The 'art' of tutorials

johnny_ultimate

Most games have them, some of them you just want to skip through as quickly as possible, others are vital to tell you the core game mechanics you're going to be using: tutorials.

Playing through the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker tutorial again today (it's part of the demo too) it stood out as a really, really strange training mission. They teach you the basics for sure, and it's set in beachside 'training camp', giving it some sort of context in the overall story. Yet the odd thing is that the training officer keeps on telling you to "press the action button" or "you can change the controls at any time in the option menu". It is strange to hear someone saying stuff like this (someone had to sit down and record that dialogue!) and creates a weird disconnect - the developers try to give a logical reason for the training mission, and yet they have a character addressing the player as someone who is clearly playing a game.

On the other hand, I read a great article - which I unfortunately can't track down - recently on the 'tutorial' stages of Portal. The writer argued the majority of the game was a tutorial, slowly and subtlety helping to teach you the core principles of a new gameplay mechanic until you escape the confines of the Aperture tests. Apart from the brief pop-up windows telling you what each button does, you learn to play the game through visual prompts and level design. Valve are typically excellent at this.

Any other games that teach you how to play particularly well, or any awful examples that overload you with information before you even have a chance to push a button? Oh, and does anyone even read manuals anymore, or do you expect the game itself to teach you how to play?

rizzla

I liked Alan Wake's. It was a bit mad but it's a dream sequence and dream sequences can be mad. Most recent game I've been playing so it's fresh in my mind.

I agree with the Peace Walker thing though, it felt really strange.

Worst and longest gaming tutorial has to be Final Fantasy 13 though. It doesn't stop being a tutorial until you finally start earning CP(the games exp) and that's about 10+ hours into it, or it felt that long anyway.

Mr. K

rizzla wrote: »

Worst and longest gaming tutorial has to be Final Fantasy 13 though. It doesn't stop being a tutorial until you finally start earning CP(the games exp) and that's about 10+ hours into it, or it felt that long anyway.

FFXIII's tutorial method is particularly poor method, it just goes on too long. I haven't played Peace Walker yet, but the "Press the Action Button" stuff is something of a staple in MGS games, isn't it? I remember Campbell saying it back 1999!

The best ones don't stand out at all; I don't remember Portal's at all and that's probably a good thing.

One thing I hate is complex controller layouts appearing during loading sequences. I never take them in, even a slow in-game tutorial is better!

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yet the odd thing is that the training officer keeps on telling you to "press the action button" or "you can change the controls at any time in the option menu". It is strange to hear someone saying stuff like this (someone had to sit down and record that dialogue!) and creates a weird disconnect - the developers try to give a logical reason for the training mission, and yet they have a character addressing the player as someone who is clearly playing a game.

TBH this is actually a series staple. Colonel Campbell used to do this all the time in MGS and it's kind of been lampoon in the series ever since.

The best tutorials for me are the ones that you don't realise are tutorials. A big mistake that a tutorial can make is to teach you something thatisn't used until very late in the game and you end up forgetting it. I do think tutorials are good since there'sno need to read the manual to get started, you can just hop right in. The ones that treat the gamesplayer as a dumb ass are the worst. Press RT to shoot, press A to jump, as if I never played an FPS before or could figure thatout on my own.

Halo had a good tutorial, it figured out if you liked your controls inverted while in game and then the opening level was one big tutorial while other other mechanics were slowly introduced through the game. Actually, introducing new mechanics as the game progresses is the best way for complicated games to handle tutorials instead of overloading the player. Halo and the MGS games do a fine job of this. System Shock 2 has a really good tutorial that you won't realise is a tutorial and introduces new elements gradually and handles it a lot better than Bioshock.

Now it's on my to play list and I haven't played it but I've heard that Planetscape Torment has by far the best tutorial section of any game.

johnny_ultimate

Didn't realise the MGS thing was a staple, I suppose such a weird 'joke' is typical of Kojima. I don't know, just annoyed me when I was playing it, maybe it was the delivery :pac:

Definitely agree the slow trickle of game mechanics method works well. I think most games are naturally built like this - very few games offer you ever power from the outset, instead slowly building up the powers available. It's the classic Zelda style gameplay, each new item opening up new possibilities and ways to take on the world. It also guarantees the player will understand the mechanics fully before being taught another one. Super Mario Galaxy 2 seems to be decent at this too, although they're still reminding you of core mechanics in worlds 3 and 4! Nice to have optional videos you can watch if you don't understand how a particular mechanic works though, good way to get less experienced players used to the twisted logic of Nintendo.

FFXIII is ridiculous though. ****ing first twenty or so hours of the game are a slow trickle of new stuff, slowllllyyyy building to the point where they let you loose from prescribed corridors to prescribed corridors with a hub map :pac: It's pretty insulting to hand-hold the player for so long.

Sabre0001

Really liked the Splinter Cell Conviction tutorial. Played well and was interesting.

Nevyn

ShadowRun had the best one I have played in a while other then that it's the 'hurrh the **** up and let me play you bastard' Dialoge you have to listen to and can't skip or just speed read, or have the actions timed so you cant' blitz through them so it's like a slow sadistic game of simon says.

Cinful

Skip tutorials. Intuitive games are fun! More discovery. My boatmate has Dragon Age. Very intuitive RPG.

death1234567

GTA has a good tutorial setup. Just have the first few missions easy to get you into it. Call of Duty Modern warfare had an assault course tutorial, makes sense for a FPS.

Fanny Cradock

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Any other games that teach you how to play particularly well, or any awful examples that overload you with information before you even have a chance to push a button? Oh, and does anyone even read manuals anymore, or do you expect the game itself to teach you how to play?

A third option would be (almost) no tutorial. Mass Effect (Steam were/ are selling it for €4) has little in the was of a tutorial - what they do have is a half-arsed attempt rather than something a little more comprehensive. Even after 4 hours of play I'm still confused what to do in combat with my squad - specifically how to use tactics and special abilities.

death1234567

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Even after 4 hours of play I'm still confused what to do in combat with my squad - specifically how to use tactics and special abilities.

I completed the game and didn't really use the tactics/special abilities much/at all. The combat is never overly difficult.

SeantheMan

I've usually skipped them ever since BF2 came out and I had "the voice" telling me how to do everything !!

"To sprint..hold down the ...key"
"To Zoom...hold the ..."

Alll in the middle of trying to play the game online.