By name: onboarding-difficulty description: "Design and critique onboarding, tutorials, FTUE, teaching, skill ramps, difficulty curves, assist modes, accessibility of challenge, failure, and mastery progression. Do not use for UI implementation or code."
Onboarding And Difficulty
Use when the question is how players learn, survive, improve, and feel challenged without being lost, bored, or coerced.
Teaching Principles
Teach through play where possible; use direct instruction when playtesting shows subtlety fails.
- introduce one concept at a time;
- create a safe first use;
- require the player to act, not only read;
- give immediate feedback;
- repeat in a new context;
- combine learned concepts only after each is legible;
- remove instructions once behavior proves understanding.
Difficulty Curve
Map challenge against player skill, not an average-player fiction:
- starting skill assumptions;
- first friction point;
- mastery gates;
- optional challenge branches;
- failure cost;
- retry time;
- player-controlled assists;
- catch-up or re-entry paths;
- endgame challenge identity.
A strong curve can be linear, branching, adaptive, optional, social, or player-selected, but it must be readable.
Assist And Accessibility Of Challenge
Assist options preserve dignity:
- describe what changes;
- let players choose the kind of help;
- avoid shaming labels;
- preserve core fantasy where possible;
- separate accessibility from prestige only when the game's social contract requires it;
- make the default challenge intentional but not exclusionary.
Failure Review
Good failure is readable, points to a better next attempt, has proportionate cost, preserves momentum, supports mastery, and does not hide rules.
Bad failure:
- repeats long known content;
- punishes experimentation;
- obscures cause;
- blocks learning behind grind;
- humiliates or excludes players.
Output
Return:
- first-session learning path;
- skill ramp and difficulty curve;
- confusion and boredom risks;
- assist/accessibility recommendations;
- failure-cost diagnosis;
- playtest tasks and stop conditions.
Use ../../references/contracts.md for reusable onboarding and difficulty reviews.