First off there are at least two kind of people when considering a tutorial.
The first group is the group of explorers. They often ignore a tutorial and want to find out the game mechanism on their own. A forced on tutorial is annoying for these people.
The second group are the watchers. They learn by watching/observing the game play. Showing them what to do is the best way.
To write a tutorial which suits the first group is quite easy: just add a skip button , that is all.
The second group is harder. You have several ways of showing them what to do:
1. written text:
This is the worst, though cheapest, way to instruct your players. But lot of people don't like to read lot of text.
2. audio instructions:
Listening to a voice which helps you navigating through a tutorial is much better.
3. visual instructions:
These one are the best way to show it. Some games even show short ingame videos of what to do (most often seen in FPS), others uses guides (ghosts, npcs etc.). Here you need to decide of what is more important to you. Either a clear communication, then a video is really helpful, or an immersive integration into your game world, then a guide is better.
As you can see, the better solutions are most likely the most expensives one. Either invest really much efforts into making a good tutorial , or take the cheap way. A good meant tutorial using lot of text which isn't skipable could be more hurting your game then a short instruction !
Tutorials - How to Learn a Game's Mechanics
It seems to me that simply having an area or two where you have time to experiment with controls safely with minimal consequence can go a long way. Inevitably, a player is going to press every button on the controller he has or every key that he knows has been mapped to something just to see what it does. The area doesn't have to be completely hazard free but safe enough to give the player a bit of a chance to experiment.
Hi, didn't readed all the posts but watched the video. Another great game from capcom with writen tutorials is Monster Hunter Tri (I only played this version). This game is huge and in many ways the whole single player experience (that can be around 60 hours) is its tutorial. And in the very beginnig it has its own kind of "intro stage" where the written tuts get place. But anyway they kind make it part of the game, so it doesn't feel so intrusive. Tomorrow maybe I can read and answer better the thread.
Put a library in the game full of books where the player cna visit and read all they want about the mechanics and controls of the game. All of thwe writing should be in service of the fiction of the game.
Or, just try to design your controls and mechanics to be like a puzzle, where part of the fun is figuring out the controls.
Or, just try to design your controls and mechanics to be like a puzzle, where part of the fun is figuring out the controls.
Use the mouse to look around now.
Wow, thanks tutorial - I was fiercely wiggling my head in every direction and nothing was happening.
I wish more tutorials would tell me actual useful stuff.
Wow, thanks tutorial - I was fiercely wiggling my head in every direction and nothing was happening.
I wish more tutorials would tell me actual useful stuff.
You could make the tutorials like little mini quests. One thing I hate about a lot of tutorials though, you have the choice to do the tutorial or skip it, but once you skip it, you can't go back to it. You leave newbie isle forever never to return. On the other hand, I don't believe in immediately dropping newbies in a dangerous spot filled with high end monsters and/or pkers.
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