1 - In a platformer, players would assume you had to go to the right and kept jumping in the void over and over. I had to add a revolving staircase that spins you and makes you face left.
They acknowledged the staircase was weird, but couldn't figure out the reason.
2 - When players got to a village, they wouldn't interact with any of the houses. So I added a giant exclamation point in one of them. An NPC would tell you to visit a shop, which has a huge sign. Noone would read the sign.
3 - People keep trying to interact with elements of the background in an RPG, so I have to add dialogue to them so they don't get confused as to why they can't use it.
4 - It doesn't matter what the vibe of the game is, people always try to beat the shit out of everyone they meet. Blocking the attack button would be too handholdey, so I add a disapproving response from the NPC. Then players are like "oh i'm so sorry."
To those saying things about playtesting being "designing for the lowest common denominator," well, I once had a hardcore gamer get stuck in my game because he was trying to move with WASD.
It's not just "newcomers" that get stuck on quirky problems.
A few people have said that signposting should blend in with the game's aesthetics. Maybe the dude complaining would have a point if his point was "make it look like it came from RE"
crates are not inherently breakable and even crates with the EXACT TEXTURES IN THE SAME GAME have been either breakable or unbreakable depending on the specific crate. hello i have played donkey kong 64
which, nowadays we acknowledge is a "bad game" but way back when it was much better received, and a lot of the design elements come from previous 3d platformers that were held in high regard
point is, anytime you think something is "obvious," a. no it isn't; b. there is good cause to not consider it such; c. at least one person who will not consider it such for a very silly reason
The example I always give is that waaay back when we were little, my siblings and I received the gen 1 Pokemon games for Christmas, and we all spent half an hour trying to figure out how to get out of the player's house because it did not click that the rectangle at the bottom of the screen was a door mat. (Youngest figured it out first.)
(The game that infuriated me the most with an unskippable, agonizingly unnecessary tutorial was Pokemon SuMo, though I will acknowledge that maybe total newcomers to Pokemon need an extensive tutorial to learn the ropes and it was only agonizing to me BECAUSE I already knew almost all the game mechanics)
(...but then I'd argue that SuMo damn well should have had a fast track option for players who know what they're doing to NOT have to play an hour and a half of being told shit they already know before they're allowed to do anything, so I still consider it bad design)
Larboard
: Hard agree, and I think the biggest flex a tutorial can make is if they give you an item, for the purposes of using the item in the tutorial, but give you the option to NOT use the item so you now have a free starter item
I'm reminded of the FF7 beginner's hall tutorial where Cloud explains how to use potions and if you don't have any in your inventory, he'll ask for one from the NPC, who calls him cheap lol
I think menu mechanics especially would be hard to explain without a tutorial, but damn they had better be both skippable and accessible elsewhere if I realize later that I don't actually know what I'm doing
there's also the OG mario RPG where the item tutorial forces you to use a mushroom to heal, but you only took like, maybe 2 damage from the fight right before it?
> Game dev: ok so
1 - In a platformer, players would assume you had to go to the right and kept jumping in the void over and over. I had to add a revolving staircase that spins you and makes you face left.
They acknowledged the staircase was weird, but couldn't figure out the reason.
2 - When players got to a village, they wouldn't interact with any of the houses. So I added a giant exclamation point in one of them. An NPC would tell you to visit a shop, which has a huge sign. Noone would read the sign.
I added another huge exclamation point.
3 - People keep trying to interact with elements of the background in an RPG, so I have to add dialogue to them so they don't get confused as to why they can't use it.
I just add funny quips, but it works.
4 - It doesn't matter what the vibe of the game is, people always try to beat the shit out of everyone they meet. Blocking the attack button would be too handholdey, so I add a disapproving response from the NPC. Then players are like "oh i'm so sorry."4.5 - So players online complain that they can kill people and then the game will have less content... What did you expect? A Ghost party?5 - Players won't pickup a necessary item even though it's on a pedestal... So I make it float with glowing instead.6 - I have holes impossible to jump through twice as large otherwise people will be trying to make the jump for hours and get bored of the game.\7 - I have to put elements that are cut off by the screen on every level, otherwise players will assume the level is one-screen wide.Lastly, I had to paint my climbable surfaces blue because otherwise players keep trying to climb every single geometry in the level and get bored...To those saying things about playtesting being "designing for the lowest common denominator," well, I once had a hardcore gamer get stuck in my game because he was trying to move with WASD.
It's not just "newcomers" that get stuck on quirky problems.