- No "story" audio or text to provide context in the beginning of the game
- No in game tutorial or "demo" to describe to the user what the controls are and how the game mechanics work (the user has to figure this out for themselves, I need to make the game mechanics so intuitive that they can understand what to do without traditional instruction)
- No text (no points, no stats, no menus) (distill everything down to base icons i.e. II rather than "pause" and visual queues)
Challenges:
How can I portray the objective of the game without dictating or demoing it to the player?
I need to have visual metaphors for "good"(carrots) and "bad"(sticks) as well as audio queues for achievement, mastery, danger and failure. Need to slowly introduce game elements/metaphors to let players feel comfortable (i.e. achieve mastery) before I start "mixing and matching" these metaphors.
How can I show incentives and progress (without any type of scoreboard/stats)?
Effective use of color to highlight (tactical) objectives, effective use of darkness to downplay non essential things. (i.e. people are drawn to light, so "illuminate" the character's location and the "exit" and subdue the rest of the screen so the character inherently realizes what they need to do)
The on-screen character itself represents "experience" and as they get more experienced the character (and attributes of the character changes) and audio/visual queues will signify when sufficient progress has occurred to "enhance" the player and the look of the player is "upgraded" as a result (i.e. on pogo a red filled in circle meant "Master" level backgammon layer)
How do I express failure/danger/risk?
(As above) the character will represent
use common conventions (i.e. fire, spikes hurt)
use consistent color scheme (red = danger, yellow = caution, black= risk, danger, white=visible, safe)
use shape/movement (jagged and sharp objects dangerous) animation (your character has a visible heartbeat that is "in tune/ in time" with other "friendly" NPCs, rounded characters are "friendly" jagged characters are "enemies")
Why would I do this?
As a general rule:
- People don't like tutorials (it insults their intelligence and generally is not fun)
- People want to get in/out as quickly as possible (pick up and play) esp. in mobile. where play sessions might be only a few minutes
- Gives the user the impression they are in control (without having a story "told" to them)
- People enjoy figuring things out on their own (the puzzle is figuring out the game (makes us feel smart)
- People are sometimes discouraged from "restarting" or "resuming" a game after they have stopped playing a while because they loose context (they forget the game mechanics, story, objective, etc.)
- Focus on refining the core experience and mechanics so that those things feel good
- Find alternatives to traditional ways of interacting with the game (hard stops, tutorials, cutscenes, guides, etc.)
- Because the simpler a game is, the more it could appeal to a larger audience (from children to adults, "casual" or "hardcore" gamers)
- Figure out alternative ways of teaching/learning game mechanics than traditional ways
- With no text, no tutorial, you can appeal to younger and older players, casual and hardcore, and no need to internationalize the game
