This is why I'm a fan of research trees. They limit the choices in the beginning and gradually introduce more complex interactions, but still leave all the options open for experienced players to use the path they take through it as it's own meta mechanic
Thank you so much for pursuing education and keeping it free for everyone. I just thought of two great ideas for my tutorial and I'm only halfway through the video. Having to pause to take notes. You're making the world a more beautiful, intelligent place and I hope you never stop.
It makes if single clicking and double clicking are also already defined. "Single click: select character, Double click: party rally to this character, triple click inventory of the character."
The best part of breaking a tutorial up over the course of a game with mechanics becoming explained as they become important is that if they were always there and you just didn't know how to use them, repeat playthroughs let the player use them well from the beginning, allowing them to come more connected with the game.
I've played games for a very long time, but for some reason in just about every game my favorite part is the tutorial, for me its basically the "first date" with that game, it's that important, for me, to see the devs try their hardest to show what they have built and its surprising to think back and realize that so few games actually cared to make them the most engaging part.
I have to say... at first I really didn't like the voice modulator, but the thoughts and opinions portrayed are so insightful that I just kept watching the videos and now I don't mind at all, lol.
Mass Effect 2 had a very exciting tutorial: you felt like you were already on a mission. First, your ship gets shot open. then you're waking up, resurrected, and a small army is converging on you. This was my second PC game yet I learned fast and it was fun.
Portal has one of the best tutorials, IMO. If you play the game with the dev comments enabled, you get to actually hear how Valve went about making those early levels to teach the mechanics of the game. Brilliantly designed.
It is funny how much of Portal is actually, in essence, a tutorial when you actually sit down and think about it. I watched another video on here about Super Metroid's "hidden tutorial" on the Game Theorists channel. Very good stuff that I think adds to this video's message.
Dark souls tutorial was awesome, they tell you which button does what, one at a time and give you a easy enemy to try it on, and then throws you out in a inhospitable world to figure out how to best use them
I love this quote 🤩: “If you are mindful of this [how features are explained during the development] and disciplined in your design, you can create the best tutorial there is; one that no one remembers is there.” 10 years after creating this video, it is still as relevant as ever.
Super Metroid has one of the best tutorials I've ever seen. The first one is great too--just to get the Morph Ball, you need to break platforming conventions and go left.
4:46 best way to do that is to make both the arrow keys and WASD available but make WASD the better choice i used to always use the arrow keys, then in both WoW and Spore i realized it's much better to sue WASD, and started doing so, to the point where i'm annoyed by games that don't have WASD controls, haha
Games that do not have any real purpose for the mouse usually do better using Arrow Keys + ShiftZXCV..., as I have trouble finding with finding a place to put action keys with my right hand.
In my mind, there are two games that come to mind that have fantastic tutorials (while, franchise, in one case, but still): Jak II and Ratchet and Clank, especially the third game. Jak II has you escaping prison in your first mission, and the tutorial is integrated into it. It feels natural, because Daxter is essentially saying, "hey, do you remember how to do X?" and it makes sense because Jak has essentially been tied up for 2 years. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal essentially throws you into a battle for the first level, and it teaches you the basics on that level as you come across them. The level is set up so that it teaches you the basics as you go. And you can turn the tutorial off if you want, since it's mostly just a voice over as you play.
Honestly, wouldn't have been so bad if something had told him to do that. But it seems like nothing did. Pair that with the fact that no one has ever triple clicked on anything to do any meaningful action while still thinking of "triple clicking" as a valid action to perform, and you have bad game design PLUS a poor tutorial.
The best tutorial/intro stage I've ever seen has got to be from Capcom's Ghost Trick, which is absolutely brilliant and teaches so well while managing to be so immersive and pretty much meets every other guideline mentioned in this video AND arguably serves as one of the most important plot points in the game too.
The whole Tauriel section of Undertale, and Portal which you already mentioned, are definitely my favourite examples of fully integrated tutorials that don't feel like tutorials!
What a great line to end on. Really makes me think about which games I had to pretty much "swim upstream" to get into (Warframe, TF2, Tribes: Ascend, Dota2...), and which games allowed me to completely understand anything I wanted, without me even noticing it (Portal, Bastion, etc). It's a shame that the games that do this in the best way possible are the hardest to list and applaud for their efforts, and the games that do it horribly are so easy to point out.
Still a great video. Reminds me on my recent experience exploring new interaction and visualisation concepts for VR in professional environments, and a lot of the do's-n-don'ts from actual scientific literature on perception and psychology can be recognized in your video. So: nice work!
One of the best executed Tutorials i've seen is the one from an awesome puzzle game called Closure. The game basically works like this in that everything is dark except for some light orbs you can carry around and everything that's not touched by light, doesn't exist physically. Remove the light source and you can jump through walls and fall through floors, and that's how the puzzles are solved. First you're given a button prompt to pick one of those orbs up. Then due to you picking it up, the movement controls are highlighted. You reach a ledge which you have to jump on, and again, all you're given is a button prompt. To quote Developer Tyler Glaiel: "There's no need to tell them what it does. Just tell the player what the button is, they will instinctively press it and instantly realize what the button does."Then you get to another ledge and have to do a leap of faith that is there to show thatA: there's no falling damage.B: Sometimes you have to do leaps of faithAnd C: that you're usually safe from falling to death as long as you're carrying a light source with you. Masterfully done tutorial, all without text!
Personally, I love the Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne tutorials. You can easily run past it, and if you read it, you can read only the controls you need or just read all the small messages. It's simple, skippable, and to the point.
This is one of the reasons I love Red Faction: Guerilla. The tutorial is fun, simple and is part of the plot by acting as Act 1 and ending with the event which sets the rest of the story in motion. If it wasn't for the (admittedly short) popups, it would be perfect.
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines- That had a great tutorial, let alone, that it gives you benefits if you won't skip it :) I never skip that tutorial as I replay the game, because it's fun!
He mentioned City of Heroes in a series with this much critical thinking and diversity of games. Oh my gosh I feel nostalgically obligated to instantly like this video. The lesson on tutorials is seeming far more important but... but... Long live the spirit of City of Heroes! Please come soon, City of Titans!!
Jordan3D Yeah and Mega Man X had that Idea from the first Metroid game. No Tutorial. Only the intro that puts you in the first world and you run around testing all the buttons :3 I hope I can make a tutorial that does not break the flow of the game. In the project that my siblings and I work on, I am responsible for the tutorial, since I wrote the story script as well. So I try finding a way to implement tutorial through story without using much text or flow breaking pop up buttons. It's not easy though x_X
Thor Essebo (This is going to be a long one...) The plot revolves around a fact that my siblings and I had talked and thought about for many years. "How can someone believe in history and such, if all that was written was made by human asumptions? Humans are known to fail and have failures, to lie and deceive. So how come we accept almost everything as normal, even though we understand so very little?" That question created the plot of my book, which is a story about a Holy War that took place a long time ago. In that war a god rose to usurp the throne of the Godfather, but was defeated by his six siblings and the Godfather himself. It was brought to the people that this god had died, but in the present a prophet appeared who believes that this evil god has not yet died and that he, in fact, is capable of returning him to the world. The story gets really deep and interesting as the player has to try and find the truth behind all this, which is rooted far deeper in the past than they expected. All of this is inspired by a group of 8 heroes born from different races and with serious problems of their own, as well as distrust in each other. They have to overcome the barrier that the war had pushed them in to save the world they all wish to protect. Best example is the fifth character that joins the heroes. He's the most powerful mage known to men, the Elminster, who's known for sacrificing entire cities to his crazed experiments. He's going to be a large asset and issue in the group. Trdef the Gamer That is very generous of you :3 I appreciate it. If anything comes to mind, I will inform you right away. (sorry this took so long, I was in rehab after a traffic accident for a while x_X )
Thor Essebo I wrote it, it's just very long and I try not to spoil too much yet. We work on releasing the first Demo around this year, but we've got some slight issues, due to some voice files still missing and minor calibrations :3 I hope we get this handled though xD
The fact you never noticed it proved how effective it was. If i remember correctly, there wasn't even very many words involved, and even if there were, it was all said as well. So yeah, it is pretty much the cornerstone of tutorials. Little text, with talking to fill in for younger users, paced inclusion of features... Yeah, the fact you still know how to play the game shows you just how awesome the tut. was.
One of the Best tutorials out there in gaming was hidden. I am of course referring to Super Metroid. With it's hints shown in clear sight in the world around where the upgrade is hidden, while at the same time having possibility of breaking the sequence. If you are good enough with the mechanics you do not need all the upgrades. All of this is hidden in plain sight with no written material apart from what is in the manual. And that is why it is a masterpiece when it comes to tutorials.
This video will always be relevant because most game developers don't think about the player every step of the way as they're designing the game and leave it to playtesting sessions way later.
I found that sometimes giving the play a glimpse of future features could spark some excitement. For example, while playing, the players get to see some cool toys that an NPC is using. It let them wonder what will happen if they can get their hand on it.
+zachary neil well, it teaches the player mechanics in the game. an example of this is the first sentry you come across, where you see a scientist run in front of it before you, and dies. I'd consider the training tutorial as a guide for the true basics like movement.
Does anyone remember Super Metroid? It taught you everything without dialogue because in this commentary no one is mentioning it. It was basically letting players use weapons in situations and figure out how to do stuff.
Epic Dog Gamer Well, yeah, there's that. Although, Metroid Fusionwas awesome too. Haven't finished Super, so I didn't mention it. That, and I was expecting someone to.
Metroid games do this well as they don't give you all the weapon upgrades at the beginning they instead make you find them then learn about them keep making videos like this they are amazing and so are you
I love how you use portal as an example, it was the most brilliant tutorial ever. Another one I have found is the hames based on movies or comic book characters tend to have a well done tutorial. Ones that have you learn, then use in the following boss fight. Like most spiderman games and the batman arkham series. Both used that style. I just subscribed to you and plan on watching many more of your videos.
It reminds me of the Zelda series. I actually love the setup for the dungeons in most of the games. You go in there solving whatever puzzles you can that eventually lead you to a new tool. The game teaches you how to use it by solving all the puzzles you couldn't before. Then the boss is basically the test since it can usually only be killed by using your new tool. Afterwards you usually have the freedom to utilize your new tool in combat however you see fit.
I remember that Warcraft III has a good tutorial, barely any text, a part of the storyline, actual gameplay in the tutorial, BONUS TIPS (That you might use really often), and I dunno, that tutorial was good, and I still remember how to play Warcraft III without having any trouble.
God I love your guys videos XD I might get a tattoo of U 3 (in cartoon of course) I have been thinking about 95% of what you talk about ever since I started gaming and I love that someone actually stood up and God this information out. THANK YOU
I definitely agree. The best tutorials are the ones you never notice. Case in point: Comparing Fallout: New Vegas to Original war. In New Vegas, the opening quest chain serves as the tutorial - it teaches sneaking, shooting, ammunition habits, scavenging, crafting, basic battle tactics, conversation skills, hacking, and lockpicking by doing as well as providing good enough starting gear that even players starting the game for the 53rd time willingly go through it again. It's also skippable. The problem is that the tutorial front-loads information about specialty ammunition and weapon mods, and although it provides a gameplay example of dealing with an armored opponent it never really addresses how you'd need to do that or what the benefits of armoring yourself are in a mechanical sense. Honestly, it's a pretty good tutorial. In Original War, the tutorials take the form of question marks which pop up on the bottom of the screen. Selecting one explains a gameplay mechanic - such as use of terrain or vehicle production - and the question mark then disappears after you close the dialog box (Although you can find them in the options menu). As gameplay concepts are introduced - such as high grass stealthing crawling infantry - the early levels are designed around exploiting that specific concept while later levels incorporate that concept while adding on another one until eventually you're mass-producing AI vehicles of many types to defeat the enemy in detail. The problem here is that if you're not the type to investigate icons that mysteriously appear on your screen, you will miss the tutorial. And the game, which is already crazy hard, can quickly become unbeaten if high-leveled characters die off in early levels. I enjoyed both tutorials, honestly. If New Vegas' tutorial has an issue with front-loading and directly stating "This is a tutorial. This is the tutorial zone." it compensates by offering clear chances to exercise examples of concepts that will be useful for the entire game, ranging from completing quests to taking on multiple armed thugs. If Original War's tutorial has an issue with not presenting very much information and having extremely challenging (In more of a depth sense than an execution sense) tutorial gameplay, it fits the tone of the game itself and doesn't feel like a last-minute addition the way New Vegas' tutorial does.
Thanks for this! I have a lot of people requesting a tutorial for my game and I'm usually against tutorials as the games I grew up with didn't have them so this is helpful.
Apogee and Epic were good about in-game documentation back in the day. Their games nearly always had an "Instructions" item on the main menu you could select to review the basic controls and often a number of things you could pick up.
Probably one of the best tutorials ever created. You honestly have to dissect that part of the game to figure out it is a tutorial. You don't even know it is there.
Although, I'd have to disagree with some aspect there. while Super Metroid was on a designated system (the SNES) with all its buttons and quirks, it showed text dialogs per ability that you got for example: Bomb: Go into morph ball, then press B Button. It never really broke the flow of gameplay either, since you were either in a safe location or you knew what was going to happen next through experimentation. There are some times where the game just threw you in the deep end, though. Super Metroid's Design was more a leading perspective than a tutorial perspective. You remember the birds and the chimps in the game? That was a sort of tutorial that taught you how to speed boost and wall jump, but they did it by _leading_ you and showing you rather than telling you "Jump, face the other direction and jump again" which opened possibilities for sequence breaking at times when people found out certain possibilities, such as morph ball jumping.
Euler Eilts Why? There are good videos there that investigate connections and how video game logic could be mirrored in the real world. Most of the time the videos are just for fun.
Mostly Arin. Skipped by the players who need them the most. Five episodes later Arin will be complaining about the game being bullshit when he just didn't learn a mechanic of the game that was told to him.
1:42 Sly Cooper and the Thevius Raccoonus was a good example of this. Only after you beat certain bosses did you get the techniques needed to beat later levels, thus pacing the tutorial.
I always remember the tutorial in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines: It was skipable, but I played it every time, because the game rewarded me for it with a set of lockpicks, some cash and some weapons - but I didn't need to do it and I apreciate having the choice.
I think one of the best tutorials I experienced was in the first Metroid Prime when exploring the Frigate Orpheon.. There was a minimal amount of text, nothing was explained until it was necessary, and most importantly, the events that took place during the tutorial was essential to the plot, meaning I was invested in the game.
Shadow of the Colossus I feel does the tutorial really well. Very progressive, because quite literately, you are learning how to play while you go to the first colossus, and during your first fight. Plus, all through out the game, as each one you fight,you to teach yourself what the trick is to the certain colossus, and if you struggle, you are hinted rarely with tips on how to advance giving good immersion, and not breaking any forth wall, flow, or making the player feel silly.
City of Heroes, or rather, City of Villains specifically, had an awesome tutorial. Going Rogue's tutorial was pretty cool too, though goes on a bit long, since rather than being a tiny zone to teach you the very basics in maybe 10 minutes, its an entire chunk of map telling you an entire story and ALL of the core mechanics over an hour or two.
I liked the original Modern Warfare tutorial! It was funny, fast and simple. And the best thing is, the tutorial "teaches" you X, Y and Z, and immediately ask you to used what you learned on a course that pretty much cover the basics CQB encounters, the meat of the game. I kept doing that course until i beat the timer, and strangely was the part of gameplay from the title that i had most fun with...
something I have seen done in games is if you have to give some sort of dialogue for your tutorial, make sure it makes sense, not like "your character already knows all this stuff, lets get you up to speed on everything your character knows!" because that kills pacing. have the character gain something they don't fully know how to operate yet, and you can deliver a quick tutorial without killing pacing.
distributing the tutorial sections across the game is an important lesson! take banjo kazooie for example: theres no way you could remember all those moves after trying them all in the beginning. you learn the basic ones at the start and unlock more ones later on. dont stretch it too far though; in banjo kazooie this was fine, but in tooie (the sequel) you were still taught new moves towards the final levels of the game, and i remember that those moves felt kinda pointless, as i hardly ever needed to use them more than once, because there werent many levels left to use them in. this is partly circumvented by the fact that you can revisit levels and use those moves to get collectibles you missed the first time, but it still felt weird. there shouldnt be anything new introduced from the middle of the game onwards. if you feel that an element needs to be in your game, make sure the player can use it for at least half of the game. this happens in zelda games too sometimes, when you get new tools that you realize wouldve helped you earlier in the game, but serve as little more than a key to the final dungeon by the time you get them.
That's a really good example of a great tutorial. I was so immersed in the story that I didn't really even think of it as a tutorial, but as an intro sequence that I got to play.
Xenoblade actually did tutorials really interesting. They were mostly through text, but were quick and to the point and included visual aids so it's super helpful. And the tutorial for the character's battle styles are done through dialogues of the characters explain their talent arts and even give some strategy tips.
Papers, Please has a great tutorial. It gradually teaches you stuff as the events of the story happen, and makes it fit so that it doesn't break the game's experience. Oh there was an attack yesterday, we are introducing a scanner so time to teach you how to find weapons and contraband. Oh there are too many foreigners stealing jobs, we are introducing workers permits so time to teach you how tell forgeries from the real permits.
Personally, I think Dark Souls have a great tutorial. It teaches you when you need to get away from a fight, how to deal with certain settings, and then the players learns themselves what else they need to know for their play style
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a good tutorial, in my opinion. It is humorous, and it connects to the players on the common feel of tutorials "Oh great, a tutorial of things I already know how to do."
Maybe the best tutorial of all time is in Dark Souls. You wake up, are told how to move and how to interact with things by on-screen prompts, and then you figure the rest out by using your knowledge of how to interact with things to read messages on the ground (inherently teaching you that they provide important information) and then, in most cases, immediately putting into practice the things that they taught you. The best part is that if you're a seasoned player of the game, you can easily just dash straight through the tutorial area, skipping all of the basic stuff and finishing the less basic stuff much more quickly.
Except for the fact that you can't really go back to it if you forget anything. I ended up creating a new character so I could go through the tutorial again, after playing for a bit and realising there were things I wasn't doing (I think that was only from watching videos of DS2, as well). I don't know how long I was playing before I found out that you have to *drop your shield* in order to backstab, which wasn't mentioned anywhere. (And it was probably a lot longer after that before I realised that dropping your shield restores your stamina quicker >.
In my opinion the Legend Of Zelda series has done an amazing job lately with Tutorials, with Skyward Sword teaching you mechanics while you explore Skyloft searching for your lost bird, and Breath Of The Wild providing a mystery and an obstacle that you must explore and learn to overcome
This is a pretty old video and just recently found the series, but I think a game that really did this well was the recent release was Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Switch. The only turn-off was that the tutorial was generally text-based when explaining what to do, but the way it was presented was pretty awesome. The tutorial spoke in first-person, as if it were someone else speaking right beside you, giving you information about the mechanics of what to do, and then letting you have a go at it. There are other things that are available to you right from the get-go, but weren't explained in detail until later if it was vital. These weren't very long and skip-able to people who knew how to play. When there were new mechanics, and there were a lot, the game would let that new mechanic be instantly available for one battle if it was charge-built or time sensitive and let it be available for the rest of the battle so that players could really get the hang of it. You were only interrupted if the mechanic was literally game-changing, and the thing I thought was really neat was that more information was optional for a small fee of in-game gold to learn some neat tips and tricks, so in a sense the game rewards you for trying out new things with the major mechanics and exploring on your own at your own pace. You might go the entire game without using these tricks, but that's what makes it really cool that there is a lot of optional content for you to explore.
One of the better ones is the raid on narshe from final fantasy vi. While not really a tutorial but one at the same time, it lets you test the battle system as you want because you have an op suit and the ennemies are weak. It also sets up the story pretty good
That's the worst. You're all hyped about playing a game and then a wall of text appears. I think the fire emblem series has some of the worst too. They lasts a couple of chapters and are unskipable. It gives you literally no liberty. They say to you exactly what to do, and if you don't do it exactly the same, they just tell you the same thing. The worst thing is that every fire emblem games have similar mechanics
Well, at least they let you skip the tutorial in FF VIII. The tutorial for the first Assassin's Creed on the other hand, was not skippable. It was fun learning the puppet control system for the first time, but nobody wants to repeat that in their second playthough.
I'd say lack of a proper tutorial is easily the reason why I abandoned League of Legends after about 10 games. Seriously, it's overwhelming! What the hell am I doing? What determines which character is a jungler? etc. All the tutorial did is teach me how to move and shoot. If I have to look online for this stuff the game loses me right away. Internet guides should be used to help you overcome a difficult part in the game or learn about well hidden secrets. Not teach you basic stuff. Then again some people characterise MOBAs as more sports than games and in the case of sports you can never know everything and you always learn more as you play. In this case I simply don't like sports.
A tutorial can't teach the meta because the meta is something that the community develops over time and changes. Who is a jungler has no precise answer.
My favorite tutorials of the year have got to be the Gunpoint tutorial and the Bioshock Infinite tutorial. They both fit seamlessly into gameplay and are barely noticeable.
Programentalist The Gunpoint tutorial was spread throughout the whole game, but mostly during the first few missions. New mechanics are gradually introduced, and it's done very well, especially with the mission structure and the great writing. The Bioshock Infinite tutorial was mainly in the fairgrounds, with the various activities teaching you how to use different guns and vigors.
A couple examples of a well done tutorial is Mass Effect and the online Wizard101 and Pirate 101. Mass Effect teaches powers and level ups, inventory and combat as you play through the first level. Wizard 101 and Pirate 101 teaches everything in a way you can't fail before setting a player loose in the world. Chat, combat, spells and abilities inventory and gear... and if make a new character you can skip the tutorial and jump right in if you want.
Well, this is a really old video but I'd just like to add that I think the best tutorials are the ones that say to the player "Hey, look at this awesome thing you can do." and allow you to do it. Batman: Arkham City communicated the simple things to you with mere text but by the time you actually got to a Predator Mission, the game went from good to awesome, because Batman basically tells the player of all the cool things he can do to get rid of a group of armed thugs, and it makes that whole level feel awesome because instead of simply just telling you how to play, it feels like he's more introducing you, rather, to this whole array of feats that you can pull off.
Mount and Blade's Fire and sword DLC's tutorial is perfect. They let you shoot kill enemies with a gun while riding on horseback, and it integrates seamlessly into game-play.
A lot of people are praising Metroid for it's tutorial or early level design, but I'll go one further and say Metroid: Prime did a stellar job is introducing a familiar game in an unfamiliar perspective: First Person. You start in a space station, with many of your usual abilities, missiles, morph ball, grappling hook, etc. And explore freely. But then, you have to leave in a hurry. The space station explodes. If you missed anything, it's ok, because you didn't have to poke through every inch of the level. And then you land with only your arm cannon working. And have to build up from there. Brilliant
Simplest thing no one has ever thought of: when you start a new game ask the player if they've played the game or others in the series before and only give relevant information.
GallantBlade475 I liked how Dark Souls 2 handled the tutorial. if you know it you can just run past it but if you're new to the game you;re gonna explore the fog gates and you'll find the gates.
In fairness, Kirby Super Star also more or less ignores you if you say you're played :P "Have you played before?" "Yes." "Okay, cool, lemme just show you some stuff anyway." "Wait, no--"
I wholeheartedly agree to the last part, and I never understood why developers do it. I always make the tutorial first, it has to be integral to the game and the game itself needs to have a progressive learning curve. I can't even comprehend how you can make the end before the beginning...
I liked Mighty Switch Force's quick tutorial. You get your basics, a few pits, a few enemies to shoot. Then, you come to a block. You press all of the buttons on the controller and find out that you can switch blocks in and out of reality. The game never tells you, you learn it by yourself.
this tutorial on how to make a tutorial was a good tutorial :D
Brett Gritters TUTORCEPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No. Just. No. No. No.
Lol jk good one :D
Brett Gritters thx.
I like how it didn't interrupt the flow of the videos that had advice on how to make video games. It was almost like it was a regular video.
+Brett Gritters
BWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is why I'm a fan of research trees. They limit the choices in the beginning and gradually introduce more complex interactions, but still leave all the options open for experienced players to use the path they take through it as it's own meta mechanic
Thank you so much for pursuing education and keeping it free for everyone. I just thought of two great ideas for my tutorial and I'm only halfway through the video. Having to pause to take notes. You're making the world a more beautiful, intelligent place and I hope you never stop.
Well, sadly Dan just stopped with today's episode :( But the show itself will continue.
I mean rly, i understand how we developers think , but triple clicking your hero, doesn't make sense
yep
It makes if single clicking and double clicking are also already defined. "Single click: select character, Double click: party rally to this character, triple click inventory of the character."
PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS!!!
Gerald Grenier Yeah, but if single and double are already used, then pick a different key. Is it just me?
@@geraldgrenier8132 No. Triple clicking is just out of the question. It's not a thing that should ever be used in any situation.
The best part of breaking a tutorial up over the course of a game with mechanics becoming explained as they become important is that if they were always there and you just didn't know how to use them, repeat playthroughs let the player use them well from the beginning, allowing them to come more connected with the game.
I've played games for a very long time, but for some reason in just about every game my favorite part is the tutorial, for me its basically the "first date" with that game, it's that important, for me, to see the devs try their hardest to show what they have built and its surprising to think back and realize that so few games actually cared to make them the most engaging part.
I have to say... at first I really didn't like the voice modulator, but the thoughts and opinions portrayed are so insightful that I just kept watching the videos and now I don't mind at all, lol.
I often come back to watch this video over and over again just to make sure I never make any dumb avoidable mistake. You guys are great!
Mass Effect 2 had a very exciting tutorial: you felt like you were already on a mission.
First, your ship gets shot open. then you're waking up, resurrected, and a small army is converging on you. This was my second PC game yet I learned fast and it was fun.
i'm not a game developer but this channel helps me understand more about gameing and sympathise with the developers
Portal has one of the best tutorials, IMO. If you play the game with the dev comments enabled, you get to actually hear how Valve went about making those early levels to teach the mechanics of the game. Brilliantly designed.
It is funny how much of Portal is actually, in essence, a tutorial when you actually sit down and think about it. I watched another video on here about Super Metroid's "hidden tutorial" on the Game Theorists channel. Very good stuff that I think adds to this video's message.
This is why I loved Brothers: A tale of two sons. It uses little text and let's you figure out things through interactions you make during the game.
+RedFlyer411 I recently bought that game on Steam, heard great things about Brothers. Looking forwarding to finally checking it out.
it's been a decade and this is still one the best videos on this subject I've seen
Dark souls tutorial was awesome, they tell you which button does what, one at a time and give you a easy enemy to try it on, and then throws you out in a inhospitable world to figure out how to best use them
I love this quote 🤩: “If you are mindful of this [how features are explained during the development] and disciplined in your design, you can create the best tutorial there is; one that no one remembers is there.”
10 years after creating this video, it is still as relevant as ever.
Super Metroid has one of the best tutorials I've ever seen. The first one is great too--just to get the Morph Ball, you need to break platforming conventions and go left.
Always love your outro songs. Props to whoever finds all of them
4:46 best way to do that is to make both the arrow keys and WASD available but make WASD the better choice
i used to always use the arrow keys, then in both WoW and Spore i realized it's much better to sue WASD, and started doing so, to the point where i'm annoyed by games that don't have WASD controls, haha
Or go the Vi route and use HJKL.
WolfydaWolf129 spore, omgsomuchnostalgia
Games that do not have any real purpose for the mouse usually do better using Arrow Keys + ShiftZXCV..., as I have trouble finding with finding a place to put action keys with my right hand.
Same, i used to be an arrow key ADDICT, but now, i mostly play everything with WASD that i can...
In my mind, there are two games that come to mind that have fantastic tutorials (while, franchise, in one case, but still): Jak II and Ratchet and Clank, especially the third game.
Jak II has you escaping prison in your first mission, and the tutorial is integrated into it. It feels natural, because Daxter is essentially saying, "hey, do you remember how to do X?" and it makes sense because Jak has essentially been tied up for 2 years.
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal essentially throws you into a battle for the first level, and it teaches you the basics on that level as you come across them. The level is set up so that it teaches you the basics as you go. And you can turn the tutorial off if you want, since it's mostly just a voice over as you play.
2012!? How is it possible that I only just recently found out about this series!?!
the internet is a big place full of cat videos and porn.. and this is the best type of porn, idea porn!
***** rule 34 if it exist there is porn of it. == everything is somehow porn to at least someone... even this comment.
...?
@@Neatherback ...
Triple......click....the...player... o.0?
Seriously,who thought THAT was a good idea!?
perry1443
agreed
One should never have to triple click anything >.
Or, it was an extreme example of WHY tutorials are a good idea.
Honestly, wouldn't have been so bad if something had told him to do that. But it seems like nothing did. Pair that with the fact that no one has ever triple clicked on anything to do any meaningful action while still thinking of "triple clicking" as a valid action to perform, and you have bad game design PLUS a poor tutorial.
If you triple click in a browser text, you can select the line where the text is.
The best tutorial/intro stage I've ever seen has got to be from Capcom's Ghost Trick, which is absolutely brilliant and teaches so well while managing to be so immersive and pretty much meets every other guideline mentioned in this video AND arguably serves as one of the most important plot points in the game too.
The whole Tauriel section of Undertale, and Portal which you already mentioned, are definitely my favourite examples of fully integrated tutorials that don't feel like tutorials!
What a great line to end on.
Really makes me think about which games I had to pretty much "swim upstream" to get into (Warframe, TF2, Tribes: Ascend, Dota2...), and which games allowed me to completely understand anything I wanted, without me even noticing it (Portal, Bastion, etc).
It's a shame that the games that do this in the best way possible are the hardest to list and applaud for their efforts, and the games that do it horribly are so easy to point out.
This is why I love ape escape tutorials for gadgets. They engage the player while teaching them, and veterans don't have to wait out the whole thing
Still a great video. Reminds me on my recent experience exploring new interaction and visualisation concepts for VR in professional environments, and a lot of the do's-n-don'ts from actual scientific literature on perception and psychology can be recognized in your video. So: nice work!
One of the best executed Tutorials i've seen is the one from an awesome puzzle game called Closure. The game basically works like this in that everything is dark except for some light orbs you can carry around and everything that's not touched by light, doesn't exist physically. Remove the light source and you can jump through walls and fall through floors, and that's how the puzzles are solved.
First you're given a button prompt to pick one of those orbs up. Then due to you picking it up, the movement controls are highlighted. You reach a ledge which you have to jump on, and again, all you're given is a button prompt. To quote Developer Tyler Glaiel: "There's no need to tell them what it does. Just tell the player what the button is, they will instinctively press it and instantly realize what the button does."Then you get to another ledge and have to do a leap of faith that is there to show thatA: there's no falling damage.B: Sometimes you have to do leaps of faithAnd C: that you're usually safe from falling to death as long as you're carrying a light source with you.
Masterfully done tutorial, all without text!
I can't express how helpful these videos have been for me. Thank you. :-)
The Croft Manor in the old Tomb Raider games were excellent tutorials.
Personally, I love the Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne tutorials. You can easily run past it, and if you read it, you can read only the controls you need or just read all the small messages. It's simple, skippable, and to the point.
This is one of the reasons I love Red Faction: Guerilla. The tutorial is fun, simple and is part of the plot by acting as Act 1 and ending with the event which sets the rest of the story in motion. If it wasn't for the (admittedly short) popups, it would be perfect.
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines-
That had a great tutorial, let alone, that it gives you benefits if you won't skip it :)
I never skip that tutorial as I replay the game, because it's fun!
He mentioned City of Heroes in a series with this much critical thinking and diversity of games. Oh my gosh I feel nostalgically obligated to instantly like this video. The lesson on tutorials is seeming far more important but... but... Long live the spirit of City of Heroes! Please come soon, City of Titans!!
Mega Man X: Has one of the greatest tutorials in video game history.
Jordan3D
Yeah and Mega Man X had that Idea from the first Metroid game. No Tutorial. Only the intro that puts you in the first world and you run around testing all the buttons :3
I hope I can make a tutorial that does not break the flow of the game. In the project that my siblings and I work on, I am responsible for the tutorial, since I wrote the story script as well. So I try finding a way to implement tutorial through story without using much text or flow breaking pop up buttons.
It's not easy though x_X
Thor Essebo
Me and my siblings work on an RPG based on a Fantasy Novel that I have written for over 10 years.
LordBloodySoul If you want some help, I'd be happy to lend a hand.
Thor Essebo
(This is going to be a long one...)
The plot revolves around a fact that my siblings and I had talked and thought about for many years.
"How can someone believe in history and such, if all that was written was made by human asumptions? Humans are known to fail and have failures, to lie and deceive. So how come we accept almost everything as normal, even though we understand so very little?"
That question created the plot of my book, which is a story about a Holy War that took place a long time ago. In that war a god rose to usurp the throne of the Godfather, but was defeated by his six siblings and the Godfather himself. It was brought to the people that this god had died, but in the present a prophet appeared who believes that this evil god has not yet died and that he, in fact, is capable of returning him to the world.
The story gets really deep and interesting as the player has to try and find the truth behind all this, which is rooted far deeper in the past than they expected.
All of this is inspired by a group of 8 heroes born from different races and with serious problems of their own, as well as distrust in each other. They have to overcome the barrier that the war had pushed them in to save the world they all wish to protect.
Best example is the fifth character that joins the heroes. He's the most powerful mage known to men, the Elminster, who's known for sacrificing entire cities to his crazed experiments. He's going to be a large asset and issue in the group.
Trdef the Gamer
That is very generous of you :3 I appreciate it.
If anything comes to mind, I will inform you right away.
(sorry this took so long, I was in rehab after a traffic accident for a while x_X )
Thor Essebo
I wrote it, it's just very long and I try not to spoil too much yet. We work on releasing the first Demo around this year, but we've got some slight issues, due to some voice files still missing and minor calibrations :3
I hope we get this handled though xD
"if you do things right, people wont be sure you've done anything at all..."
- God from Futurama
That @#$%'s deep, man.
The fact you never noticed it proved how effective it was.
If i remember correctly, there wasn't even very many words involved, and even if there were, it was all said as well.
So yeah, it is pretty much the cornerstone of tutorials. Little text, with talking to fill in for younger users, paced inclusion of features... Yeah, the fact you still know how to play the game shows you just how awesome the tut. was.
One of the Best tutorials out there in gaming was hidden. I am of course referring to Super Metroid. With it's hints shown in clear sight in the world around where the upgrade is hidden, while at the same time having possibility of breaking the sequence. If you are good enough with the mechanics you do not need all the upgrades. All of this is hidden in plain sight with no written material apart from what is in the manual. And that is why it is a masterpiece when it comes to tutorials.
Golden sun series, the Djinni and NPCs show you how to use your abilities and give you the tools how to use them! Love this series.
This video will always be relevant because most game developers don't think about the player every step of the way as they're designing the game and leave it to playtesting sessions way later.
I found that sometimes giving the play a glimpse of future features could spark some excitement.
For example, while playing, the players get to see some cool toys that an NPC is using. It let them wonder what will happen if they can get their hand on it.
Portal did an awesome job. So much of it was secretly a tutorial but it was done so well you didn't even realise it was a tutorial.
*Insert gushing about HL1 and Portal*
OEEMGEE HAF LIEF HAD GA GRATE TOOTOREEAL CUZ IT WUZ OPSHYNAL
+zachary neil well, it teaches the player mechanics in the game. an example of this is the first sentry you come across, where you see a scientist run in front of it before you, and dies. I'd consider the training tutorial as a guide for the true basics like movement.
+Robin Rai the entirety of HL2 was essentially a gravity gun tutorial, ep1 and 2 are the "real" game
Megaman X1 intro stage. Best. Tutorial. Ever.
[Insert RIDIN' ON CARS! here]
Does anyone remember Super Metroid? It taught you everything without dialogue because in this commentary no one is mentioning it. It was basically letting players use weapons in situations and figure out how to do stuff.
Epic Dog Gamer Well, yeah, there's that. Although, Metroid Fusionwas awesome too. Haven't finished Super, so I didn't mention it. That, and I was expecting someone to.
FUCKING
GENIUS
Metroid games do this well as they don't give you all the weapon upgrades at the beginning they instead make you find them then learn about them keep making videos like this they are amazing and so are you
Not to thread necro... but this content is such evergreen it is awesome.
Thank you for existing!!
I like the HelpDesk system in Ratchet & Clank. It's gameplay, it's always accessible, it doesn't interrupt, and it really helps.
this is one of my fav episodes, you seem to be releasing them in bulk though, should pace it out so one a day instead of 3 in a few mins
This video still has value to this day. Thanks as always.
I love how you use portal as an example, it was the most brilliant tutorial ever. Another one I have found is the hames based on movies or comic book characters tend to have a well done tutorial. Ones that have you learn, then use in the following boss fight. Like most spiderman games and the batman arkham series. Both used that style. I just subscribed to you and plan on watching many more of your videos.
It reminds me of the Zelda series. I actually love the setup for the dungeons in most of the games. You go in there solving whatever puzzles you can that eventually lead you to a new tool. The game teaches you how to use it by solving all the puzzles you couldn't before. Then the boss is basically the test since it can usually only be killed by using your new tool. Afterwards you usually have the freedom to utilize your new tool in combat however you see fit.
I remember that Warcraft III has a good tutorial, barely any text, a part of the storyline, actual gameplay in the tutorial, BONUS TIPS (That you might use really often), and I dunno, that tutorial was good, and I still remember how to play Warcraft III without having any trouble.
This is one of my favourite episodes, thanks for uploading!! :)
God I love your guys videos XD I might get a tattoo of U 3 (in cartoon of course) I have been thinking about 95% of what you talk about ever since I started gaming and I love that someone actually stood up and God this information out.
THANK YOU
I definitely agree. The best tutorials are the ones you never notice. Case in point: Comparing Fallout: New Vegas to Original war.
In New Vegas, the opening quest chain serves as the tutorial - it teaches sneaking, shooting, ammunition habits, scavenging, crafting, basic battle tactics, conversation skills, hacking, and lockpicking by doing as well as providing good enough starting gear that even players starting the game for the 53rd time willingly go through it again. It's also skippable. The problem is that the tutorial front-loads information about specialty ammunition and weapon mods, and although it provides a gameplay example of dealing with an armored opponent it never really addresses how you'd need to do that or what the benefits of armoring yourself are in a mechanical sense. Honestly, it's a pretty good tutorial.
In Original War, the tutorials take the form of question marks which pop up on the bottom of the screen. Selecting one explains a gameplay mechanic - such as use of terrain or vehicle production - and the question mark then disappears after you close the dialog box (Although you can find them in the options menu). As gameplay concepts are introduced - such as high grass stealthing crawling infantry - the early levels are designed around exploiting that specific concept while later levels incorporate that concept while adding on another one until eventually you're mass-producing AI vehicles of many types to defeat the enemy in detail. The problem here is that if you're not the type to investigate icons that mysteriously appear on your screen, you will miss the tutorial. And the game, which is already crazy hard, can quickly become unbeaten if high-leveled characters die off in early levels.
I enjoyed both tutorials, honestly. If New Vegas' tutorial has an issue with front-loading and directly stating "This is a tutorial. This is the tutorial zone." it compensates by offering clear chances to exercise examples of concepts that will be useful for the entire game, ranging from completing quests to taking on multiple armed thugs. If Original War's tutorial has an issue with not presenting very much information and having extremely challenging (In more of a depth sense than an execution sense) tutorial gameplay, it fits the tone of the game itself and doesn't feel like a last-minute addition the way New Vegas' tutorial does.
It's become a joke in the Paradox Interactive community that we'll get Victoria 3 when Paradox Interactive learns how to make a good tutorial
Thanks for this! I have a lot of people requesting a tutorial for my game and I'm usually against tutorials as the games I grew up with didn't have them so this is helpful.
Apogee and Epic were good about in-game documentation back in the day. Their games nearly always had an "Instructions" item on the main menu you could select to review the basic controls and often a number of things you could pick up.
Lesson 4 Is what I'm pretty much I'm doing in my game I'm designing. Thanks!
Super Metroid's "hidden tutorial" is mind blowing. If you're more interested, watch The Game Theorists video on it.
I wouldn't be surprised if the writers of this show didn't figure out how amazing that was by itself.
Probably one of the best tutorials ever created. You honestly have to dissect that part of the game to figure out it is a tutorial. You don't even know it is there.
Although, I'd have to disagree with some aspect there. while Super Metroid was on a designated system (the SNES) with all its buttons and quirks, it showed text dialogs per ability that you got for example: Bomb: Go into morph ball, then press B Button. It never really broke the flow of gameplay either, since you were either in a safe location or you knew what was going to happen next through experimentation. There are some times where the game just threw you in the deep end, though.
Super Metroid's Design was more a leading perspective than a tutorial perspective.
You remember the birds and the chimps in the game? That was a sort of tutorial that taught you how to speed boost and wall jump, but they did it by _leading_ you and showing you rather than telling you "Jump, face the other direction and jump again" which opened possibilities for sequence breaking at times when people found out certain possibilities, such as morph ball jumping.
"watch The Game Theorists" never say that again
Euler Eilts Why? There are good videos there that investigate connections and how video game logic could be mirrored in the real world. Most of the time the videos are just for fun.
0:31 Every episode of Game Grumps EVER.
Mostly Arin. Skipped by the players who need them the most. Five episodes later Arin will be complaining about the game being bullshit when he just didn't learn a mechanic of the game that was told to him.
1:42
Sly Cooper and the Thevius Raccoonus was a good example of this. Only after you beat certain bosses did you get the techniques needed to beat later levels, thus pacing the tutorial.
'It'll often be skipped by the very players who need the tutorial the most.'
ARIN!!!!
I always remember the tutorial in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines: It was skipable, but I played it every time, because the game rewarded me for it with a set of lockpicks, some cash and some weapons - but I didn't need to do it and I apreciate having the choice.
I think one of the best tutorials I experienced was in the first Metroid Prime when exploring the Frigate Orpheon.. There was a minimal amount of text, nothing was explained until it was necessary, and most importantly, the events that took place during the tutorial was essential to the plot, meaning I was invested in the game.
Shadow of the Colossus I feel does the tutorial really well. Very progressive, because quite literately, you are learning how to play while you go to the first colossus, and during your first fight. Plus, all through out the game, as each one you fight,you to teach yourself what the trick is to the certain colossus, and if you struggle, you are hinted rarely with tips on how to advance giving good immersion, and not breaking any forth wall, flow, or making the player feel silly.
City of Heroes, or rather, City of Villains specifically, had an awesome tutorial. Going Rogue's tutorial was pretty cool too, though goes on a bit long, since rather than being a tiny zone to teach you the very basics in maybe 10 minutes, its an entire chunk of map telling you an entire story and ALL of the core mechanics over an hour or two.
I liked the original Modern Warfare tutorial! It was funny, fast and simple. And the best thing is, the tutorial "teaches" you X, Y and Z, and immediately ask you to used what you learned on a course that pretty much cover the basics CQB encounters, the meat of the game. I kept doing that course until i beat the timer, and strangely was the part of gameplay from the title that i had most fun with...
something I have seen done in games is if you have to give some sort of dialogue for your tutorial, make sure it makes sense, not like "your character already knows all this stuff, lets get you up to speed on everything your character knows!" because that kills pacing. have the character gain something they don't fully know how to operate yet, and you can deliver a quick tutorial without killing pacing.
anyone else miss these awesome outros with the great game music ramping up as they say the final comment?
distributing the tutorial sections across the game is an important lesson! take banjo kazooie for example: theres no way you could remember all those moves after trying them all in the beginning. you learn the basic ones at the start and unlock more ones later on. dont stretch it too far though; in banjo kazooie this was fine, but in tooie (the sequel) you were still taught new moves towards the final levels of the game, and i remember that those moves felt kinda pointless, as i hardly ever needed to use them more than once, because there werent many levels left to use them in. this is partly circumvented by the fact that you can revisit levels and use those moves to get collectibles you missed the first time, but it still felt weird. there shouldnt be anything new introduced from the middle of the game onwards. if you feel that an element needs to be in your game, make sure the player can use it for at least half of the game. this happens in zelda games too sometimes, when you get new tools that you realize wouldve helped you earlier in the game, but serve as little more than a key to the final dungeon by the time you get them.
Did The Last of Us have a tutorial? It was so awesome I hardly remember.
***** I know but those parts were still such good stories I hardly remember when they told you how to do things.
That's a really good example of a great tutorial. I was so immersed in the story that I didn't really even think of it as a tutorial, but as an intro sequence that I got to play.
The Mass Effect game are another good example, important to the story, and fun at the same time.
Xenoblade actually did tutorials really interesting. They were mostly through text, but were quick and to the point and included visual aids so it's super helpful. And the tutorial for the character's battle styles are done through dialogues of the characters explain their talent arts and even give some strategy tips.
Age of Empires 2's tutorial was an entire campaign following William Wallace. The tutorial has its own story. It was fantastic
A good tutorial is like a ninja. Effective and efficient, but near undetectable.
I remember the good old tutorials of MMORPGS: other players shouting at you ;)
Papers, Please has a great tutorial. It gradually teaches you stuff as the events of the story happen, and makes it fit so that it doesn't break the game's experience. Oh there was an attack yesterday, we are introducing a scanner so time to teach you how to find weapons and contraband. Oh there are too many foreigners stealing jobs, we are introducing workers permits so time to teach you how tell forgeries from the real permits.
Personally, I think Dark Souls have a great tutorial. It teaches you when you need to get away from a fight, how to deal with certain settings, and then the players learns themselves what else they need to know for their play style
I just wish it bothered to explain the summoning system. The only way I ever figured that stuff out was with UA-cam videos.
HEY NEKU!!!!!!
Alex Bjelich ...
Vampire the Masquarde: Bloodlines has one of the most interesting tutorials I've ever played, filled with humorous dialogue and easy to understand
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a good tutorial, in my opinion. It is humorous, and it connects to the players on the common feel of tutorials "Oh great, a tutorial of things I already know how to do."
Maybe the best tutorial of all time is in Dark Souls. You wake up, are told how to move and how to interact with things by on-screen prompts, and then you figure the rest out by using your knowledge of how to interact with things to read messages on the ground (inherently teaching you that they provide important information) and then, in most cases, immediately putting into practice the things that they taught you. The best part is that if you're a seasoned player of the game, you can easily just dash straight through the tutorial area, skipping all of the basic stuff and finishing the less basic stuff much more quickly.
Except for the fact that you can't really go back to it if you forget anything. I ended up creating a new character so I could go through the tutorial again, after playing for a bit and realising there were things I wasn't doing (I think that was only from watching videos of DS2, as well). I don't know how long I was playing before I found out that you have to *drop your shield* in order to backstab, which wasn't mentioned anywhere. (And it was probably a lot longer after that before I realised that dropping your shield restores your stamina quicker >.
That was waaaaay too good!!!! It was so funny and the art so cute, and really helpful. Thanks for that.
In my opinion the Legend Of Zelda series has done an amazing job lately with Tutorials, with Skyward Sword teaching you mechanics while you explore Skyloft searching for your lost bird, and Breath Of The Wild providing a mystery and an obstacle that you must explore and learn to overcome
This is a pretty old video and just recently found the series, but I think a game that really did this well was the recent release was Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Switch. The only turn-off was that the tutorial was generally text-based when explaining what to do, but the way it was presented was pretty awesome. The tutorial spoke in first-person, as if it were someone else speaking right beside you, giving you information about the mechanics of what to do, and then letting you have a go at it. There are other things that are available to you right from the get-go, but weren't explained in detail until later if it was vital. These weren't very long and skip-able to people who knew how to play.
When there were new mechanics, and there were a lot, the game would let that new mechanic be instantly available for one battle if it was charge-built or time sensitive and let it be available for the rest of the battle so that players could really get the hang of it. You were only interrupted if the mechanic was literally game-changing, and the thing I thought was really neat was that more information was optional for a small fee of in-game gold to learn some neat tips and tricks, so in a sense the game rewards you for trying out new things with the major mechanics and exploring on your own at your own pace. You might go the entire game without using these tricks, but that's what makes it really cool that there is a lot of optional content for you to explore.
One of the better ones is the raid on narshe from final fantasy vi. While not really a tutorial but one at the same time, it lets you test the battle system as you want because you have an op suit and the ennemies are weak. It also sets up the story pretty good
Whereas FF VIII had the most terrible tutorial so far. Way too much text.
That's the worst. You're all hyped about playing a game and then a wall of text appears. I think the fire emblem series has some of the worst too. They lasts a couple of chapters and are unskipable. It gives you literally no liberty. They say to you exactly what to do, and if you don't do it exactly the same, they just tell you the same thing. The worst thing is that every fire emblem games have similar mechanics
Well, at least they let you skip the tutorial in FF VIII. The tutorial for the first Assassin's Creed on the other hand, was not skippable. It was fun learning the puppet control system for the first time, but nobody wants to repeat that in their second playthough.
Is the tutorial of "the binding of isaac rebirth" a good one?
SWTOR has great tutorials, they do not interrupt the flow of the game and you can find the tutorials easily. You can use the arrow keys or wasd.
I'd say lack of a proper tutorial is easily the reason why I abandoned League of Legends after about 10 games. Seriously, it's overwhelming! What the hell am I doing? What determines which character is a jungler? etc. All the tutorial did is teach me how to move and shoot. If I have to look online for this stuff the game loses me right away. Internet guides should be used to help you overcome a difficult part in the game or learn about well hidden secrets. Not teach you basic stuff. Then again some people characterise MOBAs as more sports than games and in the case of sports you can never know everything and you always learn more as you play. In this case I simply don't like sports.
after geting more involved with LoL, i decided to went through the tutorial again....... i wanted to kill my self about how annoying it is
A tutorial can't teach the meta because the meta is something that the community develops over time and changes. Who is a jungler has no precise answer.
I like the Mega Man style of tutorial. Within seconds you already know what that new thing is that the game is throwing at you.
My favorite tutorials of the year have got to be the Gunpoint tutorial and the Bioshock Infinite tutorial. They both fit seamlessly into gameplay and are barely noticeable.
I don't remember either of them, which is probably a good sign!
Programentalist The Gunpoint tutorial was spread throughout the whole game, but mostly during the first few missions. New mechanics are gradually introduced, and it's done very well, especially with the mission structure and the great writing. The Bioshock Infinite tutorial was mainly in the fairgrounds, with the various activities teaching you how to use different guns and vigors.
Super Metroid.
saiixpuppyvii Well damn, looks like my picks just got trumped. I didn't know that Super Metroid came out in 2013 though.
I never said that it came out in 2013, though. Perhaps the time period was implied somewhere?
A couple examples of a well done tutorial is Mass Effect and the online Wizard101 and Pirate 101.
Mass Effect teaches powers and level ups, inventory and combat as you play through the first level. Wizard 101 and Pirate 101 teaches everything in a way you can't fail before setting a player loose in the world. Chat, combat, spells and abilities inventory and gear... and if make a new character you can skip the tutorial and jump right in if you want.
Well, this is a really old video but I'd just like to add that I think the best tutorials are the ones that say to the player "Hey, look at this awesome thing you can do." and allow you to do it. Batman: Arkham City communicated the simple things to you with mere text but by the time you actually got to a Predator Mission, the game went from good to awesome, because Batman basically tells the player of all the cool things he can do to get rid of a group of armed thugs, and it makes that whole level feel awesome because instead of simply just telling you how to play, it feels like he's more introducing you, rather, to this whole array of feats that you can pull off.
Mount and Blade's Fire and sword DLC's tutorial is perfect. They let you shoot kill enemies with a gun while riding on horseback, and it integrates seamlessly into game-play.
A lot of people are praising Metroid for it's tutorial or early level design, but I'll go one further and say Metroid: Prime did a stellar job is introducing a familiar game in an unfamiliar perspective: First Person.
You start in a space station, with many of your usual abilities, missiles, morph ball, grappling hook, etc. And explore freely. But then, you have to leave in a hurry. The space station explodes. If you missed anything, it's ok, because you didn't have to poke through every inch of the level.
And then you land with only your arm cannon working. And have to build up from there.
Brilliant
this tutorial stands very well even till today
Simplest thing no one has ever thought of: when you start a new game ask the player if they've played the game or others in the series before and only give relevant information.
I think about stuff like that CONSTANTLY, totally bugs me that I never have a game anywhere near completion to make it worthwhile :\
GallantBlade475 I liked how Dark Souls 2 handled the tutorial. if you know it you can just run past it but if you're new to the game you;re gonna explore the fog gates and you'll find the gates.
***** That's brilliant.
GallantBlade475
That question is often ask in games like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Kirby games :3
In fairness, Kirby Super Star also more or less ignores you if you say you're played :P
"Have you played before?"
"Yes."
"Okay, cool, lemme just show you some stuff anyway."
"Wait, no--"
I wholeheartedly agree to the last part, and I never understood why developers do it. I always make the tutorial first, it has to be integral to the game and the game itself needs to have a progressive learning curve. I can't even comprehend how you can make the end before the beginning...
I liked Mighty Switch Force's quick tutorial. You get your basics, a few pits, a few enemies to shoot. Then, you come to a block. You press all of the buttons on the controller and find out that you can switch blocks in and out of reality. The game never tells you, you learn it by yourself.
I hope many game designers see this, because there have so many frustrasting tutorials to go through.
portals tutorial was so immersive i actually thought the end of the tutorial was the end of the game.
ikr
Frontloading the tutorial is how you get good gamers to have fun instantly, not wait.