Hands-On Challenge Overview

• Create isolated areas for player on-boarding.
• Leverage the environment and effects to guide players.
• Create a textless tutorial.

What You'll Need:

• A world with a complete core gameplay loop.
• Two good sound effects, a bad sound effect & a confetti visual effects.
• One or more players that have never experienced your world before. (For testing)
• Conversational NPC (Optional)

Challenge Steps:

• When a player enters your world for the first time. It can be very confusing with no direction. However, returning players will not need this experience again.
• Pick an area that is isolated from the rest of the world that new players will spawn into.
• • Use a player persistent variable to track if players have completed the onboarding experience. If they have not, spawn them here. If they have, spawn them somewhere else.
  • This area should be small but have all the necessary objects and interactables required to complete the core gameplay loop once.
  • Use a mixture of camera, lighting, visual effects and LLM NPCs to introduce the player to the world.
  • • You do not have to use all of these. These are just some tools that can be used to guide the player where you want them to go.
• Now you should have an area for new players to be onboarded, move onto step 2

• Using the isolated area, direct players to the first stage of the core loop.
• • Perhaps players need to use a tool. Inform the player of the tool and motivate them to want to use it with an NPC or direct the player to the tool using a combination of camera movement, lighting and visual effects.
• Once this has been accomplished by the player, play a sound effect.
• • Use a good sound effect to let the player know they did something they were supposed to do.
  • If they try to interact with something that is not the tool, play a bad sound effect. This will inform them they are doing something wrong.
• Next, direct the player in the same fashion to the actions they need to do with that tool. Again play the same sound effect once this has been accomplished.
• • Always use the same sound effects and guide effect (camera, lighting, NPC, etc.) to not confuse the player.
• If there are other steps before the reward stage, introduce them in the same fashion as the previous steps.
• The reward stage should be a big momentous occasion to make the player feel good about their hard work.
• • Play a confetti visual effect and a grander sound effect. This will help inform the player they have completed the whole loop and not just another step in that loop.
• Now new players should be able to complete your worlds core gameplay loop, move onto step 3.

• At this point the player should know what to do and how to do it.
• • This is a great time for some QA. Bring in some players that have never experienced the game before and see if the onboarding process works.
• Open the gate or teleport the player to the main play area with the rest of the world population.
• If there are other systems that need to be introduced only do so when needed. We do not want to overload the players with too much too fast.
• • When they need to be introduced do it in a similar fashion to how the core loop was introduced using the same visuals and sounds. They are used to these being used as tutorials effects.
• Now you should have a complete onboarding experience for new players!

• Consistency
• • Keep all tutorials structured the same way to avoid confusing players.
  • Use the same SFX and VFX throughout the entire tutorial sequence.
• Text Usage
• • Avoid text whenever possible — most players won’t read long instructions.
  • If text is necessary, keep it extremely short and direct.
• Player Direction
• • Lighting cues are weak in bright daytime worlds, so don’t rely on them.
  • Use alternative guidance methods such as:
  • • Clear landmarks
    • Painted interaction markers (e.g., yellow or any consistent color)
  • If you use a color cue in the tutorial, use the same cue in the main world for continuity.

Level Up:

• Players may leave and return weeks later. Give the players a way to experience on-boarding again. Either through a help/how to UI or allowing reentry to the isolated area again.
• Re-Onboarding Button
• • Create a way for the player to re-onboard themselves. This can be a UI button or an interactable world. Either way it should bring them back to the onboarding process and reset only the on-boarding PPVs. They should still be able to keep any other progress made.
• How To UI:
• • Alternatively if the onboarding process is short a simple UI with pictures that cover the Motivation, Action, and Reward of the core loop may suffice.

Need Help?

• Forum Support: Reach out to the MHCP community in the creators forums in the Questions & Discussions ⁠category.

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