Los tutoriales y la incorporación son un proceso absolutamente clave en los juegos móviles. Cuanto menos le cueste el juego al jugador, más presión ejercerá sobre el tutorial. Los jugadores no lo pensarán dos veces antes de abandonar un juego gratuito y no volver. Si no es el juego que creían desde el principio, pasarán a otro.

Al igual que con “entrada fácil, salida fácil”, con cada mecánica que diseñes para el jugador, es increíblemente importante acelerar el flujo de juego óptimo de tu público objetivo. Cuanto antes consigas que tu público objetivo entre en un estado de diversión en el juego, mejor. La complejidad de la puesta en escena y la activación a medida que avanza el juego te permitirá convertir a tus jugadores en los jugadores profundamente comprometidos que deseas, pero durante el proceso de incorporación son tímidos, tímidos y exploratorios. No espere que la mayoría de sus jugadores manejen un gran salto en complejidad en las primeras sesiones que juegan.
Medida

La primera regla para crear un tutorial: medir y optimizar cada paso . Al igual que en los juegos sociales, es extremadamente poderoso medir la velocidad a la que los usuarios abandonan el juego durante las etapas del tutorial.

Puede que creas que tu juego es lo mejor del mundo, pero Analytics siempre te mantendrá conectado con lo que realmente está sucediendo con tus jugadores. Algunos diseñadores y desarrolladores tienen problemas éticos con la analítica. Tu opinión es tuya, algunos diseñadores optaron por utilizarla como una herramienta que les ayuda a diseñar juegos para su público objetivo con más detalle. Flurry, SWRVE, Kontagent, Mixpanel, etc. ofrecen increíbles soluciones de terceros; incluso puedes optar por utilizar las tuyas propias.

En cada paso del tutorial, asegúrese de que su juego envíe un evento a un servicio de análisis. Esto le ayudará a idear puntos del tutorial que sean específicamente dolorosos para los usuarios. Entonces puedes buscar suavizar el golpe.

Los problemas comunes con los tutoriales son:

• Demasiado largo
• Demasiado complejo
• Sin libertad
• Sin interacción

Demasiado largo

Powder Monkeys tenía un tutorial de 3 etapas: enseñar batalla, enseñar mapa mundial y luego enseñar captura de islas. Cada etapa tardó unos 30 segundos en completarse, lo que acabó siendo demasiado tiempo.

El desgaste es inevitable con un tutorial. Cuantos más pasos tenga tu tutorial, más % de usuarios perderás. Es algo que simplemente sucederá. Los jugadores tienen una cantidad limitada de tiempo para experimentar con tu juego, así que dales la oportunidad de familiarizarse con tus mecánicas.

Demasiado complejo

En este punto teníamos una tasa de baja masiva de jugadores. Necesitaban un respiro y no les dimos suficientes instrucciones sobre qué hacer a continuación.

Cuando el jugador completó el tutorial de batalla, fue dejado en medio de un mapa. Se les permitía viajar a cualquier lugar. Descubrimos que muchos jugadores simplemente se perdieron y abandonaron el juego en este punto en lugar de pasar a la siguiente etapa. Marcamos la siguiente etapa con una flecha roja, pero algunos jugadores todavía tuvieron problemas.

Manage your game complexity so that at no point the player is introduced to too much complexity all at once. Players will immediately feel frustrated if they are introduced to too much complexity all at once.

No Freedom

Trainyard, a great game launched on the AppStore by an Indie game designer, Matt Rix. The initial launch was without much fanfare. The tutorial involved the player going through 20+ levels with each level increasing the complexity of the game, some reaffirming lessons taught before. This does a great job of managing time, each level is 10-20 seconds and gives the player time to leave the game. This tutorial does a great job of managing complexity, with each level introducing new complexity. However, each tutorial is a straight line track, with one input allowed on each screen. With so much text and blatant hand holding it made the tutorial feel rigid and boring. The player never reached a fun state in the game until 10 minutes or more into the tutorial. Make sure the player can reach an optimal game flow as quickly as possible, so in this case Matt Rix altered the tutorial to introduce a few mechanics, then allow the player to problem solve through a set of simple puzzles based on that initial mechanic. These quick victories pulled the player into the core game flow quickly, and made them feel smart. After these changes, and a well placed Reddit article, Trainyard was catapulted to the top of the App charts. This was a well deserved accomplishment.

No Interaction

Using learnings from Powder Monkeys, we reduced the time and text in Fashion Star Boutique. Each step is small and punchy, giving the player plenty of opportunities to interact with the game.

The final cardinal sin of game tutorials is the act of too much text, never getting the player to actually interact with the game. It’s all about the game flow. Get the player into the game flow as soon as possible. Every line of text the player has to read to get into the game, is a huge delay on them entering on game flow. Not to mention that 80%-90% of players don’t read text in tutorials, they won’t read it, they won’t understand it, they are looking to get to the core gameplay as soon as possible to make a decision whether this is the next staple game on their phone. Don’t give them an excuse to leave!

Storytelling on Mobile

Story is a major compelling reason for creating addiction and immersion in games. Regardless of its business value, it’s also a true reason why games is a creative art form. Combining story with amazing graphical design, with immersive audio in a cohesive interactive package is what makes games such a joy to develop and to design.

Core games, such as TellTale games, the Final Fantasy series, and many point and click adventures on the AppStore, lean on a heavy story to lead the player through the gameplay. This is at the core of their game, and they each target a separate niche which loves that style of game. This audience has a longer then usual session length, and are willing to memorize and recant stories from sessions before. They are also more likely to remember previous sessions since this audience is more likely to beat the game within a week or less. Their sessions have little time between them.

For most casual mobile games, having that in depth story is not possible. The average casual player on the AppStore just doesn’t have enough focus and attention to retain a full scape story. Yet story is still a very compelling reason for players to be immersed in games. But, like game mechanics and control mechanics you have to find ways to adapt the story telling to the distractions and mobile environment the player is playing in.

The best casual stories on the AppStore usually can be captivated with just a few pictures. Run Roo Run, Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, etc. all introduce their story within seconds. The core message is memorable, and the impact is felt through great artistry and simple but sophisticated storytelling techniques.

This was the entire beginning story for 5th Cell ©’s Run Roo Run(tm) game. It established the character, and a core message within 10 seconds.

Powder Monkeys supported a deep story with multiple characters. While it’s important to set up characters, build personality, you must balance this with the mobile experience.

Think like Pixar’s “Up” instead of Game of Thrones. Tell a captivating story simply with a few screens first. Come up with a simple, initial core message, then build on it from there. Understand that many casual gamers just don’t have time to read long passages, so using as many story telling devices without text is usually far stronger.