Manuals and Tutorials

Tutorials and Manuals

  • a process that should lead to the preparedness of the player by the end of it
  • supports the overall immersion of the flow
  • neglected part of game development because of its supposed insignificance
  • if a game badly presents instructions the player needs, he/she may lose focus in the game
  • forms
    • printed instruction manuals
    • first-play tutorials
    • training campaigns
    • hints and tips
    • wiki
    • hidden tutorials
Jumping into game without playing a tutorial
Flow theory in games
Press F1 to help Commander Keen

Example: Instruction Manuals

Kings Quest manual

King's Quest (1984)

Earthbound manual

Earthbound (1994)

Return to Castle Wolfenstein manual

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)

Example: Instruction Manuals

Wing Commander manual

Wing Commander (1990)

Raptor manual

Raptor (1994)

Age of Empires 2 manual

Age of Empires 2 (1999)

Example: First-play tutorials

Skyrim manual

Skyrim (2011)

Assassins Creed Odyssey manual

Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018)

Example: Training Campaigns

Warcraft 3

Warcraft 3 (2002)

Vietcong

Vietcong (2003)

Example: Hints and tips

Duke Nukem 1 hints

Duke Nukem 1 (1991)

Portal hints

Portal (2007)

Example: Wiki

Warhammer Online

Warhammer Online (2008)

Heroes of Newerth wiki

Heroes of Newerth (2010)

Example: Hidden Tutorials

INSIDE

INSIDE (2016)

YOU DIED - Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 (2016)

Tutorial Patterns

  • Positive patterns
    • doesn't feel like tutorial (INSIDE, Super Mario)
    • doesn't disrupt game flow (Skyrim)
    • low chance of failing (Assassin's Creed)
    • ability to skip it (Total War)
    • freedom to experiment (Rayman)
  • Negative patterns
    • hand-holding (Warcraft 3)
    • overload of information (Total War)
    • irrelevant information (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team)
    • too complicated (The Witcher 2)
    • too long (The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
Rayman Fairy
Mario tutorial