The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Hints

I will be posting a detailed write-up about how to manage “hints area” in mobile apps effectively. For the reference, I would like to share some good and bad hint examples. You decide which of the bad ones are also ugly 🙂

Hints

Bad and Ugly hints

Some of these would not be “bad” if you are sure that every single player you show these hints already knows how to play your game, knows every future in your game and nothing has left to learn. If this is not the case, utilize your hint area (splash screen, loading screen etc.) well.

World at Arms no hint

No hint at the launch of World At Arms although producer Gameloft provides hints in other games.

Total Conquest long hint

Total Conquest: bla bla bla… Is it good or bad that game loading is slow enough to read it all?

Total Conquest rumor hint

Total Conquest: Caesar… kittens… what a rumor!

Total Conquest useless hint

Total Conquest: thanks for the tip!

Total Conquest another hint

Total Conquest: Another one!

Total Conquest no comment hint

Total Conquest: no comment!

Good hints

For me, a hint is good if it is useful for the player, instructive, motivates the player to spend more time and (hopefully) more money on the game. I gave some not so useful examples from the game Total Conquest. Fortunately, the same game has useful hints as well.

Total Conquest good hint

Total Conquest: Not all of this game’s hints are bad. One useful hint about how to use a feature. It’s important to mention this feature as a hint because similar/competitor games usually don’t have the feature of changing viewing angle.

Total Conquest another good hint

Total Conquest: A long but useful hint. This hint refers to new users. If you have already spent few days with the game, you already know this for sure. Check out my Smart Hint Management upcoming post!

Castle Clash hint

Castle Clash: Simple but meaningful hint because most of the similar games do not have “heroes” concept.

Clash of Clans spell hint

Clash of Clans: Info about a particular spell in the game.

Clash of Clans gem hint

Clash of Clans: Promoting using gems. If you need more gems you need to spend money!

Clash of Clans revenge hint

Clash of Clans: Answer to an FAQ: Why revenge button is not always available?

I tried to list a few example of hints used in mobile games. For game developers, hint area is a valuable interface to educate the user. Utilize it well!