Comments on: Teach Me How To Play, Madame! http://www.paradeofrain.com/2009/09/teach-me-how-to-play-madame/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=teach-me-how-to-play-madame Indie Game Development Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:48:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Alex http://www.paradeofrain.com/2009/09/teach-me-how-to-play-madame/comment-page-1/#comment-59383 Alex Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:08:16 +0000 http://www.paradeofrain.com/?p=488#comment-59383 Hi Marc, Sorry for the delay! For all my videos I've been using ScreenFlow to capture gameplay footage. It's certainly been hit or miss with me as well. The only general tips I can give from my experience are: I make sure to not have much else running in the background when capturing video. the simulator is front and center and everything else is minimized/closed. I was getting worse performance when I was shooting for 60fps. When I decided to make 30 the target frame rate, videos came out a bit smoother. Even in the video you can see the FPS in the lower left saying '15' in times of complex blending or lots of items on-screen. So it's still a work in progress. I find having a lower consistent frame rate is easier on the eyes than having one that has a larger variance when you are targeting a higher frame rate. I'm running on a lower-end Mac mini so I'm sure if i was running on a beefier machine it'd be less of a problem. Hope that helps! Hi Marc,
Sorry for the delay! For all my videos I’ve been using ScreenFlow to capture gameplay footage. It’s certainly been hit or miss with me as well. The only general tips I can give from my experience are:

I make sure to not have much else running in the background when capturing video. the simulator is front and center and everything else is minimized/closed.

I was getting worse performance when I was shooting for 60fps. When I decided to make 30 the target frame rate, videos came out a bit smoother. Even in the video you can see the FPS in the lower left saying ’15′ in times of complex blending or lots of items on-screen. So it’s still a work in progress.

I find having a lower consistent frame rate is easier on the eyes than having one that has a larger variance when you are targeting a higher frame rate.

I’m running on a lower-end Mac mini so I’m sure if i was running on a beefier machine it’d be less of a problem. Hope that helps!

]]> By: Marc Bellmont http://www.paradeofrain.com/2009/09/teach-me-how-to-play-madame/comment-page-1/#comment-59346 Marc Bellmont Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:23:39 +0000 http://www.paradeofrain.com/?p=488#comment-59346 Can I ask a tangential question? How do you capture the iPhoneSimulator window so the resulting movie is so smooth? I tried using SnapzPro, ScreenFlow, Camtasia and QuickTimeX screen recoding and all of them produce choppy videos with my rotating SphereBenchmark (http://marc.blog.atpurpose.com/2009/11/02/counting-fps/). Your video looks silky smooth. How did you do it? Btw. I'm just starting experimenting with iPhone dev, and I really enjoy your articles. Thanks. cheers Can I ask a tangential question?

How do you capture the iPhoneSimulator window so the resulting movie is so smooth?

I tried using SnapzPro, ScreenFlow, Camtasia and QuickTimeX screen recoding and all of them produce choppy videos with my rotating SphereBenchmark (http://marc.blog.atpurpose.com/2009/11/02/counting-fps/). Your video looks silky smooth. How did you do it?

Btw. I’m just starting experimenting with iPhone dev, and I really enjoy your articles. Thanks.

cheers

]]> By: Juuso http://www.paradeofrain.com/2009/09/teach-me-how-to-play-madame/comment-page-1/#comment-59090 Juuso Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:37:15 +0000 http://www.paradeofrain.com/?p=488#comment-59090 Excellent post, and excellent 3 questions in the end. Excellent post, and excellent 3 questions in the end.

]]> By: Alex http://www.paradeofrain.com/2009/09/teach-me-how-to-play-madame/comment-page-1/#comment-58881 Alex Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:18:28 +0000 http://www.paradeofrain.com/?p=488#comment-58881 Yep it's certainly a balancing act, and one that requires a good bit of user testing to help get right. Yep it’s certainly a balancing act, and one that requires a good bit of user testing to help get right.

]]> By: Doolwind http://www.paradeofrain.com/2009/09/teach-me-how-to-play-madame/comment-page-1/#comment-58859 Doolwind Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:56:52 +0000 http://www.paradeofrain.com/?p=488#comment-58859 The tutorial you've picked is one of my favourite in easy to intermediate games. Keep the player in control at all times, and let them completely ignore the tutorial if they like. Having this integrated into the first level means you don't have to worry about people skipping the tutorial as it's built right into the game. In more complex games, I think the best approach is "divide and conquer". Teach them the absolute essentials so they can at least get started in the game. Let them experience this for a while then teach them the next essentials. One problem a number of games have is telling you too much. There's a fine line between teaching someone what they NEED to know ("Tilt to collect these") and giving away too much "Collect these blue ones to regain life". Spoon feeding too much information makes for a boring tutorial and takes away the fun of discovery in a game. This leads to one final point. By giving the player slightly less information than they really need, they will have a sense of achievement when figuring things out for themselves. This has been taken too far in a number of games, but when done just right it can actually make your game more fun. The tutorial you’ve picked is one of my favourite in easy to intermediate games. Keep the player in control at all times, and let them completely ignore the tutorial if they like. Having this integrated into the first level means you don’t have to worry about people skipping the tutorial as it’s built right into the game.

In more complex games, I think the best approach is “divide and conquer”. Teach them the absolute essentials so they can at least get started in the game. Let them experience this for a while then teach them the next essentials.

One problem a number of games have is telling you too much. There’s a fine line between teaching someone what they NEED to know (“Tilt to collect these”) and giving away too much “Collect these blue ones to regain life”. Spoon feeding too much information makes for a boring tutorial and takes away the fun of discovery in a game.

This leads to one final point. By giving the player slightly less information than they really need, they will have a sense of achievement when figuring things out for themselves. This has been taken too far in a number of games, but when done just right it can actually make your game more fun.

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