This is the script for the intro cinematic of Fractal Space on PC and consoles. The goal of this cinematic is two-fold: technically this is a mean for the developers to load a very small scene while loading the fist chapter in the background and making the gameflow seamless to the player creating the illusion that there is almost no loading time for the game.

The constraints coming from that are that the intro scene must be very light, few props, long enough to load the first chapter in the background, and not requiring much resources in terms of gameplay mechanics.

Narratively speaking, the goal is to establish a mystery that will hook the player as this intro will be made available in short demos. We want it to leave a strong impression on players, set the tone of the game and establish the first elements of lore and world building.

If you are looking for resources about cinematics:

• I use a free software called KIT scenarist, it does everything you need, is very simple to use, and has no script number limitations. I like it.
• On the question of when to put cinematics. My take is when you can’t put gameplay and want to limit the player experience to something very specific that you want to be the same for all your players. Ask yourselves and your game designers fellows, would the player want to PLAY that? It’s a game and the risk with cinematics is that players will want to skip them. Consider your target audience and weigh that in. Everything that can be played should be played, that’s why in the cinematic above you see interruptions for gameplay, everything that we could technically, reasonably allow the player to do, we wanted them to be able to do it.
• Third tip: we writers love writing don’t we? People who work with us don’t need to love writing, they want this document so they can contribute their own skills and creativity and bring it to life. Be precise but don’t over-restrictive. Be concise, the steps must stand out, the layout of the scene must be clear. This is not the opportunity to showcase your prose, the shorter the better, but it should set a tone.
• In this example, we want to load very little and the main users of this document are the game designer and the level designer hence the focus on layout and mechanics. In many cases, you will also want this document to go to your art team, so think about what they need to know. Here it is fairly simple: a beach, a box that is detailed in our lore so description is stripped down in the script, a heavy sky, a space station panel with a button and that’s IT. If your scene has more, make sure it is in your script, think about the light, weather, any important props. It will help you define the mood and atmosphere.