Hello humans! This is PlayerXT and today is...

◇ Day 22 of Demo 4 Production ◇

...

(And... I'm definitely not in doubt about whether this is how you start a devlog because I haven't done one in a few days... trust me.)

So, to be honest, I spent a few days away from production because... I was finding it boring, so I decided to take a break and focus on other projects, making art for DeviantArt (which by the way is on this site here: https://www.deviantart.com/playxtgamess , and yes, this is an advertisement yeay), writing the script not only for Cube but for several other projects that I will one day reveal to the world, and so on, until I was ready to return to developing the game with new ideas... and here I am... and I already have something in mind.

A few days ago I saw a new player playing demo 3 of the game, and I noticed something funny...

He was a complete noob, but it wasn't his fault, because he learned basic things like walking sideways and jumping in seconds. However, things like:

▪︎ Walking to the corner of the wall to go to the next room.

▪︎ Or entering the stars to travel between Hubworld and levels.

▪︎ Or simply knowing how to trigger a dialogue balloon.

These were things he couldn't do at all! But it doesn't stop there; something complex like running to gain speed and increase the jump, he learned quickly. Do you know why?

Because there's a tutorial room that explains that "the faster you are, the higher you will jump"...

This demonstrates how important a tutorial is sometimes! Teaching the player about the more complex game mechanics makes all the difference in the experience!

When I see this, I'm immediately reminded of a racing game called Sonic Riders (yes, Sonic again, what can I do when I have a library full of games from that franchise), so, this game has several complex mechanics, air management, types of boards, aerial maneuvers, etc., etc., and I remember that when I started (about a year ago) I was extremely noobish at the game, I didn't know how the systems worked and I was being crushed by the other racers, but, since I'm an extremely persistent person (sometimes too much so) I ended up learning how each mechanic works, and nowadays I play the game without any problems, so, what do I want to take away from this? Simply put, like this game, Be Cube has several complex mechanics that can be considered unusual or unexpected for the platforming genre, such as the energy system or the perfect jump. Therefore, if the player doesn't understand these mechanics, they won't fully enjoy the experience this game can offer. In other words:

"If the player doesn't understand the game, they don't understand why it's fun, and if you don't find it fun, you don't spend time playing the game."

This can completely kill your game. This is a huge problem that needs to be solved... and the solution... already exists! In demo 2, every time you entered a star, you were sent to a tutorial room that taught a randomly chosen mechanic, and then you could proceed to the next level. In demo 3 (which was the rebuilt version in a new engine), I only made one tutorial room to lay the groundwork for future updates. So... I just need to create more new tutorial rooms and recreate the random room system, and that's it! This doesn't solve all the problems; things like moving to the next room in the corner of the wall could be resolved with signage or changes to the level design, but this tutorial system already makes a significant work in preparing the player for what's to come!

But now, it's time to wrap up for today, so...

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