Boba Tale — Tutorial That Builds Confidence and Cravings

Boba Tale is a cozy shop-management game where players run a boba café in a kawaii world. However, the game launched without onboarding, leaving new players unsure how to play and causing early drop-off.

I designed a structured onboarding experience to teach core mechanics, build player confidence, and support early retention—while preserving the game’s playful tone.

No Early Guidance New players lacked direction and often quit before completing their first successful order.

Unclear Upgrade Value Without early explanation, players didn’t understand how upgrades or IAPs supported progression.

Tone Constraints Any tutorial needed to teach quickly without disrupting the game’s charm or pacing.

Identified confusion points from launch to first completed order

Determined when to introduce mechanics versus when to step back

Wrote concise, encouraging tutorial text that explained actions in context

Avoided long explanations in favor of short, actionable prompts

Used a warm, friendly voice aligned with the kawaii aesthetic

Reinforced progress with positive feedback instead of corrective language

Broke guidance into micro-interactions

Used repeatable tooltips instead of one-time information dumps

Ensured messages were quick, relevant, and visually unobtrusive

This onboarding approach reflects patterns commonly used in successful mobile management games and is expected to:

Increase tutorial completion rates

Improve early-session retention

Help players recognize upgrade value before purchase prompts

Effective onboarding supports both player confidence and business goals. By teaching systems gradually and reinforcing progress, UX writing can reduce churn without slowing gameplay.

I created this project to explore how tone, pacing, and reward design influence first-session engagement.

It reminded me that onboarding isn’t just the start of gameplay — it’s the start of a relationship.