Tutorial Design in Hoard Lord

Post date: Dec 22, 2017 3:18:35 PM

Some time after putting the basics of the Hoard Lord tutorial in place, I watched a GDC (Game Developers Conference) talk on tutorials. You can find the talk here:

The last point in this screenshot is what stuck with me:

Our first iteration of the tutorial had the user completing each given action a set # of times, like "Jump 3 times!" After x number of completions, the tutorial would move to the next stage.  This approach worked to explain the basic game concepts but didn't "feel" very good - it felt too much like the player was an automaton following orders x number of times... because they were being asked to act like one!

The flow of the tutorial looked something like this:

• 1. Moving: Explain move controls. Move left for x seconds, then move right for x seconds.

  2. Jumping: Explain jump controls. Jump 3 times

  3. Super Jumping: Explain super jump controls. Super Jump 3 times

  4. Collecting: Explain collect controls. Collect 3 items

  5. Game Over: Explain how the player becomes 'trapped,' then create a scene where the player is 'almost trapped' and require them to escape.

So, we redesigned our tutorial.  Instead of having the player mash a control sequence x number of times before advancing to the next step, now the player 'solves puzzles' for each gameplay element being described.  It's nothing overly complicated, but we think this simple switch in design methodology really improved the overall feel of the tutorial.

Now, the tutorial looks something like this:

• 1. Moving: Explain move controls. Drop a 'girder' (an item that stuns the player when it falls on them) from directly above the player, every second or so.  Keep doing this until the player 'dodges' the item, by moving.

  2. Jumping: Explain jump controls. Drop items in a formation that requires the user to jump over some items to reach an obvious 'goal' item: a shiny trophy.  Don't explain what they need to do! Make it visually obvious.

  3. Super Jumping: Explain super jump controls. Drop items in a formation that requires a super-jump to reach another trophy.

  4. Collecting: Explain collect controls. Drop items in a formation that requires multiple items to be collected in order to reach another trophy.

  5. Game Over: Explain how the player becomes 'trapped,' then create a scene where the player is 'almost trapped' and require them to escape. (this one is unchanged)

The Tutorial in action:

All of these 'puzzles' use normal gameplay items arranged in particular formations to achieve their teaching goal.  This will introduce the player to the fact that the 'girders' being dropped in the "move" tutorial section will stun the player if they're falling on them.  The 'trophies' being collected are normal gameplay 'loot' that can be collected for points.  So in addition to learning the control scheme, by the end of the tutorial the player has been introduced to a few important item types and their effect on gameplay.

The other thing we thought was important was to have the tutorial immediately put the player into the game on completion, which also helps avoid making the tutorial feel overly dry and instructional - you immediately find yourself in the game and able to put those recently-learned skills to use!