Line #21 Main/TeachingThroughAccident


1	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MegaManX1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wallslide_edited_4562.jpg]]]]
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3	->''"We simulated what the player would do. If 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 see a coin, it'll make them happy and they'll want to try again. Argh! You try to run away but you're hit. But by being hit you become bigger, and that makes you feel really happy."''
4	-->--'''Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto''' on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRGRJRUWafY how he designed]] the opening to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''
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6	This is when a game encourages the player to make a certain specific "mistake" 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.
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8	Compare with IMeantToDoThat and {{Antepiece}}. Subtrope of InstructiveLevelDesign.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
11	* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'': There is a jump in an early stage (1-3: "Hunt") 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.
12	* ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' games usually have candles and the enemies in the beginning of the first level so that players accidentally hit the candles to discover they contain items. The reason being that hitting candles for items is normally non-intuitive.
13	* ''[[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, [[http://auntiepixelante.com/?p=696 they are likely to miss it and hit the door, opening it.]]
14	* ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'': 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}}" Hanson talks about this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM here.]]
15	* ''Franchise/{{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.
16	** ''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.
17	** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' did this multiple times as well as a way of showing you how your new abilities worked.
18	*** 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.
19	*** 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.
20	*** The only way out of the pit you fight Zazabi in is by jumping higher than your jump before, so your new high-jump ability comes in handy at demonstrating how high you can go.
21	*** After defeating Serris, you're led into a room with a long flat platform that you'll naturally run the length of, activating your speed booster as you do. Then you'll be tasked with clearing out a similar platform so you can break through a set of speed blocks on the ground, showing you how to activate it, that enemies prevent you from activating it, and that some blocks can only be broken through with speed.
22	*** The Cold-X are introduced as a dangerous X-parasite variant that will actively try to be absorbed by you since they deal damage. After obtaining the Varia upgrade, which lets you handle low temperatures. the next room contains nothing but a long ladder and a large number of Cold-X. It’s basically impossible to avoid absorbing some as they all divebomb you, showing you that you now ''gain'' health by absorbing them. All Cold-X will try to flee from you from then on, now that they’re nothing more than extra large health pickups.
23	*** After retrieving the Plasma Beam, you are attacked by several Ki-Hunters, and naturally, you will defend yourself. But the Plasma Beam will pierce and hit ''all'' of the Ki-Hunters, rather than just the front one, showing off your beam's new ability to hit every enemy in a line.
24	*** After Defeating Security Robot B.O.X. the second time and getting the Wave Beam, your first task is to shut off the "Warning! No entry without authorization!" alarm, which you do by shooting through a gate with your new beam that can go through walls, which opens up a passage into a hidden laboratory.
25	** ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' has one early section that's a seemingly dead-end room, with the initial available exit cut off by a destructible ceiling section that resembles regular terrain and has a ceiling-crawling enemy on it. The player is likely to attempt to shoot the enemy from a diagonal angle, miss a few shots thanks to the enemy's movement and small size and hit the destructible ceiling (or fire a charged shot that destroys the enemy and goes on to hit the ceiling), opening a path to the exit and teaching the player that certain hidden spots in the terrain can be destroyed even if they don't look destructible.
26	* ''VideoGame/{{Portal\|1}}'': The second part of test chamber 10 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, the solution to this puzzle involves having a portal on the floor, so they're luring you into solving it.
27	* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'': Right after you acquire the Dagger of Time, there is a series of unpredictable traps that, upon inevitably falling into, prompts the tutorial to reverse time, allowing you to predict and avoid the traps the second time around.
28	* ''VideoGame/{{Quake\|I}}'': 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.
29	* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'': 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:
30	** The player has already been taught three things in the first few seconds of the game: Goombas are bad, Goombas can be jumped over/on, and ?-blocks give coins.
31	** The player, being tempted by a second ?-block, hits it and releases the Goomba-like Super Mushroom.
32	** In jumping to avoid the mushroom, the panicked player bumps a floating Brick Block. This teaches the player that Mario cannot break Brick Blocks when tiny.
33	** The Brick Block stops Mario's ascent, forcing the player to collide with the mushroom. Mario grows big and the player is taught that Super Mushrooms are good.
34	* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has its first boss designed so that a first-time player is very likely to kill them by accident while trying to spare them (you're led to believe you need to weaken enemies before they can be spared, but try this on the first boss and you'll eventually do a huge amount of damage out of nowhere), thus encouraging them to [[SaveScumming reload a save and try again]]. This introduces the player to two things: firstly, that bosses will have non-standard methods for sparing them, and secondly, [[spoiler: that the game keeps track of your SaveScumming, as if you managed to spare this boss after reloading from a file where you killed them, the next character you meet will be aware of that.]]
35	* ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' has players discovering how to progress by basically running into things that in any other game would kill them.

Context Main / TeachingThroughAccident