Like Heroes has survived different types of tutorials and even its complete absence. We were finally able to create the best tutorial in my opinion, and below I will talk about all the types of tutorials that we have created, their concepts and the results from their use.

As I have always said, the basis of any good game is the comfort of a person when interacting with it. And any comfort is based on the meaningfulness of the events. If a person does not understand why chips are needed (the universal currency in LHU) and what can be bought with them, you can give him as much as 100,000,000, he simply cannot appreciate this. Any game has its own rules, and without explaining them to the player it is impossible to make the game comfortable. Therefore, the tutorial is necessary and every developer is obliged to do it. We didn't realize it right away. And now, having lost a quarter of the players and having collected material for the article, we gained understanding.

For ourselves, we divide tutorials into rigid and adaptive. Rigid ones literally lead the player by the hand, forcing them to click where they are told and do actions in strict order. Rigid tutorials are the best tool to convey the rules of the game, but they really infuriate the players and me too. Adaptive only occurs when the player interacts with some new mechanic, it's more of a clarification than a tutorial. Such a tutorial does not stifle its requirements and contributes to the freedom of the player. Most often, adaptive tutorials do not work. Despite my incredible loyalty to them.

And this is what happens, a hard tutorial scares people, and they just run away during training, and adaptive does not teach anything, and the players leave later, because they simply could not understand the game. Which system we chose - a little further.

The second important part of the tutorial is the approach with which the information is conveyed. Here we highlight the call to action and mentoring. Everyone knows the call to action, somewhere there is text and a cursor with the inscription CLICK HERE (to do another incomprehensible action, because the developer wants it that way, otherwise he won’t let you play). Such tutorials are always easily passed, but then no one can remember what was actually written near this cursor. I came up with the mentor tutorial, I'm sure that it has been used somewhere for a long time, I just haven't seen games with such a tutorial. Here the principle is simple: game reacts to events in the game and encourages the player to interact with them, just pokes the cursor. And only after the player's actions explains what the player has just done. It turns out that each event has two explanations and this strengthens the player's experience.

Well, finally, a comparison of the various tutorials that we used in LH and LHU.

LH version

1 yes we have a simple game and so everything is clear. Pretty much the worst solution. You think much worse, but now you find out.

*Max left me no picture for this one, so here you go. First thing i got on "cute cat":

On the second day, no more than 15% of the players returned. Who these heroes are and how they dealt with the rules of the game, I do not know. I guess they just didn't know there were other games on earth.

2 rigid tutorial, step by step until you press each button you will not go anywhere. A very good option, I sincerely hated it, perhaps the fact is that, while testing, I went through this tutorial more than 500 times and still see it in nightmares.

On the second day, 22% of the players returned.

LHU version:

1 Tip slides at the start of the game + FAQ + links to relevant FAQ articles on each problematic item. Here is the worst version of the tutorial. The FAQ section is important and necessary, it helps interested players to understand the game. And the tutorial in the form of slides at the start of the game, complete shit. Its presence or absence had absolutely no effect on the comfort of our players' lives.

On the second day, it returned 21% with the tutorial and 21.3 without it with only one FAQ section.

2 Adaptive prompts in different sections, when you visit them for the first time. It cannot be called a full-fledged tutorial, however, the comfort of the players has been slightly raised already well.

On the second day, 22% of players decided to return

3 the most effective (taking into account the labor costs), the best of the best, almost a tutorial, a tool for comfort masters and chill lovers. Match hint. A small cursor for the player and a giant cursor for the game. Which we did in a minute, increased retention and made the game more accessible.

On the second day, 26% of the players returned

4 our know-how combined tutorial. Except for the first 2 steps, it is responsive, but has a unique (non-tutorial) design for all steps, including responsive ones. Therefore, adaptive steps are perceived as important and mandatory as the first hard ones.

The combined tutorial returned on the second day as much as 31% of the players.

In the end. If you are a developer, remember that you need a tutorial for the players. If you are a player, you downloaded the game and there is no tutorial:

With love, Max Weber. 

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