Loading Screens - The Waiting Game - Extra Credits

Nothing is more frustrating than a game crashing behind a loading screen, or the game grinding to a halt as you have to travel in-between areas. Even as tech gets stronger, our games get bigger, so it doesn't look like loading screens are disappearing anytime soon. But do they have to kill the pacing of the game and bore your player to death? We don't think so! We talk about a few examples of loading screens done right and how to engage your player during the waiting game.
Thanks again to Kayla Heidenreich for the guest art this week! You can check out more of their work over at www.kaybdoodles...
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[@seamusbyrne8259]

My favourite loading screen is the DM flicking through his notes with a very concerned look on his face!!!

[@calebbennetts3559]

Pleased to be integrating this into a video game. With Jack Black.

[@badunius_code]

@@calebbennetts3559 Bard's Tale could've benefit from this.

[@noticeme6412]

*checks the script* this was not supposed to happen

[@ShibuNub3305]

I shouldn’t relate to this as much as I do

[@redredc2]

What game are you referring to?

[@jmoreland4]

*Dies in a game* Loading Screen Tip: YoU cAn LoWeR tHe DiFfiCuLtY iN tHe OpTiOnS mEnU

[@insaincaldo]

We gave you healing items you dingus.

[@j4296]

By far the most insulting one

[@reignrain4042]

I think its hinting at something

[@Roxor128]

Which is little help if you're already playing on Easy...

[@Adventurer32]

@@Roxor128 you can program the tip to only appear if the player isn't on the easiest difficulty

[@groynin]

Loading screen with just a character moving around when you press buttons is already pretty fun tbh. An EC loading screen could be Zoey trying to catch the mouse pointer each couple of seconds, so we could move around the pointer and have her jumping everywhere.

[@willyeeton4390]

I've spent a long time looking at Desmond's weird fucken neck while waiting for AC 1 & 2 to load. Not a bad time.

[@icarue993]

I remember for Fire emblem 3 houses, it's just the sprite (8 bit or so) running sideways and jumping on command. It was fun.

[@darkenergy3742]

Yes!

[@MrJgame22]

Fire Emblem Three Houses lets you use the Nintendo Switch gyro controls to play with a pixel art version of the main character, and they get a jump button. It definitely helps make the loading screens feel a bit faster.

[@Thedude3rd]

Ooooh I like this one!

[@christopherverhoef9112]

Silent Hill: Downpour used loading screens to increase the horror. There's nothing quite like getting a loading screen tip like, "It's in the room with you. You just can't see it." or "They know you're alone." or "Just give up."

[@sewerreports]

That's a nice use of a loading screen as a game element, tbh

[@qweadd6987]

Imagine you reading those in a dark,silent,room.

[@SporeMystify]

An additional point: Ensure your loading screens don't cause mood whiplash. This may mean changing the loading screen based on where you are in the game. For instance, if the start of the game is light and happy, and the end of thr gsme is more dark and intense, getting a non-neutral loading screen in bith places is going to br inconsistent

[@purpleghost106]

This is so important. I love when games have load screens specific to boss fights for this exact reason, because if you're just about to hit a Big Bad, a relevant load screen can build anticipation-- and obviously one totally tonally dissonant could shake your focus and besmirch the mood.

[@Just_A_Dude]

@@purpleghost106 Totally agreed. As the vid mentioned, Spec Ops really takes that idea to the max. The whole game uses a bunch of little "meta" tricks like that to really get in your head.

[@Angelic234]

A Hat in Time does this really well. Every mission has a unique loading screen that gives you a little preview of what you're about to get into.

[@MetaBloxer]

This reminds me of Partal 2's loading screens. I liked how they changed as the plot progressed.

[@baileymash]

Or just make the loading screen what you already were seeing so nothing effects you

[@sode07]

Litle mini extra credits episodes for things that don’t deserve their own episode would be nice as a ec loading screen.

[@635574]

As for content maybe just ask what topics we like next give us some preview whats in the works.

[@dndlover2690]

He means extra credits

[@stryke5729]

A sort of podcast thing tho so they don't need animation except maybe a static image or slow slide show

[@NosAltarion]

I get your idea, but I feel like it could be detrimental to the subject. In the past, they did put smaller subject on the side because they were too small for a full video. But came back at them for a whole episode because some event made that small thing relevant and took greater proportions. And if the subject is already so small that it's hard to talk about it for a full video, doing a mini episode on it could mean less subject to cover when the time comes for a full episode and thus, this full episode "not worth" being made?

[@vizthex]

100% supported

[@mattisvov]

I would love a "press X to continue" after a loading screen. That way, you could use time to go to the bathroom, getting more coffe, and other small tasks that require leaving the screen.

[@jonnunn4196]

Every Paradox Interactive game I'm aware of has the game paused upon loading.

[@MrMarinus18]

I think though it might work a little better the other way around. That you can press a button during the load screen that will hold it there when it's finished.

[@cmcbkt4668]

I feel like sometimes I don’t notice that it’s done and just keep waiting for a loaded game

[@sourcererseven3858]

@@cmcbkt4668 Yeah, it's important to have an audio cue when loading is finished for when the player is doing something elsewhere in the room, or just browing.

[@stijngryp2589]

breath of the wild does that

[@shawnheatherly]

A static blank screen is the worst sort of loading screen. Funny enough, I never really mind the elevator style hidden loading screens as those at least come with some dialogue between your party members.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

Most of the time the elevator style loading screens have happened i've never been aware of it because it was either; Usually after a long drawn out fight or encounter and I needed a little breathing room to think there was some kind of dialogue or music going on at the same time

[@rolfs2165]

I like how ME2 even acknowledges the elevator talk at one point, when you walk around the Citadel with Garrus and Tali in tow. :D

[@viperstriker4728]

I actually went up and down the elevators in ME2 just to make sure I heard all the dialogue options, and completely missed that it was a loading screen.

[@jamesayewale5695]

The static blank screen could be a good loading screen in a game.

[@baileymash]

That idea was made By VALVE, by the way, great company

[@colacadstink]

The EC loading screen would be like Where's Waldo, but you're looking for the head of the South Sea Company. Where's Walpole?

[@andrew_ray]

Woah, woah, woah. Walpole wasn't in charge of South Sea. Quite the opposite. I think it's been too long since you rewatched that series.

[@Melecie]

Andrew Ray it’s always walpole

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@andrew_ray he was the one pulling the strings, and caused their downfall, so on paper he might not be in command, but to us he was.

[@andrew_ray]

@@sjonnieplayfull5859 Sure, he caused the downfall of South Sea, but he was _always_ politically opposed to the company ever since John Blunt had him locked in the tower of London.

[@williamsmith6921]

I mean there are many loading screens of that type. Most notably the Sims games let you get points to use in game from playing a loading minigame

[@icuh]

Knowing all AAA publishers. They are just gonna put Ads in loading screen. Oh yea it's coming.

[@sanfransiscon]

I'd love to see in-universe ads. Hell that's probably going to be in Cyberpunk

[@Madhattersinjeans]

It happened with dvds, it could certainly happen with games.

[@minxrod]

Ads for in-game shop items or even sales would be pretty cool.

[@guy3nder529]

@@sanfransiscon that exists in the outer worlds

[@Just_A_Dude]

@@guy3nder529 Given the game, I'm not surprised. It's next on my to-play list right after I finish re-playing Overlord and Overlord 2.

[@CatOnACell]

I have been annoyed by fast loading times in dark souls because I'm reading an interesting item.

[@insaincaldo]

On one hand it would be great if you could start when you are ready as suggested. On the other hand if you are cut off, you now have more incentive to go find that item.

[@guy3nder529]

i have just suddenly thought about screenshotting the loading screen with the lore for later. pretty neat huh?

[@ShutItKyle]

I had this problem with Bloodborne

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

Hah nuub. Imagine not having all the items lore memorized This post was made by the souls like gang

[@softlysnowing3959]

me 2

[@SnazBrigade]

EC loading screen: Little Mini games where Zoey does stuff related to the episodes, like batting around a golden ball in an incan temple, or stomping on coding bugs in a game.

[@fillershmazman3030]

An episode when you find out that Extra Credits is actually a youtube thriller series about being trapped in the internet. Took a long time to get to the main plot X)

[@LiroRaeriyo]

now we know why the original crew left... they found the exit!

[@insaincaldo]

Darn, that means we will have live half a season of fillers before we get more main story.

[@petlahk4119]

The channel Tale Foundry does something interesting like that. It's frustrating for the viewers for two fold reasons not having new vids there. The first is we don't get more cool content, the second is we don't get more hints about what the hell is going on in the foundry.

[@jonnunn4196]

That's been done: Caprica from Tamara's perspective. Also, the Doctor Who Episode "The Bells of St John"

[@Tigersight0]

Reminds me of Welcome to Night Vale.

[@fakjbf3129]

1:05 I for one actually enjoyed the elevator loading screens in Mass Effect 1. They were pretty much the only time your squad mates interacted with each other, and the news broadcast would give you tidbits of lore about the world, updates on the consequences of how you completed various quests, and there are even a couple of quests that only show up in your log after you hear about them in the elevator. That was actually one thing I liked about Andromeda, while you're driving around in the Nomad your squad mates will be chatting with each other in the back seat, much like they did in the elevators of ME1.

[@yurie2388]

The most recent FF also does this pretty well. Saw somebody describe the game as you and your pals out for a cruise.

[@LazyAndFabulous]

Wow that is a good idea. Elevator loading would have work for impatient people.

[@Chivi-chivik]

I miss when you could play minigames in Splatoon while waiting for a room to be full. Waiting in Splatoon 2 is horrible.

[@supermariojames9720]

Chivi-chivik yeah. Messing with the music gets old fast.

[@MrMalix]

Yeah I have no clue why they scrapped the original Splatoon 1 mini game

[@yourethatmantis5178]

Spec Ops the Line: Has scene where the player kills hundreds of innocent women and children. Loading Screen: "Do you feel like a hero yet?" Me: :c

[@blvckgoogle]

"The best ending, is to stop playing" something like that. That's very scary too

[@WeissM89]

I just remembered Assassin's Creed I loading screens. You could move Altaïr around in an endless empty void. Not the most entertaining, but very immersive.

[@MenrvaS]

I noticed this too in Jedi Fallen Order. The loading screen when you are traveling to other planets is your ship. You can customize your lightsaber, check various stuffs, or just listen to what your friends (NPCs) are talking about while waiting. When the loading is done, the pilot will tell you to sit down and the game will plays a bit of cut-scenes. It was very smooth and immersive. The worst loading screen in recent memory is obviously Anthem... it was hell to say the least.

[@cerrax]

Fallen Order also uses the crevices that you climb through as loading screens. Notice how the entire view is obscured by your character and the geometry? That's because the next part of the level is being loaded while Cal and BD are crawling through a tiny crack in the wall.

[@Crlarl]

@@cerrax That's a very common trick in modern adventure games.

[@baileymash]

Yes fallen order was a big step up from BF2s release.

[@violetmajesty]

I always love when Extra Credits references Portal, directly or indirectly.

[@guy3nder529]

i love portal .

[@grumpy5131]

"Giraffes are heartless creatures"

[@scottcuddy4678]

HOI4, 2016

[@andro_king]

What's your favourite country to play in HoI4? Mine's Yugoslavia

[@aragonnetje]

@@andro_king Trotsky soviet union. PERMANENT REVOLUTION!

[@low--]

@@andro_king Bhutan, glory to the thunder dragon empire!

[@klenovyysirop12]

@@andro_king Honduras is fun with a mod

[@j4296]

One of my favorite loading screens was in WoW. You rarely had loading screen in wow, but in general there were 3: 1: When you logged in, died, or teleported. These often had tips on them that were especially useful if you died a lot (and thus saw a lot of them). 2: The Instance. These were indicators of where you were stepping in to and each instance had unique art for the screen. 3: The best one: The boat. It was literally an Indiana Jones-style travel map with your route to your destination being the loading bar. It made my jaw drop when I first saw it.

[@feldmarschallvonbraunschwe4463]

Kayla is a fantastic artist, and I hope to see more of her.

[@SnowWolf75]

I recently started playing Lego Incredibles - they have a mini-model of the zone you're loading into, that you can spin and zoom around with the controller. Also the recent Assassin's Creed games have tooltips during the loading, that you can navigate back and forward through.

[@mothbaby4867]

The Darkest Dungeon loading screen is my favorite, because it doesn't immediately thrust you into the dungeon. It allows you to read the lore/info of the dungeon, and then you can leave when you need. Also, Ancestor voice acting. Love it. (EC loading screen, lore of the EC channel)

[@pologatch]

Thank you for talking about the topics that I have been so exposed to that I no longer pay attention to them.

[@stucktj]

Loading screens are some of the most suspenseful content I've ever consumed, growing up gaming on home computers in the 90's and early 2000's

[@alanalot]

I'm actually okay with the whole elevator loading screen thing as long as checking my inventory doesn't pause the game.

[@Gamer26399]

I honestly love this channel, it’s so simple instead of boring and to complex to understand and the animation is so charming

[@aknightwithme]

when a patent has expired Nintendo : HElLO THERE

[@sunwolf87]

Who the fuck patents a minigame loading screen? THAT'S LIKE PATENTING YOUR MOM'S METHOD OF WASHING YOUR UNDERWEAR XD

[@BlockIOO]

General kenobi

[@kiro1469]

*Splatoon intensifies*

[@juleeO6183]

I for one always loved how the wind waker masked loading when sailing through the great sea. It didn't feel like a loading screen since you had the occasional shark or barrels with rupees, and the music was a bang

[@brigiddwyer840]

Greedfall was amazing with this, using their load screens as their "campfire" time.

[@nikoligrac4590]

I like the Eu4 loading screen, the artistry is really good and the tips are actually useful, I have learned many keybinds and advanced things from the loading screen.

[@SoopaPop]

Watching this video while waiting for League of Legends to load in.

[@ArchinaGM]

The only way I can ever tell if the game hasn't crashed during loading is I can still click on players. Now if only there was a way to actually *close* the game when it crashed. Damn thing always wants to overlay on top of everything when that happens. Including task manager.

[@animalgalgamingandreviewin6280]

IRONY!!!!!!

[@newpotential8766]

only to afk for a piss and discover that you missed the que :(

[@merevel436]

Shugie shugie shugie. :-)

[@Nuclearburrit0]

@@ArchinaGM ikr. Super annoying.

[@NanoElite666]

Some of my favorite loading screens have always been the ones from the PS2-era Ratchet & Clank games. Just a few screens of your ship flying between locations, but they really helped make eveything feel that much more cohesive. I was sad when they disappeared in the PS3 games.

[@michaelwoods2672]

I always thought that was neat in Mass Effect as well, with small cutscene of your ship warping or being sent to a mass relay used to cover all or most of the loading time.

[@AlexJohnson-eb6wl]

Extra credits: "loading screen" Subnautica flashbacks intensify

[@thepillowmancer]

yeah in vr, where you can only see part of the loading screen image glued to your face

[@traviswebb3532]

That's the best advice ever for a loading screen, have movement or anything comparable and button prompts, just genius.

[@ErdrickHero]

"Let's attempt to answer this question, with another question." "Who wants $60?"

[@DevilSpider_]

I honestly like the degree of personification in the illustrations. (Example: Representing a Game as a standalone character)

[@LARAUJO_0]

An easy one would be making the loading bar bounce around the screen like the DVD logo. This would also fit thematically if the game is set in the late 90s or early 2000s

[@rosstheboss1014]

Loading screen tips be like: Running will make you go faster...

[@FlfyCats17]

When I first played Metroid Prime 3 (nearly blind), I was very disappointed to find that you don't *actually* fly your ship, but it's just a fancy loading screen between levels. But looking back at it, it fits suprisingly well for an adventure game. Transitioning between large levels? Here's a lore friendly, non-immersion-breaking scene transition, based on your character's mode of transport. It makes perfect sense, but only works if your game has a reason for it.

[@MrMarinus18]

Also The Wii wasn't the most powerful console around and so having anything too elaborate or interactive would have slowed the loading significantly.

[@magnatorra5325]

bits of lore, dice games, maybe a summary of events so far, or even just getting to watch a short animation related to the current situation play are some ideas

[@julianbo5870]

I like tf2's approach to put interesting stats on the loading screen. You should do that as well.

[@terner1234]

as engineer, your buildings are like your children. hit them to make them work faster

[@milx7210]

@@terner1234 ...

[@Glue_Eater06]

As the sixth spy on your team... don’t

[@nichsa8984]

@@terner1234 building creation even robotics been created as birth new

[@LimeGreenTeknii]

4:46 "Make sure your gameplay tips evolve over time." Rock Band: "You can find lefty mode in the options menu." "It's not the fret press that makes the note play; it's the strum." **Game starts up with me on lefty mode on expert.**

[@b-dash2668]

"Don't get arrested in Canada like Freezepop."

[@JeremyBX]

Also, my favorite examples of loading screens are _MX vs ATV Reflex_ and _Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed_ MXvATV-R lets you immediately practice stunts on your bike in a small yet dynamic stunt map. and Sonic Racing Transformed Literally allows you to gamble in-game coins for a likely chance to win a perk in the race you're about to start. That's the only gambling I like. Those are the only two loading screens that make me wish I could spend more time in.

[@baileymash]

Personally I like the Half life 2 approach. In order to not break immersion at all, the world is simply frozen until the map has been loaded in about 5 seconds (THIS WAS 2004 TECH DAMN THAT'S GOOD) and you barely noticed the load.

[@echo_soldier]

If I remember correctly, the first Splatoon game let you play minigames on the WiiU's gamepad while you waited in the lobby for people to join. You could even pause and continue where you left off when the round started. I think you could also unlock more minigames as time went on. It was nice to have stuff to do while waiting for other players.

[@EsamforMEMES]

Loading screen tips be like : if you get killed you died

[@sanfransiscon]

People die when they are killed

[@EsamforMEMES]

@@sanfransiscon you get yeeted when you get killed

[@tatarosgaming3176]

Beware of beeing killed to death

[@noticeme6412]

SOMaela 3st: Sempaiternal JUST BECAUSE IT’S CORRECT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S RIGHT

[@LordBloodySoul]

A loading Screen that I really appreciate is the one from the Koei Warriors series. They often place a Concept Art Picture onto the background and overlay it with informations about 2-3 different characters and their historical value within the game. You can change the music and flip through the Music Library while you're at it. It is one of my favourite Loading Screens :3

[@hoodiegal]

A cute Extra Credits loading screen could be Zoey playing with a d20 :3

[@baileymash]

Who's zoey and I don't think I want to know what a d20 is

[@videosammy]

Im all for adding something in the loading to keep one occupied while the game loads. Thanks to namco i had to look at blank loadings screens most of my life. Thanks namco. Appreciate it

[@PlebNC]

"We're not going to talk about loading screen elevators" Puts one in thumbnail anyway.

[@kellwillsen]

I didn't mind the Portal elevators, they actually kept me immersed in the game. A cut-away would have jarred, but being shut inside an elevator car and carried helplessly to the next puzzle only reinforced how essentially powerless Chell is in the face of Aperture Labs.

[@akhragee]

Love the subtle commentary on voice actor pay rates at 5:40

[@NukeOTron]

A computer's dying words are usually "Loading..." and not actually doing it.

[@baileymash]

Valves approach to loading screens in HL2 is my favourite. It's quick and instead of a black screen you see a freeze frame of what you were already doing and pick up directly where you left off. It's barely noticeable!

[@baileymash]

Keep in mind this was 2004 and this shit still holds up today

[@redornament3248]

4:09 "Where's that *damn* fourth chaos emerald?!"

[@FumbleSquid]

If I recall correctly the STALKER games have a 'press to continue' for when loading is complete (it might've just been the later games). Which is nice even just for the ability to choose when you come back, esp since you might be coming back into a stressful quicksave.

[@zacz112]

Love this channel

[@dudewhersmacar7062]

I really loved Spyro Reignited's loading screens. I'm hoping we get something like that more in the future: A little minigame that's just charming and fun to mess around with while the game unpacks and builds.

[@Just_A_Dude]

Spec Ops: The Line... the game that you can't tell someone _why_ it's so good without spoiling why it's so good. Do you feel like a hero yet?

[@Somethingbloody]

Perhaps the dead are the lucky ones.

[@PolandGuy]

Thank god people are still talking about it. Killing for entertainment is harmless, right? Right?

[@HoshinoShadow]

Welcome to Dubai

[@terner1234]

@@HoshinoShadow gentlemen

[@user-nq6kh1ke4e]

Kingdom come deliverance's fast travel system features a brilliant loading screen. You can see how your character moves across the map an a clock which shows how the time passes. This doesn't only make for a more realistic feeling fast ravel system, but also hides the loading screen.

[@Susul-lj2wm]

I think having a website that lets you interact with other members of the EC-Community would be a nice loading screen, nothing to complicated, maybe just a small chatroom or something similar to r/place

[@golgarisoul]

Button prompt for loading screens that have info on them AND an option to make the loading screen to go away asap for speed runners. Best of both worlds.

[@yonokhanman654]

3:37 So... never?

[@Oxtocoatl13]

I like how AC: Odyssey gives little historical tidbits on the loading screen. It's a neat way to mix some healthy education with entertainment that doesn't require the player deviates from the core game.

[@SSmith-di8xi]

I liked it too, but was bummed that they took out the "running all around and practice attacks in a loading space" that the previous games in the series had. It made the game seem way slower to load than Origins, which was built on the same engine and that I played on the same hardware, to the extent that I sometimes would just travel for five minutes rather than wait 15 seconds on a load screen. I hope they add it back in!

[@alexzoin]

Is Extra Credits going to be effected by COPPA?

[@publicenemy210]

I hope to god not

[@tannershackelford27]

Laws are vague enough they could be!

[@davidhorvat9460]

Sadly i think that yes

[@stefanogrimaldi1662]

I Really hope not I love this channel

[@tannershackelford27]

How to start riots 101

[@dawnknightx]

Unity won’t let my team add little animations for some reason. I think to do it, we had to plan that out near the beginning, but i suggested it specifically because we don’t want our players to think the game froze. We opted for little lore and tutorial tidbits but sometimes the loading would be really fast and you couldn’t possibly read all of it. I like the idea of adding a continue button. For an extra credits load screen, you should just have some Extra Credits trivia from across the whole series. Like “who was the guest artist in X episode?”

[@greuropeanunion5641]

fallout 4 has a loading screen that shows the weapons,monsters and people to give u info about the game,l think that is interesting

[@rompevuevitos222]

Both the Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3D games have that

[@Christopher_TG]

Not only that, but the models are partially interactive, allowing you to rotate them, move them, and zoom in and out to get better angles.

[@Crokoking]

I liked the loading between areas in Greed Fall - it gives you a campsite with a shop and workbench so you can mess with your equipment while the next area loads

[@theonlineitalian2133]

"Worst loading screens" *Shows fortnite" Me wich disagreed with most of their videos: "Perhaps i treated you too harshly."

[@sasabnis]

Love this topic, it's something I've thought about it for a long time as I've gotten into game development myself. Two examples of loading screens I really enjoyed: 1) X-Men Legends for PS2, each load screen was either a character in your active party, a hint of the boss fight coming up, or a hint of the upcoming plot point. After you saw these screens once, they were unlocked in your character art review library in-game, but not until then. Every screen was a nice a surprise. 2) Batman: Arkham series, post death load screen was a sound bite from the enemy who did you in. This made it such that even dying in-game was still an interesting experiencing.

[@charlieyoutube5792]

"loading sreen Will be with us forever" Google Sadia: hold my beer

[@KazuoLucas]

Also Google Stadia: *trips over and spills all the beer because of lag or/and input delay*

[@oasis9009]

An amazing example is Splatoon 1 on the Wii U. While the game finds players for matches, you can play a small mobile-style minigame on the Gamepad. Not only does your progress here save for future tries (for if the server fills before you complete a level or something) but you can also play it in its own separate area as well.

[@ParasaurolophusEwan]

I know Long loading screens: cities: skylines and Hearts of iron 4

[@peanutbumber5009]

Hoi4 loading screens are actually cool and good.

[@aturchomicz821]

yeah thoose loading screens for skylines make me go out of the house to exercise.

[@brookemacbeth5772]

I watched an entire stream while Cities Skylines was loading...

[@georgeghleung]

Shall I introduce you to KSP?

[@peanutbumber5009]

@@georgeghleung Yeah.

[@erian3507]

Greedfall has good loading screens too, where you are in a small camp. You can exchange followers, access your home's chest, and there is a merchant to sell your collected junk to. Once the load is done, you get a message saying you can continue the game and you do once you walk out of the camp.

[@KittyLitterYT]

These people should be put in charge of every videogame ever.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

idk, I can come up with a billion ideas for making great games but I would be a terrible game developer or designer. Theorycrafting for things is a different skill in comparison to actually putting those theories into practice.

[@fan9775]

No.....just ....no!!

[@rickimaru915]

I remember the first time I encountered an interactive loading screen was when playing Phantasy Star Online. There were two different ones, one for starting the game (you could move a sparkle around the screen) and one for entering/exiting a level (you could move around the warp tunnel animation slightly). Very simple yet effective at keeping player's attention during the brief moments of loading.

[@XRaym]

Best loading screen: Rayman Legends.

[@The_Bearded_Lion]

I dunno, DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3 had fun loading screens since they were just little single input minigames, and got you loose for the next fight.

[@benedict6962]

Good episode, but I think we could also talk about what situations might a player be willing to wait, or when it's so crucial to be seamless that it's better to cut some of the flashy stuff.

[@yishaqdavid2029]

Assassins Creed Odyssey has cool tips in the loading screen.

[@MarioKL]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the best game for loading screens! It was a mission briefing while loading a game! Absolutely perfect!

[@stephens7136]

This is a great topic, lots of cool ideas in here, and the art is on point.

[@omarabdelkadereldarir7458]

Honestly the portal elevator loading screen is genius

[@CanuckMonkey13]

Crusaders of the Lost Idols (a wonderful idler/clicker game that is honestly far less idle than its classification would suggest) still has a loading screen message that says "This game is currently in beta, so formulas, abilities, and features may change dramatically from day to day. Please don't hate us." The game has been playable for over five years now, and while they routinely add new content, they very rarely make any changes to existing content. On that subject, I would love to see an EC episiode about when it is appropriate to say that a game is in beta vs. officially released. (I'm pretty sure there has been at least one episode on the subject but I don't trust my memory!) I once heard (maybe from EC!) that a good heuristic to follow was that if anyone can play the game and you are accepting money from players, you are no longer in beta. I'm sure there's lots more that can be said on the subject as well.

[@freeze-frames]

I love elevators such as in Super Metroid and Dark Souls because there's an obvious sense of progression going on without leaving the world. It's also a good way to seemlessly switch the mood between sectors. The moments descending into Norfair with the change of music and tone were really striking.

[@thentheric6361]

For the EC loading screen: • main concept is an EC team "raiser" (including Zoey) • binds to viewer account (or persists data on client side) • can be developed before episodes through a quiz game about the already viewed episode contents • right answers provide the corresponding character with XP • XP allows the player to unlock relevant mini-games for each character and relevant skills they can use in them • these games earn "Extra Credits" • E€s can be spent in a shop to customize said character • UX could be a quick opt-in with a menu where you can take a quiz, manage characters or play a mini-game • UX flow is unidirectional - menu only reappears after finishing quiz, saving character or ending mini-game, and ONLY if the load hasn't finished yet • if the video is loaded, instead of returning to the menu, the video starts to play • interactions and iterations should be small to not inflate the time spent on the loading screen instead of the time spent on viewing the content • the game should be easy to abandon so the player won't feel like their mom is sending them to bed when the video finally loads I think this would grasp the kernel of what Extra Credits has been about for all these years: Leading by example through edutainment, showing how and why "games matter" (as in original slogan) and how "learning matters" (as in current banner slogan).

[@takatamiyagawa5688]

Ace Combat 7 puts some messages in the loading screens after missions that could be interpreted as lore or tips - stuff like names and descriptions of maneuvers, or descriptions of special weapons. Gran Turismo has had some long loading screens. Maybe a good time to point out names of corners on the track that's being loaded.

[@Wunderwolfer]

I think the prompt to continue is the most important. Sometimes stuff to read, even lore, can be irritating when your continuously dying like I always am. But in Prey, which had super long loading times, I liked the fact I could walk away, relax and come back knowing that my game hadn't started again.

[@haldir108]

A story my dad told a few times, from back in the mid 90's. The database he maintained was getting so large that loading it became an extremely frustrating wait. To alleviate this, he added a progress-bar to the loading, in addition to the square with a logo. The progress bar added >15% to the time it took to load, but when he got feedback, people loved it, and was convinced the database loaded faster. One of his colleagues wondered what kind of wizardry he had done, to optimize the database so much, and wondered if it was going to be scaleable. The only thing worse than a minimal loading screen, is no loading screen at all.

[@KotCR]

I picked up Greedfall in the Black Friday sales, and the way that handles loading screens before areas is great IMO. You know in Dragon Age you had that camp you could go to to talk to your companions, get the gossip, sort out your inventory, and watch Leliana sing songs around the fire? Well, in Greedfall, the camp IS the loading screen. So while the game is loading you can talk to your companions and catch up with them, manage your inventory, fiddle with your skill trees, or do a bit of crafting. It took me a while before I realised that the camp was actually really a loading screen instead of simply a feature to rest up and prepare for the next area (I thought it was strange that a game that lets me save in combat wouldn't let me save at camp!). Only after I had been to it a couple times and then I noticed "the next area is now loaded, you may leave camp when you are ready" text at the top, did I realise what was actually going on (and the disabled save option made sense). In my opinion, that's a finely executed loading screen. Far more elegant and entertaining than the obvious elevator loading screen we see in alot of shooters, or long narrow mountain passes we see in adventure games.

[@darcskoundrel8930]

It’d be really fun to see antics of the EC characters. To see how they go about their lives as see them playing games and such in the time leading up to the next episode!

[@StompinPaul]

My thought for an EC loading screen: I'm sure you still have an 'ideas we'd like to cover at some point' list. You couldn't give them the full treatment, but quick discussions of the obvious or main points, or maybe the opinions of the team where there maybe not enough research has been found on an idea. Take the topics where there isn't the time or research to give them a proper episode treatment anyways, and put them into little blurbs.

[@viktormon]

I really enjoyed the loading screens in Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, where you could roll your analog stick to make sayamen pop out. Not only was it fun to see if you could get more this time before it finished loading, it also kinda prepared you for the beam struggle mechanic.

[@wickiei4556]

I find hidden loadscreens the best option. Fallen Order did a great job with it where everytime you squeeze through something, the next area loads

[@philippak7726]

I always loved the Okami minigame loading screens. For those who don't know, there were two types: mash and time. With the mash one, nothing would show but every time you pushed a button a pawprint showed up. The more you pressed, the more prints, until, if you were fast enough, a demon fang (rare currency) would show up. The timing one had a trail of prints show, and if you timed the button pushes correctly the prints doubled in size. Get them all big and instead of the fifth print being Issun (character) it would be a demon fang.

[@AVdE10000]

The Galaxy games had a pretty cool loading gimmick. Flying through space while the next chunks of the level load was brilliant, and there were always some star bits floating around that you could collect. Giving small but useful goodies to the player in an interactive manner, it's a shame more games didn't do this back when loading screens were often longer than a 10+ seconds

[@taylorthomas4987]

My favorite example of this was Splatoon. There was a super fun jumping platformer for loading screens. Best part was they had an arcade box you could use when you wanted to play more.

[@ConnorSinclairCavin]

I have actually been slowly working for a few years now on an open world survival RPG type game, normally the game would probably be loading-less, but the times when there is loading (fast travel, shifting between major realms, entering a major city, time skips...) i have been planning on it running a subroutine part of the game that is more or less your downtime activities, correspondence with various NPCs, minigame skill checks, item maintenance, and so on and so forth, this is effectively a tiny world of its own that can run low-resource wise then just has a simple output log the real game world can run as soon as everything has been finished up/you press the exit your workshop trigger type thing. This way people can use such things as a place/way to catch their breath as well as get stuff done to customize their game experience and further more be able to never feel like they are really timed-out from the game. Heck, people may even start going to this loading screen area on purpose rather than the base game world just to fiddle around and test things. Using the main world as your source of resources and the pocketshop as your premade portable worksite and research lab (with customizable interiors)

[@bajasummit6209]

I like Titanfall 2’s load screen, amazing cinematics, command to continue. And in most of them you can read things that BT has saved

[@MonarchRigel]

EC Loading Screen: The Artist of the Episode/Channel draws a panel with their own avatar from scratch, then a second panel in a completely different pose, then plays an animation getting from A to B. just a little bit of a skills showcase for the artists who work so hard on these episodes.

[@nottheguru]

One of the greatest and least appreciated Skyrim mods is called "Uncle Sheogorath's really helpful hints and tips." It replaces all the loading screen text with hints, tips, and jokes from the Madgod himself, Sheogorath. And hint/tip screens that are in character can be a great way to keep immersion going. Let's say that your loading screen is where your main character goes over their journal or gives themselves a refresher on their training. Something as simple as having the tip text go from "Remember that you block with B" to "Okay (Player's name), Sarge said keep your guard ready (B)." Just something as simple as a change of wording can keep the immersion flowing and keep players interested.