Hi all,

Time to pick your brains again.

In Rhiannon, Scratches and Barrow Hill, you get out of a car. In Lost Crown you got out of a train. In DF2, you awake on a bed. In a lot of third person, there's a premise-setting cutscene, then the first act opens with the Protagonist as the only actor on the stage.

What is the best way to arrive into an adventure in your experience?

Warning - good ideas may be ruthlessly nicked by yours truly to appear in future Arberth productions!

Best

Noel Bruton
Arberth Studios

Hi.. noelbruton

How about on a Magic Carpet Or maybe a Unicorn !

How about a flying pegasus

Hmm, tough question

How about a starting cutscene in an airplane with our protagonist fighting some villain, who accidentally shoots the pilot.
We see our hero getting hit in the head and falls to the ground - then the villain jumps out leaving you alone.
You gain control as the hero wakes up to two options - either land the plane alone or jump out and has to land in a safe place (of course WITHOUT it being timed)

Hi Noel

Good to hear from you again and this is a great question, thanks for asking.

For my liking I kind of lean towards the the Train entry with 2 possible scenarios. Each could be made in first or third person views.

1. The games protagonist is sitting alone in a train car, staring out the window watching the scenery swishing by with the clickty clack sound of the Trains wheels in his ears. We can hear what he is thinking as he loses himself in those thoughts.. The thoughts could be the setup of the plot of the game and why he is on this train going to wherever he is headed. The first act then opens with the protagonist in the Train Station.

2. Same as above only the adventure has already been completed and the protagonists thoughts that we hear are in the form of flashbacks that has just occurred to him and where he is riding the Train from. The First act opens with the protagonist going back and starting at the beginning of the story.

Make any sense?

P.S. I can't seem to find Coven anywhere. Looked all over. Hmmm...maybe it will be released tomorrow.

I thought the way "Arnie" arrived in the Terminator films was pretty spectacular !!

I agree..MaD..

That was a neat entry...

I like the way you think Mad!

When I think of game beginnings, I think more of cinematography then the actual vehicle. I think of the sights as I floated to the home in Myst IV or crashing into the lake in Amber, or the phone call and driveway to the hotel in Inherent Evil.

Misslilo, you should play Broken Sword III!

Hi Noel ,

1. How about he or she falls out of a window somewhere and wakes up laying on the ground some where else maybe in the woods, a field or, a meadow beside a forest and also there is an old abandon house no transportation and no working phone. Is he or she dreaming or in a coma or is this real or supernatural? He or she has no idea who he or she is or how he or she got there.

2. Another idea is that he or she is already laying on the ground with a few cuts and bruises and looks up and sees a broken window and realizes that he or she has gone through the window but has forgotten how or why this has happened and who he or she is and where and why he or she is even there. The adventure begins, he or she is standing below the broken window outside the back of a strange old broken down abandon house. She or he searches no one around no transportation, no working phone. You feel someone watching from the woods. A glimpse of someone but then there gone. The someone in the woods said something, what was it that was said?

That is 2 ideas of mine maybe you will like one of them if so take it, use it, and go with it. I think one of them may work .

One of the most memorable beginnings to a game, although the rest of it was less so, was Midnight Nowhere which starts off with a guy waking up zipped-up inside a body bag in the morgue!

Unique... and good question! I'm partial to trains (esp. the well-appointed ones of old) so I'm going along with the scenarios created by Greyfuss. I have enjoyed those which take place on the train, and not just as a means to get to the game location.

Some good ones have been:
Nancy Drew on a nice old train to Blue Moon Canyon
The Last Express
Agatha's Orient Express

Riding a horse could be good, where the main character can see for a ways ahead but it's slower than by train or car. That way more mysterious noises or sights could occur.

I think something like in the movie Memento would be interesting where the character has no memories of anything, just waking up and aware of only his immediate surroundings.

My favorite intro is from Fate of Atlantis.
I always wondered why no other game used that.
Lets the player participate instead of watch a movie!

I think the best way to arrive is ala Indiana Jones where you are right in the middle of the action and then you back story as to how you arrived there. The opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark was a classic to me.

I liked the beginning of Myst, where you're just dropped into the game and start playing. You hear Atrus' narration, but you don't really figure out what he was talking about until later.

I also liked the beginning of Syberia, where Kate arrives in the mysterious old town with antique automatons everywhere. (I wish we could have gone back in time in that game, and seen Valadilene, and similar mechanical towns, in their heyday.)

Amerzone also had an interesting beginning, where you hear the mysterious haunting music as you enter the lighthouse.

I guess the best way to start a game depends on the game. But the ones I like best seem to invoke a mood -- and have me asking questions rather than telling me the background scenario.

Wow, I really like you ideas Trinny3, we could have your first idea, followed by #2 as a sequel. hmmmm. sounds good Judy

I favor just dropping or flying into a scene. If it is a more realistic game one could be in some mode of flight ie. plane, hot air balloon..... I loved the book concept in the Myst games.

I thought it was very nice of you to ask noelbruton, but although it's prudent for a developer to take account of what AG players overall just don't like in a game, I don't otherwise want to see games 'made to order'! - there's too many of those around already! You are the creative ones to present us with your idea & go along with what you think as it doesn't matter what you do - some of us will love it & some of us won't!

N.B. I don't mind how a game starts one bit as long as it makes you want to play more i.e. it can be an exciting filmatic cut scene start where the gameplay immediately afterwards is maybe slow but you keep going on the 'promise' of something better, or it could be something much more low key like the beginnings of e.g. the Carol Reed games or even some of the Nancy Drew games!

EDIT I've thought about this some more - my favourite beginnings in films have been where life is normal & you get info, insight into & therefore a sense of the character(s) before 'things go wrong'! A game that did that well to start with was The Longest Journey - it just sprung to mind!

I'm for a train ride. more like the past going forward, maybe with stops along the way. Each stop a new day/adventure. A back to the future, maybe?

I like a beginning, in which you have time to look around and get accustomed to your surrounding and the person you are "playing". So no action start like Indy for me!
More like: waking up and having no memory of whatever, arriving in a train (a situation new to the player and the character).

Openings don't matter too much to me. I do like to have a larger scope kind of game where are there are side areas in the game that don't necessarily have anything to do with the plot of the game and can be explored or played at any time just for fun. Some of the Nancy Drew side games are fun to play completely aside from the game. I still load Phantom of Venice now and then just to play Scopa. It can get dull when you can only go in one direction and all the puzzles have to be done in a certain order and you can't go back and replay the bits you like very easily. Object collecting is fine and usually fun, but it can get excessive especially in the Agatha Christie games.

Things I don't like are excessive violence/gore and I don't enjoy having to shoot things.