{"id":810,"date":"2026-05-17T23:49:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T23:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/et4g23-yr3\/?p=810"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:22:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:22:50","slug":"planning-cutscenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/et4g23-yr3\/2026\/05\/17\/planning-cutscenes\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Cutscenes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To explain the story of the world and Kauri’s motivation to the player, we plan to make simple cutscenes at the beginning and end of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine Sols: Case Study<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nine Sols is a 2D metroidvania, the reason I want to look into this game is because it has very effective but simple ‘cutscenes’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Dialogue’ Cutscenes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

During the dialogue in Nine Sols, the gameplay turns slightly darker and headshots of the characters show up with their names and text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Characters take turns talking and the player’s input causes the next line of dialogue to appear. This approach feels intuitive to implement in my opinion and is something I can do for Haerenga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Action’ Cutscenes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

These cutscene have a lot more action in them, emphasising how important they are to the story of the game:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Panels of this scene fade in like a comic book, a simple yet effective approach to portraying important scenes within the story. I feel as though this is another thing that I could implement given my limited Unity experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storyboarding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As I am the original designer of this game idea, I know its story better than anyone. But Paula, our artist, is the one who will be drawing out these cutscenes. So it’s up to me to communicate how the story should unfold, to do this I created a very crude story board of the game’s intro:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
I drew the story board on Paula’s iPad and the annotated it on our Miro board<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also mentioned this in the following post in semester one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Early Narrative Ideas<\/a><\/blockquote>