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I've recently come up with a decently hard video game concept where the player needs to figure out concepts and abilities in order to use them. There is no tutorial or anything similar showing them how to use them, they basically need to figure it out based on what the levels are.

I had the thought of giving them hints along the way so that they can understand the concepts easier. Some of these concepts are about interacting with npc and other about combat.

What would the implications of giving a player hints in terms of the player's experience?

What should I look out for when doing this?

What is the difference in result for the player when they find the hints in different ways (visual, auditory, ect)?

This is a confusing set of questions made up under the idea of giving the player hints in a confusing environment, I do not intend to create one place to give hints, instead it would be incorporated into levels in different areas, either hidden or in the open, in order to achieve it in an "accidental discovery" type of method.

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    \$\begingroup\$ There was a good Game Maker's Toolkit video recently touching on this topic. In it, Mark Brown talks about how The Binding of Isaac's designer Edmund McMillen chose to make the powerups/abilities in that game cryptic, so players would have to experiment and trade lore to figure things out. What happened in practice, of course, is that players created a wiki laying out all the guts, and now many players play with a wiki open on another monitor to tediously look up each new find - something he's come to regret. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 3, 2024 at 2:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ Another great game to study is The Witness, which is built on introducing game mechanics to players without explicitly explaining them. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 3, 2024 at 15:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ "Hints and tips" and "walkthroughs" should be considered as "extras" ... from a marketing POV. Make them at least "work" for it. Host tips (and ads) on a separate site (pay or no pay). Then sue the rest for infringing ... :0) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 3, 2024 at 17:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ @crass_sandwich The Witness has some of my favourite in-game hints of all time, which is frustrating because I can't tell people about them without spoiling discovering them! 😆 \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 5, 2024 at 23:40

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Probably the most satisfying learning moments for the player are those where they think they figured out something all on their own. But quite often, you can actually engineer such moments throughout clever game design. Common techniques are:

  • Show, don't tell, the player how a game mechanic works by having NPCs demonstrate it. For example: Grenades can destroy wooden walls? Have enemies throw grenades at the player which happen to remove wooden walls which blocked their progress.
  • Have the player accidentally use a mechanic. For example: A player-eating enemy can be distracted by feeding it a barrel? Place one of those barrels in a way that the player won't be able to progress without knocking it out of the way, which will cause it to land exactly in the mouth of such an enemy.
  • Give the player room to experiment. When the player obtained a new ability, put them into a scenario that is relatively easy, but offers plenty of opportunities to make use of this mechanic.
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