Game Development Reference
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necessary. If the players don't make mistakes, no tutorial pop-up. It
is written in Lua, which is the language of World of Warcraft add- ons,
but it should be easy to read:
--> Hearthstone Tutorial Tip (Just-In-Time)
if (event == “UNIT_SPELLCAST_INTERRUPTED”) then
local _,m,_ = ...
--> “m” stores spell names. t[x] is an array
storing tips.
--> Triggers when casting is interrupted by
moving, etc.
if (m == “Hearthstone”) then
if not t[30] then
tFail[30] = tFail[30] + 1
if (tFail[30] > 3) then
--> tFail keeps track of bad behaviors.
--> if players interrupt the
hearthstone 3 times
JIT_Trigger(31)
t[30] = true
--> Run a function to show the
tutorial.
end
end
end
end
On the other hand, we can also front-load our instruction and
take it away when players start to do well. This is the exact inverse
of just-in-time instruction, and is known as instructional scaffold-
ing. Much like the scaffolds on a building, instruction is offered to
give students access to the game, and then removed as they start to
do better. Depending on the type of game and the desires of the
designer, the well-designed tutorial might offer instruction of-the-
bat, and then fade it away as players become more skilled, bringing it
back when players make mistakes, in a sort of half scaffold, half just-
in-time teaching method. This means writing programming hooks to
detect both desirable and undesirable behaviors, and programming
tutorials to intervene or fade away accordingly. This is helpful with
very complex topics, such as attaching joints and mounting points in
Kerbal Space Program . In a well-designed scaffolded tutorial, players
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