Recently, many complex games have started introducing players to the gaming world through a tutorial level that exists outside of the game-world proper. Players can access this tutorial world through the main menu as an alternative to starting a “real” game. These tutorial levels are generally a good idea and are certainly an improvement over teaching players about the game in the manual. The tutorial levels do one of the things that
computers do best: provide an interactive learning experience. These levels tend to lead players by the hand through the game’s mechanics, teaching them what they will need to know bit by bit. Sheri Graner Ray has found that some players, typically females, tend to
prefer actually being led through the game for a bit until they get the hang of it, and
structured tutorial levels are perfect for this. The one problem with tutorial levels is that they are seldom much fun to play, and as a result many players will skip them and head straight for the actual game. Beyond the learning of the controls, there is often little of interest in them. There is a feeling among players that the tutorial level is not part of the “real” game, and many players want to start playing this “real” game as soon as possible. If the designer includes a tutorial level because she wants to make her game difficult from the very
beginning and avoid teaching players how to play through the gameplay, players who skip the tutorial will become frustrated. Tutorial levels are good for players who want that sort of educational prelude to the game, but they must not replace making the beginning of the game itself somewhat of a well-disguised tutorial that is easy to play. Again, Half-Life
provided a tutorial level that taught players about the game-world, but the tutorial worked in conjunction with the beginning of the actual game itself, which was quite easy to play and had a friendly learning curve. Of course, making the tutorial level as entertaining as possible goes a long way toward encouraging players to actually play it. Deus Ex made some
improvements on this front, setting the tutorial firmly in the game-world fiction and then having the training unexpectedly malfunction toward its end, suddenly thrusting players into a threatening situation. Halo took this same concept and executed it particularly elegantly without making the level feel like a tutorial level at all. Players were only stuck in a strange state for a brief time at the very start while they became accustomed to using the two- analog-stick control scheme. Then, suddenly, the spaceship the player character is on is overrun by hostile aliens. The first level players then play introduces them to the game’s mechanics one by one in an area that looks dangerous but is actually pretty safe. Here was a training level completely camouflaged in the game-world that was a good deal of fun to play.
Deus Ex integrated its training into the game fiction in a very believable way.
Usually these tutorial levels include instructions that explain what keys or buttons players are supposed to press in order to achieve certain effects. Often on-screen text appears, sometimes accompanied by voice-overs that tell players to “Press the Spacebar to fire your
primary weapon” or “Press and hold down the blue X for a super jump.” Halo, again, had a very nice implementation of non-obtrusive help text that showed up during gameplay. The key with such automatic in-game help is that you want the players who do not need it to be able to ignore it fairly easily (or even have an option to turn it off completely), while it needs to show up and stay around long enough for those who do need it to see it. You need to make sure novice players will not miss it and will get a chance to apply it before it
disappears. Well-implemented help text can be quite a boon to making a complex game easier to pick up. Beyond that, however, games like Spyro the Dragon and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time go so far as to have actual game characters tell the player
character what the controls for the game are. In the former game, the friendly elder dragon says, “Spyro, press and hold the blue button in order to glide.” I think this goes too far and totally shatters the player’s suspension of disbelief. The in-game characters should not know anything about the player and certainly nothing about a PlayStation controller.
However, I do think it is helpful to remind players of the game’s controls while they are playing through more removed GUI displays and non-game character voice-overs. Many modern games include such sophisticated controls that they are likely to alienate non-hard- core gamers, and reminding novice players of what they need to do in order to performa certain move is a good idea.
Console titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are good at teaching the player how to control the game.
I would say that, in retrospect, most of my games have been too difficult, and certainly too hard for players to get into. The exception to this is The Suffering, which far and away did the best job of introducing mechanics to players gradually over the first level. Indeed, it was specifically designed to do this from the beginning of development. Though players get the impression that monsters are swarming all around the level, killing everything they
encounter, in fact it is impossible to die for the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game. This gives players a safe place to learn the controls. During this safe period and throughout the first level unobtrusive help text shows up on the screen to help players learn the different actions they can perform. However, The Suffering’s biggest failure was not ramping up the difficulty over the course of the game, making the game too easy overall. But that is less a training issue and more of a balancing problem. In terms of training, one game that erred in the opposite direction is Odyssey, my turn-based RPG. In it players start off shipwrecked on an island, without any weapons or possessions of any kind. I wanted players to
immediately be frightened and need to find a safe place to hide in a nearby cave. I achieved this by having a few monsters start charging in the players’ direction a few turns after the player character arrives on the beach. Players had no chance of defeating these creatures on their own, and needed to enter the nearby cave to survive. Originally, I had the cave hidden in the woods, making it hard for players to find and thereby making the game even more unforgiving. Fortunately, my playtesters convinced me that the introduction was too hard, and I moved the cave out into the open where players could easily see it. However, the problem remained that, before players even had a chance to become familiar with the controls, they were assaulted by strange monsters, with no real idea of what they were supposed to do about it. I often wonder how many players were frightened away by this overly challenging introduction and never played the rest of the game as a result.