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.