Topic
New intro/tutorial
What do you think? Good? Bad? Too long? Too short (not enough covered)? Or WHAT!?
Replies
- Good, I'd say. Of course, we knew what to do from earlier test rounds but I think it will be useful for new players. Answers from people playing Glitch for the first time would be useful...
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Just tried out the tutorial for the first time. At the end I'm left with the question, "Am I ever supposed to go back to where I came from?" I assume not as I don't know what it was called so finding a signpost to take me there would be difficult.
I appreciated the feel of the intro. It was fun and interesting.
A couple times the object I was supposed to be interacting went off the screen as something changed. It was a little jolting, but walking back to it wasn't a problem. -
First time checking it out.
Found the back and forth clicking btw the character and the Magic Rock tedious. Got so sick of the text stopped reading it entirely; had no issues figuring out the game without the reading the text. Only about halfway through tutorial realized could hit enter key instead of clicking the right arrow to get through it. All I wanted to do is play and I was hit with a back-and-forth exchange of boring words even before I went outside.
Suggest: cut down the number of magic rock/character exchanges. Maybe make the exchanges fade out on their own, so no annoying stop-and-go gameplay. Get into the world and exploring as quickly as possible. - +1 on cutting down the number of text exchanges. Seriously, ended up just skipping through it. What if there was something valuable in there? Wouldn't know.
- Loved it. I found it extraneous because I've played before, but I thought it would be great to start with. Sets a good tone.
- I didn't realize I could hit enter instead of clicking the arrow and it was annoying to have to click the arrow every time. It wasn't bad in terms of text, but I didn't glean any info from it that I couldn't have figured out. Except for the very basics of the inventory dragging and stuff.
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Worth remembering that we're alpha testers here, people. This is a tutorial: players will probably see this exchange *once*, if they want to, before they've ever done anything in the game before. Keep that context in mind.
Anyway:
- Could be shorter in a couple of places, where there's a long string of statements from the rock.
- Perhaps more keyboard prompts? If Green Lantern Horn couldn't work out the pressing enter thing, maybe it needs to be more explicit. Actually, the keyboard prompts could be more contrasty, since I couldn't discern which key I was supposed to press very easily.
- Why did the Rock tell me that I "could work it out for myself" but then the hoe shouted "pick me up"? Seemed contradictory, and too didactic.
Otherwise, I enjoyed it – certainly a vast improvement on the previous intro. -
I pretty much agree with wurzel. I think the new tutorial is a pretty solid way to intro users to the main mechanics of the interface. Introducing and reinforcing the keyboard interface would be my main suggesting. Teach users to run with the arrow keys and press Return to select/interact with things.
Also: I love the Pet Rock's banter. Sets the unserious tone for the game nicely. - I enjoyed the banter, but I agree that there was a little too much. A bit less clicking on arrows would be great.
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A couple things on the intro: first, love the very start, where you exist in a nebulous void and then get to go 'outside'. It's visually interesting there and different! And I really love the way that the voice talks to you in the tutorial, that it has a personality instantly. Grumpy Scots Git is right, it sets a perfect tone for the game.
But I agree, from a gameplay standpoint, I think it would help to have pressing return and keyboard prompts explained. The 'blue outline means you can interact with it' was helpful, but it would be great if you explained how! The whole pressing return on objects rather than clicking them will escape some people if not explicitly taught (read: it escaped me the first few times I played) and then they will grow frustrated at never being able to catch a darned butterfly. -
I enjoyed the banter, but it wasn't clear I needed to click to make the text change to start with, and that got a little annoying with all the jabbering.
Was amusing and a nice intro though, felt like a good start :o) -
I enjoyed the dialogue and the way it's written, though as previous people have mentioned it does get a little long, perhaps worth bundling some of the dialogue and associated actions..?
On one hand I liked the cryptic feel of the rocks description of the world, thought it was pretty enticing and intriguing, on the other hand the first actions you learn on the back of that are pretty straight forward (i.e. picking up a water can, watering a plant) and in my view didn't particularly match with giving me the feeling I was entering a world of limitless imagination. That said, I guess those actions and the way the world works need to be explained and it does the job.
I've not played enough to see if these initial thoughts are to do with the game itself or whether it's something that could be with the way the intro is done. We'll see. -
To be honest, I preferred the old intro. I liked just learning to use the arrow keys... and then figuring the rest out. It wasn't that hard to figure out and it added to the sense of mystery. This new way is quite easy/simple/typical game. I preferred it when it didn't feel like a typical game.
On every website, if you hover over something that you can interact with, the mouse cursor changes to a hand. We've been trained for years to recognise hover + visual-indication = can interact. I'd suggest landing the newbie straight in the game without any instructions and having a Help/Tutorial link somewhere. -
I liked it. Maybe you can do it all in one tidy screen. And add the option to enter, or not ,the tutorial. Maybe two signs, one directly to game, other to the tutorial.
But I liked it very much. -
I lost my Glitch virginity today and I agree ^^^ that there is a little too much text. I don't know if that is also partly related to it being ALL CAPS and in a font that I feel doesn't quite fit in (but I can't think of what would either) so I don't really feel like reading it, though I still did out of fear of missing something important.
The Pet Rock could probably say less, I feel there are enough hints from the objects themselves, and the landscape is sparse enough that players could work out what is happening and which objects can be interacted with.
I was a little late joining the test today so I only just made it through the intro then had 60s in the real world, I like what I saw. Who doesn't wan to nibble pigs! :D - I thought the intro was pretty cute, it reminded me of Katamari Damacy. It was a little wordy and I wanted to speed through it, but once it was over the game moved really fast - which is great! It might be better with a little less help and simply more suggestive items and stuff. My only complaint so far was how long it took to water a tree. Overall I can't wait till the game opens up more!
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it is good, but like almost everyone has mentioned, it goes on too long with the wordiness.
i like the overall tone a lot. it is a bit odd, and odd is good, especially since the game is promoting itself as being different.
i liked leaving the neuron room and entering into the world, but felt the neuron room felt too much like a room. not nearly epic enough for a metaphysical entrypoint and first game experience!
i think it would work better if instead of standing on a banal floor, that we'd first 'occur' on a platform hanging in the middle of space in a seemingly endless neuronic cosmos. then walk through this cosmos along a precarious bridge and then [as in the tutorial] emerge into the idyll of Groddle.
30 second sketch of what i'm talking about here: striatic.net/misc/platform.jpg
also a bit surprised that the neurons weren't .. i dunno .. flashing, pulsating, flashing "information" between one another. basically taking the artwork to the next level. more epic, more intense, less banal. -
oh, I forgot, the intro didnt mention the action key - Enter
(or did?) -
General impression, I liked it a lot, and I dig the wordiness (but I would).
Although on the downside, I don't really remember everything that was said..I am relying on my memories of the images and what I already know about the premise, so I think the images are way more important. They need to say very simply what the rock is taking so much time to be clever about.
I think that it could be made clearer than the neuron space leading to the world sort of represents moving from a brain to a mind, from the physical to the thought-space...but the giants' mind concept doesn't come until much later in the intro. And I think that the player should plop out from one of those neuron blobs (or does it? I can't remember), or some other physical representation of a thought being created.
Maybe even the opening image is the neuron space but with no cues for the player...just sitttin' and lookin' at a brain. Then most players will naturally move their mouse to the neuron blob thingies...clicking on one could generate the avatar and then kick off the tutorial. So you actually generate the thought of yourself.
And also...maybe selected neurons pulse/glow and you have to move to them to practice movement (jumping, anyway). -
and the whole promise of epic/cinematic/intense...not gonna happen with that intro, no way. But I am not clear that e/c/i is going to be part of this game anyway.
Right now, being a Glitchizen is like being a hobbit, tasked with "keeping the giants' mind-world thriving". You run about, you learn some stuff, you nest, it's very mellow.
Will I ever become a hobbit in a Fellowship, tasked with "keeping the giants mind-world from imploding/exploding/going into a coma? It doesn't look that way. -
"Will I ever become a hobbit in a Fellowship, tasked with "keeping the giants mind-world from imploding/exploding/going into a coma? It doesn't look that way."
this is just the alpha. things are going to be more simple than they'll be in the game, surely. stoot has already said there's going to at least be a giant skyscraper cross-section level and that seems almost innately epic to me. the scale of the game can only get larger.
why can't that intro be epic? why "not gonna happen, no way?" it isn't unprecedented to have a big, epic into that drops a character into a more cozy setting where they can get their bearings. indeed, i think the epic sections make the cozy sections seem more cozy, and the cozy sections make the epic sections seem more epic. - It IS the alpha, I am jumping way ahead in my expectations. patience, grasshopper.
- My first time playing last night, the tutorial was very useful but went far too slow. Got bored in the middle of it. Also when using the cherry tree in it I had a bit of a glitch where my character jumped back to where it had been stood when the rock was talking about interacting with it.
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I felt it was a bit choppy in the beginning. Sorry.
It seemed a little 'amateur'... like some high school kid had designed it. I wasn't expecting complicated, just a little more 'polished' I suppose.
Lalu - I tried clicking a neuron. *high five* -
i found the tute cool
the rock used to be annoying earlier but this last session i found it unobtrusive enough, yet helpful - didn't bother reading most of the txts and but i'm sure they're in there if i want to?
