If you are going for that, then I’d say instead of using loading screens, make a main menu.
3 Likes
Exactly. If your loading animation background is something like this:
Then I’ll watch it all day. Seriously. I’d never “Click anywhere to continue”, I’d just watch this.
24 Likes
We already have a main menu haha
4 Likes
Sometimes I play games on constrained bandwidth and it’s not that fast either, I had to wait multiple times to load absolutely every asset the game had, I only saw a background ui with nothing on it, because the last assets were the loading ui ones, for example logo, just to fill my disk space or memory and yet no playtime. One game even played an animation with multiple images instead of a spritesheet, or just a simple tween. Also bear that some devices may not play well with everything you’re requesting to cache, causing slowdown or wasting a mobile user’s 4G.
Only use a loading screen to load the necessary assets to have a bare gameplay, such as the main menu buttons, or the region the player is most likely to see just after the loading screen, such as a spawn. Thankfully for Preload to be deprecated as it caused many developers to load assets sequentially instead of concurrently, which can be done with the new PreloadAsync. Also mind that roblox already has a loading screen, something that users agree and expect, which takes a lot of time already and your loading screen for the minimal assets may not be necessary and may not have as much benefits as it’s maintenance.
7 Likes
If you can distract the player from the fact that it’s actually loading, you’ve succeeded. Otherwise, a useful tip is to actually let them know what’s loading.
As @ScriptOn mentioned, interesting transitions are cool. And as @Intended_Pun said, no loading screen is great. You definitely want to minimize the loading time as much as possible, but keep it entertaining to the player.
Simply showing a “Loading…” text with a spinner is really boring.
One thing I did in a game I’m making right now is to merge the loading sequence into the actual physical world & with the theme of the game. So when the game is loading, it shows some pretty graphics, but then the menu quickly swoops in in a seamless transition. It’s quick, smooth, and themed.
If you can include the theme of your game within the loading scene, that’s a huge plus. For instance, if you have a racing game, it would be awesome to somehow incorporate a car racing around in the loading sequence.
15 Likes
Something that can give a moment of entertainment to the player waiting for the game to load. Like a cool effect, some funny facts/joke and some good music along with it.
2 Likes
The loading screen is actually a great place to add little bits of advice/tutorial. Many games do this as there is no reason not to — it’s empty space anyways.
Another thing I’ve seen is a little minigame on the loading screen in one of the epic battle fantasy games (3 or 4).
2 Likes
I always recommend letting players have interaction when the game is loading, for example. There’s a website called glitch that is for developers. When someone is looking at a project, it will start the project and meanwhile the user can draw stuff on it. Which of course, makes the loading period less boring.
Possibly making each letter of the game tween upwards into a position one by one. Then at the right corner you just have a smaller circle loader. This way the player has something to look at while they are waiting, which hopefully doesn’t take long. The letters could always have a back glow while the loading continues or even restart the upward spring tween.
Somebody already has said this, try avoiding loading screens as much as you can. After I did some analyzing, loading screens in Roblox just don’t do well. If you look at well thought out games like for example Vesteria, it’s an amazingly developed game but it is just not really made to target the majority audience on Roblox, which consists of mainly young children. Children usually don’t have a big attention span, which in return makes them want things that get straight to the point, for example Jailbreak, you load in to the game, pick a team and jump right into the game. Most of the front page games are simple, get straight to the point, and those 2 things along with other things make players hooked on them, which causes them to come back every day. As to your project, good luck on it!
3 Likes
I’d recommend you start with a basic loading screen, you can learn how to at Alvin’s channel.
After you get more popular and better at GUI’s and scripting, you should go for professional ones.
Example:
Welcome to [Game Name] by [Owner’s Name]!
Here are the options:
Play Game
Settings
Info
Help
Play Game:
Loads the game, and destroys the GUI after loading has finished.
Settings:
Change your experience in the game, such as make the sky red on your screen!
Info:
Find out more about our game!
Help:
Need help? Contact a member of staff! [website link]
Loading Screen:
Connecting and loading the game, please do not leave game or turn off your device while we load your data and the game.
Finish Loading Screen:
Loaded! Please wait as the GUI goes off your screen.
Tip: Find free models and mess and edit around with them to learn how to make GUI’s.
Since this is the loading screen, and I’m not sure if you are talking about loading game or after reset or rejoining loading GUI, I might edit if you give more info on if it’s a:
After Reset Loading GUI
Rejoining Loading GUI
Normal Loading GUI.
Extra:
Loading Screen has icon [you choose which]
2 Likes
At the point the world is loading up, the player already was connected to a server
I’m not sure why people would want to see “Wait at the GUI goes off your screen.” It’s just stating the obvious won’t have a positive reaction
A good loading screen, would take into consideration game type, theme and setting, for example a pirate map can have a treasure map loading screen with a little boat moving from point to point.
2 Likes
This is my opinion if you like Loading Screens, that’s fine by me I have nothing against you.
I hate Loading Screens, you want your players to play as soon as they can.
I think Loading Screens are miss-used as it was implemented back in the days to literally set up the game and hide ugly behind the scene stuff, however nowadays I don’t think Loading screens are necessary because Computers are a lot faster but if you really want to implement them make sure they allow players to play as soon as they want to and not have to see your Studio’s Logo first before playing EVERY TIME they enter the game.
I’m not talking about Welcome screens or Start Menus, those are relevant.
In general make sure your players are only shown with meaningful things and don’t delay them from playing the game.
Do remember that your players are kids with a short intention span and the smallest amount of patience, additionally this is very crucial for your game’s first impression.
1 Like
That’s not exactly true, let me ask you a question, would you rather
A. Get lag spikes that spike every time you travel a certain distance (Streaming Enabled, an alternative to loading screens)
OR
B. Would you rather sit and wait for 2 minutes for the whole game to load?
A good loading screen is something that distracts the player without being performance heavy. Dark Souls and Skyrim need loading screens because their maps are absolutely massive. Give the player something to read for example, it’s just text, it doesn’t take a long time to load. So maybe tips in your game like Tales from the Valley made by Arch Mage.
@Cypraith
To answer your question:
https://gyazo.com/02eab7e53a3537f7e794f6f692074a74
This has to be one of the best loading screens I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s smooth, it makes sense, and it distracts me. It’s nothing truly mind blowing, but it gets the job done and gets it done right.
1 Like
As much as many people here are saying not to use loading screens at all, one thing I’d say is that they aren’t in any way harmful and they won’t break the immersion too much if they’re done right. Extra Credits, a YouTube channel focused on games and game development, did a video on this very recently. I’d suggest checking it out.
The one thing that caught my focus the most when I was watching that video is having a mini-game within the loading screen. It’s a very simple idea, and it could work very well (but could be executed very poorly as well). What I’d imagine is being tasked with making different foods by pressing a sequence of different buttons. You could have a variety of different foods and tasks (frying, baking, mixing, etc), and finishing the food could reward you in-game.
I really hope you do find a fitting answer to your question, though! Just thought I’d toss in my two cents.
Sorry, but they didn’t load into the map yet.
It’s obviously there to tell you to wait.
Personally, I’ve always loved engaging and immersive loading screens that showcase detailed art or animations relevant to the game.
It’s also best to have loading screens that are constrained to a time-limit so you don’t leave players with slower internet speeds at a disadvantage. A “skip loading” button also just does wonders.
Edit: Music! Music is also important to any game design, having a little lietmotif embedded in your common game music is very useful to play during loading screens too.
tbh, no loading screen exept roblox’s default loading screen that you see on every roblox game / place is the best thing to go with in my opinion.
2 Likes
Why have you done this to me, now my entire day will revolve around staring at this.
Jokes aside… how did you achieve this?
Especially on the forum? Edit: didn’t know it’s a image or gif on mobile