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TUTORIALS: YAY OR NAY?
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CoolCaper
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CloseIn some RPGs I've played, if you talk to a character they'll tell you all about fighting mechanics. Like, "If You Go to the attack tab, you can use moves" SO...Is that good for a game? Or is it cliched?
I have mixed feelings on the topic. I think that the key is necessity. If you have somebody ramble on to the player. People new to the mechanic might appreciate it, more experienced characters will have to slog through it. On the other hand if you put in an optional place with plenty of pauses (Like a bookshelf in a library) where there are plenty of pauses and opportunities to skip to a certain chapter. Good idea; problem is, I'm worried it's overused. So what I'm wondering, how necessary are they? How would you go about them? Also, if you provide a "practice battle" in the beginning, do you need a written tutorial to begin with?
I have mixed feelings on the topic. I think that the key is necessity. If you have somebody ramble on to the player. People new to the mechanic might appreciate it, more experienced characters will have to slog through it. On the other hand if you put in an optional place with plenty of pauses (Like a bookshelf in a library) where there are plenty of pauses and opportunities to skip to a certain chapter. Good idea; problem is, I'm worried it's overused. So what I'm wondering, how necessary are they? How would you go about them? Also, if you provide a "practice battle" in the beginning, do you need a written tutorial to begin with?
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I tend to prefer tutorials be optional and easily accessed; every game is someone's first, but many times it's easy enough to figure out on one's own.
If someone's complaining about the presence of an optional tutorial... that's just silly.
If someone's complaining about the presence of an optional tutorial... that's just silly.
Yep, make them optional. Have a menu option to turn them off, or let them be skippable otherwise.
Lookin' at you, Mario & Luigi RPGs.
Lookin' at you, Mario & Luigi RPGs.
Kevincalanor
519
Yup, optional tutorials are full of win x3
One other thing, it's that you don't have to bother explaining right at the start about skills/stuffs that the player won't find in the near future, like say, some fancy targeting from a lv30 meteor spell. The player will likely have forgotten half of it when he get to the thing.
One other thing, it's that you don't have to bother explaining right at the start about skills/stuffs that the player won't find in the near future, like say, some fancy targeting from a lv30 meteor spell. The player will likely have forgotten half of it when he get to the thing.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
If someone is downloading amateur homemade RPGs, I think you can safely assume they know how to play RPGs. Your target audience with an RPG Maker game is people who have played all of the AAA games that meet the specific criteria they're looking for in a game, and have run out, and so now they're looking through alternatives.
Also, and this is probably more important: if you're going to let the player skip tutorials, make sure you let them know whether the tutorial is for a common RPG system or for a unique system that's only in your game. If you ask me "View the explanation for switching party members?" I will choose no, because I'm not a goddamn idiot. And if you ask me "View the explanation for how to maintain chain attacks?" I will choose yes, because that's something that I could only know if this were my second time playing the game. But if you just ask me "View the tutorial for combat?" I might choose the wrong answer, because I don't really know what you're trying to teach me.
Also, and this is probably more important: if you're going to let the player skip tutorials, make sure you let them know whether the tutorial is for a common RPG system or for a unique system that's only in your game. If you ask me "View the explanation for switching party members?" I will choose no, because I'm not a goddamn idiot. And if you ask me "View the explanation for how to maintain chain attacks?" I will choose yes, because that's something that I could only know if this were my second time playing the game. But if you just ask me "View the tutorial for combat?" I might choose the wrong answer, because I don't really know what you're trying to teach me.
^
I think one good way of doing it is having a journal type feature that you can double-check and re-read if you need to after the fact. Sometimes I'll start a game and it has all these features, but I take a break or get sidetracked with something else. When I come back to the game, I can't remember how to do x or y and I've longed for something inside the game to remind me. (It'd be cool if there were, like, a dynamic tutorial that noticed you fucking up and went all "Oh, do you want tips on that?" but I think that's beyond a lot of people to create.)
One thing, as LockeZ points out, is don't lump them all together. If you lump the basic controls tutorial with the extra controls one, under the heading of Controls, I'm just gonna skip it and then wonder how I'm supposed to do x or y thing when I reach it.
Actually, a good idea is to give a simple tutorial when you reach a thing. That is, if you have jumping in your game, when you reach your first jump spot have a small image or something pop up and be all "Press Enter to jump" and viola, done. I now know how to jump and you didn't make it a chore to read through stuff I already knew.
Also, a good way is to present stuff with character input. That is, instead of breaking the fourth wall, let someone tell you how to do it. Whether that be a party member asking if you know how to use chain spells in the middle of a battle, or watching some NPC jump over a log to show it can be done (then have a small button pop-up or something over that log so you know which button to press).
And it is important to do this if you at all deviate from the norm. The previous IGMC had a lot of problems when it came to explaining how to play a game, especially when the game controls differed from the wasd/arrow key set-up. Always give the choice to check a tutorial in some way, but allow people to skip it.
I think one good way of doing it is having a journal type feature that you can double-check and re-read if you need to after the fact. Sometimes I'll start a game and it has all these features, but I take a break or get sidetracked with something else. When I come back to the game, I can't remember how to do x or y and I've longed for something inside the game to remind me. (It'd be cool if there were, like, a dynamic tutorial that noticed you fucking up and went all "Oh, do you want tips on that?" but I think that's beyond a lot of people to create.)
One thing, as LockeZ points out, is don't lump them all together. If you lump the basic controls tutorial with the extra controls one, under the heading of Controls, I'm just gonna skip it and then wonder how I'm supposed to do x or y thing when I reach it.
Actually, a good idea is to give a simple tutorial when you reach a thing. That is, if you have jumping in your game, when you reach your first jump spot have a small image or something pop up and be all "Press Enter to jump" and viola, done. I now know how to jump and you didn't make it a chore to read through stuff I already knew.
Also, a good way is to present stuff with character input. That is, instead of breaking the fourth wall, let someone tell you how to do it. Whether that be a party member asking if you know how to use chain spells in the middle of a battle, or watching some NPC jump over a log to show it can be done (then have a small button pop-up or something over that log so you know which button to press).
And it is important to do this if you at all deviate from the norm. The previous IGMC had a lot of problems when it came to explaining how to play a game, especially when the game controls differed from the wasd/arrow key set-up. Always give the choice to check a tutorial in some way, but allow people to skip it.
Gredge109
4151
Always optional, for me. There's nothing quite as bad than a disembodied narrator saying "press the right arrow key to walk to the right" and then going into detail on ways to use basic features:
I'll add an optional tutorial if my stats are different than usual, or if it's not a traditional RPG. I don't feel it's necessary to throw a tutorial at every basic thing in the game. Gotta assume your player desires to actually play the game, and because the game is interactive, will naturally attempt to play and learn its mechanics. In otherwords, they're not just going to open your game and stare at the title screen, breathing heavily while waiting for instruction.
Ideally, you'd forego the tutorial and let your gameplay mechanics guide the player. One person made a game which had a treasure chest at the start. Without any giant arrow pointing it out, you were naturally inclined to find a way to open the chest, receive an item, and then check your inventory to see what it did only to find - ta-dah! - a whole bunch of other items you were already carrying!
Some older games would have NPCs you talk to that tell you about mechanics. Yeah that can be 4th wall breaking (though not as obtrusive as developers tend to think), but it's much better than having 10 kids running around town who only say "I like candy!"
(you can use the spacebar to jump, and can jump over obstacles. Some obstacles, like walls, cannot be jumped over. Some pits, if you don't jump over them, can lead to your death!)
I'll add an optional tutorial if my stats are different than usual, or if it's not a traditional RPG. I don't feel it's necessary to throw a tutorial at every basic thing in the game. Gotta assume your player desires to actually play the game, and because the game is interactive, will naturally attempt to play and learn its mechanics. In otherwords, they're not just going to open your game and stare at the title screen, breathing heavily while waiting for instruction.
Ideally, you'd forego the tutorial and let your gameplay mechanics guide the player. One person made a game which had a treasure chest at the start. Without any giant arrow pointing it out, you were naturally inclined to find a way to open the chest, receive an item, and then check your inventory to see what it did only to find - ta-dah! - a whole bunch of other items you were already carrying!
Some older games would have NPCs you talk to that tell you about mechanics. Yeah that can be 4th wall breaking (though not as obtrusive as developers tend to think), but it's much better than having 10 kids running around town who only say "I like candy!"
RyaReisender
200
I prefer games that don't have any tutorials, not even optional. Learning by doing is a lot more fun and you will remember it much better after a break too. If your game is so complex that a tutorial is absolutely required, then you should rethink if your game isn't simply too complex for its own good.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Some things, like controls, really do require some kind of message or window to explain them to the player. Especially on a PC game, where the player has 73 buttons on their keyboard to try.
If that sort of thing just hangs as an overlay on the screen without interrupting anything, I don't think it needs to be "skippable." Hell, Assassin's Creed and Legend of Zelda show the controls on-screen at all times throughout the entire game.
If that sort of thing just hangs as an overlay on the screen without interrupting anything, I don't think it needs to be "skippable." Hell, Assassin's Creed and Legend of Zelda show the controls on-screen at all times throughout the entire game.
Milennin
2060
I don't mind tutorials if they're kept short or fun in some way. But I don't like being treated like an idiot, like, when I'm being told how to move my character or about selecting attack to hurt an enemy. I don't think optional tutorials are always the best option because I prefer to skip them, but that can backfire in games that have mechanics you don't normally see in regular RPGs. Then I have to backtrack and still go through them just to understand what I'm doing, and it's just not really fun to me.
I prefer tutorials that aren't really obvious about being tutorials. Something that teaches me how the mechanics work through simple gameplay, rather than text. Or if tutorial pieces are written like dialogue between two characters, with one explaining it to the other (as long as it doesn't drag on).
I prefer tutorials that aren't really obvious about being tutorials. Something that teaches me how the mechanics work through simple gameplay, rather than text. Or if tutorial pieces are written like dialogue between two characters, with one explaining it to the other (as long as it doesn't drag on).
Rhuan
110
I'm thinking about this a lot for my current project (if it every gets to a playable state...)
In that it will have a battle system that I've designed that's shaping up to be an odd hybrid of Fallout 1, Fire Emblem and Shadow Hearts - the interface will not be directly the same as any game I know of - I've considered having a wall of text to explain it but people will just say "TLDR"; trying to have helpful brief instruction boxes that pop up in one corner of the screen - probably quite tricky to implement but could work.
Or even using some voice recordings (of me) explaining the system(s) - this may be the best method.
(note when I say designed I mean I've put together the ideas the script to do it is less than 10% written I'm working on it slowly...)
In that it will have a battle system that I've designed that's shaping up to be an odd hybrid of Fallout 1, Fire Emblem and Shadow Hearts - the interface will not be directly the same as any game I know of - I've considered having a wall of text to explain it but people will just say "TLDR"; trying to have helpful brief instruction boxes that pop up in one corner of the screen - probably quite tricky to implement but could work.
Or even using some voice recordings (of me) explaining the system(s) - this may be the best method.
(note when I say designed I mean I've put together the ideas the script to do it is less than 10% written I'm working on it slowly...)
I always find it funny when you have to walk over to someone and interact with them in order to hear a tutorial on how to walk and interact. It happens a lot more than you'd think, even in commercial games. XD
I would find it funny if you're dumped in a map and have to walk through a small gauntlet of pop-up button tutorials to talk to the tutorial guy only to have him say something like "Aw crap, I was gonna teach you how to do all that stuff but I guess I'm outta a job. No reason for my existence any more..." and then just fades into nothingness. XP
I would find it funny if you're dumped in a map and have to walk through a small gauntlet of pop-up button tutorials to talk to the tutorial guy only to have him say something like "Aw crap, I was gonna teach you how to do all that stuff but I guess I'm outta a job. No reason for my existence any more..." and then just fades into nothingness. XP
author=Rys
Learning by doing is a lot more fun and you will remember it much better after a break too.
Absolutely not for some games. Complex games (of any genre) that have an innovate break from the norm often have mechanics that I'm apt to forget after a long break and returning play. I really enjoy those games, so I'd like to have optional tutorials to easily refresh me back into the action.
author=Liberty
I would find it funny if you're dumped in a map and have to walk through a small gauntlet of pop-up button tutorials to talk to the tutorial guy only to have him say something like "Aw crap, I was gonna teach you how to do all that stuff but I guess I'm outta a job. No reason for my existence any more..." and then just fades into nothingness. XP
Consider it stolen.
For controls, I like how modern games do it with just showing the button at the bottom of the screen when you need it for the first area. Like, the opening cutscene stops, the camera zooms out a bit and then after a few seconds a little analogue stick with an L on it and "Move" written under it appears. The pause gives me time to do it myself because, yes, I've played a game before. This one tiny thing removes the condescending feeling given by a tutorial telling me how to move.
For more complex things like non-basic combat, stealth mechanics, alchemy, etc, I prefer journal entries most of all. Failing that, I'll take short contextual tutorials that honour the mood at the time. I also appreciate it when the tutorial gives you some small reward for completion, like how the tutorial in many MMO's will guarantee you a level-up.
As a Compile Heart fan, I've gotta say that their tutorial method is awful. You get bombarded by screen after screen of still images explaining the game systems but since it usually pops up right after a tense cutscene and before your first major battles, it drains all suspense out of the scene.
For more complex things like non-basic combat, stealth mechanics, alchemy, etc, I prefer journal entries most of all. Failing that, I'll take short contextual tutorials that honour the mood at the time. I also appreciate it when the tutorial gives you some small reward for completion, like how the tutorial in many MMO's will guarantee you a level-up.
As a Compile Heart fan, I've gotta say that their tutorial method is awful. You get bombarded by screen after screen of still images explaining the game systems but since it usually pops up right after a tense cutscene and before your first major battles, it drains all suspense out of the scene.
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