Begin by Entering into a Unique World

We meet Hobson, the mastermind behind the scheme to manipulate elements. He's in a lab in the beautiful Swiss alps.

He and his nine-year-old daughter take a stroll out of the lab. Hobson's got a device with him with a series of antennae and knobs .

As they walk and stroll, he tells his daughter how man's evolution was shaped by the elements in which he found himself. But now it's time for the next stage of evolution, when man shapes the elements. (The conversation, of course, would be enlivened and deepened with all the techniques discussed in the Chapter 2.31.)

As Hobson strolls and talks, he turns knobs and flips switches on the device. Around he and his daughter:

• A river reverses direction and starts flowing up hill.

• Hobson picks a leaf off a tree and turns a knob. A small whirlwind appears and blows the leaf around and around in a lazy circle. It would do that forever, except Hobson's delighted daughter snags it out of the air.

• Hobson turns another switch and a rainbow crosses the sky—and then a second rainbow, a third, a dozen , as his daughter laughs. ^[1]

  ^[1] Although the technology Hobson is using might as yet be a bit mysterious , we still know what he's doing. It's not a mystery on the same level of the water creeping out of a pot, as in the earlier example.

In this version, we begin the game by being swept into a very unique world.

Final Thoughts

Although the chapter presents a far from exhaustive list of techniques, it demonstrates that there are many ways to approach an opening cinematic.

When you design an opening cinematic, try to make sure you've found the most captivating way to pull a player into the story behind your game.

I held back the two chapters on cinematics to the very end of this section on Emotioneering for a particular reason: to de- emphasize their importance . Far too frequently, when people think of ways to create emotion and story in a game, they think of cinematics.

But creating masterful cinematics in your game, including an opening cinematic if there is one, is the least game-like portion of a game. And, as we've seen so clearly, even the most artful cinematics barely scratch the surface of the techniques available to create a depth and breadth of emotion in a game.

Looking Back

This marks the last chapter of Emotioneering techniques.

You're now equipped with hundreds of specific ways to create emotion in games . A little later in this book (in Chapter 5.2, "Techniques for Creating Fun"), I'll examine methods of creating fun. Fun, of course, is at the core of games' appeal .

The premise of this book, however, is that undergoing rich emotional experiences is fun in its own right. I believe we need to expand our definition of "fun" to include experiences that take us up, down, and around the emotional spectrum; that deliver us into new realities; or that give us insight. Fun films and television shows have been using this expanded definition since the inception of their media.

By using the techniques of Emotioneering, hopefully you'll join me in fulfilling the mission that is the slogan of the Game Developers Conference:

"Make Better Games."