Teach, test, twist

Teach, test, twist is a pattern of three beats for introducing a game activity. The Level Design Book describes it as: "teach the player about a game activity", then "test whether the player can repeat and recognize the activity, with prompting", then "twist the frame of the activity; with less prompting, can the player recall it?" (The Level Design Book: Pacing).

It is a tool for pacing and for teaching without text. Nintendo uses a four-step relative based on the Japanese structure kishōtenketsu (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design).

#The three beats

Each beat asks something different of the player:

• Teach. Introduce the activity in a safe place where failure costs little. The Level Design Book notes that Doom and Quake "begin with quiet rooms where players can test their controls" (The Level Design Book: Pacing). The level's affordances and signifiers do the teaching here.
• Test. Ask the player to repeat the activity and recognise when to use it, still with prompting (The Level Design Book: Pacing). Stakes rise a little.
• Twist. Change the frame so the player must recall the activity with less help (The Level Design Book: Pacing). Christian Nutt describes Nintendo's version of the pattern as being "about recontextualizing the things you already know about a situation" (Game Developer: Captain Toad and the core of Nintendo game…).

The beats need not sit side by side. In The Level Design Book's Portal example, "these "twist" beats are spaced out, and aren't immediately after the Test" (The Level Design Book: Pacing).

#The four-step version at Nintendo

Koichi Hayashida, director of Super Mario 3D Land, described Nintendo's structure in a 2012 Gamasutra interview. In a four-panel comic, "you introduce a concept, and then in the next panel you develop the idea a little bit more; in the third panel there's something of a change-up, and then in the fourth panel you have your conclusion" (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design). Applied to a level (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design):

1. Introduce. "First, you have to learn how to use that gameplay mechanic."
2. Develop. "the stage will offer you a slightly more complicated scenario in which you have to use it."
3. Twist. "something crazy happens that makes you think about it in a way you weren't expecting."
4. Conclude. "you get to demonstrate, finally, what sort of mastery you've gained over it."

Hayashida credits Shigeru Miyamoto, who drew comics as a child and often asked what a level's surprising third step would be (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design). Each course carries one idea: "you have a clear concept in the beginning, and that's carried through absolutely all the way" (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design).

Mark Brown's Game Maker's Toolkit video applies the four steps to Super Mario 3D World, where "a mechanic can be successfully taught, developed, twisted and then thrown away in about five minutes flat" (MCV/DEVELOP: VIDEO: Nintendo's level design secrets in…; YouTube: Super Mario 3D World's 4 Step Level Design).

#Limits of the pattern

The pattern is widely taught, but its sources add conditions:

• It needs space. The Level Design Book stresses that the twists in its example come later, not straight after the test (The Level Design Book: Pacing). A level that runs teach, test and twist back to back can feel like a checklist.
• It assumes one clear concept. Hayashida's courses carry a single idea "all the way" (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design). Levels that mix many systems, or open spaces where players pick their own order, are harder to sequence this way.
• Teaching is not always a separate level. In God of War (2018), the first three of nine optional Valkyrie bosses "were specifically intended as loose tutorials" for recognising enemy tells, according to The Level Design Book's account of former Sony designer Jason de Heras (The Level Design Book: Encounter design). Teaching happens inside the content itself.
• Teach spaces need different rules. The Level Design Book notes that tutorials may work best with no cover at all (The Level Design Book: Cover), so a teaching space can look and play unlike the rest of the level.

#How to make one

1. Pick one mechanic. Write it as a verb: "fling", "wall-run", "dodge the tell" (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design).
2. Build the teach beat. A low-risk space where failure costs little, with strong signifiers (The Level Design Book: Pacing). Light the important object and keep the rest of the room quiet; see visual hierarchy and readability and focal point.
3. Build the test beat. Repeat the mechanic with slightly higher stakes and less guidance (The Level Design Book: Pacing).
4. Put something else in between. Place other beats before the twist (The Level Design Book: Pacing).
5. Build the twist. Change one thing about the frame: height, timing, direction, or combining with another mechanic (The Level Design Book: Pacing; Game Developer: Captain Toad and the core of Nintendo game…).
6. Add a conclusion if the mechanic is temporary. A short, harder sequence where players show mastery (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design).
7. Keep the visual language consistent. The object that taught the mechanic must look the same in the twist, or players will not recall it. See signifier and breadcrumbing.
8. Playtest without explaining. Watch whether players recognise and recall the mechanic on their own; see playtesting spaces.

#Use in recent games

• DOOM Eternal (id Software, 2020). Traversal puzzles that the director describes as a skill mastered over the whole game (Shacknews: Hell Razer: The Making of Doom Eternal…; GameSpot: Why Doom Eternal Incorporates Puzzle…).
• God of War (Santa Monica Studio, 2018). Optional Valkyrie bosses, the first three designed as loose tutorials for reading tells (The Level Design Book: Encounter design).
• Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo, 2013). Four-step courses that teach, develop, twist and retire a mechanic in a few minutes (MCV/DEVELOP: VIDEO: Nintendo's level design secrets in…; YouTube: Super Mario 3D World's 4 Step Level Design).
• Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 2011). The game for which Hayashida described the four steps (Game Developer: The secret to Mario level design).
• Portal (Valve, 2007). The fling taught in Chamber 10 and twisted in Chambers 12, 15 and 18 (The Level Design Book: Pacing).

#Further reading and watching

Related pages: pacing and intensity, affordance, signifier, gym levels and metrics maps, playtesting spaces, set pieces.