How to make tutorials

[FrankJones]

I think I would enjoy making a tutorial for one of my favorite games, just to gain the experience of doing so.
The game does not actually need one. It already has a good one.
May I still make one anyway?

[Nekonyancer]

Of course! Go for it!

[beerdless]

This post is pretty old at this point, but I hope it is still alright to ask a few questions:

1. How closely should a tutorial match the wording of the rulebook? I know tutorials are following an actual game, so I am more so referring to the explanations of the theme, goal, overview, and general rules as opposed to the specifics.

2. Should there be a step at the end of the tutorial that briefly mentions a game's different maps or expansions, if applicable?

3. How can a mobile view of the tutorial be accommodated, or is there nothing that can be done on the tutorial-end?

I appreciate any help!

[Meeplelowda]

This post is pretty old at this point, but I hope it is still alright to ask a few questions:

This is much preferred to starting a whole new topic on exactly the same subject.

1. How closely should a tutorial match the wording of the rulebook? I know tutorials are following an actual game, so I am more so referring to the explanations of the theme, goal, overview, and general rules as opposed to the specifics.

I don't believe you are required to parrot the rulebook. In fact, explaining it a different way may be an improvement on the rulebook in some cases. Some tutorial makers have a style you come to recognize, like a penchant for puns, for example.

Should there be a step at the end of the tutorial that briefly mentions a game's different maps or expansions, if applicable?

Are you asking if it must be there? If so, no. But I've seen different variants explained (like the 2-player set-up if the tutorial covered 3-player rules).

How can a mobile view of the tutorial be accommodated, or is there nothing that can be done on the tutorial-end?

Although some tutorial makers caution that you should play the tutorials on a computer, I've been told by other users that they've never had a problem on a mobile device. I wouldn't know. I always do them on a computer. But I don't know if you can make a mobile-specific tutorial and computer-specific tutorial and have it detect which to use.

[Jellby]

It should not be a word-to-word copy of the manual, but you should use the same terms for the same things. If the manual talks about victory points, call them victory points in your tutorial, and not prestige points or global score.

[beerdless]

Noted, thank you both!

[beerdless]

I am back for a couple more questions. (So soon, yes!)

1. How do you insert BGA's meeple emojis into a text box? I have tried adding it as an image, but for some reason, it is always floating slightly above the line it was copy-and-pasted on!


2. How do you insert icons, borders, and arrows? The FAQ says you can add these when a comment is in "Edition State," but what is that? I can see they are available on the right sidebar, but when I try clicking them and attaching them to certain elements, the game just advances forward, as it would from any other click on the screen.


Thank you again!

[Nekonyancer]

1. How closely should a tutorial match the wording of the rulebook? I know tutorials are following an actual game, so I am more so referring to the explanations of the theme, goal, overview, and general rules as opposed to the specifics.

BGA has no recommendations on this subject, so it's completely up to you. All I can tell you is what I generally do, which you may interpret as gospel or as the ramblings of a deranged basement-dweller. Sometimes I copy-paste the theme from the beginning of the rulebook, but it's often too long for one tutorial step. Sometimes I just take half of it. Sometimes I notice that the authors used a couple words awkwardly or forgot a comma here or there, so I tweak them. Sometimes the rulebook is so poorly written - or even google-translated - that copy/pasting it would embarrassingly deface the rest of my work. In that case, I write something completely original.

Sometimes the BGA adaptation does not use the same terminology as the rulebook. For example, the rulebook might refer to the currency as Silver, but the BGA version might call them Coins. In such cases, I use the adaptation's terminology because (if the tutorial is written well enough) users will not need to check the rulebook after going through the tutorial.

2. Should there be a step at the end of the tutorial that briefly mentions a game's different maps or expansions, if applicable?

Seems like a good idea. I usually include at least a mention of them.

3. How can a mobile view of the tutorial be accommodated, or is there nothing that can be done on the tutorial-end?

There is nothing that can be done. Comments simply take up too make space on phone screens, leaving very little room for the actual game. Users will have to use the - button on almost every step, accidentally skipping them half the time. I suppose you could account for this by limiting yourself to 20 words or so per comment, but this will make the experience much worse for users who view the tutorial on a PC or large tablet.

Although some tutorial makers caution that you should play the tutorials on a computer, I've been told by other users that they've never had a problem on a mobile device. I wouldn't know. I always do them on a computer. But I don't know if you can make a mobile-specific tutorial and computer-specific tutorial and have it detect which to use.

..... it is technically possible. You'll need to write three versions of a tutorial. A mobile version, a computer version, and one that's not a tutorial at all - just some instructions on how to find the two real tutorials. The instructions version will only need 5 comments or so. Write something like: "There are two versions of this tutorial! To choose the one that's best for your device, you'll need to find the tutorials section of BGA's website..." and then go through a couple steps telling them how to find it. You'll also need to communicate with the publisher and have them ask a BGA admin to bypass the usual rating requirements and make it the "Live" tutorial. I can't see any publisher approving that, and even if they did, many users would be too confused by the instructions to find the version they need. So yeah, TECHNICALLY possible, but no one should ever do it.

I actually did something similar to this for Tactile because there was no other way. Published tutorials for that game do not work, but replays do. So in the published tutorial, I instructed the user to copy-paste a link for the replay. By the way, you can't use that copy-paste technique anymore, as users can no longer select text in tutorial textboxes. Luckily, the update that made this impossible did not affect tutorials that were already published.

1. How do you insert BGA's meeple emojis into a text box? I have tried adding it as an image, but for some reason, it is always floating slightly above the line it was copy-and-pasted on!

Use emoticons. write ":" and then ")" and it should use BGA's smiling emoji. You can also go to a website like emojipedia to find other emoji like lightning bolts and such, but you should be aware that some devices cannot process them. They'll only see meaningless squares instead.

2. How do you insert icons, borders, and arrows? The FAQ says you can add these when a comment is in "Edition State," but what is that? I can see they are available on the right sidebar, but when I try clicking them and attaching them to certain elements, the game just advances forward, as it would from any other click on the screen.

It seems the game you're working with was coded in a way that doesn't cooperate with BGA's highlighting system. Too bad. Most games are like that, to varying extents. You'll simply have to make do with embedded images instead. Better luck next time!

[Meeplelowda]

All I can tell you is what I generally do, which you may interpret as gospel or as the ramblings of a deranged basement-dweller.

Definitely not a deranged basement dweller. All hail Nekonyancer, Lord of the Tutorial, First of Their Name!

[beerdless]

All I can tell you is what I generally do, which you may interpret as gospel or as the ramblings of a deranged basement-dweller.

Definitely not a deranged basement dweller. All hail Nekonyancer, Lord of the Tutorial, First of Their Name!

Seconded.

Sometimes I copy-paste the theme from the beginning of the rulebook. Sometimes I just take half of it. Sometimes I tweak them. Sometimes I write something completely original.

As I have already written the tutorial, I will just keep what I have, but I will keep this in mind for the next.

Sometimes the BGA adaptation does not use the same terminology as the rulebook.

Luckily, I did not run into this problem --- maybe because I chose such a simple game, it could not possibly be messed up!

2. Should there be a step at the end of the tutorial that briefly mentions a game's different maps or expansions, if applicable?

Seems like a good idea. I usually include at least a mention of them.

Already done!

3. How can a mobile view of the tutorial be accommodated, or is there nothing that can be done on the tutorial-end?

There is nothing that can be done. Comments simply take up too make space on phone screens, leaving very little room for the actual game.

Although some tutorial makers caution that you should play the tutorials on a computer, I've been told by other users that they've never had a problem on a mobile device. I wouldn't know. I always do them on a computer. But I don't know if you can make a mobile-specific tutorial and computer-specific tutorial and have it detect which to use.

..... it is technically possible. You'll need to write three versions of a tutorial. A mobile version, a computer version, and one that's not a tutorial at all - just some instructions on how to find the two real tutorials.

Formatting is already such a pain; I cannot be bothered with making a condensed mobile version...

Use emoticons. write ":" and then ")" and it should use BGA's smiling emoji. You can also go to a website like emojipedia to find other emoji like lightning bolts and such, but you should be aware that some devices cannot process them. They'll only see meaningless squares instead.

I think the reason this slipped my mind was because I tried using it in place of a bullet point, and it did not work. For some reason, it only works at the end of a line.

It seems the game you're working with was coded in a way that doesn't cooperate with BGA's highlighting system. Too bad. Most games are like that, to varying extents. You'll simply have to make do with embedded images instead. Better luck next time!

Unfortunate... I also cannot attach text boxes to many places, so I suppose this will have to do.

Anyways, thank you so much for the thoughtful and detailed response! (This guide really should be carved out on a rock slab to help us tutorial-cavemen who are still stuck in the Stone Age.)