Egoraptor
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2012–2020
19:53 · 16M views · Nov 1, 2011
Egoraptor's Sequelitis compares Mega Man Classic and Mega Man X, analyzing how the games teach players through level design without explicit tutorials. It mixes comedy with design analysis.
HN commenters use it as the standard example of invisible onboarding and good game design, praising it as funny and insightful.
4 comments from Hacker News
So I just don't see that. To me the original doom is always more clunky than fast and fun, and the game has the annoying habit of releasing enemies from behind you. But yes, I think Mega Man X has aged fantastically, as in - the developers spent a really large amount of time on good level design and on teaching the player how the game works, so you could pick it up for the very first time in 2020 and get into it immediately. And no, I haven't played this when it came out first either. I think this highlights exactly what I'm talking about, look at the little things they are doing design wise, it's truly brilliant: this video (Sorry, I know the video is meant to be a "funny" one, but it does make some very very good points about video game design)
Obligatory link to the Sequelitis Mega Man UX video: this video The article hit the nail on the head: the best walkthrough is the one that it nearly invisible to the end-user, yet still accomplishes its goal of progressively introducing a UI to them in a long-lasting way.
Game designers have known this for years. For a (hilarious) examination of how Mega Man X employed the same philosophy, check out Egoraptor's video on it: this video
The way I see it you should treat it like any other UX problem: The user is going to be at home anyways, so if you can get a "conversion" (even a short 7-minute one) that can easily bridge them into the next step. Just like video games start you off in tutorial levels and help you develop the skills you need (e.g. Mega Man X [1]). For example I tried out the 7-minute exercise simply because I could, it was easy. If I can't even be bothered to spend 7 minutes on exercise there's no way I'm going to the gym, so it's not as if the short exercises are interfering with work at the gym. [1] this video