Onboarding, staged as a title sequence.
Ninety seconds of the programme this game came from, with the player’s own farm assembling underneath it, and a skip button live from the first frame. No glowing arrows, no forced taps, and no account asked for until there is something worth saving.
The ninety seconds, beat by beat.
Cold open — a field, and a number
One hundred and forty-four pounds. The profit this farm made in its first year. It is on screen for four seconds and it is the whole thesis.
The gate, and the name
The farm assembles behind the titles rather than in front of them. The player is watching the thing they are about to own.
One decision, taken during the titles
Name the farm. That is the only input in the entire sequence, and it can be skipped and set later.
The first field appears
Already drilled, already growing, and already about a fortnight in. Nobody starts from bare earth, because bare earth is a tutorial and this is not one.
The titles end and the game is running
No handoff, no "now tap here", and no arrow. The first input window opens in about a minute and it is explained when it opens.
What is asked, and when.
During Chapter Zero
- A farm name
- OptionalSkippable, changeable, and defaulted to a generated one if nobody bothers.
- An account
- Not askedNothing is required to play for the first several sessions.
- An age
- Not asked yetAge assurance happens at the first point it is needed, which is not here.
- Notification permission
- Not askedAsking for push in the first ninety seconds is the single most reliable way to be refused it.
- Location
- Never askedNot at any point, in any version. The weather comes from one Oxfordshire station for everybody.
Later, and only when needed
- An account
- When there is something worth savingAround session four, framed as protecting the farm rather than as registration.
- Age assurance
- At the first age-gated featureWhich is the brewery building at level sixteen, and the sharing controls before that.
- Notification permission
- After the first season endsBy which point there is a real reason to want one, which is the combine.
- Anything else
- NeverThere is no profile, no marketing preference centre and no interests survey.
Why a title sequence rather than a tutorial.
Because this game has a television programme in front of it, and the single strongest asset in the whole proposition is that a player already knows the place before they arrive. A tutorial explains something unfamiliar. A title sequence says: you know exactly where you are.
It also solves the tutorial problem by refusing to have one. The forced tutorial exists because designers do not trust a player to find the first action. This loop has one action available in the first minute, it is signposted, and everything else unlocks as it becomes relevant.
And it makes the skip genuinely free. A skipped title sequence costs the player nothing at all, because nothing mechanical happened during it. A skipped tutorial in most games costs the player the ability to play, which is why the skip is usually hidden.
Chapter Zero against the category default.
| Chapter Zero | The usual first ninety seconds | |
|---|---|---|
| Skippable | From frame one, persistently | After a forced sequence, if at all |
| Taps required | None | Between eleven and thirty |
| Account asked for | Not for several sessions | Immediately, or after the first reward |
| Push permission asked for | After the first season | In the first minute, and usually refused |
| Location asked for | Never | Often, and rarely for a stated reason |
| Starting state | A farm already a fortnight into a season | Bare ground and an arrow |
| First purchase offer | None. There is no starter offer during onboarding | Within the first five minutes, at a discount that expires |
No purchase offer during onboarding, at all
There is no starter pack pop-up, no expiring discount and no first-session offer of any kind. The store is reachable and it is not advertised. A time-limited offer shown to somebody who has been playing for four minutes is a nudge technique, and the ICO Children’s Code restricts nudge techniques in services likely to be accessed by children.
Chapter Zero, questioned.
Yes, from the first frame, with a persistent button. A skipped sequence costs nothing because nothing mechanical happens during it.
Because starting from bare earth requires a tutorial to explain what to do with it, and this design does not have one. You arrive a fortnight into a season, in the middle of something.
Around the fourth session, when there is genuinely something worth protecting, and framed as protecting the farm rather than as registration.
And then, if anybody ever built it.
Three stages, three budgets, and a gate between the second and the third.
