The Fighting Game Problem - How to Teach Complicated Mechanics

[Osmiumsmith]

This is an interesting video:

Thoughts?

 

[Humdinger]

That skullgirls does it right...at least it did at first..but gradually over time the game evolved more than it's tutorial did to the point that more casual players have sort of been left in the dust. I would also note that a great deal of all this information is available on the internet but if you are trying to attract the lowest common denominator to your fanbase they can't have to do homework at that basic level. From what I understand tho Mike has been sitting on a bunch of tutorial stuff for a while and the KI tutorial is probably the biggest example pf a successful high end and low end tutorial rather than just mashing through stuff in trials. However, the prevalence or resets and faster pace mean..something pointing out exactly went wrong in a match might be more than a little helpful for people who aren't used to that kind of thing.


The video suggests a train as you go sort of method where you actively learn and are rewarded for learning fundamentals through normal gameplay..The capcom rereleases like the darkstalkers collection and street fighter 3 collection feature an achievement system system based off of actively learning new mechanic over time in real gameplay like the video suggests. You don't actually learn much from it tho..So actual tutorials. Keep the actual tutorials.

 

[blueberrymilk]

I think it would be a cool idea to have that whole "this is why you lost" freeze frame thingabob in fighting games. Some people just don't know where the match went wrong.

 

[blueberrymilk]

That skullgirls does it right...at least it did at first..but gradually over time the game evolved more than it's tutorial did to the point that more casual players have sort of been left in the dust.

Yep, I am still trying to understand the undizzy/drama bar thing when it comes to combos and not triggering the IPS lol.

 

[haisho]

A part of the problem is that some mechanics you see in fighting games aren't explicitly developed in the first place, but are the result of (possibly multiple) quirks discovered by players that eventually proliferates amongst competitors and not into the general public.

I know that's where community content comes in and it's far less of a problem than it was in the past (yay internet!) but it's ultimately up to players themselves to find or get pointed towards that information. Without that...yeah, brick wall.

 

[blueberrymilk]

I think the fighter that was the most lost in translation for me was Guilty Gear. I don't think it had any type of tutorial/explanation for anything. Just the manual and of course, that helps. lol I had to get the hang of it myself but I'm pretty sure in those days I was missing some key elements to the game.

 

[obregon]

You gotta play for hundreds of hours to be OK at a fighter, at least without heavy prior fighting game experience in something else you played for hundreds of hours. Tutorials are nice but they can't take you a hundredth of the way down the road.

With so many ways to educate yourself about the games with the way the internet works now and massively better training modes, if someone has enough interest/time/dedication/good location to do it, they can. It's the interest/time/dedication/good location that's the gap.