  Help facilities have been crucial in helping users learn about software for
decades. But despite widespread prevalence of game engines and game editors
that ship with many of today's most popular games, there is a lack of empirical
evidence on how help facilities impact game-making. For instance, certain types
of help facilities may help users more than others. To better understand help
facilities, we created game-making software that allowed us to systematically
vary the type of help available. We then ran a study of 1646 participants that
compared six help facility conditions: 1) Text Help, 2) Interactive Help, 3)
Intelligent Agent Help, 4) Video Help, 5) All Help, and 6) No Help. Each
participant created their own first-person shooter game level using our
game-making software with a randomly assigned help facility condition. Results
indicate that Interactive Help has a greater positive impact on time spent,
controls learnability, learning motivation, total editor activity, and game
level quality. Video Help is a close second across these same measures.
