Episode 11: How To Train Your Player

(Watch on Youtube)

“The designer doesn’t come in the box.”

It’s easy for designers to forget that players don’t initially know how to play their games, and adding tutorials too late in production can lead to bad first time user experiences (FTUE). As always, VR only complicates the problem. This week, we discuss all these issues and more. How exactly do you train your player to play your game?

Timestamps:

• 0:58 - Introduction

• 4:50 - FTUE

• 7:56 - "Glimmer Grove" Example

• 10:45 - Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners

• 17:30 - Limiting The Lessons

• 21:00 - Avoid Teaching the Wrong Thing (Battlewake)

• 24:36 - Player Expectations

• 27:47 - Ongoing Instruction

• 31:06 - The VR “Wow!” Moment

• 33:56 - Building Feedback into your Mechanics

• 35:50 - VR Conventions

• 39:09 - Wrap-up

Games we mention:

• Fruit Ninja VR

• The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners

• Vader Immortal

• Battlewake

• SUPERHOT VR

• Until You Fall

• Shadow of War

• The Last of Us Part II

• Asgard’s Wrath

• Stormland

Music:

Furious Freak by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3791-furious-freak

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Inspired by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Hey there, gorgeous! Thanks for checking out the post-show notes. User and Usability testing are actually quite close to my heart - let us know if you want to hear more about it!