Part 1: Your First Game
So I think it's a commonly agreed upon fact that LoL's learning curve and the tutorial(s) meant to help you adjust to the curve are pretty lackluster in many regards. How about playing around with ideas to help a new player learning the game get around. I'll be working from the ground up, but please add in your own feedback on what can be improved from either the existing tutorial or the ideas I come up with. To note, this tutorial is made for players entirely new to MOBAs and League of Legends as a whole.
Part 1: Your First Game
Our new player Bob opens up the client for the first time: What should he see? Now we never want to overwhelm someone learning with way too much information at once, so let's try to reduce the unnecessary visuals that the client should be sharing. The account information in the top right is cool and all, but the shop, profile tab, and IP/RP counters really shouldn't serve much of a purpose to somebody who has no idea what it already is. Let's keep the rest of the account info (Avatar+Name+Help Dialog Button+Preferences) in the top right corner, and remove/grey out the rest of the information in that corner (Shop+Profile Tab+IP/RP counters). The bottom left corner with all of its social functions might as well be removed/greyed out as well, as a new player like Bob shouldn't be doing any complicated social interactions yet.
As for the elephant in the room, the entire news feed should be scrapped out for something made specifically for the new players' tutorial. For example, a bigger and more obvious start game button, or something that goes along the lines of saying "Welcome to League of Legends. Try playing a game using the Play button at the top of the launcher." Because that's pretty obviously not going to take up the entire space, the rest can be filled with small hints about the upcoming tutorial that Bob will soon experience. Let's say it uses the art from Garen, Annie, and Ashe and a brief description of their roles in the game, and a prompt asking the player if they'd like to try any of the three out.
Now there will be two ways to initiate the tutorial game. If Bob simply starts the game by hitting Play, the launcher will automatically bring him into Champion Select for the Howling Abyss with only the option to choose Garen, Annie, or Ashe. If Bob starts the game by choosing one of the three champions on the home page, that champion will automatically be picked upon entering Champion Select. Because there's a lot of leftover space in the champion select screen if only three champions are available, let's make the rest of that empty space use the descriptions of Garen, Annie, and Ashe with pop up descriptions as you hover over any of the three for selection. This way, if Bob pressed play before reading their descriptions, they can still choose a play style without having to go in with no idea what they are doing. No timer, of course. Let the Bob lock in for himself (prompted by a pop up text to click Lock In).
As the game loads and Bob is dumped into the South side of the Frozen Abyss, he will be prompted by a mysterious disembodied voice (e.g. a text box) to shop by either hitting P or clicking on the shop keeper. Once again to make sure he won't be overwhelmed by information, let's keep it so the shop only sells the appropriate Doran's item to each champion, and a health pot (and mana pot in the case of Annie). Upon leaving the shop after being prompted, a new Text box will appear telling Bob to press Y, and then move his mouse to the edge of the screen towards the enemy Nexus. While he's moving his screen, the text box can briefly explain the fog of war system, before telling him to get a closer look at the enemy Nexus by right clicking near it. As Bob waits for Garen/Annie/Ashe to approach the enemy nexus, the next text box will give him a long and winding explanation that destroying the enemy Nexus is how you win the gam-
The screen is flashing red! A new textbox appears telling Bob to quickly hit Spacebar, and Bob catches a glimpse of his Champion dying from walking into the first turret (for the sake of enforcing this part of the tutorial, let's also scale the Turret's damage outrageously high during this part so that it's impossible for Bob to run out in time, and make his champion invincible and stand under the turret until Bob hits his Spacebar). Bob has now learned how to die. Let's have the wave of minions start spawning at this point.
Because of that one stupid camera option, the camera will snap back to Garen/Annie/Ashe upon respawning. The next textbox will prompt Bob to catch up to his minions, then tell him to press Y again as the champion runs off without the camera following them. As Bob approaches the center of the map, he will be told about how right clicking minions will allow him to start attacking them. Once he begins doing so, the next prompt will tell him to level up his Q ability, and give a brief explanation about how that ability works according to each champion (ex. explain how Garen rushes into battle, Ashe bursts people with powerful abilities, and Ashe attacks quickly continuously). Other than a warning textbox to not stand under towers without allied minions, at this point Bob should be able to finish the game on his own as he auto pushes the minion wave and begins destroying towers. The tutorial concludes with celebrating Bob's first victory.
And so conclude's Bob's first introduction to the League of Legends. Notice how we make sure that Bob is walked through every step of the game without giving him too many things to do at once and overloading him. Follow along next time as we start reinforcing these basic skills that Bob has picked up.
Read more:
Part 2: Leveling Systems, and Bob's Second Game (It hasn't been made yet)
