Return of the Tutorial: Escape from Skull Island - Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games - page 110

he player initially starts the game as the first character he or she
chose, but can switch between them by pressing the Z or X buttons
to cycle counterclockwise and clockwise, respectively. Consistent
with auditory cueing, a sound similar to a flipping page is heard when
players switch characters, and the current character is centered in the
camera. Players can collect items to equip that will increase their stats.
I will show you how we will teach the players this in a little bit. The
stats are simple: health, damage, and defense. I know it is not com-
plicated and won't sell, but hey, I'm not actually making the game!
For the purposes of demonstrating a tutorial, this is easy. Leveling
up increases statistics in different ways depending on which class you
choose. Clerics and paladins cannot attack but can heal. The objec-
tive is to crawl out of the dungeon alive across 10 randomly gener-
ated floors without being killed. If I have time, I will release 30 or so
DLC packs to change the appearance of the characters. No, I prob-
ably won't.
Controls and Inputs Overview
Escape from Skull Island is a mouse and keyboard game. That said,
players use W, A, S, and D to move their characters, the left mouse
button to attack enemies and open doors or chests, the right click to
pick things up, and the tab key to open their inventory, which they
may manipulate with left clicks of the mouse. This is pretty much
it for controls for Skull Island . Players will be instructed in how to
manipulate their characters with in-line tutorials that do not interrupt
gameplay, and that are consistent with the things I have discussed in
this topic.
Interface Structure and Overview
The interface is very thin and simple (see Figure 7.3). Players have a
health indicator underneath their players consistent with the contigu-
ity principle discussed in Chapter 6. This health bar doesn't show up
until the characters are hurt. In an effort to reduce cognitive load, we
are trying to keep things that players need to know as close to their
gaze as possible, and keep clutter off the screen. Eye tracking will
tell us that players have a “center-screen” habit, and will tend to look