History Main / InstructiveLevelDesign

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCAoq_atQE This video here]] talks about how (the remixed) Flying Battery Zone in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' teaches the player how the level's unique mechanics work in a much better way than [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles the original's]]. In both versions, the foot-boosters are the first things encountered, which boost the player into an area that allows them to enter and run around the mesh pipes to know how they work. Unlike ''[=S3&K's=]'' Flying Battery Zone, the first hazardous mechanic is shown to the player in a relatively safe environment where the player's grabs onto a hang bar that takes them near but out of range of a flamethrower trap, instead of ''[=S3&K's=]'' where it is ''very'' easy to run straight into the first flamethrower trap due to it being initially offscreen until you run towards it.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/station_1.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/station_1.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/station_1.png]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supermariobrosbeginning_1080.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The very beginning of ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Super Mario Bros]]'', with all the basic elements of the game displayed.]]

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-->-- '''Creator/EgoRaptor''', ''WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}}''

* In ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved's'' first mission, upon returning to the Master Chief's cryo-room, there is a staircase that you must go up on, which is the first instance of encountering a multi-story platform in the game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wytv7D9CcLc&t=7m45s According to the game's music composer Marty O'Donnell]], this was intended to teach the player to learn to look up, as most first-person shooters at the time were on flat planes and did not feature such looking up and down aside from some exceptions such as ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' and ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' (it was still the era of [=FPSs=] being considered nothing more than ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' clones).

* In ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved's'' first mission, upon returning to the Master Chief's cryo-room, there is a staircase that you must go up on, which is the first instance of encountering a multi-story platform in the game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wytv7D9CcLc&t=7m45s According to the game's music composer Marty O'Donnell]], this was intended to teach the player to learn to look up, as most first-person shooters at the time were on flat planes and did not feature such looking up and down aside from some exceptions such as ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' and ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' (it was still the era of [=FPSs=] being considered nothing more than ''VideoGame/Doom'' clones).

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' is famous for its intro level intuitively teaching players many elements of basic game strategy. Different enemies will move and attack in different ways, and this includes an enemy that has two different attacks, and enemies that are composed of multiple parts that can be destroyed separately. The level also features enemies that can destroy the ground and parts of the ground that fall apart, showing off the dynamic layout of stages. When the miniboss is destroyed, it drops players into a deep pit, forcing them to learn X's WallJump to proceed; they are rewarded for their knowledge with a health refill in an adjacent pit. The stage ends with a HopelessBossFight against Vile wearing Ride Armor before Zero saves X, showing off the Dash and Charge Shot -- Ride Armor and the Dash command are in Chill Penguin's stage, the first stage most walkthroughs advise, and you can figure out how to do the Charge Shot there. In terms of story the stage sets up Vile as a general of Sigma that overpowers X and Zero as X's friend who is able to chase him off, setting up a character arc for X to realize his potential and grow stronger.

->''"Mega Man X on the other hand, has so much to offer, and it teaches you all of it in the first level, no, in the first fuckin' '''seconds''' of the game. It's '''nuts!'''"''

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' is famous for its intro level intuitively teaching players the controls and many elements of basic game strategy. The different enemy types will teach the player how to jump over enemies and their projectiles, demonstrates the different behaviors of enemies, and how to ride on certain enemies and vehicles, including that some enemies come in parts that can be destroyed separately. The level also features enemies that can destroy the ground and parts of the ground that fall apart, showing off the dynamic layout of stages and stage elements, and giving the player a safe chance to learn how to do X's WallJump when they fall into a pit that they have to climb to get out of, and reward their feat with a second pit immediately after with a health power-up. The stage ends with a HopelessBossFight against Vile that Zero saves you from, the two demonstrating usage of the Charge Shot, dash command, and Ride Armor; the latter two mechanics show up in Chill Penguin's stage, the first stage most walkthroughs advise, and you can try out the Charge Shot there. In terms of story the stage sets up Vile as a general of Sigma that overpowers X and is then chased off by Zero, X's friend, which sets up a character arc for X to realize his potential and grow stronger.

* BrokenBridge: The designers might want to put you in a room that you can't get out of without working out the new thing they are trying to instruct you in. The question arises though: what if they try to go out the way they got in? They might not be able to immediately see how to get through this room, and instead think "oh I'd better go and check to see if I missed something in early parts of the game that will be useful here". So, when you have such a room, you want to make it so the player can't go back.

* {{Antepiece}}: When a number of "challenges" involve related ideas, but initial ones don't present anything like the same challenge. They exist purely to expose some concepts that will be useful later.
* BrokenBridge: The designers might want to put you in a room that you can't get out of without working out the new thing they are trying to instruct you in. The question arises though: what if they try to go out the way they got in? They might not be able to immediately see how to get through this room, and instead think "oh I'd better go and check to see if I missed something in early parts of the game that will be useful here". So, when you have such a room, you want to make it so the player can't go back – you want to lock the door, or break the bridge they used to get here.

* EquipmentBasedProgression: devs may place initial limitations on the player's abilities and lay out the game such that you only need *this* thing for *that* part. This avoids a bit of confusion for a player thinking about what they should use in a given place.

* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail: there are things you'll do in a level that don't seem like such a big deal, certainly they're not very challenging. But they might be teaching you certain controls in a subtle way.
* {{Minimalism}}: Designers want the player to focus on learning something that could potentially be very important, so instructive level-bits will often contain a small number of elements. They don't want you to be distracted by the nice way the light shines through the trees over there, or whatever.
* NewWeaponTargetRange: Designers give the player a new tool, and set up the next area in such a way that it perfectly suits the tool's use.
* NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom: Constraining the player means that you can make sure that he gets introduced to the exact ideas you want to introduce to him or her.
* {{Teaching through Accident}}: When designers encourages players to do something that may not actually help them, but allows them to discover something new regardless.

* VideoGameRewards: To hammer home "you have learned something specific", it is good to give the player some kind of short-term reward for their successful experimentation. Not a "you have won the game", or indeed a "you have done something HUGE AND DIFFICULT", but simply a "you have showed some cleverness" - a medium-sized reward.

* TrainingDummy: something you can practice moves on without getting hurt.

* ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Super Mario Bros.]]'''s 1-1 is considered one of the most well-crafted levels in gaming for successfully making use of ''almost all the above subtropes within the first few seconds of gameplay'' to teach all its mechanics. Series creators Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka break it down themselves [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRGRJRUWafY here]].

* {{Teaching through Accident}}: When designers encourages players to do something that won't actually help them, but allows them to discover something new.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' is famous for its intro level intuitively teaching players the controls and many elements of basic game strategy. The different enemy types will teach the player how to jump over enemies and their projectiles, demonstrates the different behaviors of enemies, demonstrates how to ride on certain enemies and vehicles, including that some enemies come in parts that can be destroyed separately, and the stage ends by showing off Vile in Ride Armor and Zero using a Charge Shot. The level also features enemies that can destroy the ground and parts of the ground that fall apart, demonstrating the dynamic layout of stages and stage elements, and giving the player a safe chance to learn how to do X's WallJump when they fall into a pit. In terms of story the stage also quickly sets up Vile as an enemy for X to defeat beyond the normal robots you've seen through the stage, and demonstrates how much more powerful Zero is than X by having him chase Vile off after X is helpless against him, giving X a character arc to go through.

->''"VideoGame/MegaManX on the other hand, has so much to offer, and it teaches you all of it in the first level, no, in the first fuckin' '''seconds''' of the game. It's '''nuts!'''"''

* WorldOfWarcraft has kinda gotten into this a bit in recent raids, even though you also get an ingame journal explaining the encounter mechanics. For example, before you fight Nazgrim in the Siege of Ogrimmar, you fight through groups of the same soldiers he calls in during the fight, so you'll already know what they do. Getting to Siegecrafter Blackfuse requires you to jump into pipes (and the enemies you fight are seen emerging from them) before the actual fight requires at least a few players using another set of pipes. Said enemies also use a number of abilities that appear in the fight proper as well.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCAoq_atQE This video here]] talks about how (the remixed) Flying Battery Zone in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' teaches the player how the level's unique mechanics work in a much better way than [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles the original's]]. In both versions, the foot-boosters are the first things encountered, which boost the player into an area that allows them to enter and run around the mesh pipes to know how they work. Unlike ''[=S3&K's=]'' Flying Battery Zone, the first hazardous mechanic is shown to the player in a relatively safe environment where the player's grabs onto a hang bar that takes them near but out of range of a flamethrower trap, instead of ''[=S3&K's=]'' where it is ''very'' easy to run straight into the first flamethrower trap.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCAoq_atQE This video here]] talks about how (the remixed) Flying Battery Zone in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' teaches the player how the level's unique mechanics work in a much better way than [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles the original's]]. In both versions, the foot-boosters are the first things encountered, which boost the player into an area that allows them to enter and run around the mesh pipes to know how they work. Unlike ''[=S3&K's=]'' Flying Battery Zone, the first hazardous mechanic is shown to the player in a relatively safe environment where the player's grabs onto a hang bar that takes them near, but out of range of a flamethrower trap.

-->-- '''Creator/EgoRaptor'''

* The opening segment of ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' has small windows that appear periodically to tell you what button does what and that's it. Everything else you learn about the combat is taught with you even realizing it. In fact, the very first segment that's an arcade style Shoot 'em up teaches you EVERYTHING about the basics of the game's combat mechanics you need to know: That shooting with the R1 button lets you destroy pink bullets, that melee strikes let you destroy purple ones, that you can choose between close and long range fighting and you'll need to strategize accordingly. By the time you reach the first on-foot section, you already know the controls, because they're exactly the same as the flight sections. The only things new that you learn in the on-foot combat is how to read when an enemy is about to attack (their eyes flash red before they strike), and practice dodging melee attacks. ''Nier: Automata'' is also notable in how stiff a gatekeeper it is. To go from the first shooting section to the first boss takes about 30 minutes, and there are NO save points until you beat the boss. You die, you start from the beginning. The unspoken message is clear: you are NOT moving forward until you prove to the game you have all the skills you need down ''cold.''

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' is famous for its intro level intuitively teaching players the controls and many elements of basic game strategy. The different enemy types will teach the player how to jump over enemies and their projectiles, demonstrates the different behaviors of, demonstrates how to ride on certain enemies and vehicles, including that some enemies come in parts that can be destroyed separately, and the stage ends by showing off Vile in Ride Armor and Zero using a Charge Shot. The level also features enemies that can destroy the ground and parts of the ground that fall apart, demonstrating the dynamic layout of stages and stage elements, and giving the player a safe chance to learn how to do X's WallJump when they fall into a pit. In terms of story the stage also quickly sets up Vile as an enemy for X to defeat beyond the normal robots you've seen through the stage, and demonstrates how much more powerful Zero is than X by having him chase Vile off after X is helpless against him, giving X a character arc to go through.