Seriously, what's all the fuss about cutscenes...

Seriously, what's all the fuss about cutscenes...
Yeah, again I repeat it.
It's getting so annoying for me.
LBP was a light fun game that I could load and play.
Now I have to go through loads of minutes to watch stories that I don't care about, unskippable, that ofteb lead to level links that don't work or worse, they freeze your PS3.

Is there something bad about making a level that people can play and have fun?
I'm at the point that when a level starts with a cutscene a want to hammer a nail in my head.
People is generally over using this movie function imho

I don't see anything wrong in moviews ^^' it's still best way to represent story. There should be freedom on what they create, if you dont like it.... i don't care about that too :p

I'm just trying to understand the reason why people want to put cutscenes into levels at any costs.

Sorry I mean long cutscenes, gonna edit the title.

Also...are you stalking me? :boo: You replied so quick :p

Well depends on what you think is long and what you are aiming to make.
I think short cutscenes even if your level have a lot of them is OK.
even the great game Limbo and old Sonic games had some... almost everygame has some.
A game needs some form of story even if it''s left untold in words.

People want to make games here... not just mindless levels.

With me and my levels it depends on what I'm creating.
sometimes I make story heavy levels, sometimes I don't.
LBP to me is a general create tool, not just a level create tool.
So I find that people even creating movie levels is fine.
plus I like to create levels that have a lot of the old comedy cartoon feeling.
like my Dareti series level are suppose to be like that somewhat
where you mix a show with game.

Just look at real games. most real games have story.
even older games did... just they did not tell it so much in words or with talking.
*mew

Its a hate of mine to, especially pushing a button and watch a camera pan across the area to door that was obviously going to open when I pressed the button, I'm not stupid, I dont need to be shown what every button press does. The minute this happens and its un-skippable I quit.

But yea i hate story less hated muted hint or tutorials too

I think its just a fun new create tool. Most people use it to set the tone or explain the setting/goal. Even basic arcade games would have a general story sometimes.

Sometimes, it can add just a little atmosphere. Like Mogana's Sackrificed, or Luos's last MM Pick. Those can really help set the tone.

It wouldn't be so bad if level links worked properly. You could then easily set up the skip intro option. Now, most creators have to have two separate levels cause level links lose your friends.

When they done well, they can be entertaining and set the tone for the level, explain the story without having to read speech bubbles through the first half of the game.

Personally, I like it. Especially when its done by a really great creator.

I am actually struggling with this very question for my level, The Explorers. Do I give it a narrative, which would require a short movie intro, or try to make it ad simple as possible?

The appeal of doing the movie is that 1. It's fun for me as a creator, although, it adds LOTS of time. 2. It gives your level a feeling if an "event", not just another quick drop in the bucket in the ocean of community levels.

That's my take. As long as I'm entertained, I'm good with it. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GruntosUK

Its a hate of mine to, especially pushing a button and watch a camera pan across the area to door that was obviously going to open when I pressed the button, I'm not stupid, I dont need to be shown what every button press does. The minute this happens and its un-skippable I quit.

---

Yeah, Grant put it in the perfect light here.
It's not the cutscene in itself to be a problem, but the abuse of it.
Once when I had just 15 minutes to play I booted Fifa, then LBP got out and I started to play it.
Now I don't know if I start a level if I'll be able to PLAY it for 10 minutes or if I'll be caught in a series of cutscenes that messes the pace of the gameplay.

It adds story to a level, which isn't as easy to convey if the player is still in control.

Granted, for non-story levels anything other than a quick "Here's the switch, off you go" is pushing it.

I guess you could say too much of anything is too much.

..hopefully I didn't use too many characters to say that. :rolleyes:

I don't dislike cutscenes. If people rather go with exposition than narrative weaved into the gameplay, that's fine by me. I just don't like watching through unnecessary cutscenes that could just be explained by a single magic mouth. And when the timing on the sequencer isn't compacted enough and you have to watch like 5 seconds of absolutely nothing happening.

I've been using cut-scenes liberally, so they're as lean and snappy as I can push it. The greater scope is for the narrative is handy , but they do affect the flow of a level more so than the mouths, so to make up for it I've gotten into the habit of making sure they're preceded by a frantic bit of gameplay, to try and make the forced break almost feel more welcome.
But yeh, a dull/obvious cut-scene is dead time.

I kinda land in the middle with this topic. I don't mind levels beginning with cut scenes if they are well made and actually advance the story. Adding a scene just for the sake of adding a scene is what I have a problem with.

I enjoy it when it's used right.

Something pointless such as a cut away to something that isn't telling you anything new is unnecessary; But an informative beginning (and maybe end) cutscene makes it feel like its own game and not just a level inside LBP.

I too am in the middle here. I mean, cutscenes should be used for your level's story or introduction of some sort. Morgana's Sackrificed level is a good example of what cutscenes should be used for. She had a great introduction and the cutscenes were used for necessary reasons.

Those "pull the switch and see what happens" levels are good examples of what cutscenes shouldn't be used for. They're usually nothing but a slew of cutscenes which just make the gameplay so long and drawn out, it's just plan boring.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GruntosUK

Its a hate of mine to, especially pushing a button and watch a camera pan across the area to door that was obviously going to open when I pressed the button, I'm not stupid, I dont need to be shown what every button press does. The minute this happens and its un-skippable I quit.

---

I know. I once played a really well made platformer but I think I spent half the level watching walls move, it steps rise up, etc. Got old real quick.

I know this much.
LBP2's story mode did it right~
*mew

I see what they're there for, but they do irritate me slightly.

The reason is that a story can be told in so many better/different ways that having the recipient sit through a lengthy cutscene. Ideally it should be told without even words, just by the level/gameplay.

I think opening scenes are ok, if done right. I'm making one now and the opening is maybe 10 seconds, just to kind of set the tone. I played one level a while back and the opening cut scene was a complete fly thru of the level. I mean from start to scoreboard. My review was: thank you for the movie of your entire level, now I don't have to play it.
And I also hate those ones where you can see the door right there. I played one and you were standing right beside the door and a cut scene would trigger of the door going up, and after the 3rd or 4th time of that, I politely quit.

Maximum tolerable length for an unskippable cutscene: 2 seconds.

That is all.

Edit: actually that's not all. From this PDF about tolerable webpage loading times...

Quote:

---

How long are users willing to wait for a Web page to be downloaded before abandoning it? The results from this study suggest that the presence of feedback prolongs Web users’ tolerable waiting time and the tolerable waiting time for information retrieval is approximately 2 seconds.

---

Okay, so it's a different medium, but it's the same idea - in this case, how long is a user prepared to wait for the experience of playing the level, before they give up and try something else? It's particularly important if you want your level to have any kind of decent replay value - I might be prepared to sit through a minute-long cutscene the first time, but no way I'm doing that on any subsequent plays.