Why? Some players turn away from Minecraft because of the lack of a tutorial. They get dumped into a huge world, and wander around punching blocks and getting killed by mobs until they frustratedly close the game and decide that they will not play the game anymore. Only the surviving players who go and check the wiki/youtube/forums or have a friend guiding him or her and proceed to become addicted to the greatest game of the century.
However, some people may say that the experimenting and exploring of the world is the one of the important aspects of Minecraft, and a tutorial may ruin this. However, I am not suggesting a text-based tutorial. I suggest one where the game slowly guides the player through the basics, requiring the player to try to complete certain tasks before moving on.
Note that I am suggesting a toggleable tutorial, not some leveling system where the player MUST complete certain actions before contiuing. The player can do things before the tutorial instructs them how to do so if the player already knows how to do it. Here is a possible example of the tutorial. It's just an example, and I am not insisting that this very same tutorial is implemented in the game. Skip to the bottom if you're tired of reading.
Title Screen Welcome to Minecraft. You can press Esc to close this tutorial or click to continue.
This button will bring you to the Options Menu. It can be accessed in-game anytime by pressing Esc. Press this now.
You can toggle the difficulty of the game by pressing this button. No mobs will spawn on peaceful. We'll leave it as Easy.
You can change video settings here. You may want to tone this down if your computer cannot handle it.
You can change the controls here. We'll leave it as it is. Click Done to go back.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can change your texture packs. Texture packs can be downloaded from the internet and can change what everything in the game looks like.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can input an IP address to play Minecraft with your friends on a server.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can join or create Worlds to play in Single-Player mode. Click this now.
Singleplayer Select World screen
Click 'Create New World'.
You can change your world name here
Here, you can toggle what game mode you want your world to be. There are currently three game modes. Creative, where you have an infinite number of blocks, can fly, break blocks instantly, and have infinite health to build anything you want. Survival, where you must gather resources to build, make tools, eat, and survive from monsters. Hardcore, which is Survival mode where the game difficulty is set to Hard and the World will be deleted if you die.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can change World Options. Click this now.
You can enter the world seed here. Different seeds will generate worlds different from each other. The same seed will always generate the same world. You can enter letters here if you want, and the game will convert it into numbers.
By toggling this button, you can decide whether structures like Villages, and Dungeons spawn. We'll leave it as On. Click done to go back
Press this button to create a new world now.
In the game
Welcome to your new world. This is Minecraft, a sandbox game with an almost infinitely big world. You can do anything you want, build anything you want, and explore the huge world. The only restrictions and objectives are the ones you set for yourself.
To start, press the WASD keys to move.
Great job, next, press the Space Bar to jump.
You can move the mouse to look around the world. The left mouse button is used for breaking blocks or attacking mobs, while the right mouse button is used to place blocks or activate certain functions. Try destroying a dirt block now. (Good luck if you are in a desert biome :biggrin.gif:)
You have destroyed a dirt block! You should notice that it dropped a miniature model of itself that can be picked up. It will appear in your hotkey bar. If the hotkey bar is full, it will appear in your inventory. Now pick up the dirt block and place it somewhere else.
Press E to access your inventory now.
These are your inventory slots. Each slot can hold a stack of blocks. Most blocks can stack all the way to 64, so there is plenty of space for now.
Here, you can place armour on yourself. Armour helps to protect you from damage from mobs.
Here is your crafting slot. You can place any blocks you have to craft them. It is only 2x2 for now, but you can craft a crafting table later for a larger crafting slot.
Press E again to close you inventory. Now, try to find a tree and break it for logs.
If you are finding it difficult to find a tree, you may be in a biome where few trees grow. Minecraft has many biomes. Different biomes have different natural structures, made out of different materials. Examples are mountain biomes, desert biomes and ocean biomes. There is even a rare mushroom biome!
You have obtained a wood block! Wood can be used for building and other purposes, but its main use is to make wooden planks. Place a wood block into your crafting slot by clicking the slot it is in once and clicking it again in the crafting slot. You can see what it will craft here. If the combination of the crafting does not yield any crafted object, this slot will be left blank. Click this slot to obtain the wooden planks. You have just crafted your first block! Now close your inventory again.
You may notice that some of the leaves of the tree had disappeared and dropped saplings. Saplings can be placed on dirt. Given enough time and light, it will grow into a tree.
Try to obtain 16 wood blocks.
Now open your inventory and right click your wood blocks. This will make you take half of the number of blocks. Place the wood in your crafting slot to make more wooden planks. If you are tired of clicking to craft all of the wood, you can shift-click to craft all of the wood at once.
With your wooden planks, place one on each of the crafting slots to make a crafting table. You can right click while holding them to place only a single block instead of the entire stack.
Now place the crafting table anywhere you want. Right click it to access the 3x3 crafting slot. This allows you to craft even more blocks.
You can experiment with the crafting slot with your wooden planks to see a glimpse of what you can craft. Tip: You cannot craft anything with Dirt!
To craft sticks, place one wooden plank above another. This will yield 4 sticks. Craft 20 sticks with your wooden planks now.
Oh well, I just checked out much I had written. Too tired to continue and its not even half yet! I'll stop here.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Optifine is awesome!
Now, when can Notch start using 3D instead of linear chunks for minecraft? It would massively improve performance, and increase height limits by hundreds of times. There are mods out there that do that already.
I remember there was a tutorial map made by someone. But I agree Minecraft needs an ingame tutorial. The only "tutorial" is "Press E to open your inventory".
If you played lots of games, you must have come across
tutorial maps, when you have to complete the objectives
by learning the basic features of the game.
So yea, I suggest Mojang should create something like
a tutorial map to help out newcomers. I have to admit
I had some issues with the game on my first run but I
learned via Internet, but unfortunately some people
are not that patient to do a research about something
they want to start playing, they just want to pick it
up and play...
Just make an achivement for finding sugar cane, then one for making paper (after you've done the one to make a crafting table), then one for making a book, then make books be your tutorials for anything fairly complex.
Really, if you can figure out the basic game controls, which I'm sure most of the human race with an IQ above 45 can, you can figure out how to create a world, dabble with the settings, and experiment with putting various things on the crafting table in different configurations (although I suppose the descriptions of certain achievements could be a little more specific, sometimes). For anything even remotely confusing, there'd be a section of the book for it.
I imagine books to be something like this:
Long ago, the world of Minecraft was a peaceful one, filled with towns and libraries, folk friendly and not, and beasts of burden to fulfill the hopes, dreams, and whims of all. We do not know what happened to these people. All we know is what they left behind.
[picture of some schematics as evidence for their existence, including stuff like tools]
Although it seems that they are gone without a trace, many vaguely anthropomorphic creatures have been left behind in their stead, which lead to much speculation... or at least, would have, if anyone were left to speculate.
[section on various mobs, including npc villagers, because, frankly, they are squidwards. Section on enderman as an example below]
In many dark places, one may encounter strange, three-meter man-like beasts, black as the night itself. These "ender men" have been quite literally appearing and disappearing around the lands since much before the great fall of civilization, but, when appearing in large numbers, any surrounding cities seemed to suddenly dwindle in population. Attmepts at communication with these strange men have resulted in blank stares, followed by a swift attacks. Some have claimed that they have seen brief flashes of a black land filled with their kind, and a hideous flying beast simply hovering overhead, gazing with its deep purple eyes at its enderman-filled dominion.
Etcetera etcetera. To me this is a much better way of presenting a tutorial, as it feels much more attached to the game, instead of something just tacked-on later (even if it actually is). Just don't ask who the in-game character is who supposedly wrote it, and how Steve can get a fully written on book from 3 pieces of sugar cane. I'd have it be necessary to go to an NPC villager to fill it out, but, frankly, that's way too much work for someone who just randomly spawned in the world.
Also, as a little side note, beware of giving TOO MUCH information. If people want a walkthrough, that's also known as the wiki. A tutorial should be just enough to get them going, IMO.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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However, some people may say that the experimenting and exploring of the world is the one of the important aspects of Minecraft, and a tutorial may ruin this. However, I am not suggesting a text-based tutorial. I suggest one where the game slowly guides the player through the basics, requiring the player to try to complete certain tasks before moving on.
Note that I am suggesting a toggleable tutorial, not some leveling system where the player MUST complete certain actions before contiuing. The player can do things before the tutorial instructs them how to do so if the player already knows how to do it. Here is a possible example of the tutorial. It's just an example, and I am not insisting that this very same tutorial is implemented in the game. Skip to the bottom if you're tired of reading.
Title Screen
Welcome to Minecraft. You can press Esc to close this tutorial or click to continue.
This button will bring you to the Options Menu. It can be accessed in-game anytime by pressing Esc. Press this now.
You can toggle the difficulty of the game by pressing this button. No mobs will spawn on peaceful. We'll leave it as Easy.
You can change video settings here. You may want to tone this down if your computer cannot handle it.
You can change the controls here. We'll leave it as it is. Click Done to go back.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can change your texture packs. Texture packs can be downloaded from the internet and can change what everything in the game looks like.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can input an IP address to play Minecraft with your friends on a server.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can join or create Worlds to play in Single-Player mode. Click this now.
Singleplayer Select World screen
Click 'Create New World'.
You can change your world name here
Here, you can toggle what game mode you want your world to be. There are currently three game modes. Creative, where you have an infinite number of blocks, can fly, break blocks instantly, and have infinite health to build anything you want. Survival, where you must gather resources to build, make tools, eat, and survive from monsters. Hardcore, which is Survival mode where the game difficulty is set to Hard and the World will be deleted if you die.
This button will bring you to the screen where you can change World Options. Click this now.
You can enter the world seed here. Different seeds will generate worlds different from each other. The same seed will always generate the same world. You can enter letters here if you want, and the game will convert it into numbers.
By toggling this button, you can decide whether structures like Villages, and Dungeons spawn. We'll leave it as On. Click done to go back
Press this button to create a new world now.
In the game
Welcome to your new world. This is Minecraft, a sandbox game with an almost infinitely big world. You can do anything you want, build anything you want, and explore the huge world. The only restrictions and objectives are the ones you set for yourself.
To start, press the WASD keys to move.
Great job, next, press the Space Bar to jump.
You can move the mouse to look around the world. The left mouse button is used for breaking blocks or attacking mobs, while the right mouse button is used to place blocks or activate certain functions. Try destroying a dirt block now. (Good luck if you are in a desert biome :biggrin.gif:)
You have destroyed a dirt block! You should notice that it dropped a miniature model of itself that can be picked up. It will appear in your hotkey bar. If the hotkey bar is full, it will appear in your inventory. Now pick up the dirt block and place it somewhere else.
Press E to access your inventory now.
These are your inventory slots. Each slot can hold a stack of blocks. Most blocks can stack all the way to 64, so there is plenty of space for now.
Here, you can place armour on yourself. Armour helps to protect you from damage from mobs.
Here is your crafting slot. You can place any blocks you have to craft them. It is only 2x2 for now, but you can craft a crafting table later for a larger crafting slot.
Press E again to close you inventory. Now, try to find a tree and break it for logs.
If you are finding it difficult to find a tree, you may be in a biome where few trees grow. Minecraft has many biomes. Different biomes have different natural structures, made out of different materials. Examples are mountain biomes, desert biomes and ocean biomes. There is even a rare mushroom biome!
You have obtained a wood block! Wood can be used for building and other purposes, but its main use is to make wooden planks. Place a wood block into your crafting slot by clicking the slot it is in once and clicking it again in the crafting slot. You can see what it will craft here. If the combination of the crafting does not yield any crafted object, this slot will be left blank. Click this slot to obtain the wooden planks. You have just crafted your first block! Now close your inventory again.
You may notice that some of the leaves of the tree had disappeared and dropped saplings. Saplings can be placed on dirt. Given enough time and light, it will grow into a tree.
Try to obtain 16 wood blocks.
Now open your inventory and right click your wood blocks. This will make you take half of the number of blocks. Place the wood in your crafting slot to make more wooden planks. If you are tired of clicking to craft all of the wood, you can shift-click to craft all of the wood at once.
With your wooden planks, place one on each of the crafting slots to make a crafting table. You can right click while holding them to place only a single block instead of the entire stack.
Now place the crafting table anywhere you want. Right click it to access the 3x3 crafting slot. This allows you to craft even more blocks.
You can experiment with the crafting slot with your wooden planks to see a glimpse of what you can craft. Tip: You cannot craft anything with Dirt!
To craft sticks, place one wooden plank above another. This will yield 4 sticks. Craft 20 sticks with your wooden planks now.
Oh well, I just checked out much I had written. Too tired to continue and its not even half yet! I'll stop here.
Now, when can Notch start using 3D instead of linear chunks for minecraft? It would massively improve performance, and increase height limits by hundreds of times. There are mods out there that do that already.
Banner by LAGGING
You expect a new player to know how to add a save file to minecraft?
If you played lots of games, you must have come across
tutorial maps, when you have to complete the objectives
by learning the basic features of the game.
So yea, I suggest Mojang should create something like
a tutorial map to help out newcomers. I have to admit
I had some issues with the game on my first run but I
learned via Internet, but unfortunately some people
are not that patient to do a research about something
they want to start playing, they just want to pick it
up and play...
Really, if you can figure out the basic game controls, which I'm sure most of the human race with an IQ above 45 can, you can figure out how to create a world, dabble with the settings, and experiment with putting various things on the crafting table in different configurations (although I suppose the descriptions of certain achievements could be a little more specific, sometimes). For anything even remotely confusing, there'd be a section of the book for it.
I imagine books to be something like this:
Long ago, the world of Minecraft was a peaceful one, filled with towns and libraries, folk friendly and not, and beasts of burden to fulfill the hopes, dreams, and whims of all. We do not know what happened to these people. All we know is what they left behind.
[picture of some schematics as evidence for their existence, including stuff like tools]
Although it seems that they are gone without a trace, many vaguely anthropomorphic creatures have been left behind in their stead, which lead to much speculation... or at least, would have, if anyone were left to speculate.
[section on various mobs, including npc villagers, because, frankly, they are squidwards. Section on enderman as an example below]
In many dark places, one may encounter strange, three-meter man-like beasts, black as the night itself. These "ender men" have been quite literally appearing and disappearing around the lands since much before the great fall of civilization, but, when appearing in large numbers, any surrounding cities seemed to suddenly dwindle in population. Attmepts at communication with these strange men have resulted in blank stares, followed by a swift attacks. Some have claimed that they have seen brief flashes of a black land filled with their kind, and a hideous flying beast simply hovering overhead, gazing with its deep purple eyes at its enderman-filled dominion.
Etcetera etcetera. To me this is a much better way of presenting a tutorial, as it feels much more attached to the game, instead of something just tacked-on later (even if it actually is). Just don't ask who the in-game character is who supposedly wrote it, and how Steve can get a fully written on book from 3 pieces of sugar cane. I'd have it be necessary to go to an NPC villager to fill it out, but, frankly, that's way too much work for someone who just randomly spawned in the world.
Also, as a little side note, beware of giving TOO MUCH information. If people want a walkthrough, that's also known as the wiki. A tutorial should be just enough to get them going, IMO.