Tutorial system

[Wilbefast]

In response to the Lugaru Fighting Fundamentals blog post:

I was going to post this on the blog but it seems a little long winded. Anyway, because I like trying to solve problem I had a think about how to do a non-intrusive tutorial to Lugaru: This tutorial should be meaningful which is to say not divorced from the plot, and yet skippable and so neither containing vital plot information nor being forced upon the player (Swordarm).


One solution would be a series of flashbacks early on in the game - Zeno Clash used this same technique to give their tutorials some degree of meaning and that game had a similarily complex control mechanism which, like Lugaru's needs, to be learned and practiced to be at all effective. Alternatively the tutorials could all be combined into one prologue type mission, which could be skipped by experience players.

This flashback/prologue would give us a glimpse at Turner's youth, and reveal some interesting information about his past, answering in particular the question many fans have - how did Turner learn to fight? Who taught him or did he teach himself?

Turner could have same sort of rabbit-sensei teacher who would give him various bits of advice both relating to gameplay ("clean your weapons") and relating to the setting ("rabbitous say - he who trust rat, end up in hole") and political climate ("dogs and wolves, they go kill eachother - rabbit just watch").
Turner's master could also teach him various techniques by yelling him: "throw a [insert attack here] at me now!" with text at the bottom of the screen that tells the player how to do so (could be toggled?).
The sensei would naturally catch any attack that you used on him (because he's that gun) and congratulate you for doing the correct or or throw you onto your back and reprimand you for doing a different one.
Weapons techniques would be taught with wooden weapons, and attacking and defending would be practiced until they could be done effectively (you attack the master and he blocks, then he attacks you and you block), followed by free-sparring to perfect what has been learned.

Swordarm pointed out thatit's annoying when such things can't be skipped, so the player could also get Turner to physically leave the dojo if they didn't want to play the tutorial, despite the master yelling at them that they're "not ready" and that Turner "hasn't found inner peace" or something - the player would effectively be writing Turner's past just as they're writing his future.
Otherwise we'd gradually see Turner promoted and growing in size and strength until ready to leave with the master's blessing. A final flashback/segment might refer to the events of the original game, bringing newcomers up to speed.


Anyway, suggestions, comments and abuse are all welcome!

[Zhukov]

... suggestions...

Why does the tutorial have to be part of the storyline?

In every single game that tries to disguise their tutorial as a training session or prologue it comes across as transparent at best and trite at worst. While some have certainly done better then others, at the end of the day trying to maintain immersion while simultaneously telling the player what keys to press is an exercise in futility. Unfortunately, "meaningful" and "skippable" are mutually exclusive.

Zeno Clash, a good-ish game, had a particularly odious tutorial structure. They give you a first level full to the brim with action and drama and plot hooks, which was awesome. Then they go and repeatedly interrupt it with a guy instructing you on the finer points of how to shoot dead poultry. Which was rather less awesome.

Better to have an optional and separate tutorial that teaches the player how to use everything at their disposal. Then your very first real level can throw them straight into the fun stuff. You don't need to pussyfoot around with easy and tedious introductory stages.
That way new players will know what they are doing and experienced players won't have to miss anything, nor will they be forced to needlessly repeat anything. As an added bonus, there is no need to rack your brains looking for a way to dress your tutorial up as something other then what it is.

... comments...

For the love of god, please no old rabbit-sensei guy. That trope has been done to death in every medium known to humanity. Hell, it's been done to death, buried, resurrected, tortured, re-killed, re-buried, grave-robbed and then left in the custody of a serial necrophile.

... abuse...

You really don't have to use so much EMPHASIS in your posts.
We do know how to read. Most of us. I think. Maybe.

Just sayin'.

[Glabbit]

Most of us.

No matter what this percentage may be, It's nice to help the other 50% out.

[Swordarm]

I love it when people not only read my posts but think about it But getting quoted, hell yeah!

Why does the tutorial have to be part of the storyline?

That's actually SUPER-IMPORTANT. The feeling of detachment has to be avoided and more important, it's not fun going back to school. Many tutorials make the player feel like a little child, having to learn the most simple rules, telling him or her what to do.
Click here. Look there.
A story-driven well integrated tutorial is able to avoid that to a large degree.

However, the dojo idea doesn't seem very cool to me to Wilbefast, for exactly that reason: In every single game that tries to disguise their tutorial as a training session or prologue it comes across as transparent at best and trite at worst. Something like that was in my original post too.
If sb asks me about a super-tense, exciting tutorial, I always point to Escape from Butcher Bay, in which the tutorial is a dream of the main character during which he actually escapes already.

Zeno Clash, a good-ish game, had a particularly odious tutorial structure. They give you a first level full to the brim with action and drama and plot hooks, which was awesome. Then they go and repeatedly interrupt it with a guy instructing you on the finer points of how to shoot dead poultry. Which was rather less awesome.

SO AGREED.

Better to have an optional and separate tutorial that teaches the player how to use everything at their disposal.

Optional yes, seperate no. Click here to go to school. And worse, that tutorial would have to be super-complex since it would have to cover everything, no matter how late it's introduced into the game.
Oh, I remember the times were you had to read a manual that rivaled a good novel in length to get started. I am a big simulation game fan. But games have evolved.

Look at a little game called God of War. This series is always introducing new mechanics, even very late in the game. And they always start with a super-tense boss fight
Is that bad-game design? No, in fact it's brilliant because you get hooked up right away.

Okay, the first one is using pop-ups but the second is better. It shows you the msgs without pausing or interrupting the game. More important, there is an option in the settings menu that disables all these tutorial messages.

[Glabbit]

Ah, yes, I remember lots of suggestions like these before, indeed.

'Click here to go to school'... heh... best comparison of separate tutorials yet.
Although there's more to it than that. Our Devs have proven to us many times over that they can get highly philosophical about things like this, and I can trust them to make a good job of it even if they did make a separate tutorial.
Still, sneakily integrated into the story would work fine, though.

Here's an idea. As part of sneaky tutorial elements in gameplay, there's a gap you need to cross. But you're either a noob and don't know why your jump won't cross or you've played Lugaru already and know to crouch before you jump, fly across and don't think of it twice.
For the noob to find, on a nearby wall, is a large explanatory picture that can be seen from quite a distance but isn't too much in plain sight.
This defeats the object of go-back-to-school, and doesn't actually throw you out of the game in the meta-gaming sense by popping up a huge message on your screen going "DO THIS AND THAT, FOO!" á la latest Prince of Persia.

And about manuals, if they're well-done, I, personally usually even can enjoy reading a game manual. But only when they're on paper. Digital ones just burn my eyes. =<

[Zhukov]

Why does the tutorial have to be part of the storyline?

That's actually SUPER-IMPORTANT. The feeling of detachment has to be avoided and more important, it's not fun going back to school... a story-driven well integrated tutorial is able to avoid that to a large degree.

I would be delighted to play such a tutorial. But I just don't see how it can be done.

You would need it to be tied into the main game/storyline, but at the same time be irrelevant enough that players can skip it without missing anything important. Also you need to find a way to give the player the information they need without reminding them that they are just being taught how to play a game.

I am yet to see a game do this successfully. You mentioned Butcher Bay. As I remember, the tutorial in that was nothing special. Just an easy first level with pop-up instructions.

And worse, that tutorial would have to be super-complex since it would have to cover everything, no matter how late it's introduced into the game.

No, just the stuff they need for the first couple of levels. (I didn't make that clear. Sorry.)

Look at a little game called God of War... okay, the first one is using pop-ups but the second is better. It shows you the msgs without pausing or interrupting the game. More important, there is an option in the settings menu that disables all these tutorial messages.

Yeah, they did a good job on the GoW games. If the controls and gameplay in Overgrowth are as simple as in GoW then this may well be the way to go.

And they always start with a super-tense boss fight.

Meh. I never liked the GoW boss fights. They look pretty and feel epic, sure, but when all is said and done they're mostly just quicktime events.

[Endoperez]

If the game has separate campaign and challenge levels like Lugaru, the tutorial could be made as 5-6 extra challenge levels. A new player goes there, and he's given directions: move on top of that hill, jump on top of that abstract ruin. Also, if the levels were small enough, or were further divided into hotspots/areas for training spesific skills, it would be easy to try out e.g. wall-jumps or blocking with a sword.

Example:
Area/level 1: Movement
1A FPS basics: WASD to move, space to jump, mouse to turn and interact
1B Lugaru basics: shift to crouch, crouch to crawl, animal run, shift+jump for high jump etc
1C track course: race against an AI bot along a simple track course with small, simple obstacles
1D sneaking: can you "tag" members of all the different species without them noticing you? If they notice you, they tell you what you did wrong.

[Glabbit]

The image that gave me was dangerously close to the go-back-to-school thing we've been trying to avoid.

[Swordarm]

I am yet to see a game do this successfully. You mentioned Butcher Bay. As I remember, the tutorial in that was nothing special.

You are right on paper. Butcher Bay stands out for various reasons.
1.) You are playing an actual level, not an obstacle course. There are no strange scripts or stuff like that.
2.) You get introduced to ALL gameplay elements within 3 minutes.
3.) The messages are not only optional but dynamic. You have to press a button to read them and they tell you the rule of the current situation, they are dynamic. You can basicly rush through until you encounter something you don't know and press the button.
But it's not message-only. The characters actually talk and point you towards goals. Your main character for example tells you when you have found a good place to hide the corpse. No big-fat in your face HERE!! !
4.) This is tied to Point 1. It's a real level. There is no instructor or teacher. Remember all these games where you for example already picked up the key for the door and the teacher was still like "look to the table. There you see a key. Press..." and worse, you couldn't open the fucking door because game wouldn't let you?
5.) It's incredibly exciting and one of my favorite parts of the game. An action packed, fun tutorial. It's special.

I have not played Fallout 3 but have been told the Tutorial integration is very well too. You are supposed to play key scenes from your childhood, like learning how to move is the time when you take your first Baby steps towards your father.
Remember, I have not played it. It sounds great on paper. However, Bethesda's games have a terrible tendency for stupid pop-ups and horrible interfaces, not to mention all the other big flaws, therefore I am not sure if it deserves that praise.

I've already pointed to Call of Duty 4's tutorial level which despite falling under "training", is really neat since it's presented as a part of the story and in a meaning full context in the world AND even proposes a difficulty for you afterwards, based on performance.

The You don't know Jack games have brilliant tutorials Brilliant every time.

Despite going a bit too much towards "school", Bridge Commander's initial level is very well done too. Same holds true for Warcraft 3, although they CLEARLY use a teacher. However, it's a perfect start for the story and we all know that Blizzard wanted to get anybody into that game, thus even exlplaining obvious concepts like Fog of War.
Saddly, these mentioned games have no "Turn off" option. W3 allows you to skip but you would miss the story, that means it's out.

Hostile Waters had some very good tutorial sections (ignoring the part in which you learn the strategic overlay part, which is always paused => impossible to do ingame).
You start at the logical beginning, which means you need to start fixing your ship.

inFamous on PS3 is doing really well too. Although taking you by the hand, it does so to introduce you to it's main characters, problems and the (ruined) world. And after the initial tutorial sections, each new mechanic (more acurate, new learned Superpower) is explained only by showing a quick 8 seconds move of your new Power in action. Works really well.

There are more.

[Endoperez]

The image that gave me was dangerously close to the go-back-to-school thing we've been trying to avoid.

If you're talking about my post... well, it's a TUTORIAL, as in, try this if you can't play the game. It's not "Chapter 1: The Dojo". Chapter 1: The Dojo actually feels more like school, and actually pretty much IS school. The training as I suggested is something that you can do, if you want to, or you can skip. It could be done so that you can go to level 1 and go straight to 1C and 1D, so that if you ever felt like training a spesific skill, there'd be an area for it already.

The training levels themselves could be done "in-character", with cave-paintings and carvings and talking characters instead of pop-ups.

[Glabbit]

...You missed the point.
Also,I have the feeling people are talking around us.

[Wilbefast]

I have the feeling people are talking around us.

Now that's just paranoid!

Anyway, back to the real discussion

"meaningful" and "skippable" are mutually exclusive.

What's with the defeatist attitude? Sure, the balance is hard to achieve, but it's possible: I think Starcraft did this best with their prologue tutorial, which both immersed the player in the game universe ("permission to speak freely sir, but I don't think you know what you're doing!") and explained to them how to play ("if you want us to defend ourselves, use the attack command") - it had story but it wasn't part of the main storyline.
Warcraft 3 went too far with this as mentioned above: the story in the prologue was actually interesting enough that you wanted to play it to get the full experience, even if it wasn't nessecary, strictly speaking. Then again hardore RTS buff that I am I still had fun playing through it, whereas something like the Lugaru tutorial would just be annoying for an experienced player.

Why does the tutorial have to be part of the storyline?

It's not fun going back to school (...) A story-driven well integrated tutorial is able to avoid that to a large degree.

My thoughts exactly (so exactly that, like dude, you're scaring me) - Lugaru's tutorial felt like a chore, don't deny it: I want to play the goddamn game, not sit through some inexplicable lecture emanating from a disembodied voice!

I would be delighted to play such a tutorial. But I just don't see how it can be done.

Starcraft

For the love of god, please no old rabbit-sensei guy. That trope has been done to death in every medium known to humanity. Hell, it's been done to death, buried, resurrected, tortured, re-killed, re-buried, grave-robbed and then left in the custody of a serial necrophile.

You're right of course - I figgered something so familliar would be a good way of easing new players into the universe...

...not.

If the game has separate campaign and challenge levels like Lugaru, the tutorial could be made as 5-6 extra challenge levels. A new player goes there, and he's given directions: move on top of that hill, jump on top of that abstract ruin.

Go to arbitrary places and perform arbitrary tasks? To quote the immortal bard, that sounds...

dangerously close to the go-back-to-school thing we've been trying to avoid.

Ah, but of course...

The training levels themselves could be done "in-character", with cave-paintings and carvings and talking characters instead of pop-ups.

Now you're thinking! Of course, I never liked the Worms way of doing things - training level to practice skills and so on: it feels just a little bit too much like hard work.

On the other hand...

Zeno Clash, a good-ish game, had a particularly odious tutorial structure. They give you a first level full to the brim with action and drama and plot hooks, which was awesome. Then they go and repeatedly interrupt it with a guy instructing you on the finer points of how to shoot dead poultry. Which was rather less awesome.

You make a very good point Let's call it an optional prologue then - something along the lines of Starcraft: those money grubbing Blizzard bastards know how to make a good game after all. Course they weren't bastards at the time *nostalgia eyes*.


To sum up, tutorials are for the folks out there who, unlike us, have never played Lugaru - they might stumble across and Overgrowth demo on steam and decide to give the ninja rabbits a spin, so they'll hit "start game" and get the crap kicked out of them so either give up right away or play the tutorial, at which point if it's anything like Lugaru's they'll quit, uninstall the program and never look at it again.

The sad truth is that Digital Natives have no attention span - they want instant gratification and they're not going to bother learning how to play your game unless the very act of learning is fun in itself, right off the bat.

You really don't have to use so much EMPHASIS in your posts.

As a matter of fact I do - when I sold my soul to the devil in exchange for a free high-speed internet connection one of the conditions was that I be as patronising as possible. You know what patronising means right? It's apparently a characteristic of those who, like me, treat others, like you lovely people, with condescension

[Endoperez]

If the game has separate campaign and challenge levels like Lugaru, the tutorial could be made as 5-6 extra challenge levels. A new player goes there, and he's given directions: move on top of that hill, jump on top of that abstract ruin.

Go to arbitrary places and perform arbitrary tasks? To quote the immortal bard, that sounds...

dangerously close to the go-back-to-school thing we've been trying to avoid.

Ah, but of course...

The training levels themselves could be done "in-character", with cave-paintings and carvings and talking characters instead of pop-ups.

Now you're thinking! Of course, I never liked the Worms way of doing things - training level to practice skills and so on: it feels just a little bit too much like hard work.

I suggested making the tutorial as several levels build around a theme, where different areas teach you different things. That was my basic idea. I don't see why it's more "go back to school" than a tutorial tied to plot.

It seems several people in this thread are not interested about WHAT the player is made to do (what kind of levels, what happens), but HOW (who is telling you the things, what is the story about). I've been only talking about the WHAT, because the HOW is all dependent on things we don't know, like do we play the tutorial as Turner, do we play the game as Turner, do we need tutorial(s) for playing as non-rabbits etc etc. Too many variables. Anything I have mentioned, could be done "in-character", or "out-of-character", with very little changes. Even the "move there, jump there" could be done so that you see something on top of that hill, so most people try to go there even if you don't tell them to.

[tokage]

Why do I think we discussed all of this already?
Oh, because we have, never mind.

[Renegade_Turner]

No one's going to like you if you going around doing stuff like that.