Hello fellow co-conspirators!
Well it was a bit of a journey, but I finally finished the new tutorial. Instead of it being very hand-holdy (say like a mobile game would), this one was more exploration-focused; letting the players do their thang and then explaining what just happened. The idea is the as players have control over what they’re doing, then every explanation is related to something they just thought about. In other words, they can’t just click on what we tell them and ignore why we tell them.
I did a few playtests, and so far it’s working well! Players seem to have a better grasp of the game and of its complexities.
This system also has a few other advantages. First I can spread the tutorial thiner, over more stages, which avoids overwhelming the player with all that knowledge. The game is pretty complex and unusual as is…no need to rub into people’s faces.
Second I can now place panels near where I want the player’s attention. It isn’t foolproof yet (haven’t tried with different screen ratios), and I do want to add arrows to the panels to make it even more obvious, but it is a start.
It took a while though, mostly because each panel has to be (almost) individually coded for the conditions it’s waiting for. It’s not just the time coding, each panel has to be tested in isolation and as part of the flow…that means I’ve gone through this tutorial a lot in the past days, haha. Still, I’m happy with the result; I think it’s a keeper.
Happy conspiring!