How do you guys implement a well written/detailed story into cutscenes?

[Snake]

I've been pondering this thought for a while now.

For a game project that is high in character detail and backstory (game will remain nameless), I've got a well written intro scene that closely resembles how a novel would be written. I didn't intentionally do this when I started, but I kept editing it and adding detail - now I'm not sure how I would put this in to the game.

I've got what the character is thinking, remembering and also details about the scene.

My question is how do you guys put these scenes into cutscenes in your game?

From my point of view, no matter how well I try to do it, the scene in the game won't compare to the written version. I know this is true with a lot of books being turned into movies, but how would you go about such a thing?


--Snake

[GarageGothic]

I've got a well written intro scene that closely resembles how a novel would be written

Well, that's your problem right there. Unless you're making a text adventure, games are a visual medium. If anything, you should write cutscenes in the form of a screenplay rather than a novel. And keep in mind that less is more. It's a bit ironic that you say you "kept editing it and adding detail", rather than editing to whittle it down to the bare essentials.
Even if you find a certain piece of information crucial to the game (and the player will maybe agree with you 25% of the time), perhaps the flow of information can be distributed differently? Do we really need to know from the get-go that the hero's parents died in a tragic accident involving an ice cream truck and he was raised by his eccentric archeologist aunt? Or could that somehow be revealed later, through in-game dialog, or even through look-at interactions in the character's home? Withholding exposition or giving vague hints can also work in your favor by intriguing the player and making the eventual moment of revelation even stronger.

Try to think in images rather than words. Is the character feeling a certain way? Perhaps it can be shown visually, with colors, camera angles and music rather than told in a voice-over. If you absolutely need to resort to narration, try to check out some graphic novels for inspiration on how to combine text and visuals.

I discussed some of the same issues in this thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=16551.0

[Anteater]

As for showing what a character is thinking, I always liked the way it was handled in Final Fantasy VIII. Regular text would be shown in a grey box; thoughts would be shown in a clear one.

[Snake]

Wow, thanks, GG. That other thread helped to open my eyes a little bit better on the subject.

I myself have always been a fan of long cutscenes, intros and outros in games. I always thought it added so much more to the invironment and characters.


--Snake

[blueskirt]

A friend and I once rented a JRPG. On the back there was "2 players co-op" written. Feeling like playing a 2 players co-op RPG, we rented it. The first 25 minutes of the game was anime portraits with text and story exposition. After that there was a 15 minutes single player tutorial to the battle mechanics, which was again lot of text and anime portraits. Once we were done, there was 15 more minutes of characters talking. After that we decided to stop reading what these portraits were saying and we just skipped the dialogues. After 10 minutes, as they weren't done talking yet, we found it faster to just check a FAQ to see when the co-op bit would start, and as it didn't start until halfway in the game, we just headed back to the store and rented another game. I'll forever remember this as a shining example of how to screw up a game introduction.

I don't know if that will apply to your game, as you didn't give much details about it, nor if it's going to be an adventure game, but my thought on intro, cutscenes and outro in games in general (careless of the genre):

I play games. I do not play stories. Sure, games can have stories, and it's generally better when they do, but first I need to make sure I'll love what I'll play in between the story, because if I don't like what I play, I won't care for the story. The sooner I start playing, the better. If I like the introduction's visual aspect, I might be willing to wait a little bit more, but as a general note, adventure games have 2 minutes before I get tired of the intro and want to play. That's 2 minutes to introduce the setting, mood, protagonists, their motivation and give me a glimpse of what the story's going to be about. After that, I want to play. Follow GarageGothic's tips there, trim it down, keep the essential, use pictures instead of text (a picture is worth a thousand words)...

Long backstory of events or characters should be revealed later, either one info at the time during the conversations or item descriptions, either during a long exposition once I am fairly sure that I am enjoying the game.

As for endings, when it's possible, endings (or part of it) should be playable. There's a huge potential for that in adventure games. When I care about the world I'm in, about the characters and the place (which happen often in adventure games), I should be able to witness the effect my actions had on this world's and people's everyday life. If I meet several interesting characters on my way to slay a tyran that's terrorizing a valley, once my mission is accomplished, it should be possible for me to walk my way back home, talk with the characters I met and saved earlier, see how my actions affected their life. Knytt Stories is a champion in that domain.

[MRollins]

I have to agree with Blueskirt on this one...

Intro scenes should serve as a starting point for the game. That's it. They don't need to feed you a ton of information about the world, it's people, and what's been going on. All you need is a basic understanding of where you are and what you need to do...

Look at Star Wars for a prime example of this. You get dropped into the story with only the briefest of set up and it's great to learn about the people and the world as it progresses.

[Technocrat]

In my case, I'm having a decent intro, and decent outro for the various endings. To progress the story, I'm taking a System Shock 2 approach, and have it revealed by things that other characters (dead, naturally) have left written.

[Makeout Patrol]

I have two points on this topic:

Stories in games are the player's reward. Part of it is the good hormones that come from successfully achieving your in-game goals, but bits of the storyline are really the fundamental reward that they get for playing. Think about it - at their most basic level, almost all video games are incredibly repetitive. I've recently been watching my little brother play Dead Rising while I've been in the room, and even though he's been playing for hours, it looks like he's doing the exact same thing over and over again - he's just smacking zombies around with melee weapons. Why does he keep playing? Apparently, he wants to uncover the storyline, so he'll go ahead and play and pretend that heating up a frying pan and sizzling a zombie's face is a completely different experience from slicing a zombie up with a butcher's knife.

Additionally, anybody who's ever had a thirty-second conversation about writing has heard the phrase "show, don't tell." This is very important. As video game developers, we have a unique advantage in that we can literally show - authors of text media need to imply their point, but we can also imply it visually. Don't make an introduction that reads, "A DARK TIME HAS FALLEN OVER THE KINGDOM OF CHLAMYDIA" - tell the player that they are in the Kingdom of Chlamydia and have all of the characters slouching and defeated by their dystopian world, answering the player's questions in brief, curt sentences. Don't tell the player that the new government is a totalitarian big-brother clone, throw up posters with slogans like "YOU ARE BEING WATCHED" and throw a police officer on every corner.

The greatest games with the most memorable stories have mastered both of these concepts. My favorite example is Half-Life 2: it mixes the action up regularly, rarely letting the player get bored with one style of play or one sort of environment, feeds the player exposition in brief pieces after particularly substantial challenges, and doesn't tell you a thing about the game world before it drops you off in it, allowing the player to suck up the despair on their own. Remember the part at the very beginning where the person asks if you've seen one of their family members on the train? That's what I'm talking about with "show, don't tell" - you know what sort of government Earth now has much more vividly than you would if the G-Man had just said "the Combine have instituted an invasive totalitarian regime all around Earth."

[radiowaves]

In my opinion, the less cutscenes the better. The best way seems to be by making most of the story available through some kind of interractions. Cutscenes should be only for some minor movements and such, that support the story, but are not basis of it.

[auriond]

I agree with Makeout Patrol: I see cutscenes as a reward for the player, or a way to signify "you're done with this stage of the game".

My main problem with cutscenes is making visible what is going on inside a character's head. This is very difficult to pull off well, since it's almost always done in some cheesy way like having the character talk out loud (to himself!) or having flashbacks. If done well it can be very impactful, but more often than not I find myself cringing at the forced artificialness of it.

I'm facing that problem right now, actually. Not sure how to get around that.

[neon]

Why don't you let your character tell his thoughts to other characters to tell the player what he thinks?

[auriond]

Sorry, I forgot to specify: this is in situations where the character is alone. And since mine is a spooky type of game, the main character is often alone.

[LimpingFish]

I can appreciate what Auriond is saying, regarding cutscenes in the first-person. I've rarely seen it done well; games like Half-Life 2, or Breakdown on the XBox, integrate their narratives into the flow of gameplay in a way that seems seamless, without the need to for cutscenes. Of course, since their protagonists are mute, the plot is usually related via NPCs.

In a first-person game, where the character also happens to be alone, switching to third-person during cutscenes would partly solve the problem. But you'd still have your character talking to himself...

[olafmoriarty]

If you want the player to understand what goes on in his head without having him think out loud, you just have to let us peek into his thoughts.

Comic books are experts in this field: There's always big text boxes everywhere telling us what's going through Batman's head. I know that AGS has a "Think" command, but I prefer to use the "Display" command for thoughts (assuming that one character is the established "narrator").

If you think that's a bit too lame: find new ways to reveal your character's thoughts. Let him write a diary in the cutscenes. Or let him fall asleep on the couch and have a bad nightmare -- doesn't necessarily have to be a flashback, either, rather a manifestation of his worst fears or something.

Don't forget that "cutscenes" can be playable! Imagine what a boring game "Trilby's Notes" would have been if all the flashbacks in the game had been movies forcing the player to just watch instead of playable scenes!

[auriond]

I've been taking the diary route so far, and trying to justify it by finding another use for the diary later in the game. Otherwise, it's just a Handbook To Joe Protagonist's Thoughts - something I find just as artificial as flashbacks and talking to self.

Playable cutscenes are a great idea! I'd forgotten all about that. It would probably work very well for most games. Mine's an unfortunately unique case so I'm not using that.

In a first-person game, where the character also happens to be alone, switching to third-person during cutscenes would partly solve the problem.

I'd say it was mandatory! No other way to see "your own" facial expressions and body language, which is one key way to bring internal thoughts across visually.

[neon]

What about giving your character a recorder?

[ElaineMc]

I'd say it was mandatory! No other way to see "your own" facial expressions and body language, which is one key way to bring internal thoughts across visually.

You can also make a judicious use of character portraits.



It does warp the first-person perspective concept a bit, but I think most of us are fairly familiar with our own facial expressions; so I think it's fair to assign the same knowledge to our in-game avatars: that is, the in-game you isn't seeing "yourself" from a third-person perspective, but from a memory of what "you" look like. If that makes sense.

[neon]

Oh, is this an actual screen? Did you see 'that's' is double?