Sequelitis : Analysis of a tutorial by a gamer

Have you ever seen this video ?

In this video, Egoraptor (creator of the awesome series) talks about Megaman, and it's transition to Megaman X.
But he also talks about the tutorial (or absence of tutorial) in Megaman X, a game more complex than the average platformer at its time.
He's a real fan, and his "analysis" isn't objective, but it's passionate. And he is mostly right. Plus, he talks about it in a funny way.

But with this episode of Sequelitis, Egoraptor makes us think about tutorial.


Those damn tutorials, always preventing me from playing the real game to tell me that I should "press jump to jump."

Hey, I can do that!? Why didn't it tell me that in the tutorial ?

Oh god, this tutorial is teaching me too many things, I'll never remember all that !

Depending on the game, the same player can have each reaction. Why is the tutorial so important ?
It's the first contact with the game.

In the video, Egoraptor already talks about why there shouldn't be a tutorial. If the game is simple enough, and uses, maybe extends, an easy gameplay, then you can make a "instinctive" tutorial, like Megaman X.
But when you play a game like Assassin's Creed, with its passive input (you don't jump, you ask the character to jump when needed), and its mode system (passive and active mode), the tutorial is unavoidable.

I hated AC2's tutorial, because it didn't show me the influence of my actions. If you remember, you play Ezio as a baby, and can move your feet and arms.
That's it, that was the tutorial. So, what can I do? move my feet and arms? thanks for the info, I never saw a game where I could do that !

Another game with a complex input, that needed a tutorial, was Alan Wake. In Alan Wake, the tutorial is simple, you can experiment what you learned before the next tutorial, easy step by easy step. Once it's done, you can start the game and you'll never be surprised by what you are doing. You know how to play. Alan Wake's tutorial isn't perfect (I don't like it at all), but that's another story.

But when you play Super Meat Boy, you have to know how to run, and how to jump. That's a very classic input, very simple and instinctive. Super Meat Boy's tutorial is displayed in front of the screen during the 3 first levels, but you can simply ignore it and finish the levels. It lets you choose whether you want to learn by yourself, or be told how to play.

Another interesting example is Resident Evil 6. I didn't play the game, but recently, a forum user posted "the controls you were never told", like how to lock an enemy, ask for help...
Why ? Why did the game teach some controls to the player, but not all of them ? And they are complicated input, pressing two buttons at the same time.



But you can still surprise your player. When I was a kid, I was playing Tomb Raider, jumping in the pool in Lara's house.

Suddenly, I made a beautiful dive. I had no idea how I did it ( HOLD R1 THEN PRESS THE JUMP KEY. ) but I got out of the pool, and tried again, and again, and again...
I was having fun, because I did something new. But it's not an important move, so I wasn't frustrated and wondering why the game didn't taught me how to do that. He didn't have to.


Don't consider your player as a stupid person. "Press up to go up" is useful in games for 3 years old kids that never played a video game, but in call of battlefield, it would be pointless AND frustrating.

Anyway, enjoy the video, and think about it.