Creating Video Tutorials

Tips on creating Video Tutorials and Guides.

This topic is designed to help you structure a tutorial so you can share your insights with The Sandbox community.

If you follow these steps in your tutorial you will be in a good position to help your audience understand what you intend to share, and hopefully, help someone else get creating in the metaverse.

That being said, if you have a production process for sharing your ideas in an innovative and informative way already, then use that and get creating!

The main thing to keep in mind is who you are making your content for and what you want them to understand or be able to achieve once they have finished your tutorial.

Think about the end goal and make sure you clearly articulate the ways a viewer can achieve that goal.

1. Choose a Topic

Have a clear idea of what you want to share.

Consider the topic and then start with the end in mind - what will the end result be? What is the purpose of this tutorial? What will the viewer/ reader be learning?

While there are always a lot of interconnected ideas that can be valuable to cover, try to keep the topic focused on one core idea.

Come back to the core principle you are trying to communicate and use that to guide what you share.

Review your intended topic and consider if that extra bit of information you want to add helps the viewer towards that core goal. If not, then you can probably leave it out. In this instance having a clear focus can mean less is more.

Keeping your topic clearly defined, focused, and relevant will help make sure you don’t overload your audience and make sure they know exactly what to focus on.

Before you hit record, write a script and mark out exactly what you're going to cover.

2. Give a Preview of the Task Ahead

‌‌Give the viewer a clear explanation of what the tutorial will be focused on and what they will be working towards. This will help your viewer establish a clear understanding of the goal, and give context for the information they are about to receive.

Depending on the complexity of the topic, it's also important to let the viewer know how experienced they may need to be in order to achieve the results.

If there’s information a viewer is required to already understand then briefly, but clearly, explain what those requirements are, especially if you are covering an advanced topic that assumes someone already has experience with the tools or processes you may be using.

For example:

• Is your topic suitable for someone with no prior experience with the Game Maker?

• Is the tutorial accessible to someone who doesn’t know how to import custom assets to the Game Maker?

• Does the viewer need to understand what Behaviours and Components are?

• Does the viewer need to know how to work between Modelling and Animation projects in Vox Edit?

Whatever level of experience your tutorial requires is perfectly fine, there are learners of all types and creators of varying abilities, the important thing is to have a clear sense of who your audience is, clearly communicate the goal, and make sure they are ready and equipped to follow along with you.

3. Break the Task Into Chunks

Explain the steps you’ll be going through and frame what the viewer can expect at each step. ‌ As you go through each of the steps take the time to detail the assets, locations, buttons, and connections you make. Consider explaining why you are doing what you're doing as well as what you're doing.

Helping your viewer understand the reason behind the choices you make and the tools you use will help them gain a greater understanding of how those practices may be applied in other ways.

Depending on the complexity of your topic, use language that fits with your intended audiences knowledge level. If it is a beginner tutorial, tailor your tutorial to someone who may not know all of the terms you are using.

Someone new to gaming may not know what an NPC (Non-Player Character) is, what it does, or why it might be important, so remember to clarify your terms and give context.

Get into the details. Assume, within reason, that the viewer may not know the shortcuts, tools or workflow you use either.

Depending on the previously stated expected experience level, take the time to make sure the steps you take to achieve the outcomes are clear.

Check if there are any steps you brushed over that may not be obvious to someone who hasn’t been through this process before.

4. Completion and Summary

Wrap up the tutorial with a look at the final product so the viewer can see what the completed end goal you set at the start of the video looks like, then give a quick summary of the steps that have just been covered to get there.

With the tutorial completed, why not set a challenge or offer some direction the viewer could use as a starting point to put what they have just learned into practice. Repetition and experience help reinforce the lessons we learn, so the sooner someone is able to put the information you’ve shared to work, the better.

Tips

• Be yourself! it’s important that you feel confident and share your information in a way that will connect with your audience.

• Keep it short. Generally, 3 to 5 minutes and 10 for more complex ideas would be a great target.

• Break the topic down into subtopics and edit your video for efficiency. Summarize key points.

• Let your audience know what you are going to talk about, then talk about it, and then remind them at the end what you have talked about in the video.

• Give greater context about what is shown on the screen by using narration and titles.

• Use titles to break up and define the end of an idea and the start of a new idea, especially if you have a long topic that requires multiple complex steps.

Now it’s over to you! We can’t wait to see what great tips you have to share.