10 Reasons Video Games Are The Hardest Thing To Write

6. Skippable Cutscenes

There€™s a special circle of hell reserved for people who skip or otherwise ignore a cutscene and then complain they don€™t understand what€™s going on. Unfortunately, writers happen to work there. If you€™re the player, even if you€™re enjoying the story, there are a lot of reasons to want to skip a cinematic or a lengthy conversation. It might be that you€™re replaying the game and trying to get to a particular section, or perhaps you just lost some progress after a bad save. Either way, you don€™t particularly relish having to sit through it all again. Making your cinematics skippable may be a smart design choice, then, but it also incurs the wrath of the writer. This isn€™t necessarily because you€™re dealing with a pretentious diva, although that€™s entirely possible €“ rather, if they€™d known ahead of time that you could skip the cinematic, a smart writer would have planned for that and written some dialogue to help keep impatient players on track. Most writers are all-too-aware of that peculiar breed of gamer who€™s hardwired to hammer buttons and ignore anything that isn€™t gameplay, even if (or perhaps because) they€™re enjoying the game. It€™s for that reason that the first line of dialogue once play resumes is normally a summation of what you just saw €“ this can feel a bit clunky, but it€™s one of the many situations you have to consider when trying to tell a story in a medium where the player€™s used to going at their own speed.