The Tutorial - Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games - page 20

intended to confuse you, with no instructions as to the goal state, like
a Rubik's Cube with no instructions as to what it is supposed to look
like, what on Earth would you do? Maybe you would figure it out
and start an emergent kind of goal for yourself. Maybe you would get
frustrated and throw the cube into the Sun. One is good, one is bad,
and it is unpredictable which you would do. Games that want us to
figure things out for ourselves, for this reason, often have very thin
mechanics. Minecraft , for example, has a simple interface and control
scheme that encourages exploration. If I were to give you a complex
game with no instructions, you would probably have to rely on exist-
ing schema to play the game. If you didn't have any, you would prob-
ably stop playing more likely than you would continue to be punished
for not knowing how to play. Games do this all the time. Sadly, a lot
of these are amazing games. Let me say that showing players the con-
trol scheme does not satisfy the learning requirements of your players.
This is analogous to handing someone the controls for a commercial
jet, giving them the manual that shows what each button and switch
can do, then expecting them to know how to fly. Or, showing some-
one the notes on a piano and telling them to play Beethoven. Neither
is going to happen, and for a complete novice, a loading screen that
shows the controls for 8 seconds is equally useless.
Unfortunately, complex games often give us little more guid-
ance than a brief introduction to the controls. Problematically, the
vast majority of game developers are themselves gamers and they
assume that their audience is already proficient and knowledgeable
in everything they will need to complete the game, and even more
problematically, they are often correct. These are otherwise amazing
games, but lose novice players due to their approach. One example of
a modern, amazing game with an absent or misguided tutorial and
teaching scheme is Amnesia: The Dark Descent ™. This is one of the
more immersing horror games I have played in a long time. That said,
however, the audience is clearly intended to be experienced gamers.
How do I make this assertion? Well, the only tips provided in the
game are “not to play the game to win,” implying that this is what
the audience often does. Furthermore, the game tells us “not to worry
about when the game autosaves, or an autosave icon.” A novice gamer
doesn't even know what that is. This continues throughout the game:
movements are available with no instruction and level guidance is