Porter's World

What NOT to do

Having your players not know how to play, complain, then rate your game down is something we all hate. One solution I see people doing far too often is forcing a tutorial upon the players, bad move. As much as you may hate reading comments about your players not knowing how to play, especially after they skip the tutorial, forcing one upon them still isn’t the way you want to go about it.

Let’s face it, 90% of players aren’t going to read our tutorials, especially if they’re not forced to. This creates a huge problem however, if our game is complicated even in the slightest, or has odd controls, or both, we’re about to run into some trouble. Having players not know how to play your game is just as bad as having a horrible game, it’s all the same in the eyes of the player. Throwing in a tutorial as the first level and making it mandatory works, but it also turns a lot of players away, that is, when they know.

Where a forced tutorial may turn players away, you can still throw a tutorial in your first level, or levels, and get away with it. An example of a game that had mini tutorials within levels that weren’t forced is Super Mario World. If you recall the game, there were help boxes (Blue and Red Boxes) all over the place when new concepts were introduced, it was up to you click on them or not, which often happened when a player died right after skipping one of those boxes. This strategy allows players to completely skip the instructions and have a good time, but have instructions right there in the gameplay before the area they died in if needed. This method really is a lot more powerful than it sounds, because it works. I almost never go into an instructions menu or tutorial menu in a flash game, I do however read signs or background instructions when they’re embedded in game, which is proof the method works. Raider Episode 1 for instance has signs throughout the game explaining things. I skipped these signs all together for my first attempt at the game, but when I died I started reading them to see what advice they had to offer, and I did this because I didn’t have to go out of my way to do so. Games such as Star Fox 64 told you to “Do a barrel roll!” mid action, the instructions popped up on screen and you followed them, but never did you go out of your way to learn how.

It really is a simple concept, but I can’t stress how much this can make or break a game. One of the most difficult decisions I find myself making in game design is how to get the instructions out to the player. Figuring out how you’ll ensure even the most novice of players can understand what to do and what is going on is incredibly important, and the above is generally the best solution. If you find yourself having problems getting your instructions across to players, pick up one of the above mentioned games and check them out, you’ll see how it’s done.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3