Tutorials are difficult: Santa's Watchful Eye
I didn’t expect this game jam to be a lesson on the importance of good tutorials.
This game was made in 48 hours for a Crhistmas-themed game jam by a team of two programmers.
For this game jam we had wanted to experiment with FNAF-style “watching CCTV cameras” gameplay. The idea is simple - the player watches their elf-employees, and must punish them whenever they see them commit a violation.
When you are making a game, you know everything thatš going on in your game. You also replay it so many times that at some point you can do it with your eyes closed. That’s a very big and important distinction between how you see your game, and how your players see your game.
As we were making the game, everything seemed easy. You rotate between the camers, look at the elves. They have icons above them whenever they are doing something. When you see an infraction, you issue the elf a fine.
When other people started playing the game, we saw how much the players struggled. The icons, the map, the controls, the big clipboard in front of you - that’s a lot of information. And players have short patience. They also don’t really like tutorials or reading.
Every mechanic, system or interface that you add makes the explanation and learning curve exponentionally difficult.
And games can be like an elevator pitch. You only have a few minutes to capture the player’s attention. Make it count, or your game will be tossed aside, and the player will move on to the next one.
