Crafting Engaging Tutorials: Insights from Experienced Developers

Everyone has a favorite video game tutorial, whether it's the introductory hour of Fallout 3, which teaches new mechanics at different stages of growth, or Half-Life 2's iconic tutorial that conveys essential information in just four words and one empty can of soda. Tutorials are a vital part of the gaming experience, and a well-designed one can leave players eager for more, while a poorly crafted one might deter them from returning. There are many tried-and-tested methods for onboarding players, but some are more memorable and effective than others. To uncover the key ingredients and design principles behind compelling tutorials, we spoke with several game designers who shared their insights. Depending on the game's genre and complexity, there is no one-size-fits-all framework for crafting the perfect tutorial. Studio MDHR's Cuphead, for example, packs all the necessary information into a tightly crafted, snack-sized tutorial level. However, this approach wouldn't work for more atypical titles like Chants of Sennaar or Kerbal Space Program, as it would be overwhelming. As the campaign designer responsible for easing players into Deathloop, Dana Nightingale faced a similar challenge. The solution was to break down new information and feed it to players gradually. 'We had to space things out and dedicate curated moments to individual mechanics, and do that retroactively. We discovered we had to do this because we had so many mechanics that we just kind of felt like, 'It's fine. Let's let the player figure it out'. This turned out not to be a strategy that was helpful in a game with this many new, unfamiliar mechanics.' To onboard both experienced and new players into Deathloop, Nightingale and her team dedicated the first two levels to introducing players to the necessary tools and mechanics. However, some mechanics, such as Infusion, which allows players to retain weapons and powers when the time loop resets, were difficult for players to grasp. 'We had to do something the studio's never done before, which was to have tutorialized menus,' Nightingale explains. 'It's that layer on the interface that greys out the UI except for one element with a message explaining the player that we have a mechanic we want to introduce you to. Once we got there in terms of the ideology of 'Oh, maybe we do actually need tutorials in our UI,' we immediately saw that it worked. Then we added a bunch more.' Similarly, Larian Studios' Game of the Year-winning sequel, Baldur's Gate 3, is a game comprised of many interconnected mechanics. When crafting an adventure for both regular Dungeon & Dragons players and newcomers, avoiding information overload is crucial. 'The game is big, and it may feel like it's a lot to learn,' Anna Guxens, senior RPG/narrative designer at Larian Studios, tells GamesIndustry.biz. 'We focused on starting simple, with just a handful of available actions and a constrained level to start easing players into the game, and then adding reactive messages whenever they encountered something new as their adventure progressed.' Another important tenet of a great tutorial, as told by all the designers we spoke to, is integrating it into the narrative of the game wherever possible. While it may seem more cost-efficient to use pop-up text boxes, Leo Dasso, the lead developer behind the upcoming hand-drawn twin-stick shooter Hauntii, argues that this approach not only breaks immersion but also misses an opportunity. 'If you know the sequence of things you need to teach, you can basically create a level that teaches those things,' he explains. Like Deathloop, Dasso's game puts a twist on the traditional twin-stick shooter formula by allowing players to possess objects and creatures. As a new soul of the Eternity, it's natural that you're guided by a friendly spirit that helps you learn how to haunt things. Once you learn how to haunt objects, the game seamlessly shows that each object allows for different interactions by asking you to move a colossal Olmec head. Not ten minutes into Hauntii's demo, the friendly spirit bids you farewell, marking the end of the introduction – which, according to Nightingale, is also a tenet of a great tutorial. 'There's always this fear of them taking the wrong lesson to think, 'This is the level of guidance I can expect from this game.' Then we stop giving that guidance and it's a problem again,' she explains. 'Have them understand that the tutorial is over and now you're on your own.' Another powerful example of narratively enhanced onboarding was demonstrated by Frictional Games' latest entry in the Amnesia franchise, which handed players tools to fight back against the lurking horrors for the first time in the series. 'A great tutorial is when it's embedded into the narrative or the setting so that it doesn't feel like something detached from the experience itself,' Fredrik Olsson, the creative lead of Amnesia: The Bunker, tells us. 'When players go through The Bunker, they get information in the [World War One] trenches,' Olsson explains. 'We meet at the end of the trenches; you run and you encounter a locked door – you need to break it down. It's part of what you naturally would do right now. So how do you do that? You then get some hints on how to pick things up and how to throw them at the door.' By the time players escape the trenches, not only is the setting established, but they also understand how the gun and grenades work, and how to patch themselves up – as a real WWI soldier would. However, the trenches are only the first half of The Bunker's onboarding. The rest of it happens in The Central Bunker, which was the first area Olsson and his team designed for this project. 'Putting a sign on the wall next to the generator saying 'The creature hates light', as well as some other notes - those things were probably added later. But the basics, teaching the player that they can use the lamp to save progress, that they can use the storage box or that the generator affects the creature - those were planned very early because we made the Hub level first.' Of course, if you look back at games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there are plenty of things that the game doesn't teach you right away. Rather, it leaves room for experimentation and surprises: when you get hit by lightning the first time, for example, there's no mini-tutorial explaining why it happened or how it might be used. But when the player figures out that same electricity can be used to solve puzzles with your iron sword between two electrical switches as the conductor, it's a feeling of empowerment – one that was always in mind when designing Baldur's Gate 3. As Guxens explains: 'As a developer, you sometimes have to battle that dark urge to ensure players know everything you've added into the game. However, there is a certain satisfaction to be found in discovering new exciting synergies and details: we allowed this space for discovery in Baldur's Gate 3, layering elements of complexity for players to uncover on their own as they continue their adventure.' While Baldur's Gate 3 and Deathloop reward more curious players with better loot, the motivation developers can offer in other types of games differs. Titles like Amnesia: The Bunker reward players with additional pieces of the narrative, but would an extra bullet or two create the same feeling? 'Some people don't know that you can use the bolt cutters on traps – when you do that, you disarm them,' Olsson says. 'There is a photo in one of the levels in which you can clearly see a soldier cutting the wire – that's also a tutorial, but that comes very late in the game.' 'What we really wanted with The Bunker was to create a game that challenged the player; that made the player feel a lot of rewarding moments where they felt like they put the pieces together [themselves]. So we try to keep the tutorial station to a minimum, understanding what the player needs in order to finish the game. But we use these photos a lot as added bonuses to reward players that spend time taking in the story.' Everyone who followed Baldur's Gate 3's development since it first came out as an Early Access on Steam in 2020 can spot most tweaks that its tutorial section underwent before its official release date. The prologue level aboard The Mind Flayer Nautiloid, for example, was condensed and the early encounters were streamlined based on players' feedback, Guxens explains. Although not every title decides to go the Early Access route, the principle remains the same: great tutorials do not happen without input from playtesters. While the process of playtesting may be different depending on the target audience and scope of your project, most developers aim for their game to be played by everyone – and that includes people who don't usually play video games or only do that on their phones. According to Dasso, those make for the best type of testers. 'If you can get somebody like that to get through the tutorial and understand the game – now that's a big challenge,' he explains. 'If you're talking with someone who has some experience playing games and they more or less understand the genres, you can just hand them a controller and they'll know what to do. But if you want to include people who really don't usually touch games or at least play super casually, then you need to explain every little aspect about the genre and do it in a way that's not boring.' Essentially, playtesting allows developers to see what works and what doesn't. Or as Nightingale describes it, it's a key component to problem-solving. 'It's hard to understand what's not understandable until you're watching someone not understand it,' she laughs. '[If] we have ten players who are having trouble in this exact way, and five others who are having trouble in a completely different way – what's the common thread here? [It's a way to find] the thing that's causing both of these problems to happen and try to solve it.' Like most aspects of game development, designing an effective tutorial is a complicated endeavor involving numerous iterations and components. In the end, your game's tutorial should always serve the same purpose: to equip the player with the tools for maximum immersion and enjoyment. No matter how challenging and time-consuming it may seem, crafting a memorable tutorial is a one-time opportunity to show players that you care about them and want them to stick around until the very end – even if, as the popular adage goes, we make games primarily for ourselves.