How to create "instructions" section of game

[Jan Oleks]

My game is pretty complex, and some users asked for some tutorial missions or some more simple introduction into the game mechanics.

Create intro tutorial missions will take some time. Question is, can captured video and textual/speech instructions on youtube be good replacement for lack of such intro tutorial, or it would be mark of something bad, and ppl won't go beyond first frustration of not understanding how to play to get real fun?

For you as gamer, what works better... tutorial mission with "hints" or youtube video?

 

[RubiconDude]

It has to be in game imo.

We've had requests for tutorials in Great Little War Game, but I thought they were already there tbh! I think our main mistake was not going into enough detail and not writing "THIS IS A TUTORIAL" over the first three levels.

We won't be making that mistake with a sequel/future projects and I suggest you don't either. Take a bit of time to do it properly. A big state machine and some special casing should do the trick.