From annoying pop-ups and walls of text to images of controllers with tons of little lines coming out of them leading to actions that the player is supposed to magically remember before even playing the game, tutorials can be the death of a game. In the recent talk about tutorials at Casual Connect Europe, Nicolae Berbece taught how to make a successful tutorial, one that will hook the player from the beginning to the very end. Do you want to know how to make a good tutorial without the player even realizing they’re going through one? First of all, you do need to know that “tutorials are essential”, but also keep in mind that “a good tutorial is invisible, no one remembers a good tutorial”. Nicolae further advised, “teach through experience, no popups, no wall of text.” For these things and more, lend an ear to one of Those Awesome Guys, Nicolae Berbece.
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Nicolae Berbece is just one of the guys – one of Those Awesome Guys, that is. To be specific, Nicolae is the founder and, for all intents and purposes, head of the one-person game developer studio that was founded in 2012. However, they note that there is no concept of a “boss” and “employee” at Those Awesome Guys. “I don’t like the word ‘employees,’” Nicolae says. “I collaborate with awesome people and I work as hard as they do.”
In a small collaborative team Nicolae explains that many hats get worn by everyone involved. Nicolae also manages the team and takes care of game, level and UI design, as well as art, animation, sound, marketing and more. With all the time it takes to run Those Awesome Guys and develop their current game, Move or Die, it’s a good thing Nicolae doesn’t consider the work a job at all.
“Working on my projects is what I love doing, and having ‘free’ time from that would mean not doing what I love, which is not the exact traditional definition of ‘vacation,’” Nicolae says. “I don’t consider working on my game to be a ‘job.’” Even when Nicolae and the team are not directly working projects, such as playing other video games, they constantly think about ways to incorporate what they are doing or seeing into projects of their own.
Crafting Immersive Worlds
Even though Nicolae is currently neck-deep in the game industry, for a long time they considered becoming a director or editor and received education in that area. They note that there are many concepts and knowledge levels that overlap between both the movie world and the world of games, such as creating and editing trailers, which has helped them in their work at Those Awesome Guys.
More than anything, Nicolae wanted to create immersive worlds and craft interactive experiences for larges audiences – ultimately leading them to where they are. With Those Awesome Guys, Nicolae is able to implement any idea that pops into their head quickly – something they truly love about their job, though they admit it is a double-edged sword.
“While I am in control of my own project, I am also responsible for it, which means that if anything goes wrong, it’s my fault,” Nicolae says. “But when I get to bring smiles to the faces of millions and even see a few hundreds of them in person at conventions around the world: That is what keeps me doing what I do.”
Nicolae does not look specifically for inspiration either, saying the team draws their main source of inspiration from music, often imagining a mechanic, video, or entire game while listening to specific songs. Simple “what if” thoughts also become the basis for ideas. In fact, Nicolae says, rather than suffering the ubiquitous creative block, they have the opposite problem: too many ideas.
However, the solution to such a dilemma is also a natural one: focusing only on what you can actually do. Nicolae notes that they’re not sure they want to think about what kind of game they would make with unlimited time and resources, saying “the beauty of creativity is in limits.”
Not all Sunshine
While Nicolae has plenty of ideas to keep them going forever and loves their job so much they have a different definition of vacation, that doesn’t mean that everything is rosy and smooth sailing all the time. Nicolae admits that it can be difficult to stay motivated sometimes, especially when you’re the taskmaster.
They say questioning your decisions and wondering if the years of work you’ve dedicated to a project will pay off is common. Nicolae finds their motivation by remembering supportive players and seeing new players enjoy their game at conventions or in online comments – though they admit that it can be hard to hear people complain about your project, which is always a risk when perusing online forums.
Nicolae loves criticism and believes it can be constructive, but says there is also simple game-bashing that is void of helpful feedback and simply antagonistic. The best fix for it, they say, is to simply ignore it and focus on online comments that are constructive and will improve your project, saying it’s impossible to make everyone happy.
The Sky’s the Limit
Ultimately despite the occasional challenges with motivation and unflattering comments, Nicolae loves where they are in life right now, however, they are unsure what will come next. They note that VR has a pretty big spotlight right now and it’s something they hope to play around with at some point.
As for where Nicolae expects to end up at the end of his career, they can only say that right now they love making games. “It may or may not be just a point in my life. I could be doing this for the rest of my life or I could try something else. Only time will tell.”
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