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Game Development vocabulary · Gameplay & Game Design

Onboarding

Meaning in game development, with examples

/ˈɑːnbɔːrdɪŋ/nounCommon term

In game development, onboarding means: The first minutes or hours of a game, designed to teach new players the controls and rules step by step so they understand the game without feeling lost or bored.

In Turkish: oyuna alıştırma, onboarding, ilk deneyim tasarımı

How it is used

Wider than a tutorial: it includes UI hints, the first levels and the order in which features unlock. Mobile teams watch the onboarding funnel to see where new players quit. Good onboarding teaches by doing, not with long text.

Example sentences

  1. Too many players quit during onboarding, before they even see the first battle.

  2. We cut most of the text in the onboarding and let players learn by trying.

Common collocations

  • onboarding flow
  • onboarding funnel
  • improve onboarding
  • first-time user experience
  • tutorial
  • retentionHow many players keep coming back to a game over time, usually measured as the percentage who return one, seven or thirty days after installing it.
  • difficulty curveHow quickly a game gets harder as the player progresses. A good curve rises steadily with short breaks; a bad one has sudden spikes or long, boring flat parts.
  • HUDShort for heads-up display: the information shown on top of the game view while you play, such as health, ammo, a mini-map and the score.
  • playtestA session in which people play an unfinished version of the game while the team watches and collects feedback on fun, difficulty and confusing moments.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Gameplay & Game Design

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