Introduction plays the role of orienting the user to the essentials and impressing him with key attractive aspects of a thing that is going to unfold. In games this intro plays a really crucial role in making people immerse further or leaving the game.
Your game intro either can catch the visitor hot and young and take him further to play the game or just can make a negative impression compelling him to leave. While intro can make such opposing effects on gamers, knowing and implementing the positive elements it can make all the difference. Particularly in games first impression holds the chemistry to retain the gamer until late, at least, till the best game moments are unfolded before him.
Let us have a look at the crucial elements in game metro that can positively retain the players on the game.
Give Players A Taste Of The Whole Game
Intro is not about the first level of your game but far from it. It offers a taste of the whole gaming experience from the game by carefully presenting some attractive areas that can help creating a compelling impression. There are various aspects crucial in making the intro work on the players. Let us explain some do’s, don’ts and crucial aspects to remember.
- Make sure your game loads fast. Long and time consuming loading is one compelling reason for many gamers to leave.
- The game introduction should include an array of elements like title screen, screen-shots, tutorial, etc.
- In the game intro you can actually incorporate many things that can offer an augmented look and feel of the actual game making the intro more impressive.
Give Them Something Interesting To Do While Loading
If your game is light without heavy animation and graphic elements, it can load quickly. But most crazy to play games are heavy ones affecting loading time to a great extent. But as far as user experience is concerned waiting for a whole minute can be extremely tiresome and sometimes frustrating also.
Users make a bad judgment of a game just for slow loading speed and this has been true for countless games so far. But how can you boost the loading speed or even if it does not load in seconds how you can keep them entertained so that they actually have good impression of your game?
- Offer the game’s aesthetics on the loading screen to give users an idea of how the game is going to look like.
- Do not keep users hanging without giving them any hint of the progress in loading. Give an interesting progress bar that make the loading speed look faster.
- But most people dislikes waiting and to give them something to spend their time nicely you can offer them a simple and easy game in your loading screen. It is especially effective for heavier games needing few minutes to load.
- You can use a mini game with the core attributes of your main game or a unique mini game in your loading page.
- Offering a small game play session focusing on training the player can be effective as well.
Avoid Using Splash Screens
With most games players need to go through splash screens quite unnecessarily every time they venture to play the game and this often makes a frustrating experience. Most gamers detest splash screens so much so that they even find ways to skip them. For forcing your logo in the mind of players you may find splash screens necessary but they often are actually counterproductive for the gaming experience.
- Showcase your logo later while offering credits.
- Even when the splash screens are irreplaceable attributes of the game, let them skip it whenever they want.
An Impressive Title Screen
Every gamer while playing a game happens to be on the title screen, at least for once and there you have the scope of making a positive impression on him. Title screens can be really eye catchy or dull in look and feel and accordingly it creates impression upon the players.
- When someone playing the game for first time he should not be forced to go through multiple menu layers. Gamers want to start with the game without delay and without much ado you should let them do this.
- The player should be able start right away without needing him to select the level.
- For first time players you can even let them skip the main menu for a quick gaming experience.
- Even after saying all these, the importance of title screen will still be there. Coming back to your game for another time the gamer may start from the saved game or he may choose to start afresh.
Menu Should Represent The Look And Feel Of The Game
The main menu must not be too different from the rest of your game in look and feel. The player should always have a foretaste of the game while watching the menu. The menu should hold the elements that motivate a player to press the play button and begin to play the game.
- Offer a lively experience in the menu with the animated characters from the game moving behind or with a scrolling background.
- The menu buttons should be responsive to touch and here too you can think of adding fun to this responsiveness.
- Consider making UI and other elements interactive as well.
Playable Main Menu
The game designers can further make the design uncommonly better by offering playable features in main menu. Though this type of menu is very rare in games and only a handful offers a similar design experience as far as the menu is concerned, it can make the menu itself a fun aspect of the game. Playable menu quickly gives your players a feel of the actual game and actually make them feel already inside the game.
Making And Breaking The Rules
Finally, making and breaking the conventions and rules of game designing always depends on the qualitative output you are capable to produce and nobody would object to breaking a few rules if your players feel them right and you continue to win their popularity.
All gaming projects differ in their objectives and expectations and naturally design elements can take or leave a lot of elements as per their project requirement. What matters most is the purposefulness of your design in relation to your objective. If your game design does not carry the elements to make it more playable and fun packed for the gamers your game does not stand a bright chance.
As a designer, maintaining principles of accessibility to the fullest is most important for a great gaming experience.
A powerful and result driven intro would let the player have a clear idea of the game and attract him to press the play button. Second, an intro must be coherent to the overall look and feel of the game ad showcase the best fun elements of the game. Lastly, a great intro without much delay should facilitate a quick game play. After all, players want a firsthand experience of the game instead of hearing about it.