So many great games
never get noticed
because they're great 10... maybe
20 hours in
and with literally hundreds of games coming out every day
We can't afford that
In the first 10 minutes
games have to grab the player
teach them how to play
and get them wanting to come back
This first experience is vital to your game success yet
It's a part of game design that's often not given the time it deserves
so today
we're going to talk about the components
of a well-designed
new player experience.
A good new player experience consists of three pieces
the hook
the tutorial
and the reward
the hook is just that
the part that grabs the player the part that makes the player now, even if they know nothing else that
this
is
Cool
that this is something they want to experience more of
now. We've talked a lot about building hooks in other episodes
You can check those out right here
So in this episode we're going to talk about the different types of hooks.
The most common types are
mechanical hooks
narrative hooks
and
visual hooks
Mechanical hooks are things like the first Dracula fight in Symphony of the Night
as soon as the player jumps into the game
They immediately get to do something exciting big and epic
Something that feels just like how they'd hope the game would feel from looking at the box art,
Here the player is hooked by something
They do. Something that shows them that the mechanics of the game can give them the moments
They crave just make sure your player lives through your mechanical hook unless of course your Dark Souls
Then there's the narrative hook, this can be as simple as:
"Are you a bad enough dude to to rescue the president?"
To something as mysterious and complex as the opening of Xenogears
It just has to give the player enough
Context to what's happening on the screen that they're invested and won't feel adrift when we drop them into the tutorial
Lastly we have the visual hook ever have a moment early in a game where your breath is taken away by what you're seeing
That is the visual hook. It can be an incredible monster a beautiful Vista or even a character design that just captivates you
No matter what hook you're delivering on the point of your hook is to get the player
Excited enough about your game to get through the tutorial. We've also talked about tutorials a lot elsewhere
You can see them right here
So we're just going to go over the high level goals of your tutorial
First your tutorial needs to ensure that by the end of it your player knows
everything they're going to need for the first few hours of play and I do mean
everything
something that may be
Intuitive to you may not be intuitive to everyone and you don't want your players quitting just because they learn differently than you do
Second just because you need to teach them everything
They need to start the game doesn't mean you need to teach them everything in the game right away
Remember you can split up your tutorial and teach the players about things they'll need an hour into your game when they encounter them in
fact I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you should and
Furthermore just because you need to teach the player everything doesn't mean that you have to be explicit about everything
Context-sensitive tutorials are your friend if the player is just running into a wall for five seconds
You can pop up a prompt that tells them what the jump button is
Most players will never see it, but for those that need it it's there
Your tutorial should also be engaging
Just because it's the tutorial doesn't mean that it has to be dull a great example of this is the old Call of Duty 4
Tutorial it's an exciting training run full of action and time pressure
But also a totally safe replica of the first level that by the time the player completes it lets the designers know that the player
Is ready to start the game
Another more recent example of an incredibly engaging tutorial comes from insomniac games
Spider-man right off the bat the game seamlessly transitions you from a cutscene
The hook into actively controlling Spidey swinging around New York and even though you're learning how to play the game
The web slinging is exciting as is the way they introduced you to combat gadgets and get you right into throwing the kingpin
It's the tutorial but it's also just the spider-man experience
Remember just because something is the tutorial doesn't mean it shouldn't deliver on everything. You bought the game for
Then there's the reward
The tutorial no matter how engaging you make it will be the dip in your interest curve that naturally follows the hook and that's okay
That's exactly how it should be
but it also means you should reward the player for getting through the
tutorial to not only make them feel good about what they've done but be excited about what's to come a
Well-constructed reward here comes in two pieces. The first part is the immediate reward
this can be things like having the player level up for the first time giving them a new weapon to play with or
handing them an extra life
In fact, it could just be a bunch of explosions and bonus points depending on the nature of your game
Then there's my personal favorite the long-term reward
this is the thing that
reinforces in the player that they want to keep playing and it can be things like a narrative hook or the
introduction of a mystery
they'll want to get to the bottom of or
Like that moment and fallout 4 when you get out of the vault for the first time see that incredible view of the wasteland before
You and say to yourself
Yes, this is where I want to be now the specifics of your long-term reward will vary from game to game quite a bit
But if you can round out your new player experience with a reward that promises something down the road that the player wants to
Experience explore or know, they'll stick around long enough to and hard air quotes here get to the good part
So as you're crafting the beginning of your game, just remember hook
Tutorial reward and the next time you put down a game shortly after picking it up ask yourself
Was it missing any of those pieces? If so, what was it? How could the experience be saved?
feel free to tell us in the comments what the best new player experiences you've well
Experienced dark and until next week. I think you know where to find me
Hey, I can see my house from here