thread.