Philosophy of the Tutorial

[Christian]

Hi,
Since tutorials are a really important
part of a game, and seriously affects
how tha player percieves the game
in the first place, i would like to start
a little discussion on the most important
point to pay attention in the design of
a tutorial, also to get the most important
factors in designing succesfull tutorials
so we can apply this principles to the
design of all our tutorials for our games.

I also plan to program some code to make
tutorials for all my games, thats why i need
to clarify the most important factors in tutorials
success.

- Ok, so, i think that most of all, a tutorial must be
FUN, to this end, one must still play the game
but in a more friendly forgiving way.
It must be interactive, it must allow the player
to play the game but from the basics of basics
until normal ability to play the game as been reached.

- It must teach not by text but from imitation,
the players sees how the game is played and
thus learns by imitating.

- It must learn fast.

- The tutorial must be integrated into the play,
making it part to a play session so the player
doesnt feel he/she lost her/his time playing
the tutorial, he/she must feel the progress
of a game and the resolution of it.

- Make it personalized, automatic, intelligent,
make the game automatically know how the player
is doing, make the tutorial a master that teaches
and corrects the player.

This points for now, please add more or discuss
the ones showed, ill add more later.

[Anthony Flack]

Not the best poem I've read.

[Chozabu]

I think the most important thing is to make it skippable/optional!
Probably, i wont want to go through it the first time, and ill never want to go through it again if i restart the game...

[gmcbay]

The best tutorial I've seen is in the recent Prince of Persia sequel. Basically, all it does is tell you what button combination to press to perform an action the first time you encounter something you've never encountered before. It doesn't pause the game, or force you to do exactly what it says when it says to do it. It just displays a bit of info on the screen and then gets out the way... perfect!

Tutorials are good, but they should be an organic part of the game and not some simulation of the game that is constantly pausing the game on you and forcing you to do things at specific times.

[Ronkes]

The most important thing about tutorials you should remember is: if you don't need one, you're better off. Before you start coding a tutorial, find a way to change your game's design in such a way that it is immediately obvious to the player what she should do.

A tutorial is a patch, a patch on a broken learning curve. Sometimes you need that patch, but try to do without it.

[Grey Alien]

lol @ Anthony. hehe too may CRLFs.

But yeah tutorial should be fun, or non-intrusive or not required!

[cliffski]

WHY do people assume that the tutorial should not be text? I am SICK of games thinking I am not able to read. I can read way faster than anyone can talk, and having to download a 1 gig game because every word of the tutorial is spoken is just madness, besides which, spoken tutorials 'locate' your game by accent, which can break immersion. Everyone thinks their voice is neutral and doesn't have an accent, but they all do. I thought that until I went to scotland and everyone started saying "cor blimey mary poppins" to me. anyway...

do not assume your users are stupid. text is fine, people can skim-read text, and above all you MUST let them procede through a tutorial at their own pace. for me, 99% of tutorials are too slow.

If you want an ecample of the worst tutorial ever, try civ4. WTF were they thinking with the 'virtual civ'. To this day, I couldnt hack going through the whole tutorial, and so civ4s demo sits unplayed, and I bought galciv2 instead. A poor tutorial literally wrecked the sale for them.

[Christian]

cliffski: Yes, i understand what you say, but speech has the same problem thant text, when you read, you have to pay attention and READ ALL OF THAT HUGE BORING COLUMN OF TEXT (without playing), when you hear the voice of the tutorial you have to STAND STILL (without playing) WHILE CAREFULLY PAY ATTENTION to what that boring person is saying, if you didnt understand something, you cant go back 3 words, except if it has playback, but it hads more complexity, wich is bad, but what about imitating? you just do what you see is beign done, you dont have to translate words into actions, you see the actions just as you should do it, its automatic. I have seen it in arcades, with visual representation of the controls, it worked great, there was no place for confusion, it was fast, clear, it looked good, and you could play while seeing it, it was great.

Anthony Flack: You made me laugh :D

To all others: you are right in everything you said, and i agree, thanks for sharing your thoughts, if anybody else has more, please share.

[Artinum]

The best tutorial I've seen is in the recent Prince of Persia sequel. ... It doesn't pause the game, or force you to do exactly what it says when it says to do it. It just displays a bit of info on the screen and then gets out the way... perfect!

Remarkably similar to "Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey" on the Playstation (how can a game be so cute and so sick all at the same time?) - the beginning levels in the factory all feature scrolling messages in the background. Sometimes they're just random messages but the early screens in particular have instructions like "Press (X) to roll" or explain how to rescue Mudokons.

I like that game.

[Davaris]

The best tutorial I've ever seen had 2-3 sentences. :)
Move your ship with the mouse. Press the left mouse button to shoot. Press the right mouse button to use the special power up.

[soniCron]

The best tutorial I've ever seen had 2-3 sentences. :)
Move your ship with the mouse. Press the left mouse button to shoot. Press the right mouse button to use the special power up. Sounds like a boring game! ;)

[Bmc]

i think the more you can show the better... as little text as possible if any

[BinaryMoon]

In Wario Land on the gameboy the first few levels were in a cave and their were cave paintings in the background showing you the moves you need to use to get through that area. I thought that was really clever (see example here - http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/gba/01/151.html)

[electronicStar]

Great thread guys. Please keep the ideas flowing.
I have always tought tutorials were one of the most boring things in game, although they are often useful in one form or another.
I have already found a couple good idea in these posts :)

[Davaris]

Sounds like a boring game!

Xeno Assault II - Galaga Game :)