My goal was to guide game developers by establishing core UX principles that when followed would ensure gamers from any background could easily learn any game. At the same time, I wanted to avoid alienating more experienced gamers through the implementation of these principles. For my project, I set out to answer the following questions:

​

1. What barriers to entry make it difficult for inexperienced gamers to learn a new game

2. What game tutorial aspects make players quit or lose interest early?

3. How might I apply these findings by making an effective and accessible game tutorial of my own?

​

Research Findings:​​

In conducting my research, I established 8 core games UX tutorial principles. An effective tutorial should...

​

• Incorporate story: Narrative is often the driving force for players when learning a new game. It holds their attention when they don’t yet have a grasp on core mechanics and pushes them to learn them. A lack of story can make a player lose interest much more quickly. It never hurts to buy yourself some time!

​

• Have clear and concise UI: Complex figures and menus can make it difficult to learn when players can’t even figure out what’s going on. Ensuring your UI is easy to understand takes one more burden off of players.

​

• Use recognizable symbology: Players with less experience will learn faster when icons relate to concepts they already know. It makes jumping from one game to another much easier too when icons have global meaning.

​

• Give players space to learn and practice new mechanics: When several mechanics are taught at once, it’s much harder for players to remember them. This is especially true when players are just told about them and aren’t allowed to practice. 

​

• Allow mistakes with little consequence: More inexperienced players will often struggle a lot more with a game when being introduced to it, and if they get stuck in a loop of failure, they’re not gonna keep coming back forever. A low-stress learning environment where players can learn at their own pace is ideal. Even more inexperienced players can miss a cue or close a popup of instructions too early. Make sure they can access this information somewhere else in your game.

​

• Provide guidance: Sometimes players will get stuck in a fail loop despite their best efforts. When this happens, they should be provided some sort of help to get them out of this loop. A small suggestion of how they might change their strategy to succeed can go a long way. Even many experienced gamers dislike games that expect them to figure everything out on their own. 

​​