Do better tutorials make games feel smaller

talk
1

i’ve been replaying a few games lately and keep wondering if the first hour is doing too much work for the player. some of the best ones used to trust you to fumble around a bit, but now everything feels smoother and a bit pre-digested.

have people found a middle ground that actually works, or does the cleaner onboarding always come with some loss of mystery?

2

Look — when the first hour explains every system, it shrinks the world because you never get that “wait, can I do this?” moment.

The middle ground I’ve liked is quick controls + one clear objective, then letting you misread a mechanic or get lost for a bit without the game yanking the wheel back.

3

Cleaner onboarding shrinks the world when it collapses “discovery” into a checklist.