While I had been designing games for our company, I thought of doing a bit of research and finding the best tutorial for our games. But it turns out that it isn’t easy.

The first 5 minutes into the game: I have often heard from experienced developers that the first 5 minutes are very crucial in selling one’s game to the player. How gripping and engaging it is will decide whether the player will buy it or further play it or not. Now while there are a number of things that influence the conversion ratio, the tutorial plays a very important part too. If the player is unable to grasp the game controls or utilize it to his advantage, chances are high that he will abandon the game.

Now, there are various ways to teach the player about the whereabouts of the game play. Let us explore some games and their tutorials before we find the one which suits our needs.

1. The “Figure it out yourself” type: These sort of traditional games do not have any tutorial. Popular examples are Mario, Megaman, etc. Those games had very simple controls and the games visuals conveyed the idea as to what kind of game play it has. Player could immediately connect with the game and press various keys to figure out how to move or do anything with the character.

Pros: Simplicity, no annoying pop ups, player can immediately start the game.

Cons: New players who are not used to playing games might get frustrated. Figuring out which key press would work can become annoying if traditional move/shoot keys like W,A,S,D or arrow keys, space bars, etc are not employed in the game.

2. The “bare essential” type”: Games using traditional controls with a little bit of variety usually have a small, non intrusive, in- game tutorials depicted within the first level of the game. Examples are The Binding of Isaac, etc. The objective is to let the player play around and get into the game before the stuff gets serious.

Pros: Simple and straightforward instructions, no room for confusion.

Cons: None.

3. The “In-game help” type: For advanced games, this sort of tutorials come in handy. The game introduces the controls to the player by pointing out the clickable buttons on the User Interface, HUD, game area, etc. Examples are like Ranch Rush, Final Fantasy 13, etc.

Player is prompted to do certain actions in the first level to get accustomed with the controls. The game does not proceed if the player has not completed the action. Once that action is performed, another set of actions are introduced for the player to do. Some times, player is taught only a few actions for the basic controls and the advanced ones are taught in the later levels of the game when the situation arises.

Pros: Hand holding the player so that he doesn’t lose interest in figuring things out, rewarding him for performing correct actions, performing the controls makes player remember them.

Cons: If too many controls are taught without letting him practice, player might forget them. Linearity and predictability in game as player isn’t allowed to proceed until certain actions are completed.

4. The “advanced in-game help” type: This is an extended version of the above. Here the player is taught the actions all at once in the first level, step by step. But he is allowed to practise it for a couple of times before the next one is introduced. This is good for games with complex combos. Examples can be found in Devil May Cry 4, etc.

The tutorial information appears as one pop up and then a text or button is highlighted on the HUD. Player is prompted to perform that action using the buttons specified more than once. Until he is able to do that action that many number of times, he has to keep trying. Once that is done, the next action tutorial pop up shows up.

Pros: Practising it over and over again makes it easy to remember.

Cons: Inability to perform an action makes the game not proceed further which can be frustrating.

5. The “spoon feeding” type: This is by far the most annoying and ’shove-it-in-your- face’ type of tutorials with hundreds of pop up cropping in between the game. Examples can be found in Farmville or similar facebook games. A pop explains all the controls in one screenshot and expects player to remember the sequence. While getting it done correctly can be really helpful, hundreds of pop ups coming up while I am doing something can be very irritating.

Pros: You get an overall picture of the game objective along with the controls.

Cons: Annoying pop ups and too much information fed at once.

Now coming back to our discussion, most of these tutorials are sometimes overlapped with each other for optimizing user understanding. Familiar genres of games do not require elaborate tutorials as those genres are well known and played by the common gamers.

Choosing the best tutorial for your game-

• Game complexity- How simple are your game controls? Does it require only four keys to play it or more? If the game uses a couple of traditional keys for controls, using tutorial type 1 or 2 is best. Putting too much obvious information in such games can take away the challenge and fun factor from it.

• Levels/Modules/Parts- Does the first level/dungeon/part of the game uses all the game controls? Or does it requires only the basic moves from player? Introducing tutorial step by step does not overwhelm player with information and allows him time to get the feel of the game while mastering the basic movements. Introducing only the first few moves in the first level and gradually bringing them in other levels helps player learn things efficiently without losing focus from the game play.

• Learning curve difficulty: How difficult are the controls to understand or manipulate? Does it require practise a number of times? Does the player lose if he is unable to use the controls efficiently? If the controls require complex combos, point 4 type of tutorial can be used.

For now, this is all I could think of. I might add some more pointers when I find any.

Recently while I was assigned to train some freshers on game design, it occurred to me how difficult it is to find people who have that “substance” crucial for design. I have gone through many resumes before and in general most freshers lack either direction or interest and sometimes both when they are applying for a game designer position. They concentrate on what they are going to ‘get’ than what they can ‘give back’ to the company. With right guidance, however, they might gear up to make some sense in the work they are doing.

The Talent: People might have different skills and can even be hard working and sincere…but at the end of the day not anyone can become a designer. The most important factor for any designer is the ability to come up with a unique idea at any given point- that is what differentiates him from anybody else. Discipline, GDD writing style/efficiency, understanding production, etc. can all come with experience or training. But it is important to have the innate ability to ‘think like a designer’ and to ideate any number of  possibilities. This article iterates that same point better than I could have ever explained.

Uniqueness: In today’s market, hardly a few unique titles become huge hits and then the rest that follows are clones of the same game with slightly tweaked art or feature. Making a copy of a game is not that difficult, it does not require much imagination. It is easy to build  something from a foundation (in this context: another game), but it is difficult to build something from scratch. Like Christopher in that article pointed out- “When you have to invent a genre to define your game you’ve done a good job…”

Risks of hiring a talented designer: Coming back to the point, finding good game designer is like finding diamonds in coal. They are difficult to find, difficult to  retain and difficult to manage within a team. People who think differently have their own idiosyncrasies- if they have come up with a solid design, they would be uncompromising in implementing it. They would refuse suggestions, openly complain if the design is not properly implemented and become impatient too soon and leave the company if things don’t go in their way. But the prize of all this headache is a wonderful product, a lifetime value to the company’s brand image if they are allowed creative freedom. When most companies are more focussed in the return on investment and would prefer making a clone of some popular game to make money out of it, hiring a good designer could actually be bad for both the company and the person. The visions of both would  clash only leaving behind bitter animosity instead of a good product. Hence,  it is important to understand the company’s goals before hiring such talents.

The difference between a clone and a genre: But now that I think of it, it is also important to understand the difference between a clone (e.g. Pyramid Run) and a game based on a genre. The differences are subtle and very difficult to differentiate. When we ask a candidate to submit a GDD on any idea during the hiring process, I try to concentrate more on how many unique features has he combined or added to a game of a particular genre. Not all time management games are same, even though sometimes they might look the same. Also, sometimes only having some unique features do not make the game fun. It is important to understand how does that unique feature add value to the ‘fun’ element of the game. I remember playing “Wedding Salon” where all the previously known features of a time management game have been wonderfully combined into fun game. Even though that is not a ‘unique’ game per say, it is still a good example of how well a design can be implemented even in known genres.

P.S: Now since game design is an abstract subject, anything I evaluate is again subject to my preferences, biases, etc which might differ from the industry standard.

Conclusion: So at the end of the day, even after considering all the above factors, we still land up with people who do not meet expectations. It is nobody’s fault, because judging one’s talent purely can happen only when you get to see that person perform in the job. People promise a lot of stuff during interviews, which they seldom deliver. So for now, I am still thinking about the various parameters an employer should consider while hiring a designer apart from their GDDs and interviews that could see through the fluff, cut the crap and give us a solid evidence of talent.

Yoyo games have released Game Maker Studio- a 2D game engine for noobs and professionals alike that can build games for any platform(PC, iOS, android, social, HTML5, etc) from a single code base. Now no worries about porting a game build on one platform to the others! Now you can create a game on any platform and build it for all the other platforms (except for consoles though).  What is even better that it is priced at only $99!

I had been waiting for a looooooooong time for something like this. While Unity 3D is a powerful game engine for making multi-platform games, it is primarily best for 3D game development. Making 2D games on Unity can become a big pain in the backside. Most 2D game engines do not support multiple platforms or are limited to a few. Also they are not noob friendly. They require some knowledge on programming, which means a developer with non-programming background cannot make games on his own on them. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been long that I blogged about anything. Shifting to a new place has done one bad thing- high cost of living. Self funding in business and living on your own without any external source of income other than games is taking its toll on game development and my general sustenance. For the past two months, I have been struggling to make payments to artists due to the restrictions raised by Reserve Bank of India on international payments. The progress has slowed down because of that and forced me to come back to my home and work from here for sometime. I am hoping to complete the ship game in two months if things go as planned.

In the mean time, I thought of making a comic series based on ‘Pascal’ from my game and sending them in newsletters. He was quite popular amongst players and it would nice if players can enjoy more of his outrageous jokes outside the game. Here’s the first one, the others will also be posted in my blog apart from the newsletters (Click on the image to enlarge).

The problem of being an indie is you get a lot of money once your game is out for a month or two. After that sales start decreasing, and unless you have a lot of your own game titles or affiliate sales, you will start to feel the pinch. Being an indie is not just making games, but making a living too! And to make money, it is important that you understand and take care of the business aspects of game making. In my earlier post of ‘Life of an Indie’ series, I had mentioned the problems one faces in this career. In this post I will be discussing how I have solved some of those problems and plan to solve for those who are facing this. So let’s take the issue one by one-

1) Sustenance- This is a major issue for indies. From what I have heard or seen other indies doing and also what I have done, here are some ways to manage a sufficient income to sustain yourself (can’t say if you have a family).

a) Get a job which is less time consuming and if  this is your first game in development. Teaching is a good option as it is not as exacting in terms of time and energy like other jobs. You will have a fair pay and sufficient time to do a game in your spare time. I am sure there are plenty of other online freelancing or contract based work that you can do depending on your skills. Read the rest of this entry »

All these while I was doing some background research on the game industry in general and trying to collect nuggets of information that might help me enhance our business. For that reason I have been keeping quite all these days.

As you might have already noticed, we have changed our forum layout again, trying to bring it as close as possible to the original site to maintain a flow of navigation for new visitors. Also, I finally completed Arevan: The Bitter Truth’s official strategy guide which is available here. I also plan to add a FAQ section to my website so that players can solve certain kinds of problems on their own quickly without having to post in our forums or mailing us. If you have any other suggestions regarding the website you can think of, then do let me know…

I would like to drop a note of heartfelt thanks to Indinera and Titaness for arranging an interview about my indie career. It was quite a surprise considering I haven’t shattered the world yet . You can read it here (they have used my username over_cloud9 for addressing in it). Currently I’m dabbling on 3D game development in Bangalore, with assistance from my co-developer Manjith from Phantasm Games. He has come up with a AI rich tank strategy game, Armoured and Dangerous, which I had been marketing in between. We have been thinking of doing a joint project in 3D, but we are both neck deep into our own stuff. Let’s see how it proceeds in near future.

Coming back to the topic, ‘Life of an indie’ is a series based on my own experiences and that of the things I have observed other indies struggle with. This series will not be updated in a series , instead it shall be episodic depending on the outcome of the research that I’m conducting. My aim is to not become another industry veteran in gaming dishing out general opinions, neither to claim or pose myself as a veteran in the first place. I have taken independent game development seriously enough to consider it my profession, so an honest narration of my experiences might give other upcoming developers some idea about what they are going to get in this career. Instead of whining about what I don’t have and what cannot be done, I thought of doing something about the things which have long posed problems to indies. This is my current piece of research going along with the ongoing projects, and my aim is to overcome these problems sooner or later. But this will not be a one way or a quick process, I need your feedback to get a better understanding and for bouncing off ideas. I might try things which others didn’t attempt in fear of the untested waters, so I need to do a lot of experimentations which might sound off beat or weird. Some of the experimentations might fail as well, but as long as it serves the purpose, I don’t mind taking the extra step forward Read the rest of this entry »

Many things are happening, so much that I had not been able to even update my website like I used to. Had been busy promoting Arevan last month apart from the 101 others things I got myself into. Instead of moving over to my next game project, I thought of doing something new this time. I want to experiment with 3D gaming, and will be shifting my base to Bangalore for a couple of months for that. Honestly speaking, after working with RPGmakerVX, I am not satisfied with what it can offer. There are so many limitations to it…though I can’t complain much as this is the best I can get from a customizable commercial engine. So before I move over to my next project, I want to expand my horizons and learn something new this time.

In my older blog post, I had discussed how I had planned to market my game. In this post, I shall discuss which of the methods were success and which ones were failures. I shall discuss it with respect to the points I had mentioned in the earlier blog posts for the assessment of it’s performance.

• Primary release of Arevan on my site, Amanda’s and Indinera’s.

This had worked really well. There is nothing else that I need to say. Both of them have been simply awesome in their cooperation and have generated a lot of sales for my game.

• Sending press releases to game sites.

Press releases were a huge boost in promoting the news of our first release. Since we’re new to the indie scene, identifying ourselves in our niche was an important step. That really helped us gain exposure and visibility in gaming industry, particularly in India. Many Indian studios, sites, and game related companies took notice of our site and were eager to cover it. Read the rest of this entry »

This is my first time tweaking and optimizing a website and its proving to be interesting every day.Sometimes my walkthrough writing is entirely paused due to this.Powering the site with wordpress made things really easy.I didn’t know that the average page loading time can affect google rankings and even drive away visitors.Since then,my main concern has been optimizing the image size,image loading,reduction of javascripts and plugins dependant on them and moving them to the footer.There were many helpful resources on editing the htaccess file(I was quite jittery at first) and the entire process was a cake walk.With the loads of things I’m learning everyday on website optimization,I may soon start my own ebook on this topic .There are a gamut of website which have self help tutorials to assist noobs like me to tweak website and wordpress.I’ll list a bunch of the most useful links at the end of the post(it might help others who are absolutely lost like I was when I started).This helped me add many tit bits that could help the pages load faster.However,this is not enough.There are many new things that I plan to add,but not sure whether I’ll be able to handle so many things in so little time or not.Thinking of coming up with a BigFish games mini store to cater players who may like to ‘taste’ games other than RPGs.With the new year coming forth,I wish there were 48 hours in a day to finish everything I planned! Read the rest of this entry »