FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

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I think that Minetest needs more optimising before it is ready to go on steam. More polish.

Polish is:
Game play balance
Crashes are rare, and glitches are small.
Immersion (ambient sounds, game play, low lag, little bugs).
See celeron55's comment on game play - every thing should make sense with everything else, indirectly

rubenwardy wrote:I think that Minetest needs more optimising before it is ready to go on steam. More polish.

Polish is:
Game play balance
Crashes are rare, and glitches are small.
Immersion (ambient sounds, game play, low lag, little bugs).
See celeron55's comment on game play - every thing should make sense with everything else, indirectly

Most importantly, a tutorial. We ought to beat Minecraft on that, which still doesn't have any on the PC version.

How do you think a tutorial should be? A custom sub game or a pre-built world?

hoodedice wrote:How do you think a tutorial should be? A custom sub game or a pre-built world?

Maybe a pre-built world with a custom mod in the worldmods folder. Hud stuff could be quit handy with this.

It should be an open tutorial. The user should be able to exit any time. They are not required to complete tasks, they are coached in several things.

Just something that shows on first start of the game and first world creation in singleplayer.

how about an option for world gen, that places a predesigned tutorial structure at spawn, a small 'hazard course' with popups to explain controls and some basic crafting, plus stuff like how fluids work, fall damage, etc. plus the structure itself would be a good source of resources. basically an expanded alternative to the MC 'starter chest'.

is there any support for environment-controlled message/dialogue popups? MC 'adventure mode' type features (special scripting, stored in environment)? that would be the ideal way to do it, in which case, the same tutorial structure could serve as an example for those kinds of features.

This is like those experiments where they hook electrodes up to muscles, causing your arm to move without you telling it.

Here are my random, unsorted ideas for a basic, subgame-agnostic (engine stuff, true for all subgames) tutorial subgame:

• Create a predefined, controlled world where the student may start
• Create a lot of introductionary texts

Cover the following topics:

• Walking, jumping, looking around, using the camera
• Swimming
• Climbing ladders
• Sneaking
• Health and damage
• Collecting items
• Dropping items
• Using the inventory and hotbar
• Tools
• Mining
• Using
• Building
• Crafting
• Smelting
• Tool repairing
• Node groups and implications for crafting

Advanced concepts, not neccessary to play the game (only for those who are really interested):

• Several useful hotkeys
• Privileges
• Basic commands for players
  
  • /pulverize
  • /privs
  • /help
  • /grant
• Fly mode, fast mode, noclip mode
• Other mods and subgames
• Explain obscure hotkeys

Technical:
The tutorial will be based on a subgame, which is based on a forked minetest_game, renamed to “tutorial”. It will be stripped down to the neccessary parts only. A prebuilt world does the rest.
Following changes should be made:

• Add an indestructible block to restrict the student in a controlled area.
• Add a “formspec” sign which shows a small text window when used. It can be used for introductionary texts. It too should not be destroyable or editable by the student
• Add other basic example blocks not found in minetest_game.
• Improve the formspecs for newbies (i.e. more labels, shortkeys written down, etc.)

Maybe I’ll do the start of that tutorial thing. But I don’t guarantee it. But if I do, I will post it in Modding General.

My mind wrote:Challenge!
Who can make the best mod and/or world for a tutorial using any sort of method. Huds, readable items (wiki mod by kaeza, writable paper, etc) or simply writing with a ton of nodes/signs. Anything goes!

I will be working on a good mod for this, with a couple tricks up my sleeve. Would be a nice thing to implement in the next release or 0.5 or whatever. I think that all the ideas above should be put into action, and we have a sort of challenge. Another thing, if you will make a world with it, please don't make it too boring. I will be making an adventure twist in mine.

My idea for some kind of tutorial would be a mob (a miner) placed close to the player. The mob had an accident (fell down into one of those numerous caves/holes), broke both his legs and is immobile until healed. He might start by asking for a tree thrunk to lean against, ask for torches and a furnace, eat apples, and eventually let the player build a small house for him. Players who know the game already could ignore the mob, while new players might get some explanations from him.

I am now actively working on a basic and general tutorial, implemented as a subgame with world. :-)
It is not very open, but it is also not stricly linear. The reason for that is that it would make it far too easy for players to break the tutorial.
It already covers all the non-advanced topics I posted in this thread earlier. The tutorial needs to be cleaned up now.

Comments would be greatly appreciated and should go into this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10192#p155533

Is there any progress being made to add Minetest to Steam? I would appreciate this a VERY large amount.