A fan-made Dota 2 tutorial is now available for testing just three days before the Dota 2 anime launches, but there's a catch — you'll have to play 30 regular games before you can try it out.
Dota 2 is a MOBA and that means that it might not be easy for a new player to understand. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a built-in tutorial; as a result, a group of dedicated fans banded together to make one.
The idea to make a community tutorial came about as a result of the forthcoming Dota 2 anime. Dota: Dragon's Blood will be launching "Book 1" on March 25, 2021, and one Twitch streamer for the game thought it would be a good idea to have a tutorial in anticipation of an influx of new players as a result of the show's debut.
"ITS DONE!" exclaimed Dota 2 streamer SirActionSlacks on Twitter. "The Community Tutorial Project is LIVE and ready for public playtesting! We have 3 days to get the entire community's feedback before the anime launches so GO OUT THERE AND GET UR FRIENDS WHO NEVER PLAYED DOTA TO SLAM IT!"
The community Dota 2 tutorial was crowdfunded on Indiegogo to the tune of $29,348 (and counting). That money is being used to fund the full-time development of this tutorial, but don't expect it to stick around for too long.
Community-Funded Dota 2 Tutorial Won't Last for Long
The fan-made Dota 2 tutorial is certainly a cool move from the community, but it's ultimately going to face some challenges.
To start, this is a custom game. That means that you're going to have to play 30 games of regular Dota 2 before you even have the chance to try out this tutorial. That's not exactly an ideal situation for something that's supposed to teach people how to play Dota 2.
Adding to that is the possibility that a future update might break this custom game (as sometimes happens). None of that will matter in the long run, however, as the team behind this project doesn't currently have any plans to keep it maintained.
"We are not setting out to make 'the official tutorial for the game,'" the development team explains. "Our custom game will be affected by the same issues all custom games are, such as breaking as soon as there is a major update (Icefrog removes outposts, and our game has [an] outpost guide). WE WILL NOT BE UPDATING OR MAINTAINING this tutorial, unless we have some sort of insane fund raising here. Our goal is simple: make a tutorial for the current patch, with the current map, talking about current mechanics, at the time of the release of the [Netflix] show to help [first-time] players."
For now, you can play the fan-made Dota 2 tutorial right now to help test it out before the launch of the Netflix anime — as long as you have 30 regular games under your belt first.
What do you think of the Dota 2 community banding together to create a tutorial? Do you think Valve should have created a tutorial by now? Let us know in the comments below!