Besides writing, one of my hobbies is video games. I'm in the middle of my first major project and now that all of the mechanics and most of the levels are built, I need to focus a little more on the story, as I'm gearing up to begin polishing and animating cutscenes. Below is one of the more important scenes in my game, and I've been struggling to make it both clear and minimal. Most players get bored with cutscenes quickly and every second of animation is several minutes of actual animating/scripting. Background The main character is a cat name Mittens, who belongs to a Cat militant faction. The enemies are the Rats. Both civilizations have sprouted up near a mysterious energy dome, which predates both of them and can't be penetrated. The Rats found an ancient artifact that allowed them to pass through the barrier and Mittens stole one from them and followed them. The Cats are afraid that there is advanced technologies under the dome and can't afford to let the Rats control it. As Mittens fights through the Rat army deeper into the facility, it becomes in more and more disrepair and there is a strange purple film on parts of the walls and a purple fog in the air. That is all that in known before this cutscene, which is supposed to fill the player in on what's really going on as well as introduce the twist and new enemy. Final 10 seconds of gameplay before cutscene Mittens enters a room with a single rat holding a machine gun. Expecting an easy fight, Mittens unloads on it. The rat activates a mysterious artifact which alters the passage of time. With speed and ease, the rat ducks and weaves between the bullets while hitting Mittens with pinpoint accuracy. During the fight, a voice comes from an unseen source: “Who are you?” There isn’t much time to ponder where it came from as a deluge of small purple balls burst from nearby vents and bounce to and engulf the rat, killing it and causing it to drop the artifact. Cutscene As the squishy balls turn on Mittens, an army of flying robots emerge from the same vents and attack them. The squishy balls retreat, some are destroyed by both the robots and Mittens. Most of the robots follow the goo, but two of them stay and activate a projection system. A large projection of a human appears before Mittens and picks up the artifact that the Rat dropped. “Why have you come here?” Mittens reacts with a trigger finger and fires straight through the hologram, which doesn’t seem to phase it in the least. “Please don’t do that... I guess it doesn’t matter why you’re here, what matters in the Energy Shield that you used to cross the barrier. I sense a few dozen of them inside. I wasn’t expecting a military invasion today.” The human walks around Mittens, examining him and his weapons. “You’re not with the other group are you? Interesting.” A group of purple blobs hops out of the vent. Mittens opens fire on it, but stops when lasers are emitted from the projection’s eyes which obliterates all of them in a show of force. “Oh… that’s the goo. Those blobs are actually millions of tiny machines that turn matter into… well… copies of itself. Over eons, they’ve evolved to work together as sort of multicellular nanobot colonies. With no way out of the dome though, most just scurry about harmlessly. In the lower levels of the facility, I’ve left the purple goo to evolve without my presence and it’s developed a degree of intelligence… which is why I’ve appeared before you.” “That other group… they aren’t faring too well and the goo has captured several of the Energy Shields that the rats so carelessly brought in here. I need those shields destroyed lest the goo use them to escape the dome.” Mittens tilts his head and points to himself questioningly. “You do understand the stakes? Could you imagine what a single self-replicating particle could do if it escaped?” The human gave off a laugher which made it seem less than sane. “It’d become trillions before anyone even noticed… Hehehehe” the human gave off a lunatical laugh. “You’d have to nuke the whole planet to destroy the infestation.” The hologram appears to tick a few times. “A species can’t survive something like that... Ours didn’t.” Another fit of laughter. “Except those of us who uploaded our minds.” Camera zooms into Mitten’s face while FOV goes out for dramatic effect. “Here,” the hologram tosses the artifact to Mittens’ who effortlessly catches it. “humans weren’t just masters of energy but space and time too. Take this time manipulator, it’ll probably be useful down there.” The hologram points to the vent. “That way. I’ll send some drones to help you.” What I'm hoping to communicate to the player 1) I want them to understand that the purple goo is a human created nanobot that got out of control and destroyed humanity, also that the dome itself is a human creation 2) The player should understand that this story is taking place on Earth, millions of years in the future, and that the anthropomorphic Cats/Rats are evolved from our pets and pests. 3) I want them to understand just how far humans had come technologically before we were wiped out, making the goo seem even more dangerous 4) I want it obvious that the holographic entity was once a person who uploaded their mind into a computer and has been alone (possibly going mad) for millions of years 5) I want the player to believe that the human is holding something back, even though there is no obvious reason to think that 6) I want the player to understand the scale of the threat that the goo escaping the dome poses (extinction) 7) I want it obvious that the story and gameplay has shifted from the conflict to the Rats to containing the goo 8) I want the hologram to have a sort of Lovecraftian element. You're not sure how technologically advanced humans were at their downfall so you're not sure of its abilities. You only know that it survived the extinction of humanity and seems to not consider either the goo, or the Rat military invasion to be a threat to it. What you'll find out later In order to get the best feedback, this is what's actually going on that the player won't find out until later Spoiler The projections goal is to simply prevent the goo from escaping the dome. It's sent Mittens to try and find them just as a matter of convenience. Because Mittens has his own shield, which allows him to pass through the barrier, the human has every intention of killing Mittens when he's done. It's not because he's malevolent, it's just a matter of quarantine. You'll also find out from a hyperintelligent goo creature that the dome was originally a military complex to contain the goo as part of a MAD pact among humans during a cold war. The human originally worked there and had a massive god complex. As he got older, he uploaded his mind to live forever and saw the potential human war as a threat to his immortality, so he covertly unleashed the goo to destroy both sides and become the singular master of the planet.
