I often notice that some developers just don’t get the meaning of a tutorial. At the very beginning of some games, they give you a whole manual of text that you have to go through before you can start playing. This is something almost no gamer is interested in and anyone would try to go through the text as quick as possible, something that could totally ruin the game experience.

Have you ever played a board game where you read the whole manual before you started to play?

(Video) games are interactive, which means that the player can have input and constantly receives feedback. Same goes for the game itself, the game gets input and gives feedback (or simply output). If you take away the input of the player by presenting him with a bunch of text, nothing else then a manual, you basicly ignore the fact that games are interactive! Also, as a designer you should note that a player does not want to learn the rules as quickly as posible, but he or she wants to play the game as quickly as possible!

A tutorial is all about learning. You want your player to know how to play your game before he or she starts to play. You want your player to master your game when he is playing it. As a game designer, you can design how your player learns to play your game. When presenting your player with different elements of your game while he is playing it, you have a tutorial.

So, INSERT * INTO _game WHERE _tutorial = ‘interactive’. I hate databases.

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