Tutorial Design | Patreon Weekly #170

Hey Patrons!

Firstly, there’s a new Patron Poll! Poll #33 covers the major content I have planned right now, I’d like to see what Patrons are most interested in.

I’m also planning to release a Patreon Alphafor v1.4.0 sometime this week! The alpha will include all the gameplay changes I have planned for v1.4.0. Golden+ Patrons can expect to see another post announcing that in a couple of days.

In this weekly I’m going to go over my plans for an improved tutorial right at the start of the game.

New Tutorial Design

I’m only part way into implementing this currently, so I’m afraid there’s no screenshots, but here’s what I’m currently planning for a new short guided tutorial at the very start of the game:

• Firstly, I’ve moved the dungeon’s introduction text to the very first game screen and eliminated the ‘Welcome to Shattered Pixel Dungeon!’ text entirely. I really like having a bit of more informal text where I talk right to the player, but the very start of the game wasn’t the best place for it.
• I’ve also added a little popup to the first screen that quickly explains how to control the on-screen controller pointer if the player has a controller plugged in.
• Currently hero select is unchanged, but I may make some adjustments there as I expand that interface in general for bigger screens. Likely the most I would add for new players is a tiny explanation that the Warrior is the only hero they can select, but that unlocking more heroes is easy.
• As the general dungeon intro text is moved, it no longer appears after selecting a hero. Instead the game moves right into the game screen and the sewers introduction text.
• The game’s UI is initially hidden, except for the game log and journal/menu buttons. The game starts by telling the player how to move and interact via the game log. The guidebook is on the floor, and all doors are locked.
• After picking up the guidebook, the journal button will flash and the game log will prompt the player to select it.
• After selecting the journal, the regular guidebook introduction page will appear. After the player reads and closes it the full interface appears along with a quick interface explanation in the game log. The doors unlock, and the player is free to play the game normally at this point.
• As the player plays through their first few runs, the guidebook system works as it already does, possibly with a little bit of changed text.

Aside from being a quicker and gentler introduction to the game’s mechanics, I hope this tutorial will enforce two key behaviours: reading the game log, and paying attention to the journal button when it flashes. Both of those habits will make the existing guidebook tutorial much more effective.

The only thing that I think this is lacking at the moment is that there is no explanation of key bindings for desktop/controller users. I can probably remedy this by having the tutorial/guidebook mention relevant bindings in parenthesis when they talk about a game action.