The best 25 tips to create a board game tutorial to teach players the rules of a board game, using Board Game Arena platform.

1. 25 tips to build Tutorials on Board
Game Arena

2. #1 – Choose a game you master
2
We know that you just discovered this wonderful game and really want to contribute
to its popularity by writing a tutorial… but this is not convenient.
If you have taught the game to friends with success, if possible several times, then
you are probably ready. :)
You need to master a game to explain it well

3. #2 – Write the tutorial scenario first
3
Explaining rules in the right order is the most important part to making a good
tutorial.
Before starting any further step, you should write the overall scenario of your
tutorial.
Beginning of a Carcassonne scenario:
_ Opponent plays the first tile with a matching road.
_ Explains that road (and cities/fields) must match
_ Player’s turn: tell the player to place a tile with a city
_ Explain that a meeple may be placed + tell player to place meeple in the city
_ Opponent plays another tile, making the city bigger. Explain that opponent cannot
play a meeple in the same city.
Which rules should be explained first? Which rules must be explained later?

4. #3 – Explain rules in the right order
4
1) Game theme
2) Goal of the game
3) Overview / general principles
(game starts moving here)
4) Generic stuff
5) More specific stuff (if/when needed)
6) (optional) quick strategy tip
Your tutorial scenario must follow this order

5. #4 – Start with the Game Theme
5
What is the game about? What are the players environment and roles?
Are they space merchants looking for treasures? Cowboys in the Far-west?
Before jumping into the rules, use 1 step to describe to the player what the game
is about. The theme of a game frequently helps to clarify the rules, so this step is
not a waste of time.
If the game is an abstract game, well, you can just say this. :)
Don’t hesitate to add some life to your description.
Example:
« Welcome to Carcassonne and its famous fortifications! Your task is to develop the
area around Carcassonne by building roads, fields, abbeys and cities »
Game theme matters!

6. #5 – Goal of the game
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Yes, this game has very cool mechanisms which are maybe the most visible and
obvious part of the game.
However, explaining any rules, even the most obvious one, is forcing the player to
remember every detail without any understanding of how it will help them to win
the game.
On the contrary, explaining the goal of the game first will help players to
understand how each mechanism can help them meet the game goal.
Tip: if the goal is just to “be the player with the most points”, it is totally okay to just
say this, to describe what the points represent (according to game theme), and how
they look (ex: icon), if appropriate.
Tip: if the game is cooperative or a team game, this is the right moment to mention
it. :)
Explaining the goal at the beginning will answer most « why » questions

7. #6 – Give an overview
7
This short overview must be… short.
This will give the players a very basic understanding of the game, helping them to
piece all the rules together.
Example for Carcassonne:
You and the other players are going to place tiles to create a landscape with roads,
cities, abbeys and fields. All of these 4 elements will generate points during the
game or at the end of the game.
Example for 7 Wonders:
You are going to choose and add one card to your tableau on each turn,
simultaneously with your opponents. Cards are from 7 different colors which
represent 7 different ways to earn victory points.
Give a short overview of the game principles

8. #7 – Jump into the game
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A tutorial must show the rules, not just explain them.
After the tutorial intro (game theme, …), jump into the game immediately to show
how the game elements function.
Explaning a lot of rules without any visible moves forces the player to remember
everything without any visual clues, which is way more difficult.
Avoid too many tutorial steps with no visible move

9. #8 – Do not explain something until necessary
9
As a tutorial writer, your main goal is to allow the player to go further in the
game with the fewest tutorial steps possible / shortest explanation.
Reading an explanation is boring, while playing moves and seeing the game
progressing is fun.
Thus, if something is not absolutely crucial to understand what is happening on the
screen, explain it later.
Things to do:
_ explain things that are the most visible/obvious and that will raise questions if
not explained.
_ explicitely delay explanation if needed. Exemple: “We’ll see later why this is
interesting for you to choose this card.“
Maybe the most important guideline

10. #9 – Go from General to Specific
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Specific powers, exceptions, particular cases, as well as unobvious rules must be
explained after the other rules, and sometimes not explained at all.
If a rules include a specific power that is played early in your tutorial scenario, it is
perfectly fine to tell the player that this card did a special effect that will be
explained later, and continue with the basic rules of the game.
Do you really need to explain the specific effect of the 30 cards of the game,
considering that they have a tooltip that explains everything? Instead, give 1-2
examples and tell the player that they can read the tooltips when needed.
If some particular case is really rare, do you really need to explain it? If this situation
happens, BGA will take care of the rules and the player will understand at this time
what the rule is.
Do not bother players with details they do not need now

11. #10 – Do not explain what does not need to be
11
In the physical rules, there are a lot of rules that the players do not need to
know because BGA is taking care of them, like the game setup.
Most of the time you can just let the player discover them by playing.
Example of rules that probably do not need to be explained:
_ “if there are no more cards, take the discard pile, shuffle it and set a new
deck” (it can be learned from the game log when it happens)
_ “At the beginning of the game, the player with the fewer cards starts” (it
can be read from the game log when game starts)
_ “Fill the empty spaces by new cards in the deck” (it is already obvious and
done automatically by BGA)
… or anything that BGA is taking care of

12. #11 – Focus on rules, not on strategy
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While playing the tutorial, players are focused on learning the rules, and this is a
difficult task.
Thus, mixing strategy tips and rules is not a good idea.
However, it may be a good idea in some situations:
●
When explaining a rule that will allow a player to make a disadvantageous
choice (ex: "starvation" in Stone Age), it is useful to suggest that the player
try to avoid this.
●
You can mention short and efficient things like "This is usually a good choice"
or "This is a very strong move," as it will not distract from the rules
explanation.
●
At the very end of the tutorial, you may give a quick general strategy tip
(“how to win”), but no more than 1 tutorial step with few lines.
Quick advice are okay, but a tutorial is not a strategy guide

13. #12 – You do not need to go to the End
13
Once you have explained everything needed for a first game, do not annoy the
players by forcing them to play the tutorial game until the end.
In most cases, playing few turns is enough to learn the game.

14. #13 – Create an appropriate Game Replay
14
BGA’s tutorials are based on Game Replays, ie real games that have been played on the
platform before.
Except in rare cases, it is unlinkely that an existing game exactly matches the scenario
you wrote for your tutorial. Thus, you will have to play a BGA game that matches
your tutorial scenario.
Tips:
_ choose the exact same game options a beginner would for a first game (ex: probably
no expansions, beginner rule if any, ...)
_ use Training Mode, so you do not worry about the clock
_ you will probably have to make several attempts before reaching the result you expect,
especially if there are random elements (first player, card drawing, dice rolling, …).
_ you do not have to play the game until the end if your scenario does not plan to do it.
Using several BGA accounts (or friends), play the game that matched
exactly your tutorial scenario

15. #14 – Add tutorial comments
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1) At the top of the Replay interface, select “Advanced replay features”.
2) Use “add a comment” to add a comment at the current move of the
Replay.
3) Tip: “Go to next visible move” button allows you to break down a
complete move into individual smaller changes, when you need to
explain things one by one.
How to add tutorial comments from a replay

16. #15 – Place your comment in the right spot
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1) You can use the 4 arrows at the top right to drag n drop the comment
and attach it to any element of the interface.
2) You can choose “Display this comment centered over the link item”.
For example, you can use this to display the comment on the right
side of the interface while you are explaining something located on
the left side.
3) Tip: you can drag’n drop the comment to the red zone at the very top
of the page. In this case, the comment will be displayed centered on
the page, not linked to any element.
You have 3 options for your tutorial comment position

17. #16 – Make the player DO his/her move
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When it is current player’s turn, you must add a tutorial step which
explains which move the player must do (ie: next move in the game
replay).
The tutorial step must be configured with “The player must take the
next game action via the game interface to continue” option.
This way, the player will be forced to DO the move, and will learn how the
game works by doing.
You must never allow a current player’s move to be played
automatically: this creates confusion as the player does not understand
what is under their control and what is not.
If you just need to move on and have already explained everything, just give
simple and quick instructions like “move the token here” or “click here”, so
your player feels like they are playing.
Players learn by DOING, not by reading

18. #17 – Use bold, italic, color...
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Using this markup, you can make your text way more readable and
understandable: don’t hesitate to use it!
Using icon, you can display all the markup you can use :)

19. #18 – Add useful icons to the interface
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When a tutorial comment is in “Edition state”, you can click on any
element of the game interface to put an icon on it.
From the menu on the right, you can select various icons, arrows, mouse
cursors… and use them to explain the current rules.
This is particularly useful when you want to tell the player which action
they must do (ex: “click here”).
Tip: you can also add your own image to the game interface when needed,
using this button:
You can add various icons, borders and arrows to explain the rules

20. #19 – Add images to your comments
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Sometimes, you need to show one or several game situations at a specific
moment, and you cannot because the game replay does not provide it at
this time.
A good way to deal with this is to add an image to your tutorial comment,
like in the example on the right.
This is a good idea to use if:
●
You want to explain a move that is impossible to do in the game.
●
You want to show scoring and your tutorial does not go until the end of
the game.
●
You want to explain several distinct cases that cannot appear at the
same time in the game interface.
A very good way to show a situation that is not visible in the game
interface

21. #20 – Write in English
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Your tutorial must be initially written in English.
When a tutorial has been promoted to official tutorial for a game, it is
available for translation in all languages.
The tutorial will be translated afterwards

22. #21 – Shorter = better
22
That “shorter is better” is true for everything in your tutorial: number of
steps, text length, …
Every unecessary step you can avoid, every rule you do not need to explain,
will increase the percentage of players who will reach the end of the
tutorial and finally play the game.
Tip: it is better to have more steps with less text than a few steps with a lot
of text.
Players want to play, not to learn

23. #22 – Encourage the players
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“Good move!”, “Congratulations!”, …
These encouragements will motivate the players and will help them to
understand what just happened.
It will make your tutorial enjoyable. :)

24. #23 – Make your tutorial official
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Only 2 groups of people can make your tutorial official:
●
The developers of the game
●
BGA administrators
To evaluate your tutorial, they will review it, look at the player’s ratings, and
the tutorial statistics (ex: % of players who actually played the game after
the tutorial).
Thus, before publishing your tutorial (as “public”), you should share it
privately with friends so they can review it and give their feedback and
rating.
One tutorial is selected for each game and is featured

25. #24 – Do not change your tutorial once it
becomes official
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Once your tutorial is official, it is translated by the community in more than
35 different languages.
Every subsequent change to the text will erase the translations and will
force the community to re-translate the text.
Tips:
●
Do not change the existing text unless necessary.
●
If you need to fix the English spelling, do not change the tutorial:
change the English=>English translation from “Community /
Translations / <game name>”: this way the translations will be kept.
●
It is okay to add additional text (no effect to existing translations).
●
To avoid changes, review, test, and get feedback for your tutorial
before it becomes official.
.. or it is going to make translators crazy.

26. #25 – How are tutorials evaluated?
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- Ratings: 5 star rating at the end of the tutorial
- % of players who played the tutorial until the end
- % of players who played the tutorial and played the game afterwards
(excluding players who had played the game prior to watching the tutorial.)
- tutorial average duration
- number of sessions
Before making a tutorial official, developers & admin are looking at the
following statistics: