Writing Tutorials, or Press Start. . . to Start - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 114

look technologically primitive. He's played more tutorial levels than the number of
millimeters middle-age spread has added to his midriff. He's spent $50 on this game,
and he's going to be really unimpressed if he has to do yet another “drag yourself
through baby school� tutorial.
Then in box three we have Julianne, a bored housewife, and in box four a college
student called Bob, and in box five. . .
This is the challenge for tutorials. They must teach the player how to play, but
they must do so in a way that is fun for an increasingly diverse pool of players. Aha!
I hear some of you cry. 4 Aha! But all that is the job of the game designer . However,
while other writers need to know their medium, to be aware of technical limits,
appreciate budgets, etc., game writers really need to cozy right up to the technical
aspects of games. Good game writing demands a close relationship to the game
design if it is to produce a meaningful experience. If the game's design and the
game narrative aren't intertwined, then the game will produce the sort of experience
games are trying to put behind them, one where the narrative is meaningless to
the player.
Similarly, if the game's narrative and design aren't harmonious then the game's
design risks being unengaging, bland, and dull. The game narrative can help the
game designer, and it can overcome the problem of introducing both Kevin and
Tommy to the game by making the introduction fresh and entertaining to all parties.
So, while at the start of a narrative the writer must introduce the player to the
plot, the characters, and the world, set up the protagonist's goal, create conflict, and
produce a measure of narrative drive—and do all this as quickly and invisibly as
possible—a writer cannot wrestle with these ingredients without taking the needs of
the game designer into account.
Meanwhile, the designer's shopping list of needs requires that at the start of the
game they teach the player to play, establish a difficulty curve, demonstrate the game-
play style, and get into the action as quickly as possible. They must do this in a way
that is clear and represents the style of gameplay found throughout the game, and
they must make this experience fun.
With these competing needs it can feel like conflict will result; however, if each
party supplies the other with solutions for the other's challenges then the process can
be a rewarding and creative one.
12.2 Learning to Play—The Needs of the Game Player
At the start of the game, the writer's natural priority is to establish the narrative
world. On the other hand, the primary aim of a tutorial is to teach the player to play.
The writer's role in this is to make this experience engaging by making the learning
less visible. This means that at the point a game writer is facing perhaps the trickiest
section of their story, the opening, the game's design's needs will often place a large
4 Yup, I'm breaking that fourth wall and reaching right out to you.