The tutorial is one of the most important parts of any game. It serves as an introduction to the game’s world, and teaches the gameplay, mechanics, rules, and objectives. Besides that, a tutorial often serves as the first impression of a game. This can determine if the player wants to continue playing or if he gets frustrated and puts the game aside. So, learning how to design the perfect tutorial for your game is essential to keep a player entertained and engaged with your product.
The Importance Of Tutorial Design
As we already mentioned in the intro, tutorials teach your audience how to play. How to jump, how to run, how to fight. They basically teach them everything. You should always assume that whoever buys your game has never played a single one in his entire life. So, making the game as accessible as possible should be the first priority.
Tutorial design is one of the biggest challenges for a game studio. You have to balance both the teaching as well as the fun aspect of it in order to keep the audience entertained. Too much information can easily become boring. Leaving out important parts, players become frustrated because they don’t know what to do.
Before we continue, I want to point out that it can also be a very interesting design element to purposefully withhold information from the player. Especially if you’re targeting more experienced individuals. Just remember to clarify your intentions to the player to ensure he understands what your game is all about.
Blend Your Tutorial Into The Game
At first this might sound pretty obvious to include a tutorial in your game, but there is a huge difference between including something in your game and making it blend in seamlessly. Don’t just give your players a manual and expect them to read through it. Instead include the tutorials in the gameplay itself via dialogues, quests, and other mechanics.
The tutorial shouldn’t be isolated from the game but rather be a part of it. A player shouldn’t be able to tell where a tutorial begins or where it ends. It should be integrated into the flow of your game like any other gameplay element to immerse the player into the experience.
Avoid Unnecessary Information
Tutorials themselves are already very dry and full of information that the player has to digest, so you should avoid any needless information. Don’t try to introduce the vast universe of the game or go in-depth with the characters during the tutorial. There is a time and place for that. Let the player focus solely on the tutorial and avoid any other distractions.
Of course, it’s important to teach the player the lore of your game but you don’t have to explain everything in great detail. If you want to show a soldier that is being taught by a higher-ranking officer, use visuals instead of words. If the character simply greats the person as “Commander” people will immediately know who this is instead of elaborating their whole past. You can still do that later in the story.
Keep It Short & Simple
Having your players read multiple pages full of texts before letting them play might be the easiest solution but definitely not the best. Reading through the whole manual before being able to play often feels more like work and comes across as tiring, which definitely is going to discourage people from playing.
Rather than having your players read through walls of texts, try to use short and impactful cues to inform the players of what they are supposed to do, for example:
– “Press ‘A’ to jump”
– “Hold ‘Crtl’ to crouch”
– “ Use ‘WASD’ to move”
– …
Rules are easiest to remember when they are simple, so try to aim for a length between 5-9 words. The longer a text is the harder it is to understand, and people are less likely to read it.
Use Eye-Catchers & Visual Guides
Don’t be afraid to highlight and mark things, especially during the beginning phase of your game. Eye-catching graphics like highlighting elements, waypoints on the map, or glowing collectibles are some of the most important parts of a tutorial. Those graphics stand out from other less important elements to ensure to attract the player’s attention.
That way, they know what they need to be looking for and they also have an easier time navigating the UI if you highlight certain elements for them, especially if they are a bit hidden or small so that they get easily overlooked. It also helps to avoid any miscommunication between the designer and the player.
Let’s say, someone tells you to “Click on the + icon to use a med kit”. It’s rather common that there are multiple ‘+’ icons on the screen like for example the zoom button for the map or a button to add another hotbar. Maybe players even interpret it as the ‘+’ key on their keyboard? As you can see this quickly can lead to some frustration if the player doesn’t immediately find the right one to heal himself. So better take the safe route and simply highlight things!
Learning By Doing, Not Reading
Don’t teach the player how to read, but rather teach him how to do the thing. If you do something yourself, you process the information more precisely and it sticks easier. It also gives the player a feeling of control and it’s less likely to disturb the flow of the game.
Aside from the obvious, doing a thing is more fun and memorable compared to reading about it. The ‘Learning by doing’ principle is exactly what a player needs when they start a game. After all, they want to play a game and not read a book.
Teach Them Bit By Bit
It’s not a good idea to immediately overwhelm your player with all the gameplay elements, features, and skills he needs in order to beat the game. Rather than that, break your tutorial up into digestible pieces and spread them over the course of the story.
If you start by teaching them only the basics, they have time to digest the information and even practice it before they get introduced to a more complicated one. Not only does this make it easier for people to learn how to play your game but it also keeps them entertained with new mechanics and features that weren’t available straight from the beginning. It’s always exciting to learn something new, so why not take advantage of that throughout your game?
Consider The Time & Place
There is always a time and place for everything, including tutorials. There is no need to teach a character how farming works if they have no tools or even a field. In horror games you can often witness devs telling their players how to run the very moment a monster is chasing them. While this phenomenon has caused a natural paranoia in people whenever they read the word ‘run’ above a button, it also takes away the element of surprise in most cases. Also don’t teach people something new in a moment of stress. Not only does it interrupt the flow of your game but it can also lead to a major frustration if the player fails because he has to learn a new trick in a life-and-death situation. Adrenaline, fear, or tension don’t exactly help you remember and digest things. Try to think of a different solution or reuse an ability the player already knows.
For example, if a player is in a dire situation and has to extinguish an open flame with water to avoid dying, why not show him how to water plants earlier?
Always Archive Tutorials For Later
Sometimes people forget how to do a certain thing, especially if they haven’t played for quite a while. Archiving the unlocked tutorials in some sort of book or having a ‘controls’ section in your option is definitely very handy. It should be easily accessible and can be either some sort of reference book or maybe the player can even repeat the tutorial to practice his skills.
Either way, it doesn’t hurt to record, especially if you’re running a very complex and difficult game. While gamers can take their own notes or use Google to look things up, saving them time is definitely going to make your audience’s life easier.
As you can see, there is a lot that goes into what looks like a ‘simple’ tutorial. The better you integrate the tutorial into your game universe, the more fun and memorable they are going to be. Most of us play video games to relax, to challenge ourselves, or to experience something new. Hardly anyone picks up a video game because they want to push themselves through a lengthy and boring tutorial. So, try to keep it as short and simple as you can to immerse the player more into the game so they can have as much fun as possible.
If you’re interested in writing tutorials you might also be interested in the most important types of quests you can find in a game:
Mission Accomplished: Important Types Of Quests In Games
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