Both Zombie Exodus and Tinstar have epilogues that tell what happens to the various characters after the story ends. Does anyone know of any other of the games that have that? I really dig it.
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Heart of the House have one.
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I think saga of the north wind have one too.
I am right there with you. Always love getting that wrap up for characters in books, games, etc. if you have been spending all this time with these characters it feels right to have some resolution, even if it is just a couple sentences apiece. I have the one for my WIP partially plotted out (tentative title for the epilogue chapter is Math of the Aftermath) but have not gotten far enough to write it yet.
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A like for the title.
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Epilogues are hard to pull off. Leaving enough to the imagination, while including the post-story information that players want (some players will want more of everything, some arenāt happy with the canon that gets established, etc) is a tricky challenge. As a player I liked the Heart of the House epilogue, though!
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I often kind of like epilogues in a lot of books and games where theyāve been used as providing a bit of an āafter the endingā info to wrap up ends (but I could be biased as I use them a lot in my own writing.) Oedipus (when it gets released) has epilogues for a number of the paths. Iāve got one in Sea Maiden for the only ending I have written so far, and will probably use them in other endings. Actually, I even used epilogues in the short game Iāve got on sub-q. Perhaps I used them too often, Iām not sure. I guess Iāll see if I got the balance right or not with leaving things to the imagination vs wrapping up the story well enough after my next one goes out.
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The way I see it, epilogues are useful for two things, if you want to give your MC that moment in the sunrise (regardless how good or bad the story ends up) or when you want to give the readers a sense of what to come in your next story (and maybe reveal a plot device or two) without overly spoiling it. Anyways, going back on topic, I know Slammed has one, others Iām not 100% percent sure.
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How is interactivity handled in these kinds of epilogues? Do you have choices, or is it just a page break between characters?
From what I remember through reading, a lot of the games with epilogues go through one of two wrap ups:
- They summate the ending stats and variables triggered during the game and use those to determine what happens after the facts. I.e, if you were evil, the world saw you in a bad light the end.
Or, - Youāre given a final selection of what you wish to do at the end. I believe the first two hero rise books did something in that fashion, and heart of the house depended on the choice path you took.
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One thing I really liked about Tin Starās epilogue was how, even though everything was determined once you reached it, you still had āchoiceā by being able to select which characterās epilogue you wanted to view. @hustlertwoās The Parenting Simulator does something similar. I think something like that adds to the ease of replayability because it doesnāt force the player to read something that might not have changed from previous playthroughs just to get to the epilogue info they are interested in.
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Most titles I know who have epilogues handled them pretty linearly; page breaks between texts. But I think itās nothing critical to have choices since you donāt want linger too long in it.
Mecha Ace has a pretty short epilogue, giving you a different scene based on your previous action.
Bit of spoiler
I played as the āgood guy who just want world peaceā and so got the peace treaty ending. Iirc, the epilogue is the scene where the MC gets some drink in the bar, watching the conference on peace treaty on the TV.
Since thereās no war, MC basically lost his job as soldier, but one of the mad scientist who worked with him came over. He sat beside him and offered a career as experimental pilot.