Game Tutorials

Tutorials should teach you how to actually play the game, not just how to use the controls.

I didn't think there was much of a difference between the two until this morning, when I spent an hour wading through one game's tutorial, only to come out the other end & realize I still didn't know how to play the game.

Fly my starship? Sure. Shoot my weapons? Yep. Do anything useful or fun? Nope.

This ties right into something I learned at Austin GDC: all players of your game start out as casual players. If you don't give them a reason to keep playing (like making the game fun & interesting from the beginning) they'll quit long before they become hardcore players (who might be more forgiving of a punishing tutorial).