Tutorial Levels

ArtLeeApps

Just curious how you create your Tutorial levels?

- do you configure you game level as "tutorial or 0" so it runs like a script of actions, animations/movie clips, bubble text etc.. all scripted.
- do you dedicate a new scene just for a tuturial, scripting everything.
- do you simply play the level as you would, but have a flag initially set to FALSE, when a user does something for the first time, it fires an animation/sprite layer/text etc, then sets the flag to TRUE so it wont happen again...

OZApps

@artleeapp, that is a rather long-ish and complex answer and it also depends on what you want to do in a tutorial.

ArtLeeApps

@OZApps, no plan to do one right now. more of a general question, what people do to create a step by step in game tutorial.

OZApps

@ArtLeeApps, one of the biggest issue faced with a tutorial is that it has to be a controlled play, the user can play but only as directed. There are some very easy ways to do so and some amazingly complex (I know this response is not adding value as yet).

In a very old game of mine called HydroCarbon (written in Objective-C in 2009) I decided to add something like Help-Me and then have this work for just 2 levels in the Lite version and make a full-fledged version with help-me for all levels. I had to script the help-me as if the player was playing/making those moves and the app would respond as it is supposed to. So in essence, your game will respond to the engine as standard, the tutorial has to have certain triggers that would alter/change the way things are supposed to be, like show a modal popup, inform the user of something, etc. (Maybe if I get some time, I would write an article on this. However inputs from some other developers that have actually used this in their apps amazingly would be nice.

ArtLeeApps

@OZApps Thank you, i had a feeling (based on some games ive played) you have to do an action, then another action, so it shows you the next step.

along with that, there are games, where if you find something for the first time whiler your playing, it will show a popup explaining how to use it etc.. that would be the easy bit.

But please if anyone has more 2cents to offer to the pot, feel free to chip in

bml

My tutorial-in-progress isn't interactive (at least not as currently implemented). I'm showing basic controls, features and different game modes. It also includes a finger shaped cursor. It's programed step-by-step. I'm essentially stringing together gtweens/onEnterFrames. I imagine if it was interactive it would work much the same way, but I'd have to implement some feedback and constraints.

Luckily it wasn't as painful or tedious as I thought it would be because most of my game components have been reusable. Keep in mind it's a puzzle game so it's not terribly complex, but the tutorial uses various smaller game play areas in an attempt to not overwhelm the player.

I've also incorporated the tutorial in the game selection scene so it runs automatically, but doesn't get in the way of starting a game. It's there for people that want to watch it, shows some action/motion and hopeful helps to up-sell the expansion pack.