Some of us seem to prefer game endings that open-ended - it lets them imagine some possibilities that the story could end without the makers dictating a definite ending. Some of us prefer a poignant and meaningful ending instead. Some prefer a movie climax, big-bang type of ending. Some don't mind or actually enjoy cliff-hanger endings, others strongly dislike or have bad experience with such endings.

Maybe we could write down some ideas about how the ending of some games (with weak endings) could be improved? I saw this in another thread about one game. I know some fans of TV series actually re-write the entire story of some weak episodes. I think this would be really helpful thread for visting game developers.

Here's my take on Lights Out : Fall II. One ending could be the main character return to a time when he receives a letter from the Demarion character to investigate the lighthouse and the letter is vastly different from the original story due to time altering events at the end of the game. The ending could be told in scrolling text for more subtlety.

Scractches : Scrolling text could appear to shed more light on what happens to the key characters after "the last visit" chapter or a spoiler page could appear to explain some loose ends in the story, like who killed who because of what, and the corpse was actually who etc.

I don't like scrolling text. It's either too fast or too slow.

yo Ben

Flashbacks might be more fun than scrolling text.

But developers may not like it as it meant more animation work

Both are good games

I love horrors with creeps

Chumming doodles

love

I think this should apply to almost all game endings -
If this was a murder mystery - tell us who the murderer is.
If there are any unanswered questions - answer them.
If there is going to be a sequel - close all exisiting subplots and only after the ending give us a hint of something more.

Games that I wished ended differently:
Ghost in the Sheet -


Still Life -

I agree, as for me I am left frustrated when I put in many hours to solve a mystery and left hanging and not having all the loose ends tied up. Overclocked, and Lost Crown, left me feeling like the last page of the book was ripped out with no answers to my questions.

If there is going to be a sequel and they want to tease us, there are other ways to do this, then to give us a feeling like the game was left uncompleted and wrapped up too quickly. Still life ruined a great game for me by the ending.

I don't like opened endings that are meant to have the unanswered questions answered in the sequel because too often the sequel doesn't come about.

Good thread.

As far as I'm concerned, the stories I write have a life of their own and I can't choose their endings anymore than you can. It's very much like having a child; you can only determine its life so many times, until you can't determine it any more. So during its first years the child pretty much depends on you, but later on there is very little you can do regarding the choices it will make, what job it will do, which person it will marry etc. Stories are the same, really. If Renée Zellweger is destined to marry in the end, I can't have her crashed by a meteor without making the story ridiculous.

Naturally, although I can't choose the ending it is my job to describe it to you as well as possible. I generally don't like leaving unanswered questions and untied loose ends, but I don't like spelling out everything to the player either. I believe that the average player is smart enough to realize when a loose end is a conscious effort of the designer to let you decide what happens, and when it is the result of his ineptitude to explain everything in a comprehensive way.

I'm not sure if anyone here read Neil Gaiman's books, but I'll throw this out there - I have never read any other author start so many sub-plots and tie them all neatly up at the end of a story. For examples, read Stardust and Neverwhere.

I can't stand plot-holes, cliff-hangers and tons of unanswered questions at the end of a game. It could ruin a game for me. The "problem" with most adventure games that I've played recently is that pretty much everything gets resolved ALL AT ONCE, and so it feels abrupt and rushed (Tunguska, for example.)

I'm not saying that everything needs to be resolved. In Grim Fandango, for example, nobody knows what's going to happen in the after-afterlife, so all we're left with is speculation. It was meaningful and everyone got what they deserved, so I'll always remember it.

How about taking the ending of a game far into the future to resolve it? It could be an epilogue if the main character is no longer around.

I remember the first time I watched A.I. by Steven Spielberg I was so pleasantly surprised by the unusual ending - it was so different and daring and touching. In fact, Steven had some pretty good endings in his movies. Perhaps our dear developers can learn from him. In the AI movie, the ending was set many years in the future, and aliens came and helped with the resolution of the problem faced by the main character. This could bring a new perspective to problems game characters could not solve - in their time. There were even clever twists in B grade horror movies that took the ending to the future.