Including hints/tips on game release

[Harliqueen]

I was wondering what anyone's thoughts were on including a hints/tips 'manual' in with their game on release?

I know it's common for people to give tips about it after release if people get stuck, but I was thinking of non-spoiler type tips that would help or possibly enhance someone's playthrough rather than give away anything?

For example, in my upcoming VN, I have different types of choice, but the two main types of choices that crop up are ruler type choices (which decide the type of ruler they will become) and personality choices.

Personality choices will always have four options, ruler type will always have five.

Would that be a good kind of thing to let people know, as it might help them enjoy it more, if they knew which choices would an effect on their ruler type choice and which wouldn't?

(Maybe having an option on the main menu to see tips- rather than a document or manual in the game folder- would work well?)

I hope that makes sense! Thanks for any opinions/advice.

[Kia]

tip of the day. push this for tips, tooltips, rules page or anything that helps the player to learn more about the game will add to your games user-friendliness.

[MorchellaGames]

If it's well implemented, I don't see why it would be a bad idea!

For me, a feature like this is a nice to have, but it should not hinder the main development of the VN/game.

[YossarianIII]

IMO, it would depend on the game. Playing, say, Civ IV without any sort of tips or manual would be kind of insane. On the other hand, I just downloaded an adventure game called Dropsy where one of the main draws is there's no text -- you have to figure things out visually. It's pretty cool!

I think what you suggested -- putting tips on the main menu -- is usually a good compromise. It'd be visible enough for players that want it, but unobtrusive enough for players that don't. But again, it would ultimately depend on the game itself.

[Harliqueen]

Thank you for the advice!

I think I might go the unobtrusive route (probably on the main menu), so as it's an option for those who want it, but also can be out of the way for those who don't.

[Kailoto]

If you have an official site, or even an official thread here at LSF, you could also put a link to a walkthrough of your own creation, meaning you can provide both definitive walkthroughs and spoiler-free hints in one place. Not all games need this, and it might be a lot of work for something that is rarely used, but it's a thought!

[LVUER]

For Visual Novel, I think Tiger Dojo is a great example.

[papillon]

For Black Closet, I took a hint from big RPGs I play, which are constantly giving little suggestions on loading screens (and you see loading screens a lot). So I built a calendar screen for the beginning of each week, which serves multiple purposes: it helps situate you in time with the game world, see how far you've come and what's coming up in the future, but it also displays a REMINDER notice with little gameplay tips in it.

Many of those tips were already covered in the tutorial but they don't always sink in the first time around.

There's also a help file but I doubt anyone actually looks at it.