CHALLENGE
The New Player Tutorial was designed to give first-time players a fun, guided introduction to the game world.
For a new player, Toca World can feel like a lot to take in. There’s a world to navigate, places to discover, and countless things to interact with but the magic of Toca Boca comes from giving players the freedom to explore and figure things out for themselves.
The challenge was to design a new player experience that reduces friction, builds confidence, and introduces the basics through playful discovery rather than traditional tutorials. We wanted players to quickly understand how the world works, while still feeling like they were discovering it on their own.
The previous onboarding dropped players into Rita’s apartment, encouraging open-ended play and exploration. While this preserved Toca Boca World’s sense of freedom, players could easily miss important features and content.
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Senior UX / Feature Designer
APPROACH
The New Player Tutorial was designed to give first-time players a fun, guided introduction to the game world.
Through interactive gameplay, players learn how to create a character, build a home, collect a gift from the post office, and explore the city, naturally introducing the game’s core mechanics and encouraging early exploration.
Solution
The result was an onboarding journey designed around four key moments: reducing friction, orienting players, encouraging exploration, and rewarding curiosity.
The opportunity was to create a more directed introduction, guiding new players through the world while still preserving the freedom to explore.
OUTCOME
The new player experience created a more guided and engaging entry point into Toca Boca World, helping new players discover the possibilities of the game while preserving its open ended spirit.
By introducing players to key features, characters and content through a more intentional journey, the experience made the world easier to understand and encouraged players to explore beyond their first interaction.
The project brought together UX, interaction design and art direction to balance two important goals: giving new players enough guidance to feel confident, while leaving enough freedom for them to make the experience their own.
The work contributed to a broader product experience designed to support discovery, engagement and long term exploration within a world with more than 60 million players.
Once implemented, the tutorial successfully contributed to a measurable increase in both D0 and D1 player retention.
Weather Feature
The Weather System was created to deepen immersion and expand creative storytelling opportunities within the game. With a simple tap, players can instantly change environmental conditions between sunny, rainy, snowy, and foggy weather states, transforming the atmosphere across outdoor areas and selected homes.
Key highlights included:
Intuitive weather controls accessed through the sun/moon icon
Immersive visual and audio effects for each weather condition
Dynamic weather visibility across outdoor environments, as well as through home windows and balconies
Together, these features enhanced player engagement, strengthened onboarding for new users, and enriched the overall sense of creativity and immersion within the toca boca world.
