The Tutorial - Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games - page 19

show you in this topic. here are a few clear reasons why we have to
have some kind of tutorial in our game.
Perhaps the first and most important reason is one of what you
might call “high art” consideration: there is a fundamental disconnect
between artist and observer. What do I mean by this? Well, when one
looks at Edvard Munch's he Scream , it is up to interpretation exactly
what the artist is attempting to say. It is widely believed that this par-
ticular painting is a demonstration of existential angst. We as game
designers also like to paint messages and meaning within our games.
This is one of the core principles that maintains games as art, and I
am in no way suggesting we dilute this very important point. Little
Inferno ™, for example, makes one of the best critiques of modern dis-
posable capitalism I think I have ever seen in any kind of media.
Unlike traditional art, like sculptures and paintings, games are a
form of art that requires a skill set just to consume. Let me explain:
in order to consume traditional art—say a painting—all it requires is
observers to look at it with their eyes. Not much of a learning curve
there. The second part of consuming traditional art is in observation:
the trained observer detects bits of meaning and self-exploration in the
piece. This is true of media that are more modern as well. We can't
help but feel Charlotte's existential dizziness in Lost in Translation ™
the harder we look. The break in consuming games is certainly not
that our audience is not full of capable and learned observers, but
rather those who enter the game-consumption game without prior
knowledge don't even know how to consume. Kind of like if the Mona
Lisa only looked like the picture we know when you looked at it at
a certain angle. In order to get through an entire game, we need to
quickly become proficient at its challenges to advance and progress. If
we are unable to do this, we can't so much as consume the game, let
alone get to the level of introspection that games can elicit in us. To
this end, the first and most important reason we must integrate well-
designed tutorials in our game is to facilitate the transfer of emotion,
meaning, and enjoyment from game developer to game consumer.
The second reason we include teaching mechanics in our games
is one that is a little more pragmatic: we want people to enjoy our
games, and we know that when we have no idea what we're supposed
to be doing, we aren't enjoying ourselves! If I handed you a puzzle,