Plants vs. Zombies has a Genius Tutorial 

4:08 those snow peas are doing absolutely nothing 😭

Plants vs Zombies feels like one of those games that's about as close to perfect as you can get. The definition of leaving you wanting more. RIP Popcap and I'll never forget what EA did to PvZ 2.

When I was little I played the web version without knowing how to speak English. So I didn't read the instructions telling me to collect sun. Didn't know you had to click the sun to collect it and couldn't beat the second level. I still tried to play the game a few times afterwards until I tried clicking on the suns falling from the sky...

My mum always struggles whenever she plays games with more than a few mechanics which are required to know right away. Her most complex game she enjoys is Mario Kart, and even then she rarely uses items and never drifts. However, she has beaten the entirety of the Adventure in PVZ. This is almost certainly due to how fluid the mechanics are taught throughout the game. There’s no massive curveballs thrown at you, apart from maybe Fog-10. 10/10 design when it comes to a good combination of complex mechanics in a simple environment!

5:43 didn't know this existed, the attention to detail

Imagine if they made a third game where literally every level has a wall of text before it to explain everything

5:38 i never knew this text existed

i remember reading the dialogue of the crazy guy and not knowing what "because" meant

I didn't even know english when I played this game, to have an idea of how intuitive it is (Sure, my mother sometimes helped me) However, I just wished they teached some more advanced tips later in the game, like: - it's better to plant the sunflowers in front of the attackers (though maybe not even the devs realized it); - the conveyor belt sends less plants the more are in store; - But especually this: zombies will spawn faster the faster you kill them

This video deserves more like damn

0:05 Ironically the very first instinct i have upon starting ANY game is to do everything but starting the game, like pressing settings before start, yeah, it's as weird as you think XD

PVZ 1 was probably the best example of “let the player learn about new threats by experimenting and learning about their characteristics and counters” compared to PVZ 2 currently and PVZ 3 which just don’t do it as well since OG PVZ 2 kept with the original formula but now modern PVZ 2 is just a slow, force tutorials in face of the player and make it want you to use money and WE DONT TALK ABOUT PVZ 3

0:50 ok that's a clever use of show don't tell

This was a really insightful video, it reminds me of some musing I did on how Potato Mine teaches the player a while back. There’s a trend in Nintendo games where you have the player do something intuitive, and reveal that the action they performed also did something more strategic that may have been a bit less obvious. Wario Land 4 has a bit where you ground pound to destroy a block, and when you land a nearby enemy with a spiked shell flips over to expose its soft belly. Plants Vs Zombies uses Potato mine as a more complicated version of this. The first level you have it, a zombie shambles onto the field, and it’s pretty much the only offensive plant you can afford. Because of the long arm time told to you in the almanac entry, you place it to the far left of the field, where the zombie will take a long time to get to. While you wait, you place down some sunflowers, and you’re already engaging with one of the games strategies. More zombies only spawn when the current wave has been eliminated. Earlier waves are smaller, so you can wait and still take them out safely close to base. If you stall the earlier waves, you can build a bigger defense. Its utility is very limited to teach you how to play, until the game feels confident enough to give you a more versatile option (squash). Being able to swap it out later on allows the developers to make it an incredibly specific teaching tool that does nothing but what you want the player to do with it. The main thing that’s missing though is an indicator of what the player did. Using the strategy does make it easier on the player, but without telling or showing them what happens if you load the instakill at the front line, I don’t think they’re likely to keep doing it once you take the training wheels off.

7:16 bro forgot tall-nut exist💀

Mannn, just now discovered your channel and i'm so glad i did, keep the amazing work king!

Great video! I'm sending this to my game dev friend whose games are always missing tutorials 😅

This video is criminally underrated lmfao

I didn't even notice any of this when I started playing the PvZ franchise.

This is exactly the kind of video to get 100k+ views within a month. People who are getting into game design can actually learn from this.

Pvz 3: hold my beer

this tutorial misleads players into using only 5 sunflowers even when it's not optimal to do so

When is 20 hour Skyrim essay?

This is so well put together. You have big potential and I hope to see you grow.

Great video! I learned a lot from this :) As someone studying UX design videos like this are super useful, so thank you ❤

I remember finding this game's free demo online and understanding the mechanics even though I didn't speak a lick of english as a child, goes to show how well designed it is

Peak user experience right there. PvZ is so well made that a lot of non-functional aspects are satisfied perfectly

Just a suggestion, I think this video would get a lot more views if you got rid of "teaching by doing" in the thumbnail. I've seen this video before but didn't click on it before because, although enticed, I realized the thumbnail reduced the topic to nothing more than "this tutorial applies hands-on teaching", and figured "He's just going to take 8 minutes to teach me a concept I understand perfectly just by reading the thumbnail". Adding something more ambiguous in the thumbnail adds a sense of mystery, and leaves the viewer wondering what magic went into something as overlooked as a mobile game tutorial. Not meant to be a hate comment; I almost clicked on this video yesterday, and I thought it would be helpful for you to know why I didn't (since for some reason I got recommended it again today). Keep up the good work :)

Great video bro!!!

Plants vs Zombies has such a good tutorial that it has successfully brainwashed everyone playing it to place sunflowers at the back, rather than a much more optimal position a couple columns closer the front

AMAZING VIDEO

This is a really well made video, good job.

this is called glaze 101 (i agree)

Great Video

Nice

5:15 I thought there was going to be a sponsor💀

This feels like a quaint but timeless video, so imagine my shock seeing it was uploaded 3 days ago. Great insight into PvZ!

underrated video + channel

'grok' jumpscare, I did not expect that lmfao

Great stuff, too bad its currently really underrated. Hope you grow big soon!

Another thing that comes to mind would be Hollow Knight, if you ever stopped to take a moment at the very intro of the game, it will actually tutorialise you somewhat if you hang around instead of progressing, but most will just start moving and don't need ot be taught the most basic controls, so they might not even see that the game ever has control tooltips. While the controls themselves are hard to master and the game can be difficult, they still manage to tutorialise almost everything with timed popups for players who need basic controls, and intentional optional signs for new players to read and learn when the mechanic, like healing, needs direct explaining.

yeah, the best tutorial is just plain simply not much of a tutorial, of course in the very first level you can do a little tutorial (If its a level based structure that is) and then just leave you alone for the rest of the game. most of my favourite games do this.

Meanwhile in PvZ 3:

I wouldn't call it genius, this is just the absolute basics of making an actually good tutorial lol. If players don't get to apply what they learn, they won't retain the information. I'd actually say pvz is subpar at this because it also drags out the beginning tutorial for so long, the first 10-15 minutes of gameplay shouldn't be the most mundane tutorial you've ever played. It's a B tier tutorial, it does the minimum for what makes a good tutorial but pads it out for longer than necessary. Could definitely use some refining.

"I'm not gonna spend 20 hours analyzing Skyrim" Bro did not like PatricianTV's video 💀

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