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.

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

14. games use
Boot Camp
9:37

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!

23. CoD
(Cloak of Darkness)

24. Areas requiring more research
Biggest problems newcomers are facing?
Effectiveness of tutorials?
Analysis of gameplay transcripts

25. For further discussion
+Juhana
Juhana Leinonen
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Videos from Get Lamp by Jason Scott, Call of Duty by Activision (fair use)
Screenshots from Call of Duty (fair use)
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