✦ primoh.coGame design course

Onboarding and accessibility

Help unfamiliar players discover the rules and reach the experience.

Lesson 7 of 1410 min + exercise

Teaching is part of the game. Introduce information when it becomes useful, give players room to try it, and check whether they understood. Combine playable teaching with concise text, diagrams, or optional explanations where they help.

Concepts

Teach, practice, combine
Introduce a rule in a low-pressure situation, let players use it, then combine it with another demand. A later mistake may reveal that the earlier lesson did not transfer.
Affordances and signposting
Shape, contrast, placement, motion, and sound can suggest what is interactive. Conventions help some players but are learned; watch someone unfamiliar with the genre.
Access from the start
Consider text size, input flexibility, captions, contrast, time limits, and cognitive load during prototyping. Do not rely on color alone to distinguish a safe route from danger.
Consent to information
Optional hints, reminders, and reference screens let different players ask for help. A tutorial should not punish someone for needing an explanation or revisiting it.

In games

Portal ↗

Study how a constrained space isolates a useful idea. Later combinations test understanding rather than merely repeating an instruction.

Super Mario Bros. ↗

Look at how terrain and early encounters introduce movement and interaction. A familiar player may overlook the assumptions a beginner brings.

Common mistakes

  • Assuming every player shares your controller and genre knowledge.
  • Teaching all systems before someone has a reason to use them.
  • Removing helpful text to satisfy an aesthetic rule about tutorials.

Watch a first attempt

  1. Give someone your prototype without explaining its solution.
  2. Ask which cues they noticed after the attempt.
  3. Add one clearer cue or optional explanation, then test with fresh eyes.

Done when: A new player can start, make one informed choice, and find help if needed.

Notes save in this browser.

Check your understanding

A tester reads an instruction and still gets stuck. What should you investigate?

Show answer

Whether the instruction arrived at the right moment, matched the controls and cues, and gave them a chance to apply it. Reading alone does not establish learning.

Sources

About the research →