Tutorials 101 - How to Design a Good Game Tutorial - Extra Credits
Why Game Development Stack Exchange recommends it
Game Development Stack Exchange answerers and commenters link it when someone asks how to build a tutorial, onboard new players, or structure early levels.
Recommended by 3 people across 3 different months, 2013 to 2019.
What it is
An Extra Credits episode on designing game tutorials, arguing that the first minutes of a game can make or break it. It covers how tutorials often overwhelm new players or irritate experienced ones, and why tutorial design should be planned alongside the rest of the game. It is a short animated, narrated explainer.
What people said
Recommends bobobobo · 2013-08 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “Architechture problem of implementation of a tutorial for a game”
BEST BEST BESSSSSSST! [LINK] ? It's not clear whether your question is about building tutorials, or about sharing data between classes. If you want some tips on tutorial building, check out this Extra Credits video [this video] .
Recommends user79408 · 2016-03 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “How to prevent players from getting lost during the onboarding phase of an RPG?”
Tutorials are hard and I've been trying to find a good way to make them for a while now. My number one recommendation is to look at games that have found a way of fixing this problem. I would start at Portal 1. The games first levels were really all tutorials but no one noticed. I also think that you should watch this Youtube video: [this video] I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this but I did. I hope I helped. Best of luck to your game
Recommends Philipp · 2016-11 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “Should I Have a Ridiculously Easy First Level?”
Usually you should. The purpose of the first level(s) is to make the player familiar with the controls, UI and most basic game mechanics. The first challenge for the player to beat should be how to control the game, then to understand the game, and then to actually play it competently. It's great when you can mark each of these steps with a success milestone in form of a complete level. For further research I recommend the video Tutorials 101 by Extra Credits [this video] . However, keep in mind that game design is more of an art than a science. There are no absolute rules in game development. Sometimes you need to muddle this progression for the sake of immersion and storytelling. And sometimes
Cites Theraot · 2019-06 · Game Development Stack Exchange · on “How to address players struggling with simple controls?”
Are your test player having trouble discovering the controls or using them? If they have trouble discovering them, you can add a prompt that explains them. To make it unobtrusive for players that don't need it, you can have it appear if the player stays there doing nothing. Which, brings me to the next thing: probably all your game needs is a practice/creative/free mode, where players feel free to experiment with the controls without any pressure. That will get them used to the controls in the case that the trouble is using them and not discovering them. While a game can do well without instructions or tutorials, they could help you reach more people (because not everybody is keen on experim