This game needs a good tutorial/Why I can relate to OXM Dan

[Elizian]

You've won.

Not while you're still in business ... nil illegitimus carborundum

[Nitrosoxide]

Its not about difficultly not being allowed anymore. Its far from that. Its about wanting to know what the heck is going on.

Even the hard ones because they were self explanatory, so no tutorial was needed.

1. Contra gave you a gun and a lot of bad guys... so you'd shoot the bad guys.

2. Super Ghouls N' Ghosts, gave you jumping and throwing knives. Yet another hard game that is self explanatory

3. Ikaruga the game is a great shooter & a very difficult one. But, the game mechanics aren't hard to learn at all. Treasure explains everything quite well in a tutorial video.

Indeed most good arcade games, even the hard ones gave you a pretty clear idea as to whats going on. Like maybe there were some that made absolutely no sense whatsoever...But, I don't recall any that were had to at least get the gist of.

There's a big difference between hard game play and hard to learn game mechanics. You don't expect Mario Kart to make karts accelerate by pressing "left Left up up down".

Its not about not wanting something hard or challenging so please don't take this the wrong way. I just don't think knowing how-to play the game should be hard.

As I said I'm interested in SG I would like to know how it works. But, I don't want to search the entire internet for the answer. Its not about not wanting to "work for my games", because I definitely do. If I'm stuck on a level I will usually ask for help.

But, when it comes to controlling the game and learning it, really that is the one and only thing a developer should teach their players.

I'm not asking for much, I'm not asking that you change the design of the game. Just the addition of a good tutorial video or a in-game link to a website where you can find one.
If you posted a good tutorial where ever and a player could not find it, is it his fault? I don't think so I think that sort of thing should be publicized and be offered to the player. Otherwise the main challenge of the game becomes finding the instructions... which I'm sure makes for great discovery and puzzles.

[benedictw]

What elements, in particular, did you find not explained? The tutorial does a decent job with the flowers and the bullets, the powerzone bit is possibly slightly confusing.

[Nitrosoxide]

The jumping out of the zone...

Also, "Bulling"

[Portland]

Personally, I'm really anal about finishing everything in RPGs - usually I run through once or twice, then do a completeness run. I tend to consult all manner of faqs and tutorials, for the complete, get everything run. But for anything "Arcade-y" finding things out for yourself is part of the fun. At least you don't have to shovel 10p's in...

[GBH]

The jumping out of the zone...

Also, "Bulling"

I'm going to fight the temptation to call you a lazy idiot and try and help you.

To jump you need to collect a pod. Pods are random drops from baddies you shoot on the playfield. You can't miss them, they're the pulsating white diamonds in a sort of tube that come slowly towards you in a straight line. When you pick them up you get a big huge "Pod Get" message and a sound que. The number of pods you have is shown by the number of tails you have on your giraffe (the very thin long whispy floaty things). Pods = Tails = jumps.

Bulling is a term used to describe the killing of enemies that have reached the rim and are slowly traversing it by running into them and not shooting them. In order to do that you have to have the power zone extended. The power zone is the bar on the playfield that moves further away when you shoot something. When the baddies reach the rim, shoot a few to make the bar move away from you then run into the enemies on the rim. 3 in a row = a "bull" which is accented by a dirty great big mooooo sound, the silhouette of a bulls head on the screen and an addition to your multiplier bonus. Bulling is just a term for running into 3 or more enemies which are on the rim and so advancing your multiplier.

The game is ALL about score. Getting through the levels is secondary. It's easy(ish) to get through all 100 levels and get nowhere with your score. To build a good score require varied tactics, skill and a huge amount of practice.

The game is sublime. It's not for everyone and its certainly not the game to get high scores by button mashing like in Geometry Wars. If you want to get good you have to practice, try out new things, learn and work at it. Personally, I think it's one of the most stunning games written in a long long time and to not work at it until it clicks is to miss something very special indeed.

G

[TDM]

I've been playing SG for a week now, I still don't get it completely, but I'm not complaining - I love it and I can't get enough of it.

Sure, there's frustration when you get killed and you can't quite work out what the smeg happened, but every time I play I'm getting better - and that's real money value from a game, hours of play because you keep coming back to it to learn more and get better.

Not to mention it looks awesome.

But, I do agree that the tutorial level could explain things a little better... but I'll tell you something, every game I've ever realy loved I had to learn myself how it all worked, and that's rewarding in itself.

[Jamesac]

Congratulations, OXM Dan and your ilk; you have won; everything from now on will be obvious, you'll never have to put in any more effort; just oress the button and you'll win. No more puzzles, no more discovery, no more cognitive effort required, just twitch'n'avoid, that's all you really think of these games after all, isn't it?

Well done.

You've won.

Could you explain to me why you're going to start making games for people who don't like the kind of games you make? If I want the services of a professional chocolatier I'm hardly going to unwrap a Hershey bar.

I love sorting out how to play Space Giraffe. I love that each new enemy requires a brand-new strategy to deal with (barring the rotors which, sorry, I just don't get on with at all), and that there's a learning curve involved from the start. Do you really want to abandon the people who you make happy with your games in order to serve those who find learning hard?

There was enough info in the tutorial for people to learn Space Giraffe, except they didn't find it presented clearly enough. I found it pretty obvious but then again I'd seen the Google video and been following the development from the start, so my ability to judge is completely shot. Point is, the lesson I'd have expected to come out of this is to have the exact same information presented in a ridiculously comprehensive fashion the next time, rather than a new "stupid games for stupid people" philosophy.

James

[The Caffeine Kid]

There is no pleasing all the people all the time, so don't let it get you down just shrug it off and don't lose any sleep over it.

Surely it's better to be niche than to be bland?

For good or for ill, the game has got people talking - I'm sure a lot of the other offerings will be forgotten when people are still playing this.

I would rather (some) people either loved me (or even hated me, if such a thing was possible ) than (everyone) be totally ambivalent and not care either way.

I can see it from both sides of the fence and it's not a case of "you win" it would be more a case of "everyone loses".

[RiK]

Could you explain to me why you're going to start making games for people who don't like the kind of games you make?

Sadly, because it seems that may be the only way to sell them in sufficient quantities to make it economically worthwhile producing them in the first place..

[RiK]

I'm not asking for much, I'm not asking that you change the design of the game. Just the addition of a good tutorial video or a in-game link to a website where you can find one.

If I'm not mistaken, Microsoft specifically prohibits developers from including links to their own sites in XBLA games.

[JB Lars]

I'm going to fight the temptation to call you a lazy idiot and try and help you.

Fight it better next time, and maybe I'll fight the temptation to call you a fucking prick.

[shock combo]

I'm going to fight the temptation to call you a lazy idiot and try and help you.

Fight it better next time, and maybe I'll fight the temptation to call you a fucking prick.

i think he was talking to nitrousoxide who obviously hasnt got the tutorial for some reason

[JB Lars]

I'm going to fight the temptation to call you a lazy idiot and try and help you.

Fight it better next time, and maybe I'll fight the temptation to call you a fucking prick.

i think he was talking to nitrousoxide who obviously hasnt got the tutorial for some reason

Of course he was. But to say "I'm going to fight the temptation to call you a lazy idiot…" Well, he didn't fight it, did he? It's right there. May as well have come out and said "I think you're a lazy idiot," as it's clearly what he meant. And it's an asshole thing to say.

Nitrosoxide hasn't got the tutorial, that's plain. And he's here asking for help because instead of slagging off the game, he WANTS to like it. He seems to understand that a lot of people think Llamasoft in general and this game in particular are something special, so he came here to get assistance in seeing it. What he gets in return is very thinly-veiled insults and Yak throwing a tantrum about the perceived intelligence level of the marketplace.

Listen, Nitrosoxide, it's okay that SG isn't gelling for you. Just take your time, and do the tutorial repeatedly. Not because you need to be taught repeatedly, but because it's an excellent no-stress venue for working out the most basic mechanics of the game. Keep shooting things, you've got a Power Zone. If you've got a Power Zone, you can bull moving enemies off the rim. If you haven't got a Power Zone, you can jump to get one. If you can't jump, that's why there's more than one life. I understand completely not knowing some of the basic mechanics. Took me forever to figure out shot juggling and sneeze bonuses. Just chill one game at a time and enjoy the ride. Develop what you DO know about the game.

[HGFB]

I'm not sure what to make of people getting all in a muddle over the game mechanics. SG isn't that complicated a game to figure out and in this internet age haven't we all been trained that if you're having trouble with a game the first place to go is google?

I'll try that now

*Types space giraffe tips into google*

First response back is this little site. Don't know if it's any use
http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/blog/?p=10

I'm not understanding all the problems. How are people still not managing to figure all this stuff out? It's not like there's a lot of it. Jump, bull. Hell OXM UK didn't even manage to notice that you didn't need to press a button to shoot and they get paid to play games. They must have hired Redevil to do that review.

*Edit* I haven't seen it posted so here's what passes for OXM UKs review

First up, let's have a couple of disclaimers here: our US magazine gave Space Giraffe a 2/10 and second, we know and like Jeff Minter. However, neither of these things have affected our score for Space Giraffe, Minter's latest opus, which appears to be a reworking of the old arcade classic Tempest.

It's obvious from the off that Space Giraffe is not a modern game. The passing of time has rendered the game-culture references cryptic ("Our giraffe is another castle", for example, which could mean anything). This is a deliberately backwards-looking game made to appeal to hardcore gamers and it's up to you whether the combination of epilepsy-inducing flashes of Jay Allard, long-dead catchphrases and deceptively simple gameplay works. It didn't for us.

We say the gameplay is "deceptively simple", because there's effectively two buttons. Your craft travels sideways along the grid, one button shoots, whilst pulling the trigger pulls you back from the grid so you can shoot enemies that have reached the top of the grid. There's a "power zone" that allows you to combo enemies for higher scores, but we haven't got any idea what it's meant to do beyond that. You've also got smart bombs, for those desperate moments.

There's definitely tactics to getting higher scores, but beyond grouping enemies together to kill them all at once, we're screwed if we know what they are, having enough trouble getting to grips with the basics of playing the game. In fact, a bigger problem was caring enough - we simply couldn't motivate ourselves to keep playing, because the blaring colours, old gameplay and catchphrases really got on our nerves. Yes, the game works, yes, there's plenty of gameplay for the hardcore in there. We're just not convinced it's either varied enough or interesting enough to lure the casual gamer in.

We're having flashbacks of our flashbacks now. 4/10