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Up Topic Development / Scenario & Object Development / Tutorial Concept
- - By Maikel Date 2012-10-14 11:54 Edited 2012-10-14 11:56
Tutorials
After being forced again to think about the tutorials for the released I (read some of us) realized that especially
tutorial 2 is horrible, it is way to complicated and does not fulfill its task at all. For that matter I stopped
thinking about fixing this and just redo all the tutorials completely (some elements can be kept of course). I
think we should agree on a general concept in which we can fit explaining all elementary controls in openclonk.
The tutorials should be structured and each should serve a clear and relatively small task, like just explaining
clonk movement. I would like to discuss this first with everyone here and gather some opinions and then implement
this for the next release. I think having a short set of tutorials which take about an hour to play through,
which is fun to play and makes the player familiar with the game is fundemental to attracting and keeping players.

So let me first gather some fundamental concepts, which I think are crucial for explaining things clearly yet still
keeping fun in playing. These guidelines/rules are of course open for discussion.
* A storyline shared among all tutorials would be nice, and will keep the player involved.
* In general I think it's better to have more tutorials, which are shorter and explain a limited amount.
* Control and gameplay concepts should be explained via easy tasks at which the player basically cannot
fail or at least will not be stuck for minutes.
* The player should be guided by as little text as possible, and we should try to do more with arrows, key indications
and maybe spoken indications. Try to keep text as short as possible and create intuitive situations.

Three categories
I would separate the tutorials into three categories for now.
* Controls: Explain the basic controls of the clonk, how to use items and operate vehicles and access containers: movement, items/inventory, hud, interactables, vehicles.
* Combat:Explain melee weapons, ranged weapons and combat vehicles.
* Settlement:Explain the basic production lines and mining.

Concept per Tutorial
The one thing I want to agree on is a per tutorial concept on which we can agree, with maybe a simple storyline. As an ansatz I will give my current ideas on the concept and update according to the suggestions in this thread.

=== Controls ===

01 Movement
Just use WASD. The player must navigate through a landscape just using WASD, the way will be shown by an arrow.
He will learn walking, jumping, scaling, hangling, swimming (diving?, wall-jump?).
(Maybe let the player take some damage from a falling rock somewhere and explain energy in the hud)

02 Items
Add the mouse to the controls, player will learn how to throw and use the basic items.
Items to explain: rock, loam, firestone.
Also explain the inventory in combinatio with the hands and the two mouse buttons.

03 Crew
Two clonks cooperate to navigate an easy landscape, just explain two items which are good for cooperation.
For example the rope ladder and something else
Also explain the crew hud and changing crew.

04 Containers
Explain chest and lorry and content menu

05 Vehicles
Explain air ship and other stuff

=== Combat ===

06 Ranged Weapons
Pretty good as is

07 Melee Weapons[
Pretty good as is

08 Combat vehicles
Explain catapult and cannon, maybe defend against an incoming airship

=== Settlement ===

TODO: the one we have is quite okay.

TL;DR: I don't want to do any work on tutorial 2 which is useless.
Parent - By Newton [de] Date 2012-10-14 13:36
I agree that 6 and 7 are fine. In my opinion, 1 is also fine. The settlement tutorial is ~OK.
Parent - - By ala [nl] Date 2012-10-15 07:40
Nice.

I agree that there are quite some issues, but the current tutorials are much better than no tutorial at all.

I liked the two fighting tutorial a lot, I played them again yesterday - one little feedback here:
-The Bow-Ki aims badly (doesn't consider moving targets) - it would be cool if I am forced to use the shield.
-It would also be cool if some tools get a tutorial, because they are quite hard to use. I remember training the hook and the wind char quite some time in an offline scenario.

>* A storyline shared among all tutorials would be nice, and will keep the player involved.


Move (1) to a settlement nearby, from your friend who needs help. Gather and use some basic Items (2), use two clonks (3), and vehicles (4) with some tools (5).
Move to a different place using vehicles (6).
Than like chase some bandits (7,8,9) and build your own place there (10) ;)
Parent - By boni [at] Date 2012-10-15 09:23

>from your friend who needs help.


No friends, only grumpy old men!
Parent - - By PeterW [gb] Date 2012-10-15 13:53
Some random thoughts...

> 01 Movement
> 02 Items
> 03 Crew


Do these really have to be separate scenarios? I mean, a player that already knows WASD (likely) will feel kind of cheated by having to sit through a few minutes of scenario loading just to learn something he or she already knew... Let's not forget that Tutorials should also ideally be really, really compact, as our goal is to get players up and running as fast as possible.

The existing tutorial 1 already involves way too much running around - and I doubt many players will really struggle with the "Hold down D" concept.
Parent - - By Maikel Date 2012-10-15 14:19
Yes, having them more compact is indeed the goal, I also think tutorial 1 is way too much walking around.

I think we can merge movement, with items (shovel loam flint) (picking them up, since I don't like to have the chest at such an early stage.

Getting them up and running as fast as possible is not the only goal I think, also the tutorials are the only advertisement for our game currently.
Cause only play is pretty much dead, and single player scenarios are not that much around (admitted that we now have settlement, with which
newcomers will struggle for sure).

So we should also advertise the game and make the tutorials fun (though easy and helpful in explaining the game).

At the moment I think they fail at all purposes (for which I am also to blame, that's why I need some input of course).

But merging tutorials where possible to reduce loading times is indeed important.
Parent - By PeterW [gb] Date 2012-10-15 15:35

> Cause only play is pretty much dead, and single player scenarios are not that much around


That's a separate problem. I agree that the tutorial should try to advertise as much as possible - but that's a secondary goal. After all, we aren't really planning on having the tutorials be the only "non-dead" part of OC forever, I presume...
Parent - By Sven2 [de] Date 2012-10-15 15:47
I don't think it's too much running around. It's very easy and gives you instant reward.
Parent - - By Clonkonaut [de] Date 2012-10-15 15:49
I'd rather have a short (and maybe skippable) tutorial about WASD solely, instead a long and mixed up round where I have to play through boring movement stuff before the interesting things start.
Reply
Parent - By PeterW [gb] Date 2012-10-15 16:18
The trick is to not make it boring in the first place - that's the whole point. I have played tutorial 1 hundreds of times while working on the lights code, and can attest that basic movement can be fun no matter how advanced you are. If you really want to challenge pros - just put some non-obvious shorcuts and a timer into it.

Aside: Anybody else gotten addicted yet to trying to hop backwards without ever turning? ;)
Parent - By Pyrit Date 2012-10-18 22:32

>Melee Weapons


The boss fight could be more difficult. Maybe he should jump around and stuff.
Up Topic Development / Scenario & Object Development / Tutorial Concept

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