5 Things To Do If You Use Cutscenes in Your Video Game

[Shamus Young]

5 Things To Do If You Use Cutscenes in Your Video Game

After taking a few games to task last week over their cutscenes, Shamus makes some suggestions on how developers can do them properly if they insist on using them.

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[Twattycake_Fancypant]

If 5 Things To Do If You Use Cutscenes in Your Video Game

Does anyone proofread here?

Now to read the article...

 

[loa]

1. Don't stop gameplay if you don't have to.
...
5. LET ME SKIP THE CUTSCENES.

Ever skipped a cutscene in half like 2?
If it doesn't stop gameplay, you usually can't skip it.
You have to wait until doctor whatshisface opens the door for you, until claptrap has made every single last lame joke so you can finally get to the game and of course, that skyrim intro tho.

 

[gamegod25]

Number 5 is a cardinal sin that too many games are guilty of. It's 2015, something simple like the ability to skip cutscenes should just go without saying...like having sound and actions happening when you press buttons. Come on game devs, it's not some herculean task or outrageous demand. Oh and fuck you, Ready at Dawn, for actually specifically patching skipping them out of The Order out of some asinine attempt to hide the fact it's short as shit.

 

[Pyrian]

If it doesn't stop gameplay, you usually can't skip it.

True. And as a designer, you don't want people accidentally skipping your cutscene, especially if it includes vital information. So what's a good solution? Maybe just press escape, lol.

 

[Maze1125]

1. Don't stop gameplay if you don't have to.
...
5. LET ME SKIP THE CUTSCENES.

Ever skipped a cutscene in half like 2?
If it doesn't stop gameplay, you usually can't skip it.
You have to wait until doctor whatshisface opens the door for you, until claptrap has made every single last lame joke so you can finally get to the game and of course, that skyrim intro tho.

Try reading. He addressed that.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well... I've been playing both the Half-Life and Metro series and I can definitely see how both can contrast each other with how they tell their stories... or at least try to.

With Half-Life... well, you've already covered it, but with Metro (specifically 2033 Redux), most cutscenes won't allow you to turn your head, even though every single one of them are in first person perspective. Sure, sometimes they allow you to just wander around while a companion NPC spews exposition at you and the game actually rewards you to do so, either by giving you extra resources (ammo, air filters, health packs, weapons, etc.) or by giving you a "moral point" that can actually trigger a different ending.

Most of the time though, the game will let you choose to either listen to the character ("Stop!, hide!") or just ignore him, but the game acts accordingly, sometimes you can avoid an entire firefight that way, or you start shooting to your hearts content, but you'll waste precious ammo and health packs in said fight, you'll have to be extra careful in areas where you have to use your gas mask, because it can actually break in a serious firefight.

So yeah, Metro is both better and worse than Half-Life 2 with it's use of cutscenes, sometimes it entirely takes away control from you (though it stays in first person perspective at all times), but sometimes it'll let you wander around while an NPC is talking, sometimes to your benefit.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

If the goal of non-gameplay cutscenes is to create a cinematic mood, most fail at learning from film about how to compose a scene visually. I'm not inherently against cutscenes, even unskippable ones, but run time and voice acting truly become critical.

 

[Robyrt]

If it doesn't stop gameplay, you usually can't skip it.

True. And as a designer, you don't want people accidentally skipping your cutscene, especially if it includes vital information. So what's a good solution? Maybe just press escape, lol.

Here's a recent example: in Bloodborne, one of the main quests involves finding the password to open a gate. You learn the password in a skippable, 30-second cutscene with dramatic camera angles and interesting dialogue - everything Shamus wants. But this cutscene is right after a tough boss fight, so your hands are shaking and you probably aren't paying attention to the finer details of the conversation. It's easy to miss the password, then wonder why the game suddenly stopped prompting you to go to the next area.

 

[Abomination]

What has put me off replaying The Walking Dead is how you can't skip cutscenes. Sure, the game is essentially little but cutscenes but there are some establishing shots, some "folk walking for 2 minutes" shots and even some non-interactive dialogue dumps.

Let me skip them, I don't have the time to waste hearing the same damn thing again and again and again just to experience about 10% difference in your games.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

To expand on point 5, letting us pause the cutscenes is also greatly appreciated, as sometimes occurrences in the real world can disturb us from an incredibly important plot point and we have to load a previous save. Not good.

 

[Scow2]

1. Don't stop gameplay if you don't have to.
...
5. LET ME SKIP THE CUTSCENES.

Ever skipped a cutscene in half like 2?
If it doesn't stop gameplay, you usually can't skip it.
You have to wait until doctor whatshisface opens the door for you, until claptrap has made every single last lame joke so you can finally get to the game and of course, that skyrim intro tho.

Try reading. He addressed that.

... No he didn't. Not really.

And, honestly - if you have a segment of non-critical exposition and the only interactivity that makes sense is wandering around... it's far, far better to just replace it with a skippable cutscene. Moving the head/wandering in circles is NOT 'gameplay'.

 

[Pyrian]

Here's a recent example:

...Of what? I mean, there's plenty to be said about clarity, but I honestly don't see how that fits into the conversation we were having.

And, honestly - if you have a segment of non-critical exposition and the only interactivity that makes sense is wandering around... it's far, far better to just replace it with a skippable cutscene. Moving the head/wandering in circles is NOT 'gameplay'.

"...it's far, far better..." Really? What are you even gaining? That's worth giving up maintaining a consistent perspective?

 

[MetalDooley]

To expand on point 5, letting us pause the cutscenes is also greatly appreciated, as sometimes occurrences in the real world can disturb us from an incredibly important plot point and we have to load a previous save. Not good.

And just to expand on your expansion not only should cutscenes be skippable and pauseable we should be able to rewind and fast forward them as well.It's incredible that simple obvious things like this aren't an industry standard in 2015

 

[Maze1125]

1. Don't stop gameplay if you don't have to.
...
5. LET ME SKIP THE CUTSCENES.

Ever skipped a cutscene in half like 2?
If it doesn't stop gameplay, you usually can't skip it.
You have to wait until doctor whatshisface opens the door for you, until claptrap has made every single last lame joke so you can finally get to the game and of course, that skyrim intro tho.

Try reading. He addressed that.

... No he didn't. Not really.

Yes he did:

Bonus points if the game can gracefully allow the player to exit the scene and continue the game before the dialog ends. We're likely to care less about the plot during our second or third (or even tenth) playthrough.

 

[Scow2]

And, honestly - if you have a segment of non-critical exposition and the only interactivity that makes sense is wandering around... it's far, far better to just replace it with a skippable cutscene. Moving the head/wandering in circles is NOT 'gameplay'.

"...it's far, far better..." Really? What are you even gaining? That's worth giving up maintaining a consistent perspective?

Often, better scene staging/mood setting. And the ability to just get on with the action on replays.

 

[Rblade]

anytime there is a discussion about cutscenes I mark it off against warcraft 3's cutscenes. And to a lesser degree WoW. They might be breaking some of these laws but damn they were amazing. I'm not entirely sure if they strictly break any of these rules but the way they made the somewhat crude ingame graphics come to life makes me feel sympathetic towards a programmer that doesn't want to let you skip a piece of vital story telling and world building like that.

 

[Flames66]

You know what should be in every game with Cutscenes, but I can't remember ever actually seeing? The ability to pause during a Cutscene. That should be standard by now.

EDIT: Oh and another thing, games should automatically save before and after a Cutscene. Maybe I want to stop playing now but I want to watch the scene again when I come back to remind me what's going on. I don't want to have to play the entire previous stage again just to see the context for the next.

 

[JCAll]

Interactive cutscenes aren't just an FPS thing. I'm sure we've all played an RPG where we have to wonder around a building/town/airship talking to everyone before it lets us start the next mission. Sure they could have paraded out all these characters to have they dump exposition on us in a cutscene, but making us hunt for our exposition lets us both familiarize our self with the layout of an important location, as well as getting us slightly more invested int he characters we talk to. To make it worse when we walk in on the next boss eating them.

 

[anonymity88]

You know what should be in every game with Cutscenes, but I can't remember ever actually seeing? The ability to pause during a Cutscene. That should be standard by now.

EDIT: Oh and another thing, games should automatically save before and after a Cutscene. Maybe I want to stop playing now but I want to watch the scene again when I come back to remind me what's going on. I don't want to have to play the entire previous stage again just to see the context for the next.

Quite a few games let you do that now, RE: Revelations 2 is the most recent example I can think of. Being as I'm playing it now. Pretty sure you could do it in MGS 4 as well, but it's been a few years since I've played it.