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Sorry this step's late - I had a spontaneous family/friend barbecue and then had a blackout. Hmmm.

Step 3 – The Intro

So, here we have the third step in the great Path. So far, I’ve told all about the main paperwork. That’s gone now, only to refer to for when you’re actually making the game. You're free! Now, we’re onto how to make your intro keep your audience interested. After all, you could have the most amazing game in the history of games, but if your audience leaves during the intro...failure.

You need to have an intro. You can’t just go “Here you are, have fun!” That’ll just confuse and annoy the player into giving up before they start. Conversely, you don’t want an intro that confuses and annoys the player into giving up before they start.

1: The most common mistake

Without a doubt, the most common mistake people make when creating their intro is making it TOO LONG. Sure, length can be great. I mean, having the intro too short will just make the player confused as to what they're doing, what the game's about. But I’ve seen far too many RPG intros that just get you screaming at the screen, “GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!” Take Tabernacle, for instance (from Gaming Ground Zero). Great game, very well made, but the intro? I struggled to make it through it; it was just so insanely long!

Anyway, here are a few tips on keeping the length down –

– Don’t overdo the number of scenes. Many people add far too many scenes to their intro, which involves making two mistakes; making it too long, and giving away too much info (covered below). Really, I find the best way to do it is Scene A, Scene B, Possible Scene C, Scene A. It gives a good length, doesn’t give away too much, and keeps them interested.

– Try to find some time limit and stick to it. Take, for example, my discontinued game Power of the DragonFlame (yeah, the one I plugged in the first step. Remember the goat?). I used the song Virgin Skies as the intro song. Virgin Skies is only 1:20 long...so that’s what my intro is. Simple and easy. It gives me enough time to set up the storyline in-game, but keeps it short enough to make sure the player isn’t jumping up and down snorting like an ape in frustration.


I overdid that, didn't I?

– Add in a small playable part. Another example, from my old game (also now discontinued, and yes I must stop plugging discontinued games) Chrome Tide. It has a few seconds of the hero tossing and turning in bed, then zooms into his mind/dreams. Small playable part, inside his dream. Hero waking up, wondering about dream. Credits scene, with the hero wandering around dreamy landscapes in wonder. Doo doodly doo style music in the background (did I mention Spicks & Specks rawks?). And that’s it, enough to give the necessary info, the playable part gives them something to do while it happens, and the whole thing again only took about 1:20. Did I also mention that's a great length for an intro?

2: Don’t give away too much

Another fairly common mistake is giving away too much info. Doing this will spoil the game. For instance, we don’t want…

“After finding the five legendary crystals of Crystalness, the almighty Kaldra Champion will spring forth to complete its master’s bidding...”

EEERRR, WRONG. Not only is that ridiculously cliché (and remember, we want to avoid cliché storylines), AND it uses a copyrighted name, AND the name ‘crystals of Crystalness’ is just plain absurd (what? I thought it sounded great! Wouldn't you love a Zelda where you have to find the eight Crystals of Crystalness?), but also it gives away far too much info. Observe the change...

“After finding five legendary crystals, a powerful avatar is said to be summoned...”

See that? What happened? Doesn’t infringe copyright laws, doesn’t use a poncy name like ‘crystals of Crystalness’ (I still think it sounds great), doesn’t give away too much info, and...well, still extremely cliché, but the rest is good. Right?

You get the idea.

3: Mystery is your friend

This ties into the above point. If you have mystery, the player will want to keep on playing to solve the mystery. What legendary crystals are they? What is this powerful avatar? What will it do? OoooOOOOOoooooo...

Of course, having TOO much mystery isn’t your friend. It's your enemy. It want to see you strapped to a metal slab with a laser slowly inching its way towards your joy department. Exactly how an intangible concept like too much mystery can see and plot all this is entirely irrelevant, the point is we don't want that to happen. You want the player to understand what’s going on so that they can at least begin. Understand enough to let them know the point of the game (or at least what the hero THINKS is the point - see step I again). Observe (I use that word too much, don’t I?) (I also abuse brackets, don't I?):

The player and his roommate are in the lounge room. The player goes to his bedroom to do something. He hears footsteps. Hiding somewhere, he hears some violent noise, and all is quiet again. Going back to the lounge room, he finds that his roommate has been murdered.

Here, we have mystery – who did it? Why did they do it? Where did they go? What clues do we have? HOW WILL IT ALL UNFOLD< FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY TELL ME!!! However, watch this one:

The player and his roommate are in the lounge room. The player goes to his bedroom to do something.

TOO MUCH mystery. The player has no clue what’s going on – all they know is that they’re in a bedroom, and their roommate is outside. What the hell is the point of the game? What are they supposed to do? Where do they go? WHAT IS THE POINT? Whereas in the first example, it’s clear what the point of the game is, but not actually how to get there. That’s what you want to aim for.

4: The 'better thans'

Better not enough than too much. It’s better to give not enough information and keep them guessing than to have too much and spoil the game.

Better too short than too long. It’s better to make the intro too short and get straight to the action than make it too long and allow the player to eat several meals and still not have it finished.

Better late than never. It’s better to give out critical info later on than to not give it at all and have them confused out of their wits.

Well, I’ve racking my brain to think of more (just because I like dragging it out {and damn I've got to loearn how to stop using brackets}), but I think that’s just about it. Join me next week when I tell all about what to do for your inventory.

Until then, may you always introduce yourself with three scenes (for some reason).

Another great installment. This is shorter, but also tackles some of the biggest mistakes made in games. Great job.

another awesome tut! i hope i didn't make any of the mentioned mistakes though... do you think it would be okay to switch between main characters every now and then? can't wait to see the next installment!

Great tut, I made LOTS of mistakes, now I know, thanks
5/5

Thanks guys! Wow, perfect fve-star rating three times in a row! Let's hope I can continue that throughout the series!

Datopher, I'll be covering that later in the series. If you mean swapping between them during the info, then go for it. As long as, again, you don't give too much info away.

Has Neone thought of a video intro. You can take som real life action and ad it to the game. You'd have to have it in a certain format of course

Awesome. Thank you for sharing all this knowledge.

great tutorial its realy elpful

great tutorial its realy elpful