Mobile Games: Tutorials Should Fit Mobile Attention Spans

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Gamers might not like to admit it, but everybody needs a little help the first time firing up a new game. Experienced gamers can probably guess at what the controls are for common genres – how long has it been since the Madden series has made any kind of meaningful change in controls? For games that are a little more unique though, gamers need help in figuring out not only what buttons to push, but also on a deeper level gamers need to get familiar with what the game is all about. Since we all know that users/gamers/humans don’t read, the usual answer is some kind of in-game tutorial.

Then what happens when you throw a unique game type onto a mobile platform where there are no buttons? Where every game has totally different controls? Well, you might get something like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, originally a Nintendo DS game ported to iOS that (in a nutshell) features a dead protagonist going around possessing inanimate objects. Ghost Trick features an introductory tutorial level that takes the gamer around 25 minutes to complete! Tutorials for mobile games need to have more action sooner to grab and keep the interest of their probably distracted and already busy audience.

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Draw Something: Why Can’t You Purchase Colors in the Shop?

Note: since this article was originally published, Draw Something was updated to actually let you purchase colors from the shop. I’m sure it was a direct result of this article =)

Draw Something (iTunes link) is the new hotness for mobile phones.  If you aren’t familiar, it’s basically turn-based Pictionary.  Player 1 draws something, player 2 sees the drawing (it’s animated so you can watch the person draw the picture, which is pretty cool) and guesses the word.  Pretty straightforward stuff.

As is the case so often for mobile apps these days, it’s a freemium app that tries to get you to purchase things with “coins”, the in-game currency.  What can you purchase with coins?  Two things.  You can get bombs that help you either get a new set of words to draw, or more colors to add to your palette.

UX-wise, there’s not a whole lot going on in Draw Something, so it’s pretty solid.  I do get a little frustrated when drawing, because it always seems to default to a bigger size of brush than I want, though that’s not a major issue.

There’s just one thing that makes me scratch my head.   Continue reading