作者：Benjamin Sipe

软件开发者都知道，让玩家（用户）进入你的游戏（程序）是你首先和最大的问题。一旦这个问题解决了，你立即就面临着第二个大问题—-留住玩家。面对那么多画面，玩家的注意力停停在某个游戏上的时间大约只有30秒。这就是为什么指南设计这么关键，可惜它常常没有受到应有的重视。

事件追踪

知道玩家首先做什么事是非常重要的。如果你可以了解到他们在做什么，就可以更容易地揣摩到他们的想法和感觉。这就是为什么创造事件然后分别追踪这么重要的原因。这样做可以帮助你发现提供的信息中是否存在漏洞、活动是否太困难或太无聊等等。这些方法有助于形成一个指南漏斗图。只要某处下降得特别显著，就说明有问题。如果有问题，漏斗图应该类似下图:

Event-Completion(from gamasutra)

上图表明存在两个明显的问题。

1、在前期有一处下降特别明显，这说明了许多种可能，如玩家可能不喜欢游戏的世界观/主题/美术，也可能是符号描述截屏存在误导，还可能是玩家不知道怎么进入下一章节。如果你让玩家按照指南一步一步走，那么就不可能出现最后一个可能。

2、在末尾又出现了一个显著下降。这可能与技术问题有关，登录界面（如Facebook）或玩家不明白UI或上面显示的信息。

有时候要确定原因是不容易的，但你总是可以从外行人的角度出发，帮助自己跳出代码思维来思考问题。记住，如果你要修复某个问题，不要一次性执行多个调整，否则会很难发现是哪个调整解决了问题（或使问题更严重）。

提醒没有完成指南的玩家

本地通知是吸引玩家返回游戏的好办法，只要玩家允许这个操作的话。本地通知也是提醒玩家回来完成游戏指南（如果他们没有完成）的好工具。我们都希望玩家可以完成30秒至数分钟的指南，但也许玩家虽然安装了游戏却只是有空时才玩上一把。你希望能够提醒这些玩家他们还没充分地体验到游戏的乐趣。记住，不要把你的提醒做得太急迫或令人厌烦。一天提醒玩家回来的次数超过一次，可能就说不过去了。

向玩家展示如何进行游戏内消费或增值消费

如果你的游戏含有二元货币系统（软/硬或次级/增值），那么最好告诉玩家怎么使用增值货币或硬通货。玩家得知道增值货币的价值和内容，这样他们就会更想获得。这是优秀的指南应该发挥的作用。优秀的指南还会做得更进一步，即向玩家展示为了获得增值服务，应如何完成游戏内消费。好指南不会让玩家在这时候花真钱。相反地，只是告诉玩家“钱由我们出”。就这一点，指南的作用有二：

1、向玩家灌输一种感觉——游戏对玩家很大方。慷慨可以使玩家产生积极情绪，而积极的情绪又会使玩家对游戏产生好感。

2、向玩家展示游戏内消费的界面。我们都希望玩家进行增值消费，而且是多多消费。向玩家解释怎么做某些事可能有点管用，但直接的展示会更加有效。

奖励留下和完成的玩家

许多开发者认为他们的游戏是“与众不同”的。我们都希望自己的游戏是行业的标杆之作。然而，真相是，大多数游戏都整合了其他游戏已经用过的机制。如果玩家知道如何或认为他知道如何玩你的游戏，那么为什么还强迫他们完成指南呢（如果他们不想的话）？我知道我们都希望玩家理解游戏，但你可能会因此赶走部分玩家。如上一点提到的，让玩家觉得游戏出手大方也有助于笼络这类玩家。

最近我遇到一件事。当时我正在玩一款建造模拟的游戏，我完全明白怎么玩这种游戏，但我却被迫完成又长又无聊的指南。这让我很烦，所以我就退出了，再也不玩了。如果我知道有一个跳过指南的选项的话，我就可以那么做；或者如果游戏提示我完成教程就有额外的奖励或内容，那么我的心情可能会彻底好转。如果我知道最后能得到额外奖励，我总是会完成指南的。

缩短指南或分成更小的部分

在玩家丧失对游戏的兴趣或感觉以前，你没有太多时间向玩家展示如何玩你的游戏。我知道你为游戏已经奉献了大半美好的人生，但并非所有玩家都对你创造的角色或剧情感兴趣。所以最好向玩家展示如何玩你的游戏，如果你的游戏有深度，那就让玩家自己去发现深度。能产生这种程度的兴趣的玩家自然会找到游戏的深度。相信我，我说的没错。

缩短指南的另一个方法是将其分割成更小的部分。向玩家展示如何做最小的事，然后让他们自己尝试一下。当游戏的另一片区域开启时，或玩家达到某个等级，再出现另一个小指南。任何新机制或新区域都要有这种小指南。这有助于玩家更快深入游戏，玩家通常更容易记住更小的信息块。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

5 Tips for Creating a Better Tutorial

by Benjamin Sipe

App developers know, getting people to your game (or app) is your first and largest problem. Once you solve that problem, either through organic or paid installs, you’re immediately on to your second largest problem – retention. With a number of screens fighting for our attention, mobile developers have about 30 seconds to win the players’ attention.  This is why tutorial design is so critical and often isn’t given the attention that it deserves.

Event track every step in the tutorial.

It’s important to know what first time players are doing. If you can understand what they’re doing then it will be easier to figure out what they’re thinking or feeling. This is why it’s critical to create events and track each one separately to help you understand if there’s a flaw with the information you’re providing, an action that’s too complicated or frustrating, etc. These steps will help you create a tutorial funnel. Anywhere there is a big drop off, there is also a problem. If there are problems, your funnel may look something like this.

There are 2 obvious problems here.

There is a significant drop off early on which could mean a number of things such as; players didn’t like the context/theme/artwork of the game, perhaps the icon/description/screenshots were misleading or perhaps players just didn’t know how to get to the next section. If you’re walking players step by step through the tutorial (also known as gating) then the last scenario is unlikely.

There’s another drop towards the end. It could be related to a technical issue, a login screen (e.g. Facebook) or player confusion with the UI or information presented.

Sometimes it’s difficult to determine the reason but you can always get an outsider’s perspective to help you thinking outside of your own code. Just remember if you are trying to fix a particular problem don’t implement too many changes, or it will be hard to understand which fix is solving the issue (or making it worse).

Alert players who haven’t completed the tutorial.

Local notifications are a great way to call players back to your app, as long as they allow them. Local notifications can also be a great tool to remind players to come back to your game to finish a tutorial if they didn’t complete it. We all hope that players can make it through a 30 second to couple minute tutorial, but life happens. Perhaps they installed your game earlier and are just getting around to playing it while waiting in line somewhere. You want to be able to remind those players that they haven’t fully experienced your game. Just remember not to be pushy or obnoxious with your alerts. There’s probably no reason to call them back more than once per day.

Show players how to make an IAP or spend premium currency.

If your game has a dual currency system (soft/hard or secondary/premium) then it’s great to show them how to use the premium or hard currency. You want players to understand the value of the premium currency and content so they’ll want it more. This is something good tutorials do. Great tutorials take it a step further and show players how to complete an in app purchase (IAP) in order to get that premium currency. They don’t make players spend real money in the tutorial. Instead they say something like “this one is on us.” This does two things;

It’s instilling the perception that you’re being generous to players. Generosity creates a positive emotion with players, and you want those types of emotions or feelings associated with your game.

It shows players the IAP screen. We all want our players to spend premium currency, but we want them to buy it even more. Explaining how to do something with players can work for a small percentage but showing players how to do something is much more effective.

Reward them to stay and finish.

Many developers think their game is “different” or unique from others and we all hope our games become industry standards. However, the honest truth is most games incorporate mechanics that have been used in other games. If a player knows how, or thinks that they know how to play your game then why force them to complete a tutorial if they don’t want to? I know we all want players to understand our games but you may also drive off a percentage of players as well. This also helps instill the feeling of generosity like mentioned earlier and gives players a little “walking around money” to get started in your game.

This actually happened to me recently. I was playing a city building simulation game and I completely understood how to play the game but I was forced to complete a long and tedious tutorial. I became annoyed, quit, uninstalled and never came back. If I knew there was an option to skip the tutorial I would have, and if it prompted me to stay and complete the tutorial for premium currency/content then that would have changed my mood altogether. I always complete tutorials if I know there is a premium reward at the end.

Shorten the tutorial or break it into smaller pieces.

You don’t have much time to show players how to play your game before they lose interest or feel overwhelmed. I know you just spent a decent portion of your life dedicated to the story or world you were creating but not all players are interested in character development or storylines. It’s best to just show players how to play your game, and if your game has depth, allow players to explore that depth on their own. The ones who are interested in that level of involvement will find it. Trust me.

Another way to shorten tutorials is to break them into smaller pieces. Show player how to do the bare minimum and get them into the action. Then when another area of the game is unlocked, or the player reaches a particular level, call in another short tutorial. Do this for all new mechanics or areas of your game when they appear versus in one sitting. It’ll get players into your game more quickly, and they’ll generally retain smaller chunks of information.（source：gamasutra）