The Story Begins - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 311

There are a wide range of video editing packages you could use to create a cut scene like this,
but we used Pinnacle Studio Plus, which is both affordable and doesn't overwhelm the novice
user with features. No actual video is involved in creating the movie, it simply uses the pan and
zoom facility to focus on different points of the static storyboard images (see Figure 13-3).
Figure 13-3. Pinnacle Studio Plus version 9.
Fetch the Popcorn
At a complete length of 1 minute 17 seconds, you'd be lucky to finish more than a mouthful of
popcorn during this movie, but take a moment to view the final result nonetheless. You'll find the
file shadows.wmv in the Chapter13/Games directory on the CD, and it should play in Windows
Media Player (or any other default player) by double-clicking on it. Make sure that you watch it
full-screen (Alt-Enter in Windows Media Player) and with the sound turned up (or headphones
on) to get the full emotional effect.
If we've done our job, then you should come out of the other side excited and anxious about
playing the level ahead—as well you might, because it's a dangerous place to be….
Level Design
Good level design can turn an average concept into a great game, but poor level design can turn a
great concept into a terrible game! Our aim in this vertical slice is to give a taste of the kind of
game play the game will offer, which means bringing together all of the designer's skills for
storytelling and level design.