Games are a young form of art that has not yet had time to acquire its own narrative language. The most daring game designers act blindly and experiment with its presentation. The vast majority of such projects fail miserably. Occasionally, they succeed like Disco Elysium or Journey. The more cautious developers adopt and use the work of writers, playwrights, and filmmakers.

Popular narrative methods are through environments, gameplay, and in-game videos. The latter (also called cutscenes) require the most technical skills and resources. Modern AAA games even have their director. He alternates angles, plans, and other ways to work with the visual space to evoke the right emotions in the player. In this article, we'll tell you what techniques developers use to make a cutscene.

A lazy but effective method. It is needed to quickly throw exposition at the player.

Voice-over saves time for teasers and trailers. These in-game videos are usually edited Michael Bay-style: lots of "meat", explosions, and special effects. No more than 3-5 seconds are allocated for each angle to have time to show as much content as possible. There is no place for a thoughtful selection of shots that include the whole story. The main thing in such videos is the rich visuals.

Also, the voice-over is actively used in classic RPGs, where the high volume of text is a feature of the genre.

A voice-over voices a character's thoughts, reveals true motives, or dilutes dark cutscenes with sarcastic jokes. One variation of this technique is a narrator telling the story of past events.

For example, in Stanley Parable or Immortals Fenyx Rising, the narrators are practically full-fledged characters. Their lines change depending on the player's behavior, confusing and giving the story a postmodern twist.

The classic black-and-white or retro gamut refers to events of yesteryear. It can be either stylization of the game as a whole or individual faded frames. The second option used if you need to hint at a flashback urgently:

A more curious option is a colorless palette with unexpectedly bright elements that accentuate the player's attention. This method is used in The Saboteur game. There are only three colors in the captured territories: black, white, and blood-red.

If you free the area - it is again filled with bright light colors.

Allows you to see and feel the world as the protagonist does. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great illustration of this technique.

The first-person view in the video enhances the effect of presence and makes you feel in the character's body, and that's exactly what you need for games. In movies, this technique is less common.

A versatile technique. In some cutscenes, it conveys the state of the object or character. In others, it introduces the characters. And sometimes a video with a close-up generates tons of fanservice.

In excessive amounts, it aggressively invades personal space and causes discomfort. Such cutscenes pull the player out of the real world and make him feel threatened.

This is often used by authors of horror games when setting up screamers.

The character from the cutscene suddenly looks into the camera, interacts with the player, and knows that his whole life is a game. Deadpool is a canonical example of this kind of narrative.

There are plenty of variations. Sometimes the breakdown is almost imperceptible and expressed with just one look at the camera.

Sometimes it's a direct mockery of the player. Some cutscenes will scare even the most hardcore gamer. See for yourself!

And sometimes things go beyond the in-game videos. So SCP - Containment Breach is paused with a loud sound and the caption "Stop hiding," and Doki Doki Literature Club... just a cute visual novel. Nothing wrong with it.

The rule of thirds is a classic visual art technique: video, design, painting, etc. It is used in any kind of visual art.

As a simplified version of the golden ratio, it is often used when working with video. It is actively used in the construction of the composition to direct the player's eye to the right area and avoid unnecessary clutter of details. The technique works everywhere: in cutscenes, game cameras, and even UI/UX.

Professionally obscured horizon conveys a nervous, anxious, or intoxicated state of the characters. Use this technique in your game to enhance the effect of presence, amuse the player and add a challenge for fans of complex tasks.

It is appropriate for the game camera in general and cutscenes in particular.

A favorite technique of Christopher Nolan and the best way to convey the importance of an object.

Another popular use is to fly the in-game camera through the entire location. It usually ends at a trap, a chest with a fancy loot, or just the door to the final boss.

It doesn't matter whether you're playing AAA games on PC or modest crafts in Unity on Android. These techniques are useful for games with any budget! The main thing is to know how to use them properly.