{"id":3476,"date":"2016-02-04T10:51:32","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T18:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/?p=3476"},"modified":"2016-02-04T10:53:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T18:53:44","slug":"immediate-success-what-can-we-learn-from-game-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/04\/immediate-success-what-can-we-learn-from-game-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Immediate success: What can we learn from game design?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within 10 seconds of launching your app, can your user be doing something cool, becoming an awesome person who can do rad shit<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Instead of filling out a sign-up form (which must die<\/a>), get them winning<\/strong>\u2014learning by doing, making the app better.\u00a0Watch this talk<\/strong><\/a> by Plants vs. Zombies creator George Fan on how he got his mom to learn & play through the app. In case you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, here are the notes I took: <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Blend the tutorial into the game.<\/li>\n
      \n
    • Instead of a button that says \u201cTutorial,\u201d just put \u201cKill myself.\u201d<\/li>\n
    • Learning is inherently fun<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    • Games stop being fun when you stop learning.<\/li>\n
    • No indication of where the tutorial ends & where the game begins. (Compliment: \u201cThat game had a tutorial?\u201d)<\/li>\n
    • Teach people without them realizing they\u2019re being taught.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    • Better to\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0than\u00a0read<\/em><\/strong>.<\/li>\n
        \n
      • Simply play & observe.<\/li>\n
      • Don\u2019t say, \u201cDid you know that X\u2026?\u201d<\/li>\n
      • Mini-games should be fun as well as informative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      • Spread out the teaching.<\/li>\n
          \n
        • You don\u2019t have to each everything right off the bat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \n
          • Does the player really need to know this right now?<\/li>\n
          • Let players enjoy their toys<\/strong>\u00a0before introducing new ones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          • User fewer words.<\/li>\n
          • Use\u00a0adaptive messaging<\/strong>\u00a0to display the correct prompts.<\/li>\n
              \n
            • Stuff that\u2019s too basic may insult more experienced users.<\/li>\n
            • Notice when people are lagging on collecting power-ups, etc. (\u201cHint: Carnivores won\u2019t eat fish food!\u201d)<\/li>\n
            • People who figure out stuff on their own feel good about it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            • Be frugal.\u00a0Don\u2019t create noise<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
                \n
              • Don\u2019t let achievement announcements distract from key text.<\/li>\n
              • Showing relevant messages builds user trust.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              • Use visuals to teach.<\/li>\n
                  \n
                • Ideally you know what something does just by looking at it. Pea shooters look like they shoot; Shield zombies look defended; etc.<\/li>\n
                • If you can\u2019t do that, you should understand it after seeing what it does.<\/li>\n
                • Consistent visuals: Super Mario enemies that feature spikes can\u2019t be jumped on; ones with wings can\u2019t be hammered.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                • Leverage what people already know.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  Within 10 seconds of launching your app, can your user be doing something cool, becoming an awesome person who can do rad shit? Instead of filling out a sign-up form (which must die), get them winning\u2014learning by doing, making the app better.\u00a0Watch this talk by Plants vs. Zombies creator George Fan on how he got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3476"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3483,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions\/3483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}