Quick Question on tutorials

[OldMidnight]

So I've been making a game and was looking over the tutorial I made. The game is open world, with a very non-linear story line meaning it has almost endless gameplay(not literally but something similar to runescape). It has multiple 'skills'(I call em skills, but they are not your generic "fireball skill" etc, although it also has these ) like woodcutting etc. Now I was just wondering, what do you guys feel is the correct length for an RPG maker game TUTORIAL(missed this out in original post), regardless of engine. This applies only to RPG maker games because other genres, and games from other engines tend to require different tutorials for different things. How long is too long for a tutorial? How long is too short? Feel free to comment exactly what you're thinking on this as I need all the feedback I can get.
Many thanks for your time,
OldMidnight

 

[Kes]

This is another of those "it all depends" questions.

Tutorials should not be padded out, but they do need to cover the subject matter adequately. Therefore no one can tell you exactly how long/short they should be without knowing your game and also knowing what you want to teach in your tutorial.

Having said that, if the tutorial is more than a couple of minutes, consider if it is possible to break it down into 2 or more, slightly spaced out. e.g. a battle tutorial does not have to cover every single possibility in one go - most people will forget the sections that they don't immediately use, so those are a waste of time being included.

It also depends on the format. A tutorial which consists of several text boxes coming up with the info is one thing. A tutorial 'battle' with a more experienced NPC guiding you through it can be longer. A brief intro and a book/scroll which appears in your inventory for later, fuller, reading is another format.

 

[OldMidnight]

This is another of those "it all depends" questions.

Tutorials should not be padded out, but they do need to cover the subject matter adequately. Therefore no one can tell you exactly how long/short they should be without knowing your game and also knowing what you want to teach in your tutorial.

Having said that, if the tutorial is more than a couple of minutes, consider if it is possible to break it down into 2 or more, slightly spaced out. e.g. a battle tutorial does not have to cover every single possibility in one go - most people will forget the sections that they don't immediately use, so those are a waste of time being included.

It also depends on the format. A tutorial which consists of several text boxes coming up with the info is one thing. A tutorial 'battle' with a more experienced NPC guiding you through it can be longer. A brief intro and a book/scroll which appears in your inventory for later, fuller, reading is another format.

Thanks for the answer, let me clear some things up. The game utilizes an ABS battle system, which in turn allows the player yo instigate battles instead of them being forced. A lot of strategy also plays into this, but that's off topic. The original plan was a tutorial that would I produce the bare minimum to survive and the rest would be 'learn-as-you-play'. What I wanted to avoid was a tutorial that gave too much dialogue. And considering how many things there are to cover, this tutorial could make or break the game. Thanks for your thoughts anyhow, noted!

 

[Andar]

If you are concerned about the length of the tutorial, then you should not only split it but also make it optional with the option to get back there later.

Grandia II made this very good - in every town on the way there was a "Help"-NPC whose options when talked to was to select and run about a dozen small tutorials about the different parts of the game. The first few such NPC had only part of the tutorial (those that were needed until that point) and more were added when more skills or options became available to the player.

But that way every player could decide not to watch and read the tutorials when they were offered and still had the options to get back there if he decided that the tutorial was needed later.

 

[Kes]

@OldMidnight I see.

You need to be aware that General Discussion is not for specific, individual games, but is meant to be more wide ranging than that. If you want to restrict this to what is applicable to your own game, which might be the case going by your reply, then I shall have to move/merge this. On the other hand, if it stays here, then there will be replies which are on topic (about tutorials) which are not relevant to your game, and that's fine.

Is this just for your own game or more general?

 

[OldMidnight]

@OldMidnight I see.

You need to be aware that General Discussion is not for specific, individual games, but is meant to be more wide ranging than that. If you want to restrict this to what is applicable to your own game, which might be the case going by your reply, then I shall have to move/merge this. On the other hand, if it stays here, then there will be replies which are on topic (about tutorials) which are not relevant to your game, and that's fine.

Is this just for your own game or more general?

Much more general. I just wanted to get a sense or a general consensus of what other RPG makers felt on the length of a tutorial.