The first few minutes of Hapax, I think I need a new approach. Help?

[Legend]

(background is removed, ignore the broken wrist, ui is still just the default font)

This is the opening as it currently is. I haven't touched it in a long time.

The game dumps you directly into the main menu, presented in first person as the player character lays on her side. That part hasn't really changed since this old screenshot I shared years ago.



Upon clicking New Game, it switches to this screen:


The big challenge I've had with Hapax's opening is that the player character doesn't have amnesia. I want the player to be thinking "how the heck did I get on this alien ship, how do I get home?" instead of feeling aimless.

The player selects any of the three options to say what they remember. We'll click "My Career" first.



A dreamlike image comes up on the right, it actually looks pretty good in motion, and a short text descriptor comes up on the left. What I hate about this is the focus on writing. There is essentially no English in the rest of the game yet the opening minutes are just reading text. I don't think I'm a good enough writer to pull it off and even if I was, it doesn't set the tone for the rest of the game.

After remembering the third memory, a fourth option appears.



The player is free to reclick the other three. With this opening I was trying to have just a little bit of freedom, of player choice, similar to the opening of Outer Wilds when the player is asked what they plan to do first.



To avoid spoilers and WIP stuff, the image on the right is just a hair texture in this screenshot. It is normally a picture of a UFO (but a cool UFO, not a flying saucer). I want players to see this alien transport ship early so that later in the game when they see the same ship in the distance out a window, it becomes an obvious method/target for escape.

The standup button is outdated, I now have the player get up by pushing forward on the left stick, but it ends the intro and starts the game proper.


I had plans to shift things around and improve it in small ways, but randomly while driving today I think I decided I need to bite the bullet and just go with a legit prologue. Cold open into the player's ship while everything is fine. The player experiences the discover for themselves. The "UFO" appears out their window and then the game jumps forward to the player on their side in the big alien ship. Have the menu and game title pop up.

Way back in mid 2020 I planned to open the game like this but I really really wanted to save time and not have to model a human spaceship  

[Legend]

Hmm, what if I do something like Death Stranding?

Every time you die you go back to your human ship in a dream. Death isn't too common and of course there would be a "wake up" button so it can be skipped, but it'd be good to let players back in to refresh their memories and reinterpret based off new context. As the developer I wouldn't have to spend a long time on something that'd only be seen for a few minutes and I wouldn't have to add a weird option in the menu to replay the prologue.

[nnodley]

Not a bad idea. I've always like prologues that give you a little bit of mystery and tidbits so it keeps you wandering through the game/movie/show/whatever.  

It's something i'm trying to figure out in my own game as well.  To show off something that will affect the overall narrative as you go forward.

[Legend]

Not a bad idea. I've always like prologues that give you a little bit of mystery and tidbits so it keeps you wandering through the game/movie/show/whatever.  

It's something i'm trying to figure out in my own game as well.  To show off something that will affect the overall narrative as you go forward.

You're working on your game again?

I have some good threads for players to pull but the first 5 minutes are just so important for setting the stage. So many games have a prologue like this: Soma, Prey, Portal, The Forest, Bioshock, Alien Isolation, etc. for good reason. Things need to start normal before they get crazy.

[nnodley]

You're working on your game again?

I have some good threads for players to pull but the first 5 minutes are just so important for setting the stage. So many games have a prologue like this: Soma, Prey, Portal, The Forest, Bioshock, Alien Isolation, etc. for good reason. Things need to start normal before they get crazy.

Yeah slowly. I'm mostly focusing on the story and world first.  Then move onto really building it out. Trying to do this and a novel concurrently while still doing freelance work and possibly going back to sell real estate.

[Legend]

Not sure if a playable prologue would be that fun for the player. I need to make it engaging, it's the very first experience people will have with the game.

So like are you just freely floating in the ship as it approaches the alien object? Or are thrusters on high producing artificial gravity and a dramatic first reveal?

Is the player supposed to be aimlessly wandering around the ship reading things and getting acquainted to the world? Or should it be more focused like a cutscene where they're staring out the window?

Should the prologue cut off when the alien object appears outside the window? Or should I include a spacewalk towards it, maybe full on into it?

How do I handle player freedom at this point? Like the rest of Hapax is insanely unrestricted so I can't have any restrictions here but what if the player opens the airlock without wearing their helmet? A game over restart would completely wreck any suspense.


I don't think there is a way to pull it off that solves enough of these problems. I think the only way to make the intro work is to abstract it like the current method.

What I think I'll do is remove the text and focus on the imagery. The game starts with the "What do you remember?" question with three options but each option is only a picture/scene and audio, no text descriptor. Increasing the emotions is what matters anyway.

[Legend]

I thought of having an opening like Event[0] at one point so I pulled up that game again.

The slow zoom into the ship is interesting. I had an idea for a trailer introduction with a slow zoom, but what if I do that for my game?



Camera starts in orbit looking at Earth.


Camera flies backwards past the Moon, maybe showing a rudimentary Moon base.


Camera keeps flying backwards, passes Mars.


Maybe it passes Jupiter too, but it just keeps going at an accelerating rate.


It slows down as a star and planet come into view.

It passes backwards through a window. The camera is now moving through the alien spaceship, slowing down considerably.


The camera keeps traveling straight backwards, now parallel to a visible floor. It starts a soft twist, putting the floor to the left of the frame. A hand comes into view and it stops, now resting exactly at the player's first person perspective.

The main menu fades in.


Or something like that. Again the backwards cam from the alien planet to inside the ship to inside the player's head was already something I was designing for a trailer reveal.

I think this has a lot of potential for the game introduction primary because it gives the player focus. By showing Earth so prominently, players should have a stronger connection towards wanting to return to Earth. By showing parts of the alien ship before they're accessible, it should help the player feel a desire to progress in the short term too.

I want the menu to be while the player is laying there so I still need a button press to initiate the initial zoomback. Not sure what descriptor would best handle that.

[Legend]

Outside of minor tweaks, I have the final intro.


Essentially it is just what I discussed in the previous post, but with some interactivity. The camera stops along the way as it backs up and it asks the player questions. The answers are in English but the questions are in my alien language. Not too hard for the meaning to be inferred from the answers, but so much better than starting the game with a bunch of English text.



Also to avoid super nerds from using this intro as a rosetta stone and skipping main game translation stuff, like I did when I replayed FEZ, the alien writing will be gibberish and not related to the actual question asked.

[BananaKing]

Haven't read anything here. But I'd say have the intro give the player motive. Have something happen to them that makes them understand the need to get out of the ship, the desire to explore. 

[BananaKing]

Also another idea. Maybe have the player find clues about his past, which you want to seem to make a mystery, on the ship as he explores a way out. 

So you the player can see clues about what happened to him. And ways to get out. Would motivate the player to explore the ship

Also, just another idea. Maybe the things the aliens did to him make him change through the game a bit. The more he gets closer to finding a way out, the more he changes. Would also add motivation to try understand his past and what happened to him.

Maybe he left notes for himself during different stages. 

[kitler53]

how about this.  in the opening say your character has "bananaphobia" and gaslight them by telling them it is the fear of apples.  then place some apples throughout the game and every time the player finds one they lose the ability to control their character as they run away uncontrollably.

[Legend]

Some brilliant ideas kitler 

Also another idea. Maybe have the player find clues about his past, which you want to seem to make a mystery, on the ship as he explores a way out.

So you the player can see clues about what happened to him. And ways to get out. Would motivate the player to explore the ship

Also, just another idea. Maybe the things the aliens did to him make him change through the game a bit. The more he gets closer to finding a way out, the more he changes. Would also add motivation to try understand his past and what happened to him.

Maybe he left notes for himself during different stages.

Luckily I'm feeling pretty good. This is a bump of a year old thread because it's been solved.

Player character doesn't have amnesia so that has always been the hurdle. 

Haven't read anything here. But I'd say have the intro give the player motive. Have something happen to them that makes them understand the need to get out of the ship, the desire to explore.

Yeah I think I've got that. Show Earth, ask simple questions in the alien language with English answers, build a connection to Earth and the player's history, show first contact with the alien craft, build some suspense, and then do a massive somber zoom out to the game's starting location (teasing the escape path).

[BananaKing]

Didn't wanna say haven't read anything. I wanted to say haven't read everything. My bad

[Legend]

Didn't wanna say haven't read anything. I wanted to say haven't read everything. My bad

Haha that makes more sense.

Also you play as a chick in Hapax. Slight callback to Metroid/Alien, and easier than having to make a second player model.

[BananaKing]

Haha that makes more sense.

Also you play as a chick in Hapax. Slight callback to Metroid/Alien, and easier than having to make a second player model.

Makes sense to not have players chose their character if they don't know much about who they are and their history. I feel it would go against that sense of mystery