Jumping Into the Action
I just realized how often a game drags me through a long and boring tutorial before getting into the action. After renting so many Gamefly games lately and playing through at least their first hour I've determined that I hate introductions and tutorials in most games. Developers, you need to get better at showing the player why we should love your game within the first few minutes. This is something that AAA developers can learn from flash and indie games . You only have a few minutes to grab my attention. After that I'm not going to play your game if I'm bored. Don't waste time setting up an epic story. Don't save interesting gameplay until later. Don't limit me to an extremely linear tutorial. Give me the game and let me test out the fun in it. In flash games I'm immediately thrown into the action. I can figure out if I like a game within seconds. With many console games I have to sit through the opening credits, openi...