Players want to play games, not learn them.

[NoMoneyNoFameNoDame]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

So you must speed up the process of learning by teaching them as much as possible
and as quickly as possible. Which has its own challenges ofcourse.

This goes deeper than the UI/UX, you must teach them what the game is too.
Despite your store page, no one has a fucking clue what the game really is.
They want the royal treatment. You must welcome them and be accommodating to their lack of knowledge.

Games are not like a mall with stores. People don't self-browse then go to checkout. Gamers expect much more attention.
It's like going to a doctor who keeps checking up on you and making sure you get what you need. But you don't get an hour to fuck
around and make people wait for things to get good.

As a developer it's your job to play your game the way it should be played, so you're not going to be lost the way others are.
Everyone else however will be lost. No matter how simple you think the game is.

You see gamers have become dependent on handholding. That means when handholding is not there they are as confused
as the lowest IQ cockroach that ever existed. This eats up a lot of time in itself. Them having to teach themselves how things work
will take up even more time.

And by the time all that time has elapsed, your 15 minutes is up. They quit. Maybe your game is good , maybe it isn't.
They don't have the patience left to find out. Sort of like restaurants that make you wait too long to get seated.
But games are much more serious business, despite being about fun. Your product IS THE TECHNICAL SUPPORT.


Your pride will be hurt having to make a tutorial to explain the obvious, but not as hurt as later finding out no one who owns the game actually plays it.
Which is probably the #1 reason people can own the game but never bother to leave a review. They simply never got far enough to know what to say.

I, like many other developers usually have a more humble beginning than just begin gamers.
We were modders, hackers, exploiters, speedrunning masters: all who got in touch with technical side to make content.
And the product of these activities is insanely easy to advertise because there's already an audience per the pre-existing games.
We dev get the wrong impression then that if we made our own game the issues are only what the game will be.


Making your own game is entirely different endeavor than toying with another. There's no certainty you will have an audience.
Unless you're making a clone of another game.

 

[NoMoneyNoFameNoDame]

Spoiler

]
Fun fact:
Why don't modders make mods that improve a game's tutorial to better teach the player about the game?

Answer:
Cuz the game would have never sold well enough to attract modders in the first place if it had a need for such a mod.

 

[what am i doing]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

Some of the biggest time sink games (such as the factory builder genre) are the ones that are a continuous learning process.

 

[NoMoneyNoFameNoDame]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

Some of the biggest time sink games (such as the factory builder genre) are the ones that are a continuous learning process.

You've misinterpreted the context of the word "game" in this case.

How to play the game in general and mastering ALL the mid and late-game specific components are not the same.

 

[Vic]

games tend to get boring after there is nothing left to figure out about them

 

[what am i doing]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

Some of the biggest time sink games (such as the factory builder genre) are the ones that are a continuous learning process.

You've misinterpreted the context of the word "game" in this case.

How to play the game in general and mastering ALL the mid and late-game specific components are not the same.

Depending on the genre this may or may not be true. For factory builders, you are wrong.

 

[NoMoneyNoFameNoDame]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

Some of the biggest time sink games (such as the factory builder genre) are the ones that are a continuous learning process.

You've misinterpreted the context of the word "game" in this case.

How to play the game in general and mastering ALL the mid and late-game specific components are not the same.

Depending on the genre this may or may not be true. For factory builders, you are wrong.

You've misinterpreted the word "want".

 

[what am i doing]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

Some of the biggest time sink games (such as the factory builder genre) are the ones that are a continuous learning process.

You've misinterpreted the context of the word "game" in this case.

How to play the game in general and mastering ALL the mid and late-game specific components are not the same.

Depending on the genre this may or may not be true. For factory builders, you are wrong.

You've misinterpreted the word "want".

No, I don't believe I have.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Players want to play games, not learn them.

Depends on the genre, real simulators before 4channer memesters took over the branding used to be all about learning to pilot a vehicle or run a business. RPGtards just want to click on enemies and watch the awesome happen tho. You made two games catering to retards without making them retard accessible Prospersky.

 

[J1M]

I often quit games when they fail to signal what depth or challenge they will provide. A common problem with indie games is that they used all resources creating an imitation of another game they liked and they forgot to add a reason to play their game instead of the inspiration.

 

[laclongquan]

Spoiler

]
Fun fact:
Why don't modders make mods that improve a game's tutorial to better teach the player about the game?

Answer:
Cuz the game would have never sold well enough to attract modders in the first place if it had a need for such a mod.

Wrong answer! The true answer is:
Players really, really, really hate tutorials. From noob of noobs to veteran gamers.

Case in point: Just look at Codex Fallout players keep blackening and throw mud at Temple of Trials. The damn thing is nearly the best tutorial you can have in quickly learning most of the things to play in early stage. And Codexers, most of the Fallout crowd, keep badmouth it~

So modders dont make tuto area, or even "fix" it. There's just no demand for it.