The perfect tutorial in the game - tips from PopCap
At GDC 2012 one of the authors Plants vs. Zombies told how he managed to interest a casual audience in a strategic game.
The game designer, George Fen (George Fan), is confident that her secret is in a good training mode. He described how to create one in his material on Gamasutra .
1. Training mode - part of the game.
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“We try to ensure that the player does not feel that he passes the tutorial,” says Fen. Most users want to play right away, so if they suddenly realize that to do this you first need to learn something, then most likely they will quickly lose interest in the project.
“I realized that there should not be a mode in the game that would be called a tutorial. Ideally, you should tell the players about the rules of the game so that they don’t even know that they are being taught this, ”he continues.
2. It is better for the player to force something to “do”, than something to “read”
“The ideal way to talk about how to play is to do something in the game,” says Fen. Of course, the text allows to reveal the subtleties of the process, but this will never bring the user pleasure comparable to the action.
For example, the first level of Plants vs. Zombies can be seen: the player instantly "catches" that the plants shoot from left to right, i.e. to the side where the zombies are moving slowly. So at the first level, the user develops basic game skills, understands its mechanics.
"Players will learn how to play, just by playing, there is no need to tell something in detail," Feng concludes.
3. Stretch the training
In PopCap understood that it is not necessary to lay out everything about the game in the first minutes of dating. Learning its basics is much more effective if it is stretched over a large number of missions.
For example, in Plants vs. Zombies player learned about some aspects of the game - including money - only after the tenth level. As for the difficult moments, then they were discussed only towards the end of the game. So, according to Fehn, the players are more interested in the gaming experience. It is only with its receipt that they can wake up the desire to learn something in the game.
4. Make the player do something
Quite often, a player needs to do something in the game to understand how everything works in it, says Feng.
In Plants vs. Zombies developers told players how to collect money, quite simply. They placed a gold coin and an arrow above it on the playing field. If a player clicks on a coin, he instantly understands how to take objects from the field (and not only money).
As for the icons, it was enough to make them blink so that the user understood how to handle them.
5. Less words
“There should be no more than eight words on the screen at any time during the game,” says Fen.
At most, it is an inscription like "To take a packet of seeds, click on it." This is brief, simple, and most importantly, understandable.
6. Do not impose
The text that jumped out during the game and stopped it will upset anyone. Therefore, game alerts should be passive, not distracting the user from the process.
7. Remember the adaptive hint system.
Users should understand what to do in the game, but do not lead by the hand of those who have already figured it all out.
During testing, Plants vs. Zombies Fen saw that some users do not understand that plants need to be planted on the left side of the screen. To solve this problem, he developed a whole hint system that only works when a player does something wrong.
“The player should have a chance to feel smart, if he does everything as it should. But using the adaptive hint system, people like my mom will also understand how to play correctly. ”
8. Do not annoy users
No numerous reminders and notifications, otherwise it will irritate the player.
For this reason, Fen advises making all the text appearing in the game both explanatory and entertaining. Everything is superfluous - in the trash.
"Bombarding a user with one empty message after another is not worth it - the player simply gets tired of them and turns off the game," reveals Fen.
9. Focus on graphic design
Good design and thoughtful art can help with player training. When working on Plants vs. Zombies, artists tried to make it so that by the look of a monster or a plant one could guess its functional purpose.
Peashooter (a pea plant) has a giant mouth for throwing projectiles, for example.
10. Use human knowledge about the world
Plants vs. Zombies is in many ways an ordinary tower defense, but from the very beginning of work on the game Fen wanted everyone to understand why the towers cannot move, and the attackers are so slow.
Exit - the correct selection of heroes. After all, everyone knows that plants can not move, and zombies barely crawl.
So it turned out that both plants and zombies are ideal heroes for the tower defense game.
And, according to Fan, if users see that the game characters behave as they should be, they will most likely acquire the game, no matter how fantastic it may seem at first glance.
By the way, this applies not only to heroes, but also to game bonuses. In many games, gold coins and diamonds are used as them, that is, the one whose value each of us perfectly understands.
This and other materials about the development and promotion of games on mobile platforms read on the portal App2Top.ru
The game designer, George Fen (George Fan), is confident that her secret is in a good training mode. He described how to create one in his material on Gamasutra .
1. Training mode - part of the game.
')
“We try to ensure that the player does not feel that he passes the tutorial,” says Fen. Most users want to play right away, so if they suddenly realize that to do this you first need to learn something, then most likely they will quickly lose interest in the project.
“I realized that there should not be a mode in the game that would be called a tutorial. Ideally, you should tell the players about the rules of the game so that they don’t even know that they are being taught this, ”he continues.
2. It is better for the player to force something to “do”, than something to “read”
“The ideal way to talk about how to play is to do something in the game,” says Fen. Of course, the text allows to reveal the subtleties of the process, but this will never bring the user pleasure comparable to the action.
For example, the first level of Plants vs. Zombies can be seen: the player instantly "catches" that the plants shoot from left to right, i.e. to the side where the zombies are moving slowly. So at the first level, the user develops basic game skills, understands its mechanics.
"Players will learn how to play, just by playing, there is no need to tell something in detail," Feng concludes.
3. Stretch the training
In PopCap understood that it is not necessary to lay out everything about the game in the first minutes of dating. Learning its basics is much more effective if it is stretched over a large number of missions.
For example, in Plants vs. Zombies player learned about some aspects of the game - including money - only after the tenth level. As for the difficult moments, then they were discussed only towards the end of the game. So, according to Fehn, the players are more interested in the gaming experience. It is only with its receipt that they can wake up the desire to learn something in the game.
4. Make the player do something
Quite often, a player needs to do something in the game to understand how everything works in it, says Feng.
In Plants vs. Zombies developers told players how to collect money, quite simply. They placed a gold coin and an arrow above it on the playing field. If a player clicks on a coin, he instantly understands how to take objects from the field (and not only money).
As for the icons, it was enough to make them blink so that the user understood how to handle them.
5. Less words
“There should be no more than eight words on the screen at any time during the game,” says Fen.
At most, it is an inscription like "To take a packet of seeds, click on it." This is brief, simple, and most importantly, understandable.
6. Do not impose
The text that jumped out during the game and stopped it will upset anyone. Therefore, game alerts should be passive, not distracting the user from the process.
7. Remember the adaptive hint system.
Users should understand what to do in the game, but do not lead by the hand of those who have already figured it all out.
During testing, Plants vs. Zombies Fen saw that some users do not understand that plants need to be planted on the left side of the screen. To solve this problem, he developed a whole hint system that only works when a player does something wrong.
“The player should have a chance to feel smart, if he does everything as it should. But using the adaptive hint system, people like my mom will also understand how to play correctly. ”
8. Do not annoy users
No numerous reminders and notifications, otherwise it will irritate the player.
For this reason, Fen advises making all the text appearing in the game both explanatory and entertaining. Everything is superfluous - in the trash.
"Bombarding a user with one empty message after another is not worth it - the player simply gets tired of them and turns off the game," reveals Fen.
9. Focus on graphic design
Good design and thoughtful art can help with player training. When working on Plants vs. Zombies, artists tried to make it so that by the look of a monster or a plant one could guess its functional purpose.
Peashooter (a pea plant) has a giant mouth for throwing projectiles, for example.
10. Use human knowledge about the world
Plants vs. Zombies is in many ways an ordinary tower defense, but from the very beginning of work on the game Fen wanted everyone to understand why the towers cannot move, and the attackers are so slow.
Exit - the correct selection of heroes. After all, everyone knows that plants can not move, and zombies barely crawl.
So it turned out that both plants and zombies are ideal heroes for the tower defense game.
And, according to Fan, if users see that the game characters behave as they should be, they will most likely acquire the game, no matter how fantastic it may seem at first glance.
By the way, this applies not only to heroes, but also to game bonuses. In many games, gold coins and diamonds are used as them, that is, the one whose value each of us perfectly understands.
This and other materials about the development and promotion of games on mobile platforms read on the portal App2Top.ru
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/140371/
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