Tutorials

Hello, it's Mr "long pages of boring text for nothing" again

Today, I would like to talk about tutorials with all of you.

I know, it's a somewhat boring topic, that can also become technical or flame relatively easily (kind of like our discution on AIs that turned sour pretty fast), but I feel that it is something that has a lot we can discuss about.

I personally have zero experience in that domain in video games, and I don't think writting tooltips and documentations counts, when talking about video games, because such types tend to be the heavy to digest, and often fast forgotten.

But recently, I stumbled uppon a tiny bit in a game, not technically a tutorial, and even though it didn't make that much of a tilt at that point, it appeared a few days ago how great of a (potentially unintended) tutorial it was.
It is in a game called Valdis story, a pretty nice indie plateform brawler, and shortl after the start, you meet your first non-enemy npc. After a quick interaction, it leaves the scene, but does so through a route that would not seem practical, at least with the current skills of the player.
On its own, it sounds like your average castlevania skill displayed to the player early, and it is, but it also serves as a way to show the player what to look for for potential hidden routes and secrets for when they own the skill.

I know it's not technically a tutorial, because the player won't be able to use that before at least a few "parts" of the game (here, maybe an hour and half if you rush, it's fairly far into the game), but it does mostly explain one of the game's mechanisms without a line of text, and makes the player want to get that character/skill.

So now, I feel that I should learn more about what tutorials are, and what good ones are and could be, because that is something I never paid attention to, apart from when it's just heavy handed or bad, but it is clear that it is an integral part of any game, no matter if the player has already played every one of the similar games, or if it's the very first time he gets his hands on the device and a game.

I kind of understand what are the "not to do", which are sadly also the easy ones, like spreadsheets or screenshots only accessible in the pause menu, heavy handed ones right at the start that explain things for up to minutes without letting do a thing, or even short things during play, but that you can never consult later (so if you forget, you are screwed).
Well, those probably are not the only "bad" ones, but that's what I identified.

I feel that I rambled enough on my own for now, hoping to see you guys have things to say.

 

So, you mean in-game tutorials?

 

Well, out of game tutorials are still tutorials, but not quite an integral part of the game and its experience.

 

You mean the parts that teach players how to play or use/learn features?

Generally we refer to these as NUF (new user flow) and NUE (new user experience). NUF being the game intro, NUE being new feature intros.

A great topic, these are both an area that is often ignored or way over done.

 

I agree -- a perfect topic for the Game Design forum. Thanks, @slay_mithos!

In games with incremental skill trees like StarCraft, I don't mind a tutorial that walks the player through the basics one step at a time. But even StarCraft gives you significant freedom of choice early on. The tutorial may ask you to build three supply depots, but you're free to choose where you want to build them.

In general, though, I enjoy experimenting a little to figure out for myself how things work -- as long as I get some kind of feedback that tells me whether I'm on the right track or not. It makes me more engaged in the game. I think this is the hardest type of tutorial to write: one that's not a tutorial, but a feedback loop that encourages freedom of action with gentle nudges in the right direction.

What are examples of games that strike a good balance between immediate freedom of action and giving direction?

Minecraft does a pretty good job. As soon as you start, you can run around and chop things. But it's not hard to figure out how to build, too.

 

Neat, I didn't know it had names like that, which kind of proves my point of having no idea on what and how to do it right.

I know there is an episode of Extra Credits on that, and probably a whole lot of other things like that, but all I found were either way too deep, basically not allowing new entrants that know nothing, or way too shallow, showing only glaring examples of it done wrong.

I'm sure we can at least agree that the best way is to include it into the work itself, and not just throw it on top because there is a checkmark for it.

@TonyLi: Starcraft have some of the best tutorials for RTS, with both the campains and the three "multiplayer tutorials" stages, they introduce things at a good pace, and most importantly, let you play through it, rarely forcing you to follow what they hint at you. You want to make a zerg rush rather than expanding, sure, you want to mine gas just because it's green, your call.
It makes people that don't know what to do follow the steps, to understand better how it works, without forcing players that already know most of it play along and still have fun.

On the other hand, I would disagree a lot with Minecraft, both the basic and the modded, because a lot of the informations are not in the game, and requires you to go to wikis and forums.
Even core parts like crafting are barely explained, and most of the data has to come from outside sources.
The good part is that you can play directly, but they also didn't bother putting any tool in the game to get the infos.

It's hardly the only indie game that has somewhat complex elements and never explains them, not even in an out of the way place.
Kerbal Space Program has a few basic tutorials that are supposed to teach you how to orbit, land on a moon, rendez-vous, building your rockets, but overall, it makes a poor job at it (and is often broken with updates).
In itself, none of the elements are particularly complicated once you know how to do it, but the learning part is opaque, and really feels like rocket science.


To me, a good tutorial has to teach all the basic to a new player, but also teach more indepth things, to any level of players, but that sounds so hard to do, without having a constant stream of all kind of comfort level of players from when you don't even have anything that even resemble a game.

 

Somehow, I think you remember the early stages of minecraft much differently than I do.


Because someone's going to bring it up at some point:

 

Generally, when I begin, I tend to go in with the mindset that the new user is stupid or an `idiot`. The user knows nothing of the mechanics, and generally should have something to tell the user what to do.

Having feedback when the user does the wrong thing is a great way of the game communicating with the player things like a sound or red glow or something to represent the failure.Then having a good sound or reaction when the user does good is also important.

Having obvious pieces can also work and help the player know where to go. Things like an open book or special object or two.

 

It's been a few years since I played Minecraft, so maybe my memory is a bit rose-tinted.

I would rather say "lazy" at worst, and that's not a bad thing. Gamers are smart. But there are so many games out there that there's little reason for someone to keep playing a game that doesn't hook them right away with a sense of being able to do something (hence the need for immediate, continuous feedback).

Yes, and I would say that reinforcing good is more important than punishing bad. It's important to know when you're on the wrong track, but it's exciting to get feedback that you're on the right track.

Good points. I recently read some other subtle tips along this line, such as making the protagonist's head turn toward an object of interest. No big flashing arrow over the object, just a subtle head movement. But people are so good at reading body language that it catches their attention without breaking immersion in the game world.

I thought I'd also mention Gamasutra's article today on 12 Freeware Critical Games. The author writes a bit about Steam Shovel Harry being a satire of in-game tutorials.

 

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread.