In my game Feesh, the basic mechanic is to eat smaller feeshes to get bigger and avoid getting eaten by bigger feesh:
The game has local multiplayer, in which players race to reach a certain size by eating other Feesh:
There are multiple types of feesh, and in multiplayer, I need to quickly teach the players how the different types of feesh behave (for example, red ones make you smaller, orange ones dart out at you, pink ones produce children).
Since it is a local multiplayer game, I feel like the tutorial should be quick and concise.
What do you think are the best ways to quickly teach players differing enemy behaviors?
Make a ready up screen with the rules and pictures/descriptions of all the enemies/pickups. Once all the players read it, they ready up and round starts.
NO! Please donât do this. The reason players donât understand, is because youâve chosen mechanics that are not intuitive. Why would a pink feesh produce children? Why is the aggressive feesh orange, instead of red?
Instead of instructions, consider using mechanics that are more Intuitive. For instance, the âsmallerâ fish could animate (scaling down, then blooping back to original size) - so that when the player eats it, theyâll be like, âOh snap!â. The âattackâ feesh could be red, and it can have a pulsing glow around it, or wiggle in aggressive ways. The âbabyâ fish can look pregnant in some way, or it can already have a school of tiny baby fish near it, that sort of âexplodeâ outward when you eat the mommy (VERY sad btw - playerâs wonât like this).
I agree, I really donât like tutorials and things that pop up in your face and make you read. I just want to play the game. Iâd rather spend the time figuring it out than reading a book about it. To be honest I think the players could work it out pretty quickly, do they really need to know exactly how everything works before they start playing?
Actually now that I think about it, they really donât, I think Iâll just make the visual and audio cues more obvious so they convey their behavior to the player(so like the red ones make a negative sounding sound effect when they make you smaller).
But I just made a design choice for multiplayer; that every child you successfully produce grants you 1 life. Itâd be a bit harder to convey this; so Iâm thinking the smoothest way is to have a â+1 Life!â text appear and fade out above the child once it is created
Sorry to go off topic - but Iâm an animator so I thought Iâd point out an animation issue I noticed.
In the last gif above there is a shark that kills the player.
That shark looks a little stiff to me. It would improve the visuals slightly if he was segmented to stay consistent with the aesthetic and his tail followed him in an arcing motion.
Also it looks like the pivot of the shark is a little too far forward. A sharks pivot should be near their pectoral fins. If his head was segmented apart from his body this part could point in the direction he was going as the he pivoted around the pectoral fins and the other tail segments followed in a slight serpentine motion.
That would look real cool.
Overall nice stylized graphics.
And I agree with Gigi, except for the Oh Snap.
It doesnât look like any of these things are hard deaths, so thereâs plenty of room to explore, how about you just let the player work it out? If the eat a shrinky fish they shrink, darty fish dart every time you go near them, etc⌠Iâm pretty sure players will put it together.
You need to tell them the basic things so they donât just sit there not knowing what to do, but if you can make sure they understand the basic ideas: eat little fish, avoid big fish, and this is how you move, then working it out seems like part of the fun.
PS This doesnât mean you cant make the visual messaging visually consistent, but I donât think you need to visually embed each one of these cues to the point where looking at the entity tells you everything about it.
I have to say, your use of âFeeshâ gives me quite the chuckle.
(Quote) âSince it is a local multiplayer game, I feel like the tutorial should be quick and concise.
What do you think are the best ways to quickly teach players differing enemy behaviors?â
I think that since itâs a local multiplayer game you should let the players find out what everything does in that first match. Let them mess around a bit. The best tutorial is solving problems yourself. When the player picks up a red fish and gets smaller for the first time he/she wonât forget that and they can use this knowledge now in later matches. I think a âshow donât tellâ kind of tutorial works best here.
But you could show a quick schematic before loading a game or in the loading screen if you feel as if the players definitely need that initial guidance.
Best tutorial for local multiplayer is the other three players on the couch. As soon as one player figures it out the knowledge will get passed around. You have a built in personalised tutor.
For complex games a decent single player mode with the same basic mechanics will help. This allows players with extra time to become more expert. But playing single player should not be needed to play multiplayer.
Think of how much local multiplayer tutorial is included in a game like Halo. All you get is a ominous voice that says âDeath Matchâ or âCapture the Flagâ. Yet total new players can get in on a game, because their are three other players providing them the exact direction they need, exactly when they need it.
Certainly beats anything you as a game developer could write.
