Instructions for Controls (Design Basics)

I wish to instruct the user on how to make controls but this is my first game.

A simple animation or a series, or maybe an instructional window at the start of the game, might help. I am not expecting anyone to code it for me. I am just soliciting feedback on the design decisions that go into making good instructional help for the user to control the character.

Thank you in advance for your ever-so-polite comments.

Mike

 

I think this should depend on your target platform and the type of game.

For common game genres you can usually, such as an FPS game, you can usually get away with just using the standard control scheme for the genre and putting the controls under an options or help menu. For a desktop PC game, even if not a common genre, the same often applies since PC players are used to just looking up the controls when they are unsure.

For mobile games, it is pretty typical to treat the first level as basically a tutorial, hand holding the player through every action explaining what to press or do at each step. I hate this, but it appears to be the standard approach that players now expect.