1st Edition

Learn to Play Designing Tutorials for Video Games

By Matthew M. White Copyright 2014
    171 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    176 Pages
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    See How to Unobtrusively Incorporate Good Teaching into Your Game’s Mechanics

    Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games shows how to embed a tutorial directly into your game design mechanics so that your games naturally and comfortably teach players to have fun. The author deciphers years of research in game studies, education, psychology, human–computer interaction, and user interface and experience that equip you to make dynamic tutorials that help players enjoy your games.

    The book links game design principles with psychology through the game tutorial. It offers easy-to-implement changes that can make a huge difference in how players receive your games. It explains how you can educate new players and engage experienced players at the same time through a combination of good design and basic understanding of human educational, motivational, and cognitive psychologies.

    Transcending disciplinary boundaries, this book improves your understanding of the science of learning and the art of teaching. It helps you design game mechanics, or tutorials, that teach people how to have fun with your games without ever feeling as though they’re being instructed.

    Introduction
    Video Games
    Video Game Tutorials
    Cheat Sheet

    The Tutorial
    What Is a Tutorial?
    Why Tutorials Are Necessary
    How Tutorials Teach
    Three Tutorials in the Wild
    Examples of Existing Tutorials in Current Games
    You’ve Said Right and Wrong: Why?
    Cheat Sheet

    Learning Things
    How People Learn Stuff
    Why People Choose to Learn Stuff
    How to Teach People Stuff
    Cheat Sheet

    Rage-Quit
    Frustration and Boredom
    Cognitive Apprenticeship
    "Flow" and Other Reasons People Keep Playing
    Balance
    Feedback
    Clear Outcomes
    Summary
    Cheat Sheet

    Facts about Players
    Age and the Education Gap
    (Experience + Skill)/Challenge = Fun
    It Is Never Okay to Throw the Controller
    The Big Five Motivational Factors and Games
    Summary
    Cheat Sheet

    Eyes and Ears
    Visual Stuff in Games
    Audible Stuff in Games
    Why Does This Matter?
    Mayer’s Principles: Designing Learning for Our Eyes and Ears
    Summary
    Cheat Sheet

    Return of the Tutorial: Escape from Skull Island
    Escape from Skull Island
    Overview of Mechanics and Gameplay
    Controls and Inputs Overview
    Interface Structure and Overview
    Tutorials and Learning in Escape from Skull Island
    Summary

    Bullet Point Learning Design
    There Are Really Three Things
    No Exclusionary Mechanics
    No "Club" Behaviors
    Offer Learning Support
    Follow the Cognitive Principles
    Let Skilled Players Be Skillful as Fast as Possible
    Reward Failures
    No Small Punishments
    No Small Rewards
    Immediate Feedback on All Inputs
    Massive Explosions of Juiciness
    Harsh and Brutal Corrections of Unwanted Behaviors
    Rewards Must Scale in Their Splendor and Awesomeness
    Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
    Test and Retest Player Skill Level
    Use Just-in-Time Tactics to Reward Continued Play
    Procedural and Dynamic Rewards and Punishments
    You Cannot Have Too Many Data Collection Hooks
    Summary

    Appendix: Further Reading

    Index

    Biography

    Matthew M. White is an assistant professor in game development at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, where he teaches game design, computer science, and software engineering. He previously worked on interfaces, human-computer interaction, and game programming at the University of Prince Edward Island and Snow Day Games, a small indie studio. He earned his M.Ed. in instructional design and technology focusing on the design of games from the University of New Brunswick and his Ph.D. in education from Memorial University of Newfoundland, co-supervised through York University's Education and Game Studies faculty.