Subliminal learning. What do games teach us?

Abstract

In video games, organic tutorials are first levels of the games, designed to teach their basic controls while the player plays. They provide some kind of subliminal learning, are very effective and natural and teach without losing the fun, but they are not easy to be properly designed. The purpose of this research is assisting the designers in the task of de ning organic tutorials by proposing a guide of design principles and patterns. After reviewing the learning theories and design techniques for organic tutorials, an analysis of some representative video games is performed. Then, a guide made of ten principles is proposed. This guide helps the developers to clearly understand the fundamentals of organic tutorials and sheds light on what games teach us. It helps to understand some kind of subliminal learning and opens the way to design other learning experiences based on the proposed principles.