Return of the Tutorial: Escape from Skull Island - Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games - page 120

WASD keys anyway, at which point we can assume they are experts
and never show them that particular bit of tutorial information.
The next bit of tutorial learning is presented in the enemies that
are on screen. Bone Minions , the default enemy in our lovely menag-
erie, are present and visible, and they are approaching the party. This
should cause some trepidation in the player; however, without the
player's knowledge, the enemies will deprioritize the selected char-
acter (e.g., the player) until the player has personally killed one. This
dynamic difficulty adjustment means that the enemies are going to
target AI players much more frequently than human ones until the
player learns the ropes. This will continue throughout the game. This
test-retest of player competency allows the game to keep track of the
player's skill level. For example, if the player kills 5 out of 10 enemies
on a floor, and the AI kill the other 5, it is safe to say the player is
doing well. If the player kills 0, on the other hand, it is safe to say
the player needs to continue to experiment. These kinds of rich data
hooks allow us to subtly and dynamically render new challenges and
learning objectives for our players.
In addition to keeping players interested, keeping dungeons ran-
domly generated stays consistent with Dewey's ideas of experience.
Players cannot automatize the dungeon (as easily) as they could if the
experience were pre-rendered. This is standard in dungeon-crawling
games and is one of the key appeals. The theme of procedurally ren-
dered rewards and punishments should be clear here. Every time the
player performs a good behavior in Escape from Skull Island , such as
picking up a treasure, gaining a level, slaying an enemy, or engaging
in combat, the music is dynamically rendered to increase in its tempo
and timbre to add to the gravity of the situation. This is called a proce-
durally generated reward, and is a great way to promote a flow experi-
ence by doing some of the things we spoke about regarding flow in
the previous chapter. The musical cues provide clear feedback, while
the increasing and dynamically generated nature of the rewards main-
tains balance between skill level and appropriate rewards. Presenting
this feedback via the auditory channel continues to manage cognitive
load responsibly while simultaneously providing feedback.
Similarly, the punishments are dynamically generated. Players are
presented with a jarring loss of music when hit. The music will change
its timbre from one of upbeat amazing epic, to one of downtrodden,