Implementing Adaptive Tutorials

There are two approaches to integrating the Tutorial Manager into your game. The first approach is to develop your tutorial as you always have and add the Tutorial Manager API calls to take advantage of the Tutorial Manager decision engine and reporting events. This approach works well if you already have existing tutorials.

The second approach relies on the state machine built into the Tutorial Manager plugin to reduce the amount of "spaghetti" code required to create a tutorial. Under this second approach, you build the steps of your tutorial independently and attach adaptive components to the steps. The Tutorial Manager, then, takes care of turning the correct GameObjects on and off as the player makes their way through the tutorial.

Overview

The Tutorial Manager is supported for PC, iOS and Android projects. You can use Unity 5.5 or newer. You must enable Unity Analytics.

  1. Import the Tutorial Manager Asset Package into your project (menu: Assets > Import Package > Custom Package).

  2. If not already enabled, turn on Unity Analytics from the Services window (menu: Window > Services).

  3. Create your tutorial GameObjects… For tips on designing tutorials that work with the Tutorial Manager, see Designing Tutorials for Adaptability.

  4. Open the Tutorial Editor window (menu: Window > Unity Analytics > Tutorial Editor).

  5. Enter the Tutorial structure into the window. See Creating the Tutorial State Model.

  6. Click the Push Data button on the Tutorial Editor window to send your tutorial data to the Analytics service.

  7. Add code to play your tutorials at appropriate points in your game. See Playing Tutorials.

  8. If you are using the Tutorial Manager state machine:

    1. Add AdaptiveContent components to any GameObjects that should be turned on when you play a tutorial step and off when the step completes.

    2. Add AdaptiveText components to any tutorial GameObjects with Text, Text Mesh or Text Mesh Pro components. (Note that you should only use one AdaptiveText component per tutorial step.)

      See Add Adaptive Components to Your Tutorials for more information.

Creating the Tutorial State Model

Use the Tutorial Editor window to create a state model that outlines the steps of each of your adaptive tutorials:

  1. Open the Tutorial Editor window (menu: Window > Unity Analytics > Tutorial Editor).

  2. Set the Game Genre. This setting is used by the Tutorial Manager machine learning algorithm. Choose the category that best describes the play style of your game.

  3. The Tutorial Manager creates one tutorial entry automatically. If you have more than one tutorial, click the Add Tutorial button at the bottom of the window to create additional tutorials.

  4. Assign a unique tutorial key name to identify each tutorial.

  5. Add steps to the tutorial by clicking the + button next to the last existing step. (A single tutorial can contain up to 50 steps.)

  6. Assign each step a key name. (The names must be unique within the same tutorial.)

    A game with three tutorials, each with 3-4 steps

  7. Click Push Data. Pushing uploads the structure of your tutorials to the Analytics service and creates or updates the remote text for any AdaptiveText components.

Note: Key names must start with a letter and may contain only letters or numbers.

Add Adaptive Components to Your Tutorials

Once you have defined your tutorial outline, you can add the adaptive components that the Tutorial Manager uses to turn the elements of your tutorial on and off as players advance through your tutorial. The Tutorial Manager SDK provides two adaptive components. The AdaptiveContent component turns GameObjects on when a tutorial step begins and turns them off again when the tutorial step finishes. The AdaptiveText component adds the ability to control the text displayed for a tutorial step from the Tutorial Manager dashboard. Put an AdaptiveText component on any tutorial GameObjects that contain a Text, TextMesh, or TextMeshPro object; use AdaptiveContent for other GameObjects.

Note: The Tutorial Manager turns off any GameObjects containing adaptive components when the scene loads (using GameObject.SetActive(false)) and turns them back on when the bound tutorial steps are played. Since Unity automatically disables child objects with their parents, avoid nesting adaptive components. (Nesting components can lead to the wrong behavior when you bind them to multiple tutorial steps.)

To add an adaptive component:

  1. Select the GameObject in your scene Hierarchy.

  2. In the Inspector window, click Add Component.

  3. Click Analytics in the Add Component menu.

  4. If the GameObject contains a Text, TextMesh, or TextMeshPro component, select the AdaptiveText component; otherwise, pick the AdaptiveContent component.

  5. Bind the component to a tutorial and step using the Binding Keys list.

  6. To bind a GameObject to more than one tutorial step, click the + button next to the list of steps.

    A GameObject with an AdaptiveContent component