Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Lar's Blog: Educating Players about D:OS

Plz have a look at Lar's newest blog in which he talks about D:OS: http://www.lar.net/2014/03/07/educating-players/

What do you think? Any suggestions?


Here's mine:
How about (skippable ;-) ) introductory quests right at the beginning of the game (kind of like "The way to become a fully fledged Source Hunter at the SHA" (= Source Hunter Academy ;-) ) that show new players all the important and "unique selling point"-like features of the game? Right now the beginning is a little bit a plunge in at the deep end, which is fine with me but maybe a little bit discouraging to others. The quest(s) do not need to be long (nor should they), just enough to whet the appetite for more. Also they should be skippable for more experienced/re-playing players.

wrong forum, spoilers

Ha, yes, I'm also a fan of a skippable Source Hunter's Academy idea to act as a tutorial for the basic gameplay mechanics. Because it's optional, you probably shouldn't keep any items or stats from there (otherwise gamers, being gamers, will feel compelled to play through the whole thing every time).

There also should be a "Tutorials" section of the menu that stores the little tutorial pop-ups so you can look at them later, because some of the one-off messages may not sink in, and there's no way to recall what they were without starting a new game.

where, what, häh?

problem is that an academy won't teach you to explore every corner, dig everywhere and think by yourself...

It depends on how the puzzles are designed, really. Once the players are acquainted with the basics, if you're told "somewhere in this room is the key to get out", and you have to spot the mound of sand, then move boxes around to reach a lever, which when pulled drops a chest containing a shovel... the important part is teaching the player by making them do it, that's how they learn.

Personally I don't like tutorials, not even optional. Optional tutorials kinda make you play them because they offer items or story bits that you miss out otherwise. Unless they are very brief and non-binding. I started playing Blackguards and the tutorial there was great. Just 3 quick battles. Moreover the game guided me to perform a certain action each turn but there was no restriction, I could do whatever I wanted to get through the battle.

The best part about D:OS is it accommodates for creative play. The game gives you the tools and then gives you the freedom to play however you want. Of course, most people would probably play it like a normal RPG because that's what they're expecting, especially if they have a limited amount of time with a preview. Teaching players to be creative might be challenging... Especially this new gen. of gamers who expect to be lead through a narrative experience by the hand.

Showing players different ways to play through the same area would probably be the best way.

i dont think you need to teach players creativity. you need to tell the players that D:OS can and should be played with creativity and "out of the box"-thinking in mind, because often they dont expect such level of freedom in a CRPG nowadays.

I don't know if a straight up 'tutorial area' would be ideal. Being able to teach the player its systems without them really even realizing it would be best, but probably the most difficult task to pull off. This article talks about that concept.
Its fascinating. To me at least. http://www.1up.com/features/learning-level-design-mario

I think that article does a good job of summarising the ideal we'd like to go for - interesting discovery that educates the player about the game through play and experience.

A big ass, fully printed, extremely verbose manual. A manual like back in the good ole days of gaming. Well written and informative, and easy to pick back up and find things as a reference later on. That'd be my wish, but alas, we know it'd never happen.

Good idea. Or alternatively, tutorial videos like we saw in Dragon Commander (Speaking of which, I noticed the 'test.bik' video in DC, I take it that's from Monkey Tales? Very funny!). Less expensive and less boring.

I like printed manuals ... but I never really read them. To be honest I generally look at them for the artwork. I generally expect the game to give me enough information to play the game 'in game'. Also later patches can make many parts of printed manuals inaccurate, and thus useless.

Maybe a little side-demo shipped with the game that a first time player can use to figure out the workings of the game. A five minute tutorial like this beats the heck out of a huge paper manual. After you've done the demo once, just go straight into 'New Game' from then on out.

Old games used to come with in-game "manuals" from pressing F1. I think something like that wouldn't be amiss, since they're almost certainly making a manual for D:OS anyway.



Five minutes doesn't seem like enough, and while making it optional is a good idea, there's no reason to make it a one-time-only-and-that's-it thing.

They could release a short free demo-tutorial-hybrid, and so they could explain the key features and win new customers at once.

a fast tutorial can explain the combat system, the combinaison and crafting with one-two basic example, showing few interractions with the world (importance of exploring) and some other features too, of course the tutorial cannot cover all the aspect of the games but the basic mechanisms... therefore the idea of the academie is not a bad idea even if, as I said before, it cannot teach the player everything...