So I've been thinking lately about the upcoming release of GatEB on Steam and there are a few things that have been bothering me, that I want to share my thoughts about, because I feel they might affect the game's popularity. And since Caravel have probably always wanted the game to be more popular than it currently is (why else would there be a "
Press Clippings"
forum?), I feel like those thoughts are worth sharing.
As you may probably know let's plays and twitch streams are certainly a good way to give any game some free positive or negative publicity. I'm sure anyone reading this who watches let's plays on youtube or twitch had found at least a few games they like that they never heard about before just because someone they watch played those games (I know I found plenty of games that way). I feel like releasing the game on steam is probably going to attract some attention to it from at least some channels and it would be a good idea to make the player and viewers' first impression of the game as good as possible. This also means that the sooner they get to the "
good"
part of the game - the better.
And what would this "
good"
part be? The "
good"
part of GatEB, I'd say would be the third non-exploration level, The True Court. Why? Simply because that's where the tutorial on movement and roaches and basic game elements ends and the game shifts its focus to actual puzzles. And everyone's favorite part of DROD are the puzzles, right?
And there are 2 small obstacles on the way to the good part of the game. The reason they matter is because some players are probably going to put a "
first impression"
video of some sort, and the less time they spend on those 2 obstacles - the sooner they get to the puzzles. And maybe they'll even be interested enough to do a full let's play of the game or something. Or buy the game, if they've been playing the demo version. We wouldn't want the "
first impression"
video to stop right before the puzzle level, right? Another possibility is, if the player even decided to do a full let's play of the game, some viewers might lose their interest in the game before the player gets to the good part. That would also be a bad thing.
So, tl;dr, the sooner the player gets to the True Court level - the better.
Okay, enough with the dumb introduction, let's talk about those 2 "
obstacles"
for the player.
The first obstacle is...
The tutorial level. ("
Play Tutorial"
on the main menu)
Why? Why? Why. Does. It. Even. Exist?!
This is DROD's biggest mystery that I have not been able to solve for the 7 years I've been playing the non-AE versions: existence of the tutorial level.
Seriously, think about it: what's this so important thing that the tutorial level teaches player, that the first few levels of the game don't? Oh right. Nothing. Okay, okay, I'll be more serious about this, maybe there *is* something?
Let's list the things that the tutorial teaches the player: basic movement (orthogonal, diagonal, rotating your sword, waiting), orbs, doors, checkpoints, how to restart a room, how to undo a move, how to use the minimap, what secret rooms are, what "
hold mastery"
is, how to skip the dialogue, battle key, force arrows, ortho squares, tunnels, uh... let's just say "
basic game elements"
, monsters: roaches, roach queens, evil eyes, wraithwings, spiders, serpents, rock golems, brains, seep, tarstuff... whew! That's a long list actually!
You don't seriously think the player is going to remember all of that from the tutorial?
Okay, now let's look at the 5 DROD games:
KDD - first three levels teach the player about basic movement, basic elements like orbs, doors, roaches, roach queens, evil eyes... even mimic potions actually! And there are actual puzzles on the third level.
JtRH - same as KDD, except I don't remember what monsters are there on the first 3 levels. Oh, also Halph. And Slayer. And actual puzzles on the... second level!
TCB even though is not a very good game for new players, has a built into the hold itself tutorial that's about as worthless to the new players as the dedicated tutorial is.
GatEB
is a tutorial. Every new element is introduced gently to the player with a good demonstration of how it works and then some good puzzles involving the element so that the player can get used to it.
TSS pretends that the first two levels are a tutorial... but let's be honest, they're a better tutorial than the dedicated one is.
My point is, the tutorial barely teaches the player anything useful. It tells the player how to move. Yea, that's a hard thing to figure out. It shows that you can move diagonally, that's actually nice, but GatEB, which
is the game that's going to be released on Steam, does that too. It shows how orbs and doors work, but doesn't even say that you can click on them (GatEB does). It shows a bunch of monsters and
kinda shows how they work, except not really, there's nothing the tutorial tells the player about the monsters that the player can't figure out himself in a few seconds. Also, it kinda spoils which monsters are going to be in the game for new players. And even tells players about some stuff that won't even be in GatEB.
Almost everything that the tutorial shows to the player, the player can easily figure out himself. And, ironically, the few things player won't easily figure out himself are written in scrolls, like how to undo or how to skip speech.
So now that I've hopefully convinced you that the tutorial is worthless, you're probably asking now, how is it relevant in any way to what I had said in the beginning of the post? About youtube, let's plays, stuff like that?
Well, the problem is, the player might click on the tutorial and
waste time playing it, and as I said, wasting time is a bad thing.
So I propose a really simple solution (that's not just "
REMOVE TUTORIAL"
), that should be really easy to implement.
Basically, replace the tutorial level with a set of pictures explaining basic things, like how to move, how to skip speech/cutscenes, how to undo. Showcase a few elements and monsters with short descriptions (not too many, as to not spoil them). You can even explain actually useful and non-obvious to new players stuff, like how to backstab!
And don't waste space on screen, you can group a few things into one picture. Have 3-5 pictures with explanations and look at that, you now have the same exact (or better!) thing as the current tutorial, except it wastes way less of the player's time! (Also don't forget to rename the menu option to "
View Tutorial"
or something, but that should be obvious)
I'm already tired from writing all that, but whatever. The second obstacle is...
Outer Walls: 2S2E
This room features... cracked orbs and
a lot of running around for no reason.
Seriously, what is the point of this room, other that being annoying?
Just imagine, you're a new player that just found this game and decided to check it out. You have no idea what to expect from it. In the last few rooms you just learned about some basic stuff and killed a few roaches. You enter this room and... what. Now you have to waste time running around the whole room a few times for no reason whatsoever, great!
If you're a new player who doesn't know anything about the game, what would this room tell you? It would tell you that this game is probably going to make you waste time by artifically making rooms take more time than they need to. Which is not true. But how could you know that? I mean, this is one of the first rooms in the game's tutorial, surely it must represent things to come and set the tone of the game at least somewhat, right?
First impressions can really strongly affect one's opinion on the game, I know I've seen a lot of people who don't like some games (or movies, or books, or anything, really!) as much as they could just because their first impression soured their overall opinion of the game.
Also, this might just be anecdotal evidence, but all the people whom I tried to introduce to DROD (yes, all 7 of them >
_>
) just... wanted to quit on this room after getting impatient, holding the movement button and dying to a roach in such a way that you can't undo it and then realising that the last time they checkpointed was 200 moves ago or so.
This also includes my best friend who always wanted to play DROD but found it to be way too hard for him. And the thing is, after I convinced him to just bear with this room and not quit the game... he actually loved the rest of the game. This is the first DROD game he managed to almost finish, actually, usually he'd get stuck on level 3 in KDD or level 2 in JtRH. And to think he would've missed out on it just because of that dumb room.
As I said, this might just be anecdotal evidence, but considering the current popularity of DROD, every new player counts. I mean, every new player who might actually enjoy the game.
Um... the solution I propose? Just change this room to, uh...
anything else that doesn't involve running around the entire room a few times.
I'm sorry if this post is too long, the thing is, I really wanted to give good reasons to the changes I propose, so I don't come off as some random jerk saying "
I don't like this thing, so change it, cuz I'm important"
or something.
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×PS. Also sorry if something in my post sounds dumb, I spent like 5 hours writing it, the words flying in my head refused to form proper sentences. :(
EDIT: Oh, and some more very minor points that I've just remembered:
DO NOT refer to this game as DROD 4! Refer to it as DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder. The number 4 is only going to confuse the players ("
Why would I start with the fourth game? Shouldn't I start with the first one instead?"
). And don't forget to mention, that it is
this game, that is recommended for the new players. But I'm sure you know that already.
Can the "
DROD starter pack"
or whatever it's called holds be redistributed as already installed in the game? That way you can tell the players, "
Hey, you want more of the game? We have some usermade holds (level packs) already installed in the game, just click "
Change Location"
to play them!"
, instead of having to tell them to import them manually. Not a big thing, just a minor convenience. Also make sure to mention that those hold are playable even with the demo version!
When you're going to release the smitemasters' selections as DLC,
make sure to mention the original release date for them so that people won't get angry at you for releasing a lot of DLC over a small time frame. Actually, try to
emphasize the original release date, even! Like, for example start the description of the DLC like "
Released in 2005, this smitemaster's selection is about Beethro...
blah blah"
. You get the idea.
____________________________
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[Last edited by DezzTech at 11-14-2014 07:09 PM]