The New Player Experience - Hooks, Tutorials, Rewards - Extra Credits
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- čas přidán 16. 10. 2018
- A good new player experience consists of three pieces: the hook, the tutorial, and the reward. Spider-Man (2018) is an example that gets this right, by giving players an amazing experience right off the bat and not waiting until the second act.
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So many great games never get noticed because they’re great 10 or 20 hours in. 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.
Sound off in the comments with other examples of games you've seen that do (or horribly don't) get the new player experience right!
Got anything special planned for Halloween?
Bayonetta 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn immediately come to mind. The games are totally different in tone, but both tutorials are packed with stunning visuals that drew me in. They really had a "Wow" factor. Contrast this with Assassin's Creed Origins, whose tutorial I just played through a few days ago before immediately dropping the game for a bit. I know that this game is supposed to have a visually stunning open world, but the tutorial takes place in an underground ruins... it was kind of pretty, but not really satisfying. I'll go back to the game soon, but I was definitely a bit disappointed by the first 30 minutes. (Assassin's Creed Black Flag had a really good introductory area... like HZD and Bayonetta 2, it really showed off how dynamic the visual engine was, with that caribbean island experience.)
Nihl Lhin I could totally see that and I would LOVE it!
I've said it many times before, and I'll say once more, BREATH OF THE WIIIIILD!!! In fact, a lot of Zelda games do these very well, in my opinion.
subnautica had such a brilliant visual hook, showing you a spectacular explosion followed by the absolutely GORGEOUS shallows, but it also left you with the narrative hooks of "how do I get off here" and "WHY THE HECK DID I GET BLOWN OUT OF THE SKY!?" it really did a great job with the new player experience. it's just too bad that it's so bad at giving directions towards the end game areas (ended up going PAST the actual entrance I was supposed to find by like a mile to the left and kept going till I found a completely different one, only to find the right one on my way out while desperately fleeing from an out of power P.R.A.W.N. suit and a ghost leviathan...)
John Romero, while interviewed on the level design in DOOM, believed that the golden rule of level design: finish the first level last. "Because then you've learned everything about the game's level design, and you're going to put it all in the first level where you want people to get excited anyway."
Which is also the way Nintendo games are made, especialy Marios and Zeldas.
Isn't that how most games are made? You can't make a tutorial until you've made the rest of the game and know what it is the player needs to know.
Hmm, unless you mean the spectacles; many games have a tutorial that's just follow the arrows, press the button, okay go get-em champ.
Portal 2's opening. "Say 'apple'." *Prompt: space bar: Say Apple.* *Presses space bar; jumps* "Okay, now what you just did is called jumping."
Ha ha! I didn't realize that was a tutorial moment 'til your comment!
Yeah, that was great because it introduced the mechanics and the tone at the same time. Really that whole "look at the art" sequence right on through to Wheatly.
Honestly, tho, 70-80% of Portal and Portal 2 is tutorial. It works for those games because they're technically puzzle games. Other game genres might not do so well with that method of tutorial.
""""A""""
of course, because of that well-known dominant console valve game playerbase
That entire game was a perfect example of how to do tutorials well. You might not notice this on first playthrough, but every time they introduced a new mechanic (portals, cubes, lasers, gels, etc) they did so in a way that subtly explained at how to use that mechanic without ever explicitly telling you.
To be fair dying in the tutorial for Dark Souls absolutely delivers what you were promised when you picked up the game.
the tutorial should also teach you that you have to bring more salt :D
Exactly, the first edition was literally called the "Prepare to Die Edition".
It makes sense tge main mechanic is death
and man, that moment when a giant fucking crow comes out of nowhere and picks you up...
It’s even better (worse?) in the Demon’s Souls tutorial where you actually have to die no matter what in order to finish it
Best mechanical hook I've ever seen: Portal. The game makes you straight up wait in a box for a good minute... And then, bam... The portal opens and you see yourself just standing there (with your mind blown). I haven't seen anyone that wasn't just utterly fascinated by the first portal that opens and stepped through it repeatedly to figure out what is going on. So simple, yet utterly perfect.
I had someone play that section of the game. They were so oblivious and incapable of paying attention to what was actually happening that they didn't notice the portal. Didn't see themselves through it, didn't realize/understand that they walked through it, and managed to get completely lost and wander into the next room without even realizing where they were or where they were going. Basically stopped and said, 'wait how am I here now?'
I was so mad.
Tigersight feelsbadman
Agreed, though I think portal 2s op is better
Good 10 to 20 hours in. So, after the character creation screen?
*laughs in Deltarune's Character "Creator"*
For some, yes
I think Breath of the Wild did this perfectly:
The visual hook, the unforgettable first vista showing you Hyrule and the narrative hook: calamity Gannon.
The tutorial shows you what you can do in a natural way, only using words for controls, also cementing the general loop of the game.
And finally the triple reward: narrative, short term (heart/stamina), and long term (paraglider). I can't imagine a better example of a reward that promises things about the future.
Over a year since it came out and this brilliant game continues to surprise me!
not to mention your core abilities
Yep, this is what I was thinking as well. The Great Plateau is one of the best designed tutorials I have ever seen.
The button prompts also show you were they are on the controller which can help new players.
The fact that the game is still very prominent in the gaming collective conciousness shows how cool it is.
Nowadays the worst problem I've seen with games, and it's even worst in browser and mobile games, is how boring and tedious the tutorials are. Just a bunch of screens full of text constantly interrupting you from actually playing.
In my opinion, a good tutorial will teach the basics with words, and let you experience the rest as you advance. No reason to explain what every single icon in the HUD or every single in-game menu does when you simply don't need it yet.
Also, tutorials HAVE to be optional. Forcing a player to go through a boring tutorial for something maybe they already understand from similar games is a really bad idea.
I've played games for DECADES at this point. And in my opinion a good tutorial should teach you how things work without interrupting you and perhaps without even being noticed. Check out the first level of megaman x. Granted, megaman x is a much simpler game from a much simpler time. Spiderman is a good recent example.
i don't think tutorials should be optional, in my opinion tutorial should be the intro to play, making you play, but with a clear direction, teach you to jump? a pit, to attack? a box in your way and things like that, that take no time to someone that doesn't need it, a great tutorial should not be the thing you do before the game, but the game itself, mario 1-1 not even 5 seconds of basics, run, jump, enemies, power up.
but yeah, i agree way too many games do tutorials all wrong
I think it might work for mobile games in a since that many expect the player the player to know nothing about video games and things need to be laid out textbook style. Especially with many games being just an assortment of menus that the player will be engaged with 50% or more of the time.
Ah yeah, every time I boot up Mega Man X, the first thing I think is "damn, I wish I could skip this boring tutorial level". I don't think the tutorial needs to be optional if it is well enough crafted. But if it is, like most, really bad, then yeah, allow players to skip them.
Completely agree, and its usually a sign of over complicated UIs or game systems, meaning, poorly designed games.
It seems like we also lost the principle of letting the player learn by failure, which in a well designed game is a better learning tool than any tutorial.
final fantasy 7's intro is the best example i can think of that, it starts with a cg of midgar (which was mind blowing at the time) and goes right into a fight with with characters that already know each other and you slowly learn what they're doing through dialogues and context, without feeling like they're explaining it directly to you, then you plant a bomb, fight fucking giant robot, run from the bomb's explosion, buy a flower from a cute girl and THEN the game starts. Its the game that got me into jrpgs, and i think the intro is a big reason for that
Really all of Disc 1 Midgar is a tutorial, but the first bombing itself already teaches much more:
- Hey, you! See them sparkles? See this lady here? There might be some spiritual shit going on.
- Oh, by the way, this game is also some dark and edgy diesel punk.
- The next three points might be "d'uh!"s for FF veterans, but well, there were tons of players new to the series, especially outside of Japan. FFVI was not the western money maker Square hoped it would become.
- You have them magics! ... as Cloud. (Really, based on the lore, no hero but Cloud and Aerith should be able to equip materia.)
- You can fight a battle with multiple heros.
- You can find loot along your way.
- Expect boss fights with strategic gimmicks, expect sections with countdown timers.
- You have an evil world dominating corporation.
- The heros are eco terrorists.
- And here's the eco thing: Besides resistance vs. evil corp., this game is also about deeper, spiritual themes. Life energy, evil corp. literally killing the planet for profits, death, rebirth, the whole stuff.
Then the game goes on:
- This game has some fancy means of locomotion, a bit more realistic than castles diving in sand.
- Those here are the main good guys. And they know each other. And the past of everyone involved seems pretty relevant.
- Also, unlike what FFVI attempted to do: You have a clear set of main heros and secondary heros. The narrative benefits paid off.
- Here, have some "this is how you town" sandbox.
- Here, have an awful materia system and everything else tutorial.
- Evil corp. seems all-mighty and unimpressed by your efforts, btw.
- Sephiroth is teased as some legendary evil corp. warrior no longer in evil corp.
- Hey, back to the eco thing, here's the spiritual hero. Remember the intro and the flower scene?
- By the way, this game is also pretty funny.
- The whole sector 6 slum is an explicit set-up for FFVII's other theme: Identity, aka. who the fuck am I.
- Oh, and there's a Team Rocket secret service after you. Evil corp. is everywhere.
- By the way, evil corp. seems all-mighty. And ruthless.
- Aaand there's some creepy shit going on... which seems to also be connected to some relevant past. Mystery much! Also: "This woman has no head."
- Oh, remember how evil corp. seems all-mighty? Yeah, for you, but remember this Sephiroth guy? Well, fuck.
- Did I mention fancy means of locomotion? Did I also mention fun mini games?
- Look, this is the world, your enemies are evil corp. and probably-but-hopefully-not Sephiroth. Now go play and have a good time.
Kile 188 Also the epic bombing mission soundtrack.
6 I think did it better interns of the hook. It introduced a little mystery and a good reason to fight an empire.
And don't forget Final Fantasy IV, it usually gets overlooked, you start as a dark knight remorseful of having killed innocents to steal their crystal because the king who you regard as a father ordered it, you are even shown the sequence, you have the love of your life which sees through your facade, you express doubt, you are cast out with your best friend, deliver an item to a nearby village and unintentionally fucking destroy the city, a little girl survives and in the rage casts a titan and opens a chasm, and you end up defending her and commit treason so from then onwards you're persecuted by the kingdom you swore to defend, you may not like the format, but, HOLY F*CK things happen in just a few minutes of playing
The original Halo. Such a great intro that pulled you in, gave you enough to go on with the narrative but left you with questions, then had you move without a gun to get to the bridge yourself to make sure you know those basics before finally handing you a pistol. You get to take some easy shots against some Grunts, then you get your first assult rifle and tutorial's over, because those Marines are getting slaughtered and you're needed to save the day *right now*.
Great intro segment.
Keep your head down! There's two of us in here!
Security to the bridge, the Master Chief has gone rampant. Take him down, boys.
The great irony of the Halo tutorial is that the pistol is the best gun in the game, though it's presented as your introductory weapon/backup headshot-when-you-already-broke-the-shield-gun
@@superpie2themax I was thinking the same thing while I was typing, but I decided to leave it out because we're talking about good hooks not game balance.
Oblivion: Hey, do you like dark caves?
Player: No, they're really du-
Oblivon: *GREAT BECAUSE YOU'LL BE LOOKING AT THEM FOR AN HOUR STRAIGHT*
Yeah, that's exactly what I need after spending one hour for character creation... :D
not seeing your character due to the darkness?
Still a better opening/character creation setup than skyrim.
You are in that sewer like 4 or five times in that game. That's allot of sewer
Yes, I do like dark caves!
Thanks Oblivion!
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has a phenomenal opening and hook.
Underappreciated gem of a game in a lot of ways, really
Good gravy I loved that game!
Ghost Trick wins for best opening ever in my book. Throws you into the action straight away, introduces a mystery, immediately gets you emotionally invested (SAVE THE GIRL!), and the tutorial is just enough that the player can figure out the rest for themselves. It's bloody brilliant.
Oh gosh I remember that game. I don't think I ever finished it
Here's my new player experience in Doom (the new one), sometime after having played and enjoyed the old one:
- Doom guy wakes up and breaks out of chains and smashes some demon's head. This is the hook. The voice telling you to rip and tear, the immediate stress of doom guy realizing he's chained to a coffin or something and there comes a demon, and him smashing his way out of it tells you what kind of game Doom is right away just in case you didn't already know.
- I get to shoot some demons with the pistol. This is the beginning of the tutorial.
- I push a button on a door to open it and snag my suit and be introduced to two characters - one who is clearly a bad guy, and another who I'm inclined to believe is a bad guy but I'm not so sure. This is just a quick way to introduce us to part of the story, as these are the two most important characters in the game, with the exception of Vega.
- I go into the hallway ready to shoot more demons, but a prompt interrupts me and tells me I should push a button to "glory kill" them instead. I'm not a fan of prompts stopping the whole game, but in this case it's a warranted interruption since glory kills are arguably the most important mechanic in the whole game. The player was going to shoot those zombies just like the last ones, but the game stops the player and instead introduces them to the wonders of beating demons to a pulp.
- I go into a room, grab a shotgun, destroy a gore nest after a computer tells me there's too many demons, and fight the first complicated "arena full of demons" fight in the whole game. It's just imps for now, but it gives the new player a taste of what is to come, and it's still challenging because the player at this point only has a shotgun and a pistol. This right here is kind of the tutorial. There's not much to lose for dying at this part of the game, and the player puts all the pieces of movement and shooting and glory kills together to learn by experience what works and what doesn't for slaying demons. The player gets better over time later too, but this is the first foray, so this is where a player can first see which ideas are good, and which ones don't work in Doom.
- I get on an elevator, punch Sam Hayden's stupid screen, see the doom logo, and pump my shotgun, and I'm off into the actual game. This right here is the reward - overlooking the martian terrain as the elevator comes to a stop, pumping a shotgun as the metal dies down, and getting to work.
My "New Player Experience" for Factorio was watching videos about Factorio for weeks, finding out that its price was about to go up due to nearly being completed, and trying out the demo...which is basically a tutorial with narrow mission goals and just barely enough tools to solve them. The latter introduced the mechanics without giving me enough rope to hang myself with; the former showed me what was possible if I had all the rope.
Timothy McLean, love your profile picture!
I keep meaning to buy Factorio, it seems like the type of game I'd love (I'm an engineer irl). The demo didn't hook me as much as I'd hoped though.
I just realised that with one visual hook, the player seeing herself through a portal, the 30+minute tutorial feels totally worth it in Portal.
Absolutely! That might be one of the best uses of a visual hook in all of gaming, ever. It also makes you realize, narratively and mechanically, exactly what you're dealing with.
and as a reward towards the end of your tutorial you get total freedom
That cake was so moist, delicous!
Best reward ever.
I had the graphics settings on minimum, so portal depth 0, so didn't see that.
Takata Miyagawa Maybe don't play it on your Commodore 64
Got to love the Dwarf Fortress tutorial.
Is that "Here's an interface with more than an alphabet of keys to press to get you to more menus of similar size"? Because I'm pretty sure that's not a tutorial.
Fortress mode has a help menu once you've actually embarked. It's woefully incomplete for even what you want to do getting off the ground, and yet simultaneously goes into subjects that won't matter for several hours. Adventure mode has no tutorial whatsoever.
The game also doesn't give any concise summary of the current state of the world as documented in the legends information for your worldgen. And this actually matters a lot, even in fortress mode.
Reminder that Rimworld just came out of Early Access!
PSA: I'm pretty sure OP is making a joke.
To be honest, you should know what you're getting into when you download dwarf fortress: what some call the most "complex" and "inscrutable" game ever made? The developers primary absolute focus is on the systems of the game, not the user experience (although with the way DF is, user experience gets delivered to you by the game's procedural systems themselves. :-) Strike the Earth!
Easy Answer: BOTW's reward and drive to complete the tutorial was the paraglider.
I was just thinking about that!
Final fantasy 10. The steady ramp up to that beautiful Blitzball sequence straight into a boss battle then whoosh you in another world and just a few mins later you have your first party member speaking a langue you barely understand. Absolutely magical
PREY's hook is one of my current favorites.
It was nearly perfect - wasnt it ?
That moment when you first break the window in your apartment with the wrench, just to find out you were in a simulation, blew me away.
I have been playing through Breath of the Wild recently and I think it had an excellent new player experience, especially with its tutorial and reward. You could consider the whole great plateau a tutorial that introduces all of the game’s main mechanics in a very non intrusive way that feels like the rest of the experience. I think BotW shines with it’s reward when you get the paraglider and you finally have the ability to get off the plateau and explore wherever you want.
BotW's tutorial and reward are really good, but if we were to compare how it handles the three aspects of a new player experience, they don't hold a candle to the awesome hook of showing the gorgeous scenery when Link steps out of the chamber.
You guys can read my mind. I hoped you'd make a video like this, because I am currently struggling with this very issue.
Creating the feeling of "I want to play more of this" can be really hard ...
Going back a ways, but Metroid Prime (and a bunch of other Metroid games) takes the "bag of spilling" approach - for the opening segment on the Orpheon, you're presented with a narrative hook - there's a distress call, there's all this environmental story-telling saying that something terrible has happened here - a fairly safe zone to explore - you are technically facing space pirates, but they're all wounded and on the edge of death, the parasites aren't a threat, and the occasional defensive turret has the best chance of actually posing a threat, but is destroyed by a single missile - and you have many of Samus' cool powers and upgrades active so you can experience how much fun the game can be early on, even if it means you're a bit overpowered for what you're facing. Then the game takes most of Samus' toys away and moves you to a different environment - the surface of Tallon IV where the game proper starts with you having to reclaim even basic abilities.
The part of Metroid Prime following that opening is a bit of a slog - you have a basic blaster, and the ability to scan objects, and it takes a while to get enough power-ups for Samus to start feeling cool again - and without the opening section, it would be a dull, frustrating slog with no promise that things can and will get better.
if you can make the tutorial your hook, you're golden.
mgr-style, but try to actually tell us how to parry next time, huh
So, breath of the wild basically
(imo)
I gonna really show my age here. But a great visual hook/tutorial is the demo disc of final fantasy 8 inside of brave fencer musahi (I think). The opening cutscene not only is beautiful, the pulsing heartbeat with the music is building to something, then the character is looking at a map of the island and as he pulls it down, the music swells and it reveals the battle that's raging there and you're heading straight for it. It gets you pumped and then throughout this whole battle, you're learning about the game in engaging setting.
The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Excellent.
espacially with the current american president (unless someone expects you to save that douche).
Guy Ender (i believe that was the joke)
Can we pay them to keep him?
The president has been kidnapped by ninjas.
Are you a bad enough dude to save the ninjas?
Why don't we just wait until the next election and get a new one?
I'm going to go way back with my example: Halflife. It's a slow burning start, to be sure, but very intriguing. You start off in a tram that lets you do basic movement mechanics in an entirely enclosed, safe space, while listening to a computer voice monologue that paints the picture of this high tech science facility, and has a moving diorama of all kinds of interesting stuff going on. Then you're free to wander through a fairly sizable chunk of the first lab complex, find your HEV suit, etc, all with nothing more terrifying than your coworkers' weird walk cycles (thanks to that 1998 3d animation). And through all of it, you see signs of little things going wrong. Security guards who can't get to their posts, hazardous waste leaks, etc during the tram ride, and computer errors of all kinds as you make your way through the lab. Makes for an excellent narrative hook while simultaneously giving you not only a movement tutorial, but also a familiarity with the layout of the first level once shit hits the fan, which is a huge advantage in this kind of shooter.
Then you cause the resonance cascade. You're warped around a few times, shown a couple of the more common alien creatures, then dropped back into the now destroyed....uhh, I think they called it an "anti-mass spectrometer", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. You wander back through the complex, finding all sorts of broken stuff, headcrabs on the loose, and eventually find your crowbar. Your first pistol comes later if you're doing well with the crowbar, because if you screw up, one of the security guards gets killed and drops his gun.
Like I said, it's a slow burn, but it starts building intrigue right from the start. And it does this without giving you a power trip and making all its enemies feel non-threatening right off the bat. (I hate this trope, personally; it forces them to find a way, usually entirely artificial, of stripping your powers away to the basics just far enough in that you get used to having them, and it really screws with your ability to properly fear the enemies. Consider this: the one Metroid game that actually makes you feel like you're in over your head is Metroid Fusion - the one game that doesn't give you your full array of suit powers at the start of the game. And damn is Metroid Fusion a good game.)
Also, while it doesn't give you a contextual tutorial, there's an explicit tutorial that teaches a lot of the game's mechanics overtly that you can load up if you need it.
Metal Gear Rising objectively had the best int-*RULES OF NATURE*
AND THEY'LL RUN WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT
WITH THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE
(ALIVE)
FOR A WHILE
(NO CHOICE)
GOTTA FOLLOW THE LAWS OF THE WILD
ALIIIIIIIIIVE!
Your memes... end here
This was a good episode! a relevant topic and a lot of good examples of games/devs that did it right and how/why. keep up the good work guys
"tutori-hole"!! XD
Persona 5 did the opening perfectly, hooking with some late game teases before integrating the tutorials into the first dungeon by having them be parts of the story itself
Battle chef brigade is a fantastic example of a game that teaches you as you play.
Couldn't stop thinking about BotW for this, and it nails it
Opening with a visual hook, entertaining learning experience tutorial (that isn't exclusively on the great plateau), and reward both in your first "level up" and the introduction of the paraglider that you've been teased with the whole time.
Thank you for making this video. A good tutorial helps you understand the game and makes you want to learn more. I don't like how some games don't teach you any basics and throws you into matches with experienced players.
Skyrim tried to give the player a hook (the dragon). But that hook came after 15 minutes of cruft and narrating that really didn't explain anything to a new player.
how you get hooked to a game varies from player to player, but i would say that skyrim has a decent narrative hook at the beginning with the story of the stormcloaks AND the dragon... but that's just my opinion :p
ps: had to look up the intro since i remembered it a lot shorter (to me 15 min of doing nothing in a game is a lot) and w/o the character creation it takes 6 min to get to the dragon part
Yeah, also it was really linear. It's like how in an earlier episode they talk about how the opening of the original God of War was meant to make you feel powerful and strong for beating the Hydra, but I just felt like I beat a tutorial, bashed the button a few times and got cutscene of my guy doing awesome stuff. Same with Skyrim, you're never in danger. Never making any real choices. Bethesda could have made the opening so much better by first letting you pick your background (villager, convict, etc) and then have you make choices right away. Dragon attacks, do you fight alongside Stormcloak or Imperials, or do you try to get the people to safety? Do you run away on your own? Do you team up with the guards trying to bring the beast down? Do you try to fight Alduin on your own? There was so much potential for good roleplaying wasted on some boring linear "go there, wait for thing to happen then go there" that the opening never worked for me.
The loooooooonnnnnnng wagon ride at the beginning, with little exposition. Painful. Like being stuck in traffic.
And the horror of character creation.
I actually like the wagon ride, you get to see the real world you are going to explore. What I hate is eternal cut scenes trying to introduce you a story.
Persona 5 has this down pat. The opening cutscene, followed by giving you the basics of the combat and stealth, and then ending on a narrative hook that makes you want to experience the story and learn what the hell was going on.
Plus the narrative hook from the opening also serves as a long time reward, since you finally get context on the events AND get offered a fantastic narrative twist at that point.
Let's not forget the visual hook that is the menu itself. The whole feel, identity and motif of the game is there before you even press start.
Oh, if you want a menu hook, I'll throw another Atlus game at you: Catherine. Damn Vincent all chained up, yelling "Catherine!" was just epic. I can't wait for the remaster.
Same, this game really stuck in my mind for a long time
That was the only reason I played Persona 5. The opening scene was fun, then i spent the entire opening of the game rushing through the days trying to get back to being a phantom thief so I could do it again.
Yeah the spiderman tutorial was one of the best I've seen in a while mixes narrative, visual, and and mechanical.
The wonderful 101 has a great introduction. The visual spectacle as you load in the start is a great hook, the tutorial is action packed and gives a great overview of things without bogging you down in the complex stuff and the whole thing, especially near the end, just gives this cool sense of satisfaction that leaves you wanting more
One my favourite tutorials was Splatoon's singleplayer mode. No seriously. That whole thing was tutorial to get players most used to the game's movement and combat.
top 3 personal hooks (in no particular order):
Star Wars The Force Unleashed - You're Darth Vader, mowing down wookies and being untouchable - best mechanical hook
Metal Gear Rising: Revengence - Badass cyborg slicing a giant robot like it's butter - best visual hook
Injustice - Superman PUNCHES A HOLE TROUGH THE JOKER! - best narative hook
again, from personal opinion only.
@@doubled6490 so visual/narrative hooks then?
+Double D great examples, sockhead.
speaking of metal gear
metal gear 5 really ignores this in its prologue
Sockhead = Double D's nickname in Ed, Edd & Eddy.
The last of us. The hook (narrative in this case) was amazing and heart wrenching, the tutorial where you're playing through the initial outbreak was super exciting, even if there was no fighting involved, and the reward was basically the rest of the game, from finding out what happened during the time jump, to finding out more about all the characters.
One of the most interesting pieces of game development advice I've heard: The beginning should be one of the last things you do.
I think it was one of the leads on the first God of War. Which makes sense, because spectacular intros are one of the things that series is known for (at least, before the reboot). They've got all three pieces:
The hook: You're tossed into the middle of an epic battle that shows off some incredible scale and spectacle for the time each game came out, with some sort of giant boss rampaging around.
The tutorial: The game tells you to press Square and sometimes Triangle or Circle, and you do that, and Kratos causes a satisfying amount of violence. The enemies start out easy, but gradually increase in difficulty so you have to start using more defensive moves. By the end, the player should know how to play, even if they haven't played a God of War game before.
The reward: You fight the aforementioned giant rampaging boss, usually in multiple phases, and finally take it down in a spectacular fashion. Impaling the Hydra on the mast, taking down the Colossus of Rhodes from the inside, just... _everything_ about Poseidon. You feel unstoppable, and you want to see what else this game is gonna throw at you.
My favourite New Player Experience is in Xenoblade Chronicles. Awesome cutscene of Bionis vs. Mechonis Fight (visual hook) with narration explaining the back story (narrative hook), followed by fighting Mechon as Dunban(mechanical hook), followed by a tutorial involving walking around Colony 9 and Tephra Cave, then a reward of a boss fight followed by the Mechon invading C9, culminating in Shulk obtaining the Monado and using it to trash every Mechon in sight. It takes some patience to get through the tutorial, but it is absolutely worth the time.
I was just thinking of the same! And how, by comparison, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has an absolutely TERRIBLE New Player Experience. Instead of an awesome cutscene followed by a full party battle, we have an expository cutscene followed by a VERY slow fight where you have only two abilities. And then you go to a town. And then you talk to some people. And then it introduces a freaking GRINDING mechanic (salvaging) before you're even introduced fully to combat. It's only after at least 4-6 hours that you're introduced to the central mechanic of the game! And then it introduces the freaking Gatcha mechanics before fully explaining all of how combat works. and 'rewards' you with a garbage blade that is objectively terrible in every sense of the word. It's only after 10 hours that you're actually "done" with the tutorial, and you're only in the first area.
By comparison, you're probably in the Gaur Plains in Xenoblad Chronicles by then, and that's "the part where things get cool."
(And I didn't even go into how off putting the writing, character design, etc was in 2. I know this is more of a personal preference thing, but seriously, what the HELL is up with those character designs? What are they even supposed to BE?)
The hook really makes you feel like Spider-Man
I would add another type of hook: the anticipation hook, where the player sees something amazing that they want to do but can't because they just started. But they know they will be able to do it further into the game, and that motivates them to keep playing. You even talked about it in the last episode about aspirational play.
This is all REALLY good advice. Thank you.
One (in my opinion) great example of audio/visual hook is Exapunks, although I already knew I was gonna enjoy the game, the loading screen (yeah the loading screen of the game) was so epic I was impressed before even getting to the main menu.
The truck onto in pokemon ORAS is also a good example.
I swear the game gets good after the 30 hour mark! Just push through!
After the 30 hour hook?
I really enjoyed "Stories" beginning. It starts out with a narrative hook and gradually teaches you the few mechanics within the game. It's really kept me "hooked" because it's a different story every play through.
The visual hook and the thinking that monster hunter world give the new player and old player alike is so cool. I love it
Team fortress 2 is a great albeit old example of a bad tutorial
Wait, tf2 has a tutorial?
@@andrewdalton3178 only by technicality
@@unktheunk1428 but it doesn't *f u n c t i o n*
it was bad in its time as well. look at portal for example. good tutorials are not a new thing.
Speaking of Valve games, how is the Dota 2 Tutorial these days?
This isn't just something in video games, there are some similarities to what is needed in tabletop games. Tabletop games need a hook for all potential players, every kind of game does, and they require rewards of some kind. Role Playing Games are the trickest of all game kinds, tabletop or Computerized or MMO, because they require narrative hooks quite frequently, but on like computerized RPGs or MMORPGs, tabletop RPGs have narrative hooks that are just as on the ones running the game as they are the game developers. Most game developers or tabletop RPGs these days have what are known as a "starter box" that will allow players to just get up and go after just a few minutes of setting up, and the boxes come with a starting campaign for the players to experience. Developers for tabletop RPGs put out what are known as modules, campaigns that the game developers have either written or published that are there for players to use if they so choose. But the thing about tabletop RPGs is that they don't require any prewritten works for players to experience, they just help if the people running the game are feeling pressed for time or can't think of what to put the player characters through. The ones running a tabletop RPG can literally build an entire game world and adventure from scratch, but in doing so all the hooks are on them.
Extra Credits has done a lot of videos on video games, and that's fine, but maybe it's time to leave the video game chat aside for a bit and talk about tabletop games and everything that they have going for them. Maybe to start things off a comparison between the pros and cons of tabletop games, especially tabletop RPGs, in relation to video games and computer games. There are services out there now that allow players of tabletop RPGs to have some semblance of that classic tabletop experience with people in drastically different places across the globe. Maybe a look into those services and how they're advancing tabletop experiences in the age we live in now.
tabletop tutorials are kind of iffy, sure the are board/card videogames, but for either genre in real life, it is up to the player to read the "tutorial".
My ultimate New Player Experience is the Persona series, especially Persona 3. The game opens with a visual and narrative hook (a cutscene showing your character going through the town and suddenly experiencing the Dark Hour), followed by some small dialogue to give more of the narrative and entering your name, followed by another visual hook (summoning your Persona for the first time and watching it lay the smack down on a boss monster), then launches right into the tutorial for your first fight. I picked the game up years ago at age 16 without knowing anything about it, and it became my all-time favorite game within 30 mins flat. To this day, it's my favorite franchise, and I recommend it to all my friends. This video just helped me understand why I liked it so much so quickly. Thanks, EC!
I'm replaying (and trying to beat for the first time since I wasn't good enough as a kid) Metroid Prime and the intro is so good.
You get the taste of Samus' power before it's taken away and you want it back.
Lol, tutori-hole! Brilliant!
I have definitely fallen into tutori-holes so deep, I didn't play the game. Fitting you used Link in your animation, because the last tutori-hole I fell in was Skyward Sword. XD
Hey extra credits, I love you.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had a great intro. It has a small narrative hook in the Shrine of Resurrection, then a big visual hook when you leave, followed by another narrative hook with the old man. Then, the tutorial is literally the rest of the game in microcosm, as you travel across the plateau collecting and learning how to use the core gadgets. THEN, it has another big hook, this one mechanical, when you get the glider and can finally leave the plateau.
This is gonna help me so much with something i've been working on thanks guys
I like the introduction to wundersong, it's all like "hey this game is unconventional, you in or not?"
I remember from the old days, Need For Speed games (like Underground) had very compelling tutorials with all 3 of the requirements.
My all time favourite game is Morrowind, and I feel like it gets the hooks sooooo right, well not really the mechanical one, as nothing hugely exciting is happening, you're just walking along and making your character, but there is a cool narrative hook, you're a prisoner, you don't know why but you are part of some greater design, but you don't know what that design is, and a great visual hook, as in, when you get off the boat you get a small glimpse of a strange land, then when you're out of the release office you're greeted by giant mushrooms and strange buildings while amazing music plays, it's great! And I love how the tutorial prompts sound really friendly for some reason, like there's a dagger on a table and a prompt pops up basically saying "Hey there's a knife there! You can pick it up and hit RT to swing, why not give it a try?". And then its reward at the end of it all is that you're free to do whatever you like, absolutely anything, and that is a great reward that would keep anybody playing for hundreds of hours in a game like Morrowind.
Huh. I actually found it to be the opposite of effective: I don't know who any of these people are, (and so don't care what happens to them) the scene was just a mush of browns, and the actions I'm taking don't seem to have any impact on... anything. I think I played for 45 minutes before putting it down.
Battlefield 1 has the best tutorial, dramatic cutscene followed by immediate onslaught of enemies for urgency with pop up control hints. The best part, you can't win the first onslaught, and it lets you know that, so there are no expectations on skill from the player off the bat. And with you holding of a constant wave of tens of enemies at a time it makes you say "I think I'm good at this."
I feel the same problem hooking viewers on CZcams haha. Great tips
If you investigate and pay attention, a lot of this things are similar in most of the media. A lot of this is also important for example when your writing a novel. There are many things that if you learn them once, you can use them for many kinds of different projects.
If it wasn't for my cousin showing me his powers in Skyrim, I would have never had the patience to suffer through the beginning. Werewolves(or any powers in general) used to be my weakness back then.
I think one of the best tutorials i the last few years in games that I've played was the GTA V one.
You have basically all the hooks you described and learn nearly everything you need for the majority of the game (shooting, aiming, abilities, driving, ... )
And it's all done in a way that still lets you have fun and basically play the game.
nice to revisit this topic again with a new spin on it
Dark Souls 1, tossing me immediately against the Demon-Prison-Guard, with just a broken sword. i realized: "no way im supposed to hit him with this thing, so i found an exit"...rest is history...
I got opposite reaction after hearing how hard and punishing Dark Souls is: " Killing 1st demon boss with broken sword that doing 0.5% damage to his health, so this is how entire game would be, eh?"
Well, there is a message on the ground that says, "Run." and I believe the exit gate opens up visually next to the Asylum Demon. Not the smoothest, but also lets you know the game isn't going to hold your hand.
Kingdom Hearts 2 is noteworthy for a couple of reasons here.
It does do the narrative hook thing (although, to be honest, most of the narrative is pretty bad, nevertheless there is some good stuff) through a mystery, which the Goonies have to solve, interspersed with a bunch of mini games, some relating to combat mechanics, doubling, of course, as tutorials, and one particular fight in which you get to play with some of the late game stuff (however, as that fight is pretty easy even on the hardest difficulty, the mechanics don't really get to shine). It also tries the visual hook through a GMV, which looks ... kinda nice?
What is outstanding, however, is the reward. See, as reward for completing the tutorial section, you get to play ... as the protagonist. What does that mean? Well, in Kingdom Hearts 1 you played as Sora, but in Kingdom Hearts 2 you start with playing Roxas. You get thrown into his world and his problems, all the while asking yourself: "WTF happened to Sora?" Meanwhile, through each step of the mystery narrative, Sora gets more and more hyped up, while Roxas' world starts to slowly deteriorate and break down. In the end, when you finally get to play Sora, it simultaneously feels like a heavy weight has been lifted off your shoulders ... and your dog fucking died this morning. I wish more games would dare do something so bitter sweet.
Granted ... Kingdom Hearts 2 also kinda ruins this moment by following it up with a cutscene full of goofy laughter and happiness, but still, the build up is just plain great.
"it simultaneously feels like a heavy weight has been lifted off your shoulders ... and your dog fucking died this morning" that is an incredibly accurate description of that moment
I think the most recent Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, was one of the most well done openings to a game. It not only grabbed my attention with fantastic voice acting, but the breath-taking (no pun intended) views that truly made me excited to explore a well crafted world within about five minutes. As soon as I laid eyes upon the twin peaks, I thought to myself "I want to be there. I want to see where I am now from that spot right there." and the games natural path took me straight to them.
Bastion has an amazing narrative and visual hook in the opening minute!
Super Metroid is an excellent example of this.
I think UNDERTALE has the best start I have ever played
With flowey " provocation " best hook ever
Toriel and the froggit bringing some humour AND finally
The reward with the title screen and first encounter with sans
Or the death of toriel Being a superb "non reward"
That first chapter of the Phantom Pain is one that definitely comes to mind. It makes the player desperate for agency and freedom so when mission 2 comes around they can fully appreciate it and makes sure they know exactly how serious the threats are.
Mages of Mystralia. This is a game I haven't seen much buzz about, but they definitely nailed this design for the tutorial. You start off with the story hook of "Get to Haven, your Mentor will be waiting for you there," and from that, you get some pretty exciting bits of mechanical learning. But they also don't throw the whole book at you; you start off with one part, and then gradually pick up new stuff to experiment with as you progress through the game
Metroid Prime had an amazing new player experience
Combining Horror vibes with the mechanical hook of heaving most of your equipment. They did an awesome job!
@@PrimordialNightmare and instead of a reward at the end, it just had a bigger hook: losing it all
I always love Final Fantasy’s display of scale of the game in the beginning... even though its tutorials can seem interminable
I immediately thought of the Opening Bombing Mission in VII. Huge but relatively short Cutscene that drops the player right into the bombing mission, which ultimately is the first tutorial, culminating in the giant explosion of the Mako Reactor. Just...beautiful.
Final Fantasy XIII arguably has a 20 hour tutorial - I'm told the post-game is a decent game, you just have to get through the game to unlock it...
FF6, FF7, and FF10 were great in this regard, but all the others I can think of are at best slightly bad in this regard. (And I'm a fan.)
@@Raveman540
Probably the best thing about the beginning of FFVII is that they give you just enough tutorial to navigate the first mission and then the rest of the tutorials are completely optional.
During a natural quiet moment you walk into a neighboring building (which also allowed you to learn exploration) and then a bunch of guys teach you all the long tedious menu stuff that bogs down so many JRPG narratives. In a second playthrough you can choose to skip it altogether.
The best part, if I remember right, was that the narrative framed it as the other guys asking Cloud how it was done. So, your own player character explained it to you. This keeps the idea that he already knows what he's doing.
I remember Homeworld doing it just right for me. The game had an independent tutorial accessible separately from the main campaign though. But the hook - mechanic, visual and audio - was amazing. The tutorial gives you the basics of all you need to play most of the game. The reward is the promise of an amazing story - and visually stunning maps to play in.
But then again its Homeworld we are talking about.
the divinity original sin 2 intro is pretty great i think. puts you through the tutorial without it even feeling like it was really a tutorial until you play through it a second time, at least in my experience
One that comes to my mind is Fire Emblem Awakening for the 3DS, and even then I knew I was hooked!
It starts off as what appears to be a final battle, which is exciting despite having little context. The tutorial pops up on the bottom screen that works like little slides: quick, simple, easy to understand, but not forced (character must stand here!). The level is very easy, just move your characters and attack the boss.
However I have to say that the biggest hook comes after this segment, because you are presented with a brief cutscene with a sudden plot twist. At that moment I knew: I wanted to know what just happened, and I knew I was in for an adventure!
The tutorial continues over the next few chapters as it introduces the main characters and the setting, which now that I think about it was not nearly as exciting as that first chapter but still enjoyable. To me, Fire Emblem Awakening has one of the most memorable openings I ever encountered in a video game.
I think Breath of the wild fits all of these perfectly
yeah. Nintendo is really good at level design.
The Great Plateau by itself is a more impressive open world experience than most full games. And it's just the tutorial.
@Chris Redfield what about skyward Sword?
Masterhitman935 (I like skyward sword) what who said that
Skyward Sword delivers in the first minutes aswell, you start off with off with the vision of the tournament , get the tutorial and then get the reward of the ceremony at the end. And while i agree that skyward sword has some really annoying aspects, the design of the start or the areas afterwards is not it.
I love this channel it is informational and has been a huge boost to me and my script writing and inspired my channel I think that this channels videos should get a oscar it is awesome
I hooked you to this channel
I know I am super late on this one but one of the most complete tutorials I have seen for a game comes from Path of Exile. By the time you leave the first area, you know how to use skills, you know potions refill as you kill enemies, and you see the possibilities of customization with the massive skill tree when you level up. It's all I could ask for in an opening, and it has all 3 elements discussed in this video
This has probably already been said a hundred times but Portal has a great tutorial. You don't realize that nearly half the game is a tutorial.
This goes for other valve games too, they are masters of setting gameplay and level design just right that the player will naturally discover what they need to do without needing to be told. Half-life 2, Portal 1 and 2. The tutorial should be invisible, and experienced players should never have to suffer through a tutorial. It's either fun for everyone, easily skipped with little consequence or you've developed it wrong.
Can you talk about effectively hooking without/limited tutorial, seen most recently in Breath of the Wild?
when i first starting playing gw2 i was a lore junkie, learning alot about every place i could, random books, npcs that you can talk to for the lay of the land, dunegons that held lore bits, and even the durmand priory, the order that was made all about knowledge and learning, 4 years in theres more to see and more to experiance, my guild, The Tribe Society, has been made just to help the pursuit in knowledge
My best new player experience was with Tales of Symphonia. It had a good visual hook before anything else (flying over Sylvarant in HD with a brief telling of the Mana Regeneration by Kratos), had a nice tutorial that started coming in with the very first battle as the mage chimes in with how and when to use magic and regular artes. It also pops up button icons to tell you how to block and then, when you get hurt, what a Gel is used for and all without actually interrupting the flow of the game since it's the characters talking and not a block of text. I was rewarded by going up a level and being lead to a harder (but not impossible battle) with an interesting and fairly easy dungeon that gives you an item you make full use of for the rest of the game.
It also doesn't really waste time getting the story under way, and as much as Tethe'alla is more exciting, I loved journeying through Sylvarant and unlocking the Seals because the dungeons were themed and everywhere (seal or human ranch) has you use the item gotten in the first dungeon. The best part is the function of the item changes with every dungeon so the player is even interested in seeing how it will act next.
It is my favorite game for some many reasons.
This episode could have been look at paradox game now do the opposite
Hoi4 has a pretty good tutorial, I think stelaris has a good one as well
@@unktheunk1428 I will give you Stellaris but hearts of iron 4 is almost as bad as ck2 at explaining it's self
Europa Universalis *3* Said hi
Yhea. Which is such a waste as they're so fantastic, if - sadly not when - you get the hang of it
the hook in paradox games is outstanding
titanfall was my first FPS due to the outer hook of giant freaking robots (i was 12 ok?)! now i play mostly FPS's. just shows the importance of a good first impression.
Expand your horizons bud, lots of great genres out there
@@Malus1531 Well that was wrong of me to say I pley only FPS's because I don't. I still really don't like turn based combat and I never did, but I do play other types of action games such as action RPG's, jack n' slash, and a few other stuff. I have also gotten my hands on legend of zelda botw and I freakin' love that game. My bad for writing this comment with little thought.
All of Spider-Man feels like a new player experience and I love it
Id say the best new player experience ive ever had is with fallout 3. The game starts with it's classic "war never changes" spiel, then goes to character creation, which is literally you being born and having your looks being predicted by a computer, and moves on to the tutorial that takes part in sections of your characters life as they grow up in the vault. All of this has narrative elements that are a part of the main story and help maintain player intrest. All this is done in a short time frame as well to maintain the players attention. After this you have your first taste of real combat and free interaction with the world. This allows the player to try out all the skills they learned during the tutorial in a relatively safe environment with low level enemies but also allows some level of player choice (help or don't help buch, take the gun from amata or let her have it, kill the overseer or not) as well as using the narrative elements to add tension and interest. Then, after all of that the player gets a chance to re-work there characters based on there play experience so far; then is greeted with a magnificent view of the world they are going to explore on top of gaining a level up to not only reward them, but teach them what leveling up is like. It's a blending of narrative, mechanical and visual hooks in truly expert fashion.
As for the worst one, it would either be cataclysm dark days ahead, dwarf fortress or eve online. The first two for there complexity and lack of explanation about there core mechanics along with lacking any narrative or visual hooks. The last one due to the length and utter dullness of it's tutorial. I have still played the crap out of all of these games but only due to actually seeing what the games are like after those first few hours due to let's plays instead of my own experience with them.
Bayonetta checking off all the boxes
too many cutscenes upfront imo
...Didn't you guys already do a video about this? "The First Five Minutes"?
This is an indie game I don't imagine many people have heard of, but Aer. The tutorial starts you off inside a cave, introduces you to basic platforming controls as jumping and interacting with objects. Throughout the cave, you discover the backstory of the world you're in in a way similar to how Journey did it, and near the end of the tutorial, the stakes are raised by a cave-in you have to escape.
As you exit the cave, you're greeted by a fantastical landscape of floating islands and sunset skies that completely knocked the breath out of me. And your reward? You learn to transform into a bird, allowing you to fly around and explore this amazing world.
I played the demo to this game on a game expo and it was so powerful I almost cried of joy when I took my first dive off of the island I was on, only to transform into a bird and soar back up into the sky. I knew right then and there that I *needed* this game.
Prototype did the best job at this i ever saw. I still remember how impressed i was after just a few minutes of gameplay. Because you get a quick paced preview of your endgame powers as tutorial.
One of the first things you is destroying a tank by elbow dropping into it from a super high jump.
And yes, elbow dropping into tanks is a feasible way of dealing with them later on.
That is one reason why Xenoblade Chronicles is such a masterpiece: It uses all 3 hooks at the same time!
Mechanical: I'm a badass war hero.
Narritive: This is the battle that wins the war..?
Visual: We're fighting on a titan's sword.
Liam White i only played the Wii U version and that was awesome.
Also can you make a video on Detroit become human and how the repeatability mechanics work
Transistor for both a visual and narrative hook. The mechanic hook slowly eases in so as to not overwhelm players with the possibilities.
The legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is amazing at this. There's a narrative hook with the opening cutscene, teasing the story elements to come. The visual hook is the view from the shrine of Resurrection. After the narrative mini-dump with the old man, were set loose onto the Great Plateau, and given the mechanical hooks of combat and survival. Truly a masterly -crafted tutorial
Megaman X is what I hold up as "ideal tutorial"
OH BOY IT'S MEGAMAN!
It literally taught you every aspect of the game in the first few minutes. Amazing design.
@@CockatooDude "Megaman!! MEGAMAN!!!"
czcams.com/video/8FpigqfcvlM/video.html
Jump'n'shootman
~Riding on cars~
I think that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the game that comes to mind with this. I think they pulled off a great "new player experience" with that game.
The hook: seeing that starting vista, with Hyrule castle in the distance having some ominous clouds surrounding it.
The Tutorial: This kind of comes in two parts, once at the beginning when you're exiting the cave (where you learn how to move, jump, and climb) and after the hook when you get to experiment with the sandbox elements of the game in a relatively safe environment (The Great Plateau). So a tutorial for controls, and then a tutorial for mechanics, respectively.
The Reward: Getting the paraglider is the reward. The ability to finally take off and explore that huge world is what makes me want to say "let's do this".
Majora's Mask. Not having picked up Ocarina for a few months before it was released, young me appreciated a space right at the beginning where I had all the tools I would need, to play around and re-acquaint myself with how things worked, followed by a more restrictive experience that, in a faster version of the three-dsy cycle, allowed me to see how things changed not just from night to day, day to day. Very good, very solid.
One of my favorites was Ever Quest 2 Isle of Refuge (with the ship called the Far Journey in the beginning fighting off a dragon). Very engaging tutorial.