Adventure Gamers - Forums
You are here: Home → Forum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread
Post Marker Legend:
-
New posts -
No new posts
Currently online
AG Theme of the Week 12 - ‘Storyboard’ vs. cut scene
Many games that I’ve played begin with ‘cinematics’/cut scenes to either introduce the story or depict the roots of it by way of a prologue which usually reflect the graphical style & mood of the game.
The same goes for cut scenes within the game to either show action sequences or other events which sometimes also serve to give a close-up of characters &/or proceedings which otherwise lack clarity in the game world.
In my mind cut scenes should blend in seamlessly with the playing experience so as not to break the immersion in a game but one method used in lieu of cut scenes that can challenge this is the ‘storyboard’/comic strip idea especially if the graphical style is incongruous with that of the game.
The 1st of my examples is not a game that incorporates a storyboard as such but rather a few single illustrated stills here & there which given that the game (Secrets of Da Vinci) begins, ends & includes a few cut scenes in keeping with the graphics of the game I’m not sure works? The drawing featured which serves to progress the story is in contrast to the actual presentation of characters + 1 of very few similar cut scenes within the game shown below it.
Another game that doesn’t use a storyboard but veers away from the game’s graphical style by using ‘illustrated’ cut scenes is Gray Matter which easily seems to give more ‘personality’ to a close-up of a character & more expressive detail of an event but it does make you wonder in that case whether a game would be better being made in that style to start with?......
..........such as Cognition in which the storyboard idea seems to integrate better into the games’ style…....
...........as it does in Gabriel Knight 1.
So Blonde doesn’t do a bad job either as the storyboard layout used in the intro & intermittently throughout blends in perfectly with the cartoony graphics of the game.
The next examples from games developed by Kheops Studio, i.e. respectively Return to Mysterious Island + an in-game screenshot from it which represents the graphics of not only that game but also those of Destination Treasure Island & Return to Mysterious Island 2 that feature afterwards, I’ve found the worst for taking you out of the game world but like Secrets of Da Vinci they too are 1st person perspective games. Does that make more of a difference to interrupting immersion using a style of storyboard graphics not in keeping with the in-game environments I wonder?
Al Emmo, which a few of us have completed in a CPS recently, seems to use a mixture of cut-scenes ranging between incorporating animations of pre-rendered models, cartoony-style close-ups or a comic-style storyboard which starts off with a coloured pic which turns to sepia each time another coloured pic is added to gradually explain the chain of events.
Last but not least my final games, as far as I know, only use the ‘storyboard’ idea as an intro to the stories. In the case of Silverload it offers some history of the town (i.e. Silverload) via a series of comic-style illustrations which although don’t represent the graphics of the game seem to set the foreboding atmosphere to be experienced within it; & In Moebius: Empire Rising the background of the protagonist is explained by scrolling down & turning the pages of an e comic which at the very least reflects the vibrant colours of the game’s artwork.
I hope my thread hasn’t been too incoherent & clumsy on the subject but my conclusion is that if a developer doesn’t have the time or resources to produce cut-scenes to begin and/or further a story a narrative option may be preferable? to alternative methods like storyboards which can take you through a section of story visually very quickly but may not work if they don’t represent the game world in a believable way.
Otherwise another thought is that the method used in Yesterday could be further utilised as it just uses the same graphics of the game?
Having said that I do like some of the interesting interludes/artwork regardless of whether it’s presence in a game fits or not but please post YOUR thoughts, add anything you like & let me know of any inaccuracies, disagreements or .......omissions as I’m sure there are a number of games that either use the storyboard/comic strip idea instead of cut scenes that I’m unaware of/forgotten about or just haven’t played!
I don’t know if we need cutscenes anymore. If you look at games like Broken Age the detail is high enough in the normal game to be cinematic in nature. And Telltale games are pretty much 100% cutscene.
I don’t know if we need cutscenes anymore. If you look at games like Broken Age the detail is high enough in the normal game to be cinematic in nature. And Telltale games are pretty much 100% cutscene.
Thank you for your post cyfoyjvx! From what I can see Broken Age does have cutscenes but it wasn’t really the point of the thread whether games have cutscenes or not.
Obviously, according to you, Telltale games pretty much need them don’t they? 
Great theme, chrissie!
I’m a traditionalist, in a sense that I always loved to experience a cutscene as a way of a “reward”, for my previous hard work. In GK2, Broken Sword… you knew you’re on the right path whenever you trigger a cutscene, like a driving force that motivates me to go forward. There’re certain games like Clandestiny, Curse of Monkey Island… and if you put all the game’s cutscenes together, you’d get a short-to-an animated feature film! Curse of Monkey Island is also an excellent example where the cutscene style fit seamlessly with the rest of the game:
I agree it feels awkward when the cutscene is in a complete disarray with the main graphic style, like if the main character’s face is different, or it’s in modeled in a different way. However, I don’t mind it too much (if the “change” is not dramatic, like a totally different hair cut or facial features 
) and in earlier adventure games, where the character was a sprite with less noticeable details, the cutscene was a way of “looking closer” at it. 
After all, it was not unseen that on the game covers the characters looks completely different compared to the in-game hero:
As for the storyboards, they became popular in the second half od 00’s as a way to cut the budget, I feel, though they can be stylistic and immersive as well. Somehow, I always preferred full-fledged video cutscene, and I especially felt that Gray Matter suffered from the choice of storyboard instead of cutscenes. The one in Al Emmo was OK, though since the game already had pre-rendered (and later animated, in a remake) cutscenes, I wonder if it would feel better if the “between chapters” movies were also done in the way of a fully-animated cutscene?
Somewhere in the late 90s, when the 3D engine graphics improved especially in FPS and real-time strategy games, it became quite usual that the “cutscene” is done in the same graphic engine as the main game. I feel that the “trend” is catching the adventure genre only recently, and I think it will be the next popular choice of designers (especially because it’s even cheaper than the storyboard) and it doesn’t break the immersion. Though, I still feel there’s a room for good and quality full video cutscenes, especially in 2D games, as a way to “deepen” the view on the characters and backgrounds.
Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale
I agree it feels awkward when the cutscene is in a complete disarray with the main graphic style, like if the main character’s face is different, or it’s in modeled in a different way.
In my mind April always looks like this:
I don’t know this girl:
You are here: Home → Forum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread
