Camouflage Your Tutorial
I've recently playtested a lot of indie games at GamesCon and a variety of meet-ups. And... I've noticed Indie Devs struggling with their tutorials or FTUE (First Time User Experience).
Straight up: At a playtest event, your game is a tutorial. You are teaching a player how to engage with your game.
Without a seamless, engaging tutorial, a player won't continue to play and get to the beating heart of what you've created. The tutorial introduces your world, the vibe, and how the player will feel once they're in the game.
Don't let a sucky tutorial keep players from finding the magic inside your game.
Common Indie Playtest experiences:
Clicking through several pages of text or dialogue without the opportunity to participate in gameplay.
The Game Dev standing next to their laptop explaining the world to me before I was able to start the game
A UI crammed with so many graphs/charts/dials that I didn't know what was important to track
A lack of clear compellingly statement artwork on the start-up page so that I have an idea of what kind of game I am going to be playing
At Cons or Meet-ups, the Dev only has a few minutes to engage a player (or journalist, investor, or publisher) before they move onto one of the many other glowing laptops on display.
How can you lure a player to your laptop and keep them wanting to play more of your game? Clear compelling artwork + camouflaged tutorial
For a potential player to stop at your station, the art work needs to clearly convey the world that will be explored. Every pixel on that start screen needs to convey what is special about the world that the player will explore, and how they will explore it. This is a lesson well trod in the design of film posters advertising coming attractions. Show the player what the experience will be like if they are willing to give you their time and test your game.
The playtest start page is a billboard trying to capture eyeballs in a visually competitive playtest environment.
If you've got a cozy game, follow the cozy visual tropes but make your world unique. If you've got a shooter, show the avatar with the weapon. If it's an environmental exploration game -- show me the maze of that world. If it's a murder mystery, show me some clues.
If that start screen has done it's job, players will be compelled to approach your machine. If it hasn't and you have to be a barker and "sell the game" with your words, you've got a tough job.
Let's assume that your artwork has grabbed their attention, you hand them the controller and say "Wanna play?"
Q: What's going to keep a player in your game? A: Camouflaged tutorial that seamlessly combines fun gameplay with compelling worldbuilding.
What is the camouflaged tutorial concept that I'm talking about? It is how you deliver information and gameplay techniques in bite-sized steps to pull the player into your game.
Yes, your world can be mysterious. But a satisfying mystery is not ambiguous. Mystery comes when an established world has something out-of-place. When something seems "wrong", we humans are intrigued and want to know more. And yes, players love to figure things out for themselves, but you as the Dev have to give them the clues to do that. You have to lay out the trail for them.
Every step of the tutorial needs to tell the player where they are, what is their goal, and how to use the game mechanics to get reach that goal.
Knowing the goal makes a satisfying game. The goal can be a known process like growing vegetables to sell at a market. It can be strategic like killing someone to survive the level. It can be cerebral like escaping a maze or discovering a killer. It needs to be clear from the beginning. "Why am I trying to do when I am playing your game?" The artwork and the first steps in your tutorial should tell me.
Players want to be lured in and challenged to achieve the goal -- in other words, they want to be curious and challenged to play your game.
These game action steps start off as tiny tidbits of information, micro goals, and mini-games. Each step builds on the previous step. Within three steps, the player should be comfortable with how the game experience is being delivered and how they can interact with that experience.
The information can be delivered as:
100% pictorial.
It can be animated.
It can be auditory -- if you have headphones available in the testing area.
It can be words on a screen -- but as a writer, I have to say that words on a screen are the least interesting, least likely to be read, least likely to be understood, and least likely to be absorbed and used by the player. This follows the classic storytelling rule "Show Don't Tell."
Most importantly: The player needs to interact with your game mechanic immediately. And by interact, I don't mean clicking through pages of text. The player needs to be presented with information and make choices that have consequences immediately. That can be branching narrative in a graphic novel. But the player needs to feel that their choices have consequences. We love games because they aren't passive like movies and books. We play games because we want to have the illusion that we are in control of our own destiny.
Your tutorial is a chance to get a player to fall in love with your game.
My suggestions for optimum playtest experience:
Start with a clear concept start page. Most importantly -- What's the vibe? Where will I be? Who will I be? What are my goals? What are my obstacles? When you go to market, you will edit this to have less information and more vibe-feel, but in a Con setting, make it clear what you're offering.
Clear "Start" button. With the push of "Start", dive right into the world -- let's see the world in all of its glory. Don't hold back and hide the best environment for five minutes into gameplay. The player may not last that long. This is playtesting. Every step needs to be compelling. If your subsequent levels are less complete, it's fair to say that.
At this point please have only one graph/chart/dial on the UI. Let the player smoothly slip into your world without worrying about what to track.
Immediately give the player a visual goal. Place something in the distance that stands out visually -- a spinning golden orb, a giant red octopus, a dead body, -- anything. That object will drive the player forward, or sideways if it's a 2D game. Get the player moving. Once they are moving into your environment, they are engaged.
At that visual goal point give them a choice. And use your unique but easy to understand gameplay mechanic to implement that choice. Provide a mini-animation of how the mechanic works. In the animation, include the results of using that mechanic on the single graph/chart/dial that is on the UI.
Give the player a chance to use the mechanic.
Don't kill the player on the first challenge.
Reward them for successfully using the first mechanic. This can be points, a kill rating, a flower, some music. Chose a reward that fits your vibe.
With visual cues encourage the player to enter the next level. Make this level different enough to show the range of experiences that the player will have in your game.
Once in that second level, provide another visual goal to lead the player further into your world.
At that goal introduce your second game mechanic.
Provide an animation of how this mechanic works. If graphs/charts/dials are your thing, you can introduce another one here.
Continue this path of new world information + new game mechanic until you have delivered a clear picture of the vibe, environment, pace, characters, and mechanics that will be in your game.
After five minutes, the player will know if your game is something that they would like to play, or maybe even buy in the future.
Let them play as long as they would like.
When they put the controller down, ask for honest feedback. Take written notes. Show that you are listening and have heard what they are saying. Be prepared for anything.
Thank them for their time.
Ask them to wishlist your game on Steam.
Any other ideas to make a great playtest? Let me know cindi@cindiknapton.com
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