I’ve been working on a new game called Adrenaline Rush, which is a first person platformer that I was hoping to be played casually, or with the intent of speedrunning. The mechanics of the game are supposed to be smooth, and satisfying if done right.
I’ve been running into an issue though where playtesters who start out the game, either don’t know the controls right away, or don’t know how to grapple efficiently. I’m worried that this will shy away casually players, as the game might seem too “hard”. The thing about these mechanics though are they really aren’t that hard to learn, as a longer rope = more travel and speed, and I even made some ui changes to let the player know the grapple range when aiming at a ball.
I was thinking of adding an advanced tutorial.
I don’t know weather my mechanics are flawed, my tutorial design and is flawed, or I’m missing the bigger picture. As some playtesters fell in love with the game, and picked it up within a couple of minutes, while others took hours to understand.
I played your game and it’s really fun! However, I also experienced the learning curve.
The tutorial was hard to follow along and the gameplay took me a bit to understand. It isn’t the end of the world though, I recommend you try this technique.
In the tutorial, do stuff for the player one step at a time and then combine everything.
Ex.
You want to show the player that they can boost off of jump orbs, so teleport them above one and angle their camera to see the jump orb.
If they fail to jump, they’ll die. This instant feedback is a very efficient learning method.
Another recommendation:
In your tutorial, it is a little too hard for beginners. And the obstacle course isn’t very easy. You have to ease your players into the gameplay, otherwise they won’t be able to learn. I recommend putting it in the air and only having the bare minimum parts of the course be visible. This will result in less distractions and the gameplay will be easier to learn.
So making the tutorial level easier, definitely. I was thinking of what you said, and I thought of having the player teleport to a seperate area of the tutorial where it’s just one mechanic like the jump orb, it will tell them what to do, give some visual cues, and also make it very easy for them, just for learning purposes. Would that be a good idea?
I’m also probably goining to release an even easier level than Neon Rush. Playtesters found that level mildly difficult for their first time playing, so instead of just making it a walk in the park, I’ll just make a new beginner friendly level. Plus it doesn’t make it any better how the medium and hard stages are a pretty big step up from easy.
Thank you for your feedback, and I’ll make sure to try my best to fit the learning curve.