The importance of Credits

[HyperJragon]

So today I finished another game, and as the credits rolled it got me thinking of the importance of those credits in game design.

Aside from the obvious, being that credits are there to credit the people involved, I feel that credits kind of have a special place in a video game.

When you finish a game and see the credits roll it finally is the game telling you that it’s over, and then you kinda slowly wind down from the high of finishing and start reflecting on the rest of the game again.

Somehow credits do so much in a video game for me personally.

So I was curious if any of you had noticed this yourself or had something to add.

[Demetrius_Dixon]

You gotta start making a list of people who’ve helped you, regardless of if they’re directly helped with the game. So you can put them in a “Special Thanks” section.

And add a fast forward, pause, and rewind feature.

[HyperJragon]

I think that brings up something interesting to the question.

Rewind buttons are great for credits cause it lets people actually see who helped.

At the same time rewind buttons would make credits immediatley lose a lot of that effect of having the person pause.

The main issue with credits is that no one ever actually reads them which is what makes it so effective because you force someone to sit through credits with their own thoughts. And having someone alone with nothing to do after just doing something they worked on hard is a recipe for reflection.

So where is the perfect middle ground?

[conz3d]

It depends a little bit on the type of game where you want to place the credits. If it’s a linear story game, than at the end is fine.
But in most cases where you don’t have a clear ending, the credits are accessable from the main menu. Maybe add them in a story game there too, that not only people who finished the game can see them.

[TokyoFunkScene]

@HyperJragon

So where is the perfect middle ground?

Full-on Bayonetta-style playable credits. While the credits play, throw the player into a scored fight every two to three minutes. Don’t telegraph the fight is coming so the player must look at the screen for the full duration of the credits.

[Demetrius_Dixon]

@HyperJragon

The main issue with credits is that no one ever actually reads them which is what makes it so effective because you force someone to sit through credits with their own thoughts.

Or they just skip them. I’ve never watched a credits sequence unless I’m watching a movie. Which I wasn’t, I was playing a game, duh.

Now that you brought this up, for games without a story, you can just put a list. No scrolling or anything.

I honestly might do that for Monkanics. Just put a credits button in the extras menu, then have a list the player can scroll through. Nothing extra.

[HyperJragon]

Yeah I’m mainly talking about story games.

I think making credits skippable is imo a bad idea since you lose both recognition for people and as said the effect that credits have.

[Demetrius_Dixon]

Or they just close the game to skip a, depending on the studio, a 10-15+ minute long credits sequence.

The player has all agency in the scenario. The best thing to do is enable that.

Edit:

WATCH OUT!!!

@dragonforge-dev is about to demonstrate his mission-critical thinking skills!

[dragonforge-dev]

I’m a big fan of splash screens and credits. In my User Interface Plugin I have a SplashScreen node that makes it very easy to make splash screens that pop up when the game starts.

In my Game Template Plugin I actually made a Credits screen. I tried to make Hollywood style rolling credits, but it broke at some point. So then I made them a single screen. But in game jams I usually run out of time to update them.

I’ve got plans in my head to basically crate a Resource named like Credit and use it to fill out like all the places I got music, graphics, SFX, etc. Then have the credit screen organize and display them. In my Sound Plugin I actually used to have two Resource objects Song and SoundEffect.They stored all of that information and wrapped a sound file, and could also be used to fade them in and out, etc. Over time though, Godot implemented reading metadata from sound files, and I didn’t need that info, and wrapping sound files was kind of a nightmare when it came to implementation, so I took that feature out. But my plan was to suck all that into the credits automatically too.

Now I’m thinking about working on this credits thing again…

Also, I think both splash screens and credits are a great place for music.

I really love the beginnings of my games because of the time I put into the credits. In Eternal Echoes I added music to the start menu, and I spent a long time on the game’s beginning cutscene. I loved it, but I wish I’d spent more time on the game for the jam.

With Prisoner 42 I made the Godot logo video come up quietly and started the music instead of the video sound. Then the song ramps up through the credits. The title fades in as the vocalist sings “Prisoner 42”. The game itself never got off the ground. (I talk about that in the DevLog.) still, I learned a lot from the failure.

So then I did Skele-Tom, and those splash screens are EPIC. They are displayed in a 3D model of a TV., and between each scene the dial turns and it shows static. I again silenced the Godot logo sound and start the music with the game. As the the game jam splash comes up, the lyrics start and your attention is fully grabbed. I had people who commented in the jam that they just stayed on the main screen to listen to the theme song.

(upload://eODPXacVCVW0sflW9xTzQFYYj6K.jpeg)

I’m really proud of how this sequence turned out.

Most recently, I did Katamari Mech Spacey and I added the video sound back in. Unfortunately it stutters when the game starts on the web build. For the splash I did it like an old science fiction movie, and instead of music, I used little musical hits to make you feel like you’re in space, and tied the animations to hit as the sounds play making it feel very epic IMO.

With color splashing in at the end.

I encourage you all to watch them because me describing them doesn’t really capture the feel which is anticipation. I try to make them exciting and short like a good movie intro. I also make them skippable after you watch them the first time.

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I really think that credits should give the same feeling, like @HyperJragon was saying. A wrap-up feeling. Unfortunately, I’ve never really gotten there. But I like it when they show screen shots of game environments that trigger feelings, or show stills from the story, or even like in River City Girls 1 & 2 they show story during the credits to wrap things up.

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@Demetrius_Dixon

Edit:

WATCH OUT!!!

@dragonforge-dev is about to demonstrate his mission-critical thinking skills!

LOL

[thesnesmaster]

I like a good nostalgic, melancholy credits environment with hints that all the characters (who are still alive of course at the end, dang this sounds dark…) are doing well, perhaps little clips of moments that involved deceased allies or even conquered foes, while also giving branching hints depending on the player’s choices throughout the game, for instance,
it could portray as if the hero is full of regret, etc. or that he or she is satisfied with the end of the quest.

I like how Chrono Trigger’s To Faraway Times soundtrack is made,
I feel like a good ending theme is crucial for story-heavy games.

I could either sound like a genius storyteller or Count Dracula, depending on how this is read, just FYI, I have no idea if i wrote this well —shoot i think i am talking specifically story-heavy RPGs

[Demetrius_Dixon]

@thesnesmaster

I could either sound like a genius storyteller or Count Dracula, depending on how this is read

[thesnesmaster]

** Lol

[HyperJragon]

Yoooooooooo dragonforge actually agrees with me.

It’s a first.

Wooooooooooo!!!

Lol, anyways.

Yeah what started all this was me finishing elden ring and also remembering when I finished outer wilds.

The credits made me sit there and remember the ungodly amount of time I poured into the game.

It made me realise it’s all done now. And that it’s finally accomplished

[dragonforge-dev]

You inspired me actually.

Dragonforge Credits

I need to sleep, but I wanted to show you all what I accomplished today. It still needs work. Click the link, hit the play button and watch the credits roll.

The coolest part is that you give it a folder where your game music is stored, and it scans all folders and subfolders, and creates movie-style credits for all your music, using the meta tags stored in your music (as long as it’s OggVorbis or Wav that has the right kind of tags). I’m including a screenshot of that feature here because it’s broken in the web version, and I think I know why - I’m just too tired to fix it now.

This is the entire scene:

You’ll notice some shaders on the background to create reflective water and the tree blowing in the wind. Plus I added some shine to the Godot logo, (which is from StayAtHomeDev’s Free Logo Redesigns).

I am still working on it, but I have title cards working, so basically you can build a scene, and then add it to the list of scenes in the Inspector and they’ll load automatically. Like a PowerPoint deck. These are the three I’ve created.

(They made the background I’m using.)

The AudioStreamPlayer is just setup to auto play.

And the Developers section is me hard-coding some stuff that will later be moved into a Resource I think.

Oh, it’s also completely modular if you want to build credits a different way. So you can re-use any of the pieces. For example, you can create a SongDisplay node like any other node, give it an AudioStream and LabelSettings, and it’ll create the song info for you.

Same with a MusicContainer node.

And MusicSection node. (Which is the same as the former with a title at the top, so I might roll them into one.)

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I will be providing it as a plugin when I’m done. Anyone have any thoughts on it so far or things I might add?

[Demetrius_Dixon]

It sounds pretty cool. (Pun intended )

[Frozen_Fried]

You should make the credit very juicy to be seen by the player. Writing everything down on a label and moving it up won’t really catch attention.

I really love the credits/cast of Deadpool & Wolverine.
Deadpool & Wolverine Opening scene(Contains gore and violence,also bad words.Just watch at your own risk.)

[EriTheSwitch]

And here my arcade head expected this thread to be about something very, very different . Oh well.

I personally appreciate when credits are combined with something going on in background - not necessarily interactive, but not a still picture either. A bunch of highlights from your adventure is also nice, if a tad cliche.

@Demetrius_Dixon

Now that you brought this up, for games without a story, you can just put a list. No scrolling or anything.

Did you mean in the sense of a game without a clear ending? Otherwise, I feel like story doesn’t have much to do with nature of credits.

[normalized]

For small games, especially if they are arcade-y, I prefer using a ticker bar that scrolls in a loop at the bottom of the main menu screen.

[dragonforge-dev]

@Frozen_Fried

You should make the credit very juicy to be seen by the player. Writing everything down on a label and moving it up won’t really catch attention.

I think that depends on if “catching attention” is the point. If you watch the example I made above, the credits scroll and the end song plays. The end music is supposed to take you on a journey wrapping up your feelings on the game allowing reflection.

Once the credits finish, you’re left listening to the music and watching a peaceful mountain view. That’s when you notice the lone tree gently swaying in the wind. Then your brain is drawn to the fact that it and the view are reflected in the water below. It gives you a peaceful feeling, then the music starts to swells with an instrumental break. When the lyrics come back in, they slowly ramp up to bring your emotions up allowing you to reflect on the game. Then they drop off again, taking you on whatever journey your brain makes.

Certainly you could add in memories for the player. You could make it interactive. You could add story. I think this part of @HyperJragon’s initial post was this:

@HyperJragon

When you finish a game and see the credits roll it finally is the game telling you that it’s over, and then you kinda slowly wind down from the high of finishing and start reflecting on the rest of the game again.

Somehow credits do so much in a video game for me personally.

It reminded me of the end of Final Fantasy X, or really any of the Final Fantasy games. I’m a huge fan of movie credits, and I love just watching them to the end, listening to the music, seeing what went into making it and reflecting on what I just saw.

With video game credits, it depends on the type of game it is. I don’t need an emotional journey at the end of Tetris. But if there was a story, a wrap-up is nice.

I was thinking about Wild Arms 3 just now. It has like 45 minutes of video in it. Part of that is as you finish each chapter of the game, when you started up your Playstation, the opening sequence changed. As new characters were introduced, they showed up in the opening sequence, and there were English and Japanese lyrics. I don’t think I ever beat that game because the gameplay was kinda lackluster, but I do remember the emotional impact the sequences had on me.

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Dovetailing into this, I think music is really important in a game and its impact often overlooked by game designers.

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Going back to the credits plugin I created, it does all the heavy lifting for me and I intend to use it in game jams where I need something fast and good enough.

In a space game I might make a ship fly horizontally through the credits. In a platformer, I might make something where the player can break the letters with their head like Mario for points. Or make them platforms you can jump up to get to the end.

There’s lots of cool things you can do. I just like the idea that I can drop music into a folder and give credit to the makers without have to do any additional work. Because in a game jam I don’t have a lot of time. But I can create a simple logo card for someone whose graphics I used and throw it into an Array even when I’m in a hurry.

[Demetrius_Dixon]

Speaking if emotional credits sequences, the credits of Psychonauts 2 had that awesome “welcome to my mind” rock song and it was a feel good moment.