"Just-In-Time" Information
Just-in-time information is a mechanism that designers use to provide scaffolding to novice players as they move from "newbie" to expert. As the player moves through a mission, he or she will be presented with new needs, skills or information elements right before the player requires them.
This technique simplifies the amount of complexity that the player has to face at any point in the game. It also highlights certain aspects of the pattern for the player, to which he or she can gradually build connections as other pieces of the pattern are revealed.
Design Patterns in Games
As the different aspects of the pattern become highlighted to the player, he or she will start developing hypotheses as to how the overall system works. In doing so, the player will test the hypotheses through a system of trial and error.
As this pattern becomes clearer for the player, the emergent mental model can be used to try out strategies across situations that show similar structural features. In these tests, the model is then confirmed or modified based on its feedback.
Importance of Training Modules
Another way that designers gradually reveal the game pattern to the player is through training modules and tutorials. In games like Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, simplified missions are used to train the player in a particular skill that the character uses during the game. These tutorials are usually presented as mini-versions of the game. The game pattern, however, has been simplified into its most fundamental factors.
Skill Subsets in Games
The simplification of the game pattern and highlighting of elements accomplished by game tutorials serves as a way to introduce players into an analytical view of game elements. Within these, the specific skills that they have to master become central pillars to their understanding of the pattern itself.