Gameplay: the first and last 10%

Paul Taylor 2010

The First 10%

Game Tutorials

Based on: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6160/tutorials_learning_to_play.php

Why do they suck?

http://freeverse.com/assets/games/9002/screenshots/448/game_tutorial.png

To teach a player well, we need to know:

How the players learn.....

Visual Learners

• People who learn through seeing stuff(NOT READING)

http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_StudySkills/study_tuts/learning%20styles/graphics/visual.gif

Teaching Visual Learners

• Use colours to highlight important text, they will miss a LOT of the text displayed

• Icons work far better than names• Allow them to go over instructions at their own pace.

– Red Dead Redemption kept a log book that provided this

http://www.bionicturtle.com/images/uploads/WindowsLiveWriterWhywebelieveinvisuallearning_8806brainTalking37.png

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:67k2o-2UEcsgRM:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v387/alien_1155/fuglicorn.png&t=1

Aural Learners

• This is how University typically teaches• Blah Blah Blah Blah

http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM130W/02-MMM/Math/lecture.gif

Teaching Aural Learners

• Just give them heaps of text and speech.• The only thing to avoid is forcing them

through parts they’d rather skip

http://needle-exchange.ca/images/boring_lecture.jpg

Aural vs Visual Learnershttp://www.visual-learners.com/image-files/models.gif

Kinetic Learners

• Learn by Moving

• Not to be confused with• Learn by doing

http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/natural-selection.jpg

So we know how people like to learn, but how do they acquire

their knowledge?Knowledge acquisition styles are complimentary to learning styles

Explorative Acquisition

• People who do stuff ‘just to see what happens’

• Risk Takers• They WILL push the red button

Modelling Acquisition

• People who don’t just jump into things• They want to know what the red button will

do, BEFORE they will push it.• Ideally they’d like to see someone perform the

required action, before they do.• Players may like to repeat an action until they

are satisfied that they understand it properly.

A Tutorial for Explorative Learners:http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/6160/image001.jpg

Example Timehttp://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/beargunner

Absent of Tutorials:http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/run

The Tutorial is more fun than the game:

A pretty, yet still explorative tutorial:

Can you figure out how the game works just from this:

What about the Interface?

• It’s supposed to be transparent to the player– This infers they must understand it well

Explorative vs Modelling

• A tutorial for Exp. players will be too quick and uncertain for Mod. players.

• A tutorial for Mod. players will be very dull to an Exp. player.

• How can you combine these together?

Combining Modelling and Explorative approaches:

• We must allow player repetition, without forcing it

• We must allow explorers to skip through everything, perhaps even the whole tutorial

http://ggeek.net/en/video-game/uncharted-2-among-thieves-2009/

Uncharted as an Example

• Uncharted does a good job at appeasing both the exp and the mod players

• Naughty Dog uses a combination of time and increasingly obvious hints– In addition the ‘Notebook’ is always available to

cheat assist in tasks.

http://ggeek.net/en/video-game/uncharted-2-among-thieves-2009/

Easy Joe

Graphically soooo basic, yet really pretty!• http://www.gameshot.org/?id=4996

The Last 10%

Continued Player Motivation and Engagement

Based on: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30884/GDC_Online_Player_Retention_Requires_Real_Motivation_Engagement.php

http://www.moneyisjustanidea.com/wp-content/themes/tma/images/latest/motivation2.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ItpRFly7FFs/TAz9QV0x_HI/AAAAAAAAAv8/7egMokjx3eo/s1600/motivation2.jpg

Mastery• Most commonly represented

as ‘levelling up’• A players long term satisfaction

is tied with meaningful growth.• Levelling up only provides this

if the player gains something meaningful when they level.

http://www.dvdnear.com/images/The-Beastmaster-Special-Edition-B0006GAOSQ-L.jpg

Autonomy• Making the player feel in

control...

• This can be as simple as giving them multiple tasks to choose from (such as sim city)

• Or more complicated, such as making their crops die if they don’t tend to these. http://lemonodor.com/images/autonomous-

solutions-tags-s.jpg

http://www.instructables.com/image/FK039U3FMMCZ2OJ/Build-an-autonomous-Wall-E-Robot.jpg

Relatedness / Interdependence

• Making Players feel like they are contributing in a meaningful way.

• It could be as simple as giving different players different roles. TF2, America’s Army

• It could be as complex as WoW, allowing each player to feel unique.

http://www.walyou.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/weird-funny-pictures-of-people.jpg

Rewards aren’t Rewarding!• Over-rewarding can shift the focus from

playing the game, to getting the reward• Much like a friendship forged on throwing

money at each other, it will become empty if the money ever stops (or even stops increasing)

http://bp2.blogger.com/_BInidS3BYa8/SG_xPJmxQKI/AAAAAAAABBM/7q2gFoqiRiE/s400/motivation,+duct+tape.jpg

References

• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6160/tutorials_learning_to_play.php

• http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_StudySkills/study_tuts/learning%20styles/visual.html