History Main / TeachingThroughAccident

This is when a game encourages the player to make a certain specific accident that might illuminate something for them. Everyone loves surprises, and making a discovery accidentally is very surprising. So you'll remember what you've been taught much better than if, say, it had been told to you by a text box.

* ''[[SuperMarioBros1 Super Mario Bros]]'': As discussed in this page's opening quote, the iconic ?-block set-up at the beginning of level 1-1 was created with this idea in mind:

** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' did this multiple times as well.

** After you destroy the Hornoad within the Quarantine Bay, the X-Parasite it releases will fly toward you and be absorbed into you, showing that the X-Parasites replace the usual energy and missile pickups by healing whatever damage you took in the fight.
** The Morph Ball Bombs are used again, where an obviously-breakable block is placed, but instead of that block being destroyed, the floor ''under'' Samus is destroyed, showing the player that there are otherwise-unremarkable blocks that can be destroyed to explore beyond.
** The Cold-X do exactly the same as the regular X, in that they will try to be absorbed by you to deal damage, but once you have the Varia upgrade, their damage will instead heal you, showing you that you can now gain health by absorbing them.

** The player has already been taught three things in the first few seconds of the game: goombas are bad, goombas can be jumped over, and ?-blocks give coins.

* ''Videogame/SuperMetroid'' has an example of this just after acquiring the morph ball bomb. You are at the far left of a corridor that you need to morph-ball-bomb your way down. Morph ball bombs, when laid, explode after a second or two. This makes the player somewhat impatient - they sit there waiting for the bomb to explode, but they want to go down the corridor, so they hold right. When the bomb explodes, it flings them up in the air. Now it just so happens that there is a secret cubbyhole - the FIRST secret cubbyhole - just above where they are. Because they are holding right from impatience, they will "accidentally" discover that cubbyhole! This teaches them about secret cubbyholes.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MegaManX http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wallslide_edited_4562.jpg]]]]

->''"We simulated what the player would do. If [[TheGoomba a suspicious enemy appears]], the player will need to jump over it. And again if we have a question block, they might want to try and tap that as well. When they [[FollowTheMoney see a coin]], it'll make them happen and [[LuredIntoATrap they'll want to try again]]. Argh! You try to run away [[FakeTrap but you're hit]]. But by being hit [[PowerUpFood you become bigger]], and that makes you feel really happy."''

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'': To teach the wall slide, the devs lure the player into a situation where there's very little they can do. The designers further lure the player to fall into a tiny gap between two girders. In falling into the gap, they will notice wall-sliding. Arin "Creator/{{Egoraptor}}" Hansen talks about this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM here.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'': The second part of test chamber 10 in Portal has a pit with a tiny ledge over it. Stand on it, and you'll probably fall off, into the pit, a boring place to be. The only way to get out of the pit is to put a portal on the floor, which will take you back to the door of the level. But the cool thing is, to this puzzle involves having a portal on the floor, so they're luring you into solving it.

* 'Videogame/SuperMetroid'' has an example of this just after acquiring the morph ball bomb. You are at the far left of a corridor that you need to morph-ball-bomb your way down. Morph ball bombs, when laid, explode after a second or two. This makes the player somewhat impatient - they sit there waiting for the bomb to explode, but they want to go down the corridor, so they hold right. When the bomb explodes, it flings them up in the air. Now it just so happens that there is a secret cubbyhole - the FIRST secret cubbyhole - just above where they are. Because they are holding right from impatience, they will "accidentally" discover that cubbyhole! This teaches them about secret cubbyholes.

* ''[[VideoGame/CatacombFantasyTrilogy Catacomb Abyss]]'': In this game, doors can be opened by shooting them. How do we get the player to learn to do this? We have them fight a zombie, and we put a door nearby. While they are frantically shooting the zombie, they are likely to miss it and hit the door, opening it. [[http://auntiepixelante.com/?p=696]]
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'': To teach the wall slide, the devs lure the player into a situation where there's very little they can do. The designers further lure the player to fall into a tiny gap between two girders. In falling into the gap, they will notice wall-sliding. Arin "Creator/{{Egoraptor}}" Hansen talks about this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM here]].

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wallslide_edited_4562.jpg]]

This is when a game encourages the player to make a certain specific accident that might illuminate something for them. Compare with IMeantToDoThat.

Everyone loves surprises, and making a discovery accidentally is very surprising. So you'll remember what you've been taught much better than if, say, it had been told to you by a text box.

Subtrope of InstructiveLevelDesign.
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* ''[[CatacombFantasyTrilogy Catacomb Abyss]]'': In this game, doors can be opened by shooting them. How do we get the player to learn to do this? We have them fight a zombie, and we put a door nearby. While they are frantically shooting the zombie, they are likely to miss it and hit the door, opening it. [[http://auntiepixelante.com/?p=696]]

* ''Videogame/WarioLand'' has players discovering how to progress by basically running into things that in any other game would kill them.

This is when a game encourages the player to make a certain specific accident that might illuminate something for them. Compare with {{Imeanttodothat}}

* {{Braid}}: in an early part of this game (1-3: "Hunt"), there is a jump that the player is likely to miss after many tries. When they miss it, they have to do a lot of walking and climb two ladders to get to a point where they can do it again - but alternatively, they could rewind time to get back to the jump. The part exists to encourage the player to make proper use of their time-rewinding ability.
* {{CatacombAbyss}}: In this game, doors can be opened by shooting them. How do we get the player to learn to do this? We have them fight a zombie, and we put a door nearby. While they are frantically shooting the zombie, they are likely to miss it and hit the door, opening it. [[http://auntiepixelante.com/?p=696]]
* {{MegamanX}}: To teach the wall slide, the devs lure the player into a situation where there's very little they can do. The designers further lure the player to fall into a tiny gap between two girders. In falling into the gap, they will notice wall-sliding. Arin "egoraptor" Hansen talks about this here: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM]]
* {{Metroid}} series: Many of the 2D series entries begin with you having a choice about whether to go left or right. Most games are about going right, so there's a good chance that players expecting Metroid games to be normal games will go right. However, going right takes you to a dead end, communicating to the player that this is a game about exploring, where you have multiple options about where to go.
* {{Portal}}: The second part of test chamber 10 in Portal has a pit with a tiny ledge over it. Stand on it, and you'll probably fall off, into the pit, a boring place to be. The only way to get out of the pit is to put a portal on the floor, which will take you back to the door of the level. But the cool thing is, to this puzzle involves having a portal on the floor, so they're luring you into solving it.
* {{Quake}}: to introduce the explosive box, the game locks you in a small room with a low-power enemy. The room is set up in this T-shape which will almost certainly cause you to shoot across the box at the enemy - it's probable that you'll miss that enemy and accidentally hit the box, which will cause you to see what the function of the box is.
* Videogame/WarioLand has players discovering how to progress by basically running into things that in any other game would kill them.

* {{Portal}}: The second part of test chamber 10 in Portal has a pit with a tiny ledge over it. Stand on it, and you'll probably fall off, into the pit, a boring place to be. The only way to get out of the pit is to put a portal on the floor, which will take you back to the door of the level. But the cool thing is, to this puzzle involves having a portal on the floor, so they're luring you into solving it.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wallslide_3775.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Here the designers of Mega Man X have encouraged the player to fall into a tiny gap between two girders. But in falling in there, the player will notice that mega man can wallslide, which they didn't know before]]

This is when a game, for whatever reason, encourages the player to do something that is ordinarily not going to be useful. Compare with {{Imeanttodothat}}

* {{Portal}}: The second part of test chamber 10 in Portal has a pit with a tiny ledge over it. Stand on it, and you'll probably fall off, into the pit, a boring place to be. The only way to get out of the pit is to put a portal on the floor, which will take you back to the door of the level. But the cool thing is, to this puzzle involves having a portal on the floor, so they're luring you into solving it.

* {{Metroid}} series: Many of the 2D series entries begin with you having a choice about whether to go left or right. Most games are about going right, so there's a good chance that players expecting Metroid games to be normal games will go right. However, going right takes you to a dead end, communicating to the player that this is a game about exploring, where you have multiple options about where to go.

* this part in catacomb abyss: [[http://auntiepixelante.com/?p=696]]
* {{MegamanX}}: To teach thethe wall slide-teaching part that egoraptor talks about in his video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM]] - because the player doesn't really INTEND to end up in that little hole.
* The Metroid "go left" thing. As you can see, there's overlap here with "nonverbal tutorializing level design", but test chamber 10 in Portal is not really a tutorial, so you know, "all that gleams is not gold" or whatever.