Tutorial (video games)

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Tutorial level of the 2000 video game Tux Racer, telling the user to push the red area of the screen to jump Tux Racer for Android screenshot, tutorial mode.png
Tutorial level of the 2000 video game Tux Racer , telling the user to push the red area of the screen to jump

In the context of video game design, a tutorial is any tool that teaches player or non-player characters [1] the rules, control interface, and mechanics of the game. Some tutorials are integrated into the game, while others are completely separate and optional. Games can have both of these at once, offering a basic mandatory tutorial and optional advanced training. Tutorials have become increasingly common due to the decline of printed video game manuals as a result of cost cutting and digital distribution. Tutorials can be important since they are a player's first impression of a game, and an overly tedious tutorial or one that does not allow for player freedom can negatively affect their view of a game. However, the lack of a tutorial can also harm a game by causing the player to become frustrated, since they cannot figure out essential game mechanics.

Contents

Design

Tutorials range from gently easing the player into the experience, to forcing them to learn via trial and error, only allowing them to proceed when they have mastered the game-play. The former type is often framed as guidance from a mentor character, such as a wise old man or elderly master, and sometimes even literally depicts the main character growing from a child into an adult as they learn their skills, as in Horizon Zero Dawn . [2] The latter type of tutorial presents the player with increasingly difficult enemies that demonstrate techniques required to overcome them. [2] Other types of tutorials include slowly giving players information over the course of the entire game, as in the Legend of Zelda series. [2]

Game designers have also pointed out ways in which a game can be designed with tutorial elements without being obvious. In the original Super Mario Bros. , World 1-1 is designed so that when the player jumps over the first enemy, they are likely to accidentally hit a question mark block, which teaches the player where power-ups come from. [3] The first level in the original Half-Life is often considered a tutorial in disguise. [4] It has since become common to think of the first level of a game as a tutorial, whether or not they explicitly give players instructions. [5] In essence, an easy level can act as a tutorial. [6] In strategy games like Age of Empires , an entire single player campaign can be seen as a tutorial to prepare a player for multiplayer battle. [7]

Game designers have been critical of tutorial levels and recommend providing instructions during ordinary gameplay. [8] Playtesting usually helps define what instructions a player needs as they begin a game. A common tutorial design is to provide instructions where a mechanic might be used, such as when the player gains a new item or ability. [9] In several The Legend of Zelda games, the player has a fairy companion who provides tutorials and hints at key moments. [10] In games like Stellaris , tutorials take the form of elaborate tooltips, as well as occasional quests to nudge the player towards helpful actions. [11] Tutorials can also be achieved by giving the player natural cues with intelligent use of graphic design. [12] Some Star Wars games have re-appropriated film dialog as in-game hints about what the player needs to do. [13] Games have also increasingly made use of video tutorials and wikis for players to review on their own time. [14]

Other games have broken the fourth wall with their tutorials, using them as a source of comedy or parody. Examples include Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon , in which the main character demonstrates his annoyance at being forced to undergo a tutorial. [2] [15] Another example is in Undertale in which the tutorial character Toriel is named after tutorials and is shown to be literally holding the protagonist's hand the way a tutorial would.

Tutorials vs. discoverability

Some critics believe that a good tutorial should necessarily allow the player to discover game mechanics for themselves without being told how to do them, as is the case with the original Metroid , [16] as well as Minecraft , [17] although the latter does have a set of tutorial worlds available on the Legacy Console Edition, varying based on the game version, that provide a more traditional tutorial to players who chose to use them. [18]

Related Research Articles

Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdisciplines are world design, level design, system design, content design, and user interface design. Within the video game industry, video game design is usually just referred to as "game design", which is a more general term elsewhere.

In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics specify how a game works for the players. Game mechanics include the rules or ludemes that govern and guide player actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, while a ludeme is an element of play, such as the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. The interplay of various mechanics determines the game's complexity and how the players interact with the game. All games use game mechanics; however, different theories disagree about their degree of importance to a game. The process and study of game design includes efforts to develop game mechanics that engage players.

Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics.

In video games, artificial intelligence (AI) is used to generate responsive, adaptive or intelligent behaviors primarily in non-playable characters (NPCs) similar to human-like intelligence. Artificial intelligence has been an integral part of video games since their inception in 1948, first seen in the game Nim. AI in video games is a distinct subfield and differs from academic AI. It serves to improve the game-player experience rather than machine learning or decision making. During the golden age of arcade video games the idea of AI opponents was largely popularized in the form of graduated difficulty levels, distinct movement patterns, and in-game events dependent on the player's input. Modern games often implement existing techniques such as pathfinding and decision trees to guide the actions of NPCs. AI is often used in mechanisms which are not immediately visible to the user, such as data mining and procedural-content generation. One of the most infamous examples of this NPC technology and gradual difficulty levels can be found in the game Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (1987).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Level (video games)</span> Discrete play space in video games

In video games, a level is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively increasing difficulty to appeal to players with different skill levels. Each level may present new concepts and challenges to keep a player's interest high.

Grinding is a term within video game culture that describes time spent in the game in which a player repeats a general task in order to gain rewards like in-game currency, in-game experience, player stats or other reward types. The method was first seen in dnd, and though there are many adaptations of it, it has since become an entire category of gameplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health (game terminology)</span> Gaming-related attribute

Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games, this typically takes the form of hit points (HP), a numerical attribute representing the health of a character or object. The game character can be a player character, a boss, or a mob. Health can also be attributed to destructible elements of the game environment or inanimate objects such as vehicles and their individual parts. In video games, health is often represented by visual elements such as a numerical fraction, a health bar or a series of small icons, though it may also be represented acoustically, such as through a character's heartbeat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Educational video game</span> Video game genre

An educational video game is a video game that provides learning or training value to the player. Edutainment describes an intentional merger of video games and educational software into a single product. In the narrower sense used here, the term describes educational software which is primarily about entertainment, but tends to educate as well and sells itself partly under the educational umbrella. Normally software of this kind is not structured towards school curricula and does not involve educational advisors.

In pen and paper games and computer and video games, an item is an object within the game world that can be collected by a player or, occasionally, a non-player character. These items are sometimes called pick-ups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbox game</span> Type of video game encouraging creativity

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open world</span> Type of video game design

In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include The Legend of Zelda (1986), Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Minecraft (2011).

Survival games are a subgenre of action games which are often set in hostile, intense, open-world environments. Players generally start with minimal equipment and are required to survive as long as possible by finding the resources necessary to manage hunger, thirst, disease and/or mental state. Many survival games are based on randomly or procedurally generated persistent environments; more recently, survival games are often playable online, allowing players to interact in a single world. Survival games are generally open-ended with no set goals and often closely related to the survival horror genre, where the player must survive within a supernatural setting, such as a zombie apocalypse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World 1-1</span> Video game level

World 1-1 is the first level of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo's 1985 platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The level was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto to be a tutorial for new players, orienting them to platform jumping and to the rest of the game. It is one of the most iconic video game levels and has been widely imitated and parodied.

<i>Minecraft</i> 2011 video game

Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, the first public beta build was released on 17 May 2009. The game would be continuously developed from then on, receiving a full release on 18 November 2011. Afterwards, Persson left Mojang and gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten control over the game's development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various video game consoles. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft has since become the best-selling video game of all-time, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 170 million monthly active players as of 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game design</span> Process of creating game content and rules

Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, war games, or simulation games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SethBling</span> American video game commentator and live streamer (born 1987)

SethBling is an American video game commentator and Twitch video game live streamer known for YouTube videos focused around the 1990 side-scrolling platform video game Super Mario World and the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. He created original and derivative video games, devices and phenomena in Minecraft, without using Minecraft mods. He created an interpreter for the programming language BASIC and an emulator for the 1977 home video game console Atari 2600 in Minecraft. In addition to Minecraft builds that run without mods, he created plugins for the game.

Water Temple (<i>Ocarina of Time</i>) Fictional location in The Legend of Zelda

The Water Temple is an area from the 1998 Nintendo 64 video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is the sixth dungeon encountered in the game. It was created by Ocarina of Time director Eiji Aonuma, who was inspired by his love of diving. It has players raising and lowering water levels to access different areas while utilizing a pair of Iron Boots to sink to the bottom. The difficulty of navigation combined with the cumbersome nature of using the Iron Boots led to several changes to the dungeon to assist players in the 2011 remake of Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. The difficulty players faced also caused Aonuma to apologize for the issues, while noting that the dungeon was not difficult so much as it was frustrating. Despite the criticism, some critics have been more forgiving, praising the Water Temple for its complexities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life (video games)</span> Play turn of a character in a game

In video games, a life is a play-turn that a player character has, defined as the period between start and end of play. Lives refer to a finite number of tries before the game ends with a game over. Sometimes the euphemisms chance, try, rest and continue are used, particularly in all-ages games, to avoid the morbid insinuation of losing one's "life". Generally, if the player loses all their health, they lose a life. Losing all lives usually grants the player character "game over", forcing them to either restart or stop playing.

Steve (<i>Minecraft</i>) Fictional video game character

Steve is a player character from the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. Created by Swedish video game developer Markus "Notch" Persson and introduced in the 2009 Java-based version, Steve is the first of nine default player character skins available for players of contemporary versions of Minecraft. Steve lacks an official backstory as he is intended to be a customizable player avatar as opposed to being a predefined character. His feminine counterpart, Alex, was introduced in August 2014 for Java PC versions of Minecraft, with the other seven debuting in the Java edition of the game in October 2022. Depending on the version of Minecraft, players have a choice of defaulting to either Steve or any other variant skins when creating a new account. However, the skin is easy to change from the game itself or website. He will be portrayed by Jack Black in A Minecraft Movie, set for release in 2025.

References

  1. ↑ Zhong, Victor; Rocktäschel, Edward Grefenstette, Tim; Grefenstette, Edward (18 Oct 2019). "RTFM: Generalising to Novel Environment Dynamics via Reading". arXiv: 1910.08210 [cs.CL].
  2. 1 2 3 4 Peacock, Nathanael (2017-08-27). "What Makes a Great Tutorial?". IGN. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  3. ↑ Burgun, Keith (2015-05-15). Clockwork Game Design. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-317-63040-1.
  4. ↑ III, Richard Rouse (2004-08-30). Game Design: Theory and Practice, Second Edition. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. ISBN   978-0-7637-9811-6.
  5. ↑ Salmond, Michael (2017-07-06). Video Game Design: Principles and Practices from the Ground Up. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-4742-5545-5.
  6. ↑ Perry, David; DeMaria, Rusel (2009). David Perry on Game Design: A Brainstorming Toolbox. Charles River Media. ISBN   978-1-58450-668-3.
  7. ↑ Schuytema, Paul (2007). Game Design: A Practical Approach. Charles River Media. ISBN   978-1-58450-471-9.
  8. ↑ White, Matthew M. (2014-06-03). Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-4822-2021-6.
  9. ↑ Nucci, Ennio De; Kramarzewski, Adam (2018-04-19). Practical Game Design: Learn the art of game design through applicable skills and cutting-edge insights. Packt Publishing Ltd. ISBN   978-1-78712-216-1.
  10. ↑ Rollings, Andrew; Adams, Ernest (2003). Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. New Riders. ISBN   978-1-59273-001-8.
  11. ↑ "I May Never Stop Watching YouTube Tutorials And Actually Play This Strategy Game". Kotaku. 29 August 2019. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  12. ↑ Burgun, Keith (2012-08-13). Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-4665-5420-7.
  13. ↑ Totten, Christopher W. (2019-04-25). Architectural Approach to Level Design: Second edition. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-351-11628-2.
  14. ↑ Burgun, Keith (2015-05-15). Clockwork Game Design. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-317-63040-1.
  15. ↑ "This Is The Best/Worst Video Game Tutorial I Have Ever Had To Play". Kotaku Australia. 2013-05-03. Archived from the original on May 4, 2013. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  16. ↑ Teti, John (14 March 2014). "What's the worst game tutorial you've played?". Games. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  17. ↑ "Gaming Tutorials Can Tread A Thin Line Between Instructive & Patronizing". Game Rant. 2015-08-08. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  18. ↑ "Console Edition Tutorial Worlds". The Minecraft Architect. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
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