The Call of Duty Approach to Interactive Fiction Tutorials
Interactive Fiction (IF) has a somewhat deserved reputation for being hard to get into if you’re not already familiar with the medium’s conventions. Facing just a blinking cursor with no or few initial instructions, together with often unhelpful error messages, requires more than the usual amount of effort from the player to climb the initial steep slope of the learning curve. Developers of modern AAA titles like Call of Duty on the other hand can’t afford to exclude any players from buying the game so they have spent considerable effort to make the treshold to enter as low as possible. Could their techniques be adapted to text-based games, making them easier to learn and play for a wider audience? In this presentation we’ll take a look at some of the methods IF has historically used to educate players and the methods AAA first person shooters employ, and discuss what IF and other indie games could learn from them. We’ll also see demonstrations of some of the latest advancements in user interface technology that make these techniques possible.
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The Call of Duty Approach to Interactive Fiction Tutorials
- 1. THE APPROACH TO INTERACTIVE FICTION TUTORIALS Juhana Leinonen Presentation at No Show Conference 2013-09-14
- 2. Juhana Leinonen Finnish software developer Plays Call of Duty Avid Interactive Fiction enthusiast
- 3. Some of my work nitku.net/blog/games/ nitku.net/blog/gadgets/ vorple-if.com
- 4. What is IF? (in the context of this talk) At End Of Road You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully. >ENTER BUILDING Inside Building You are inside a building, a well house for a large spring. There are some keys on the ground here. >TAKE KEYS Taken. >
- 5. Playing IF is more intuitive than playing Call of Duty. ...if the author does it right.
- 7. <verb> LOOK WAIT JUMP <verb> <noun> TAKE KEY OPEN DOOR PUSH BUTTON <verb> <noun> <preposition> <noun> UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY GIVE CARROT TO RABBIT ASK CAPTAIN ABOUT VOYAGE
- 8. to play IF The Puzzle Box approach "Learning how to play is the game." 0:27
- 9. The Gatekeeper approach Finding out how to play requires some effort, so only the genuinely interested enter the community The target audience is the existing community 0:26
- 10. The Self-Deception approach "You can type in anything and the game will understand!" The assumption is that the parser is so good that there is no need for instructions Which is obviously not true.
- 11. The Better Error Messages approach When the player makes a mistake, guide them with a helpful error message The biggest problem: you need to make a mistake before you get assistance
- 12. The Manual approach Give the player separate instructions
- 13. The Tutorial Game approach Make a game specifically designed to teach how to play IF Notable example: The Dreamhold by Andrew Plotkin De facto tutorial game: Lost Pig by Admiral Jota
- 15. The first barrier is easy to overcome 14:58
- 16. The current goal is always obvious
- 17. The player is rewarded for desired behavior
- 18. Gameplay is completely transparent
- 19. Be lenient with mistakes
- 20. Tell the player how it works!
- 21. Tell the player what to do!
- 22. Tell the player where the limits are!
- 24. Areas requiring more research Biggest problems newcomers are facing? Effectiveness of tutorials? Analysis of gameplay transcripts
- 25. For further discussion +Juhana Juhana Leinonen Follow @JuhanaIF 87 followers Videos from Get Lamp by Jason Scott, Call of Duty by Activision (fair use) Screenshots from Call of Duty (fair use) Tweets Follow @JuhanaIF Juhana Leinonen @JuhanaIF 31 Aug Screwdriver set was missing one piece, but it wasn't the one I needed. Help, I might be stuck in some weird parallel universe Juhana Leinonen @JuhanaIF 23 Aug Doesn't really matter who the next Batman is. The presence of Superman already taints the whole concept. Expand Meredith Yayanos @Theremina 19 Aug The Mako Mori Test: 'Pacific Rim' inspires a Bechdel Test alternative bookshop.tumblr.com/post/586421889… Retweeted by Juhana Leinonen Show Summary