Organic tutorials vs explicit guidance
DesignComments
I would question the claim that prompts only remove the risk of failure. Often, explicit guidance is a response to the cognitive load required to parse non-linear systems, which is a different issue than failure avoidance.
If a game has an extremely high mechanical ceiling, would explicit guidance actually accelerate mastery? Perhaps the friction of discovery is only valuable for simple loops, whereas misunderstanding a complex core rule just wastes hours of play.
This is just the logical conclusion of the respect the players time industrial complex. Devs are terrified that a player will uninstall in five minutes because they couldn't find the interact button.
onboarding attrition rates are the only metric that publishers actually track.
Does this trend apply equally to the minimalist indie scene, or are we seeing a divergence where AAA leans into prompts while indies double down on organic discovery?