38 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
38 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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<h1>designing a tutorial with bingo cards </h1>
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april 15, 2021<br>
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#gamedesign #tutorial<br>
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Give your players more freedom during the tutorial by having them play bingo. <br>
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<h2>what's bingo? </h2><br>
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Bingo is a game where the player is given a card with a grid filled with random squares. Someone will call out squares, and the player will cover the called squares with tokens. The goal is to fill a line of squares with tokens: a diagonal, a horizontal, or a vertical. Sometimes the game is played until a full card is covered. Since each card has different squares, it's a game of chance. <br>
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Bingo's a popular gambling game in America, but it can be modified into an educational game, too. My music class played spurts of classical music in lieu of calling squares, so we had to identify the instrument in order to cover squares. <br>
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<h2>using bingo to design a videogame </h2><br>
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I like the bingo board as a game world because there are multiple paths to winning the game. The design of the board strikes a nice balance between game designer choice and player choice. The player is free to choose their own board based on their own criteria, but the designer ensured each board is reasonably equal. There's no board with 24 B4 squares on it, for instance. <br>
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This balance of freedom and control is great for something like a game tutorial. Usually, tutorials are set in extremely confined areas with strong limits on player exploration and choice. That's a good idea in theory because it will teach the player exactly what he needs to know at a pace that won't overwhelm him, but it's boring in practice. <br>
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You can think of a traditional tutorial as a row of squares on a bingo card. The squares are probably something like "move forward," "talk to an NPC," "double jump," "equip gun," and "hit the bulls-eye." If that was only one line on the board and all the other lines were filled with similar objectives, the player has a little more freedom to choose their own tutorial. The designer retains control over what the player learns because he can ensure each line is reasonably equal in its ability to prepare the player for the real game. The designer loses control of the order in which tasks are completed, but it's guaranteed that the player finished a complete set of tasks. <br>
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<h2>blessfrey bingo </h2><br>
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<center><img src="/static/img/ent/blessfreybingo.png" alt="(image: a bingo card filled with game objectives like Visit Nurse's Office, Talk to Chloe, Win a Sparring Match, and Buy Cheese Crackers.)"></center> <br>
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To play the main content in Blessfrey, the player needs to have basic knowledge of combat, dialog, different characters, and different areas on the map. There's also less vital information that the player should encounter quickly, like shopping, using phone apps, and randomized loot. So, almost every line has some basic combat, character interaction, and zone exploration. There's some more obscure tasks scattered around to hint at what kind of things are possible in the game. <br>
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<h2>bingo and the players </h2><br>
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If you physically present the full card to the players, they will respond differently. Completionists might want to cover the entire board before leaving the tutorial area, so it would be fun to reward them. 1 bingo is a ticket out of Tutorial Land, but there can be further rewards for additional bingos and a big prize for the full board. Speedrunners (any%) are going to figure out which path is the fastest and only take that one. Most players are probably going to explore at their own pace and complete the objectives that seem easy or cool, though. <br>
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<h2>in closing </h2><br>
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So long as the board and potential rewards are balanced, why not consider taking some inspiration from a bingo board when designing your tutorial? There doesn't have to be a literal board anywhere. The idea of alternate but equal paths to completing a tutorial already brings in more potential for player choice while retaining designer control. <br>
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Last updated April 15, 2021 <br>
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