Immersion in games

[GreenBoy]

I've recently finished my game and put it up on the AGS database.  I'm really happy with it and for the most part it's as I originally imagined it, but I'm thinking about making another game (most likely a sequel) and from how people voted it seems that the thing that was lacking was immersion.

So really I guess my question is: How can I add immersion into a game?  Particularly comedy games.

I should probably add that I'm not complaining, I simply want to make my next game better.    

[TandyLion]

I've always liked to use the word Immersion to describe what it means to me.

Imagine being immersed (<--- word!) in a hot tub with the perfect temperature water. All the senses that hit you at once. The smell of the steam. Is it possibly mineral water? Natural hot spring? Chlorinated? The sound of little splashes as you move and shift just slightly. The feeling on your face of the steam, your wet hair cools off quickly causing you to dunk your head again and again to warm it back up.

I feel games are the same way. From the music, to the characters and the world they live in, all the feelings must be cohesive. A hot tub wouldn't feel like a hot tub if the liquid was too viscous, or if it smelled like popcorn.

Monkey Island felt like Monkey island because all characters felt the same, and behaved the same within the parameters of their character in their environment in the Monkey Island world. Think of your favorite series, and you'll begin to see things that just fit together, and in time be able to identify elements that are out of place.

[nihilyst]

Or to quote Ron Gilbert:

"There is a state of mind called "suspension of disbelief".  When you are watching a movie, or reading a good book, your mind falls into this state.  It occurs when you are pulled so completely into the story that you no longer realize you are in a movie theater or sitting at your couch, reading.  When the story starts to drag, or the plots begins to fall apart, the suspension of disbelief is lost.  You soon start looking around the theater, noticing the people in front of you or the green exit sign.  One way I judge a movie is by the number of times I realized I was in a theater."

[blueskirt]

Nice post, nihilyst!
I'd say worry about making the GUI as intuitive as possible, getting rid of as many bugs and glitch as you can, that the puzzles are just at the right difficulty and not too fiendishly hard, that the walking speed is not super slow, that the plot is great, engrossing and well told, that graphics and music are both stunning and fit the atmosphere you wanted to create, that the characters are interesting. If the game features lot of inventory items or manipulations, make sure the inventory isn't a tiny rectangle in a corner that show only 3 items at the time. In the case of a humorous adventure game, make sure that jokes are funny and aplenty, and throw in some visual jokes and funny animations too.

Don't worry about crap like hiding the HUD or first person view vs third person view, that's stuff is pointless and tend to conflict with good gameplay anyway. When a game is so fun, so engrossing, so polished, even if the HUD occupy half of the screen, I'll play it until I look at the clock to realise it's 7PM and I didn't eat since breakfast, or realise it's way past bedtime and I'm not sleeping yet.

[Helme]

I think I said that Danny Dread is lacking immersion. It's hard for me to point out exactly why. But the main quest to fetch a sheep didn't really arouse my interest. Maybe that's why the game felt a bit boring to me.

[GreenBoy]

I don't think it was just you Helme.  That seemed to be the area in which most people felt it fell down.

I guess in the end of the day all you can do is make the best game you can, and try to learn from your mistakes.  I definitely would go about it differently now, knowing what I do from my experiences.

[m0ds]

I don't think it was just you Helme.  That seemed to be the area in which most people felt it fell down

True, it seems like for some it's just a developing story that was missing. But I remember you saying that you wanted On Call to be one of these first up games where perhaps "nothing in particular" happens. Not a lot happens in Murphy's Salvage either but the maker had the same thing in mind - not a lot should happen in her first game. And even moreso if there's going to be more of the same series in the future. Same with you, you didn't miss anything - I think you took a sensible pre-cautionary (if thats a word) step. A lot of people making first games try & ram lots of stuff in () but this lack-of-story thing, to me, seems perfectly normal & sensible. There are lots of AGS games that don't really go anywhere. I think you have an awesome style and when you make a longer game with more twists & turns in a longer, bit more complex story - the "immersion" so to speak will just fall into place. Good luck!

[GreenBoy]

Thanks Mods I think you might be right there, I'm probably getting concerned with nothing. 

Plus I've got a whole heap of sprites of Danny burning a whole in my harddrive, I might as well use them. 
I won't let out any spoilers (mostly because I've only got vauge ideas at the moment) but I want to make the events of the last game have an impact, all be it a small one, on the next game.