Loading screens are pretty much a necessary evil. At the very least, when the game is booting up for the very first time. Some do it better than others though. I was wondering what are some of the projects that you think really did loading screens right, and what you think makes a kick ass loading screen?

Two of my personal favorites, are "world of goo", which took the opportunity to tell jokes, and "hotline miami", which made loading screens so psychadelic and colorful that they just didn't feel painful in the slightest.

So, what are your favs, and what do you think makes an awesome loading screen?

I really enjoyed some of LEGO's loading screens that had mini-games in them

The best loading screen is the one I never have to see. That is, either the game has no loading screens, or I'm fetching a drink while it's displaying something I've already seen 20 times. For a lot of 3D games, the "first" loading screen is usually some kind of intro movie (prerendered or otherwise) which I like to watch, but in the long run loading screens are just repetitive and ultimately wasted time that could be spent playing, so I appreciate when they are kept to a minimum.

All Points Bulletin's

At first I liked the ones assassins creed used, where you could walk around and practice movements. Eventually though, as mentioned above, in the end it just gets boring

Portal 1 and 2 had a very clever way to deal with loading areas.

My personal "favorite" ( if you want to call it that ) would be the games that utilize dynamic loading.

My current games loading screen is a blank black screen. It only takes about 6 seconds to load, so I didn't see much point in adding a loading screen.

I agree that neat loading screens are really just 'treating' the visible symptoms of the fundamental problem, which is that loading is interrupting gameplay. Its best to avoid it entirely if at all possible, but that's not always doable. If you can keep it short, a simple fade out/in to black is probably just fine -- the precise threshold is a matter of debate, I suppose, but certainly it falls in the realm of a few seconds, and I recall there being some sort of threshold that's been researched in association with retaining attention that was 4-point-something seconds, unfortunately its name escapes me. IIRC, the threshold was basically the average time it takes for someone to decide the interruption is going to last long enough for them to profitably shift their attentions elsewhere -- in other words, they think "This is probably going to take 30 seconds or more, I'll just check my texts/email/facebook..."

Back in the early days of optical media, no scratch-discs, and little RAM, when loading times were really long, I recall Ridge Racer (I think) actually loading up a version of... I think it was Galaga, and you played until your first death after loading was complete (or you could bail). That was kind of a neat solution, but again, addressed the symptoms rather than the problem.

I know It's not the best one around but Skyrim's loading screen that gives tips is at least less prone to be boring.

My current games loading screen is a blank black screen. It only takes about 6 seconds to load, so I didn't see much point in adding a loading screen.

I doubt it is a good idea, even a static loading image might give better clue about what's going on, imo.

best: stream, don't load.

2nd: non-repetitive entertainment. minigames, screensavers, etc. must be responsive despite the background loading process which is running.

3rd: anything with an accurate countdown (game will launch in x seconds...). this at least respects the payers time, and tells them how long they have to grab a cold one, a snack from the fridge, etc, before a gaming session.

4th: repetitive entertainment

5th: unresponsive repetitive entertainment (sims3 comes to mind)

6th: everything else, ranked on production values and technology. videos are better than screenshots, high quality beats low quality.

as mentioned above, game hints and tips are common, found in skyrim, silent hunter 5, fallout 3, and rome2. unfortunately, they are category 4: repetitive entertainment - eventually you learn all the hint and tips. i think the trend may have started on consoles, as its most common in PC titles that feature a console type UI for the "wrapper menus" in the game.