How do you create a great esports game tutorial?

1 Know your target audience

Before you start creating your tutorial, you need to know who you are creating it for. What are their goals, expectations, and preferences? What are their skill levels, learning styles, and pain points? How do they access and interact with your game? You can use surveys, interviews, analytics, and user testing to gather data and insights about your target audience. This will help you tailor your tutorial to their needs and interests, and avoid wasting time and resources on irrelevant or redundant content.

2 Choose your tutorial format

There are different ways to deliver your tutorial content, such as text, voice, video, animation, or interactive elements. Each format has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on your game genre, platform, and audience. For example, text can be easy to update and localize, but it can also be boring and hard to read. Voice can be engaging and immersive, but it can also be expensive and difficult to edit. Video can be visually appealing and informative, but it can also be large and slow to load. Animation can be dynamic and expressive, but it can also be complex and time-consuming to create. Interactive elements can be fun and interactive, but they can also be distracting and overwhelming. You need to choose the format that best suits your game and your audience, and balance the quality, quantity, and variety of your tutorial content.

3 Structure your tutorial content

When creating a tutorial, it's essential to structure the content in a logical and coherent manner. This includes deciding which topics to cover, the order of presentation, and the level of detail. Additionally, consider how to segment your tutorial into sections, levels, or stages, as well as how to transition between them. A good approach is to start with why: explain the purpose and value of your game, and what makes it unique and fun. Then move onto the what: introduce the core concepts and mechanics of your game, and how they relate to gameplay and objectives. Finally, focus on the how: demonstrate the actions and controls of your game, and how to use them effectively. Additionally, use examples and scenarios to illustrate your points in practice; provide feedback and rewards; and challenge players with quizzes. This will help enhance your tutorial content.

4 Optimize your tutorial delivery

The way you deliver your tutorial content can have a significant impact on the learning experience and the retention of your players, so it’s important to optimize your tutorial delivery to make it engaging, accessible, and adaptable. To do so, use clear and concise language with simple words and sentences, avoiding jargon and technical terms. Utilize visuals and audio such as colors, images, icons, animations, sound effects, music, and voice-overs to support and enhance the text and voice content. Additionally, consider pacing and timing with short and focused segments to avoid information overload and cognitive fatigue. Allow for customization and options such as language, volume, speed, difficulty adjustments as well as skipping, repeating, or reviewing the tutorial at any time.

5 Evaluate your tutorial performance

The last step in creating a great esports game tutorial is to evaluate its performance and effectiveness. You need to measure and analyze how your players interact with your tutorial, as well as how it affects their behavior and outcomes. To do this, you can use analytics and metrics to collect and track data, such as the completion rate, retention rate, engagement rate, and satisfaction rate of your tutorial. Additionally, you should use surveys, ratings, comments, and reviews to gather feedback and opinions from your players. Finally, use your evaluation findings to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your tutorial, and the opportunities and threats for improvement. Use experiments and tests to implement and validate your changes and updates.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?