Ask a Game Dev

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

I don't think that we'll ever see pre-rendered cutscenes go away permanently. As in-engine rendering improves, AAA games will likely move away from pre-rendered cutscenes but AAA games are far from the only games that use cutscenes and have engines that can render high quality cinematic visuals (e.g.

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Cutscenes Render Cinematics AAA 40

Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

You can totally miss important conversations and scenes because you're stuck in the stairwell climbing animation at exactly the wrong time. This isn't a big apocalyptic video game betrayal cutscene where a villain reveals himself and destroys a castle, instead it's a smaller deeper betrayal that instantly brought me back to being a teenager.

Indy 52

Indy Film Games Puzzle 52

The Bottom Feeder

DECEMBER 15, 2021

If you've played a decent indie game in the last five year, It Takes Two probably has you play a superior version of that game for 10 minutes. This leads to the most infamous scene in the game, where you try to destroy the daughter's beloved stuff animal to make her cry. It's really sharp and well-observed, and it isn't a cutscene.

Art 52

Art Writing Indy Fighting 52

Radiator Blog

MAY 19, 2023

Before The Green Moon (on Itch and Steam ) is a post-apocalyptic indie Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley / Animal Crossing inspired farm life sim about scraping by, in a decaying rural truckstop town with bored depressed locals you gradually befriend (or ignore). SPOILER ALERT: This post SPOILS what happens in Before The Green Moon.

NPC 59

NPC Cutscenes Animation Animation 59

Played with Fire

DECEMBER 4, 2021

Animated ghosts show the right movement Hand snapping and reactive animations But in general every physical object in our game is fully interactable! Poses & Suggestive shapes / animations (hand & object). . ✓ The right shape and look of objects on scene. and how to differentiate the interactive ones from the decoration.

UX 52

UX Puzzle Animation Animation 52

Radiator Blog

JUNE 2, 2023

Instead there's cutscenes without animation, scripted conversations without choreography, and readables you rarely read because the game never pauses. All the dynamic cutscenes and dialogue sequences relied on 4 player characters all bantering amongst each other like in Buffy or something. But not really.

Studios 98

Studios Co-op Open World Cutscenes 98

Radiator Blog

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

where the main drawback is you're still vulnerable during the 2 second execution animation. I know it's easy for armchair indies like me to complain about pulling punches. This ties into a common complaint: the melee weapon machete is very powerful, like a 1-3 hit kill (maybe 10-15 hits against a boss?)

Fighting 52

Fighting NPC Puzzle AI 52