TutorialMAX

Tutorial System

Getting Started

The tutorial system in TutorialMAX starts with a simple component named Tutorial Manager.

To create a Tutorial Manager, right click on the hierarchy, select "TutorialMAX", and then "Tutorial". Now click on "Setup Orchestrator". You have a couple of choices:

  • Step-by-step Orchestrator: The default and most commonly used orchestration method. It simply allows you to create a step-by-step tutorial.
  • Slideshow Orchestrator: Iterates through the steps in intervals, activating each of the steps sequentially until the end; with the option to loop.
For the purpose of this guide, let's choose the Slideshow option so that we don't have to deal with switching between steps.

In the hierarchy menu, the minor difference between the "Tutorial" option and the "Step-by-step Tutorial" option is that the latter has an orchestrator set up already.

Now click on "Create New Step" to create a new step. On the new step, you can define things you want done during that step. These "things" are called State Behaviors, or Behaviors for short.

Steps are ordered according to their position in the hierarchy.

You can add your first behavior by clicking on "Add Behavior" then [GameObject => Activate GameObject or Component]. Now add 3 cubes to the scene. Add the first cube to the Objects property of the behavior you just created. Now duplicate the step two times so that you have 3 steps and assign the other cubes respectively.

Now if you click on the Play button you'll notice that the cubes will activate one by one.

Passes

Steps can be in one of the following states: NotStarted, Active, Completed, or Failed.

There usually are certain challenges or conditions based on which you let the player proceed with the next step of the tutorial. Some of these conditions are generic, while some are based on the game logic. Passes are exactly there for this purpose. They are used to mark a step as completed or failed based on certain conditions.

Add a pass by clicking on "New Pass" on a step. Here you can specify the Target Status of the pass, and also define conditions using the "Add Condition" button. You can also nest these to define complex conditions.

Notice that there are several intrinsic conditions, such as Time Delay, which simply creates a delay before the pass is marked as completed - assuming it's the only defined condition. You can also define custom conditions and bind them to your game logic very easily. Just select "(New Script)" in the context menu of the "Add Condition" button. From there, all you'll need to do is to implement the base class.

You can typically find a "New Script" option in the context menus when adding behaviors, conditions etc. This will result in extending a specific base class and having it appear in the context menu under "Custom => [Your Class]" by default.

Behavior Groups

The last main thing you need to know about are Behavior Groups. These are collections of behaviors that can be activated or deactivated at once. Read more about them here.

When playing, you can see the overall status of your tutorial at a glance in the hierarchy.