The games that overperform are the ones with a Just Right first hour.

Too much complexity thrown at the player feels like an overwhelming onslaught.

Too much heavy-handed hand-holding feels like an overbearing school, a chore.

A ramp that feels just right is engaging and keeps you staying with it.

Difficulty that scales right at the limit of your availability.

Hand-holding that is invisible.

Surfing the player's flow state.

Product development for new kinds of products is more like a game onboarding than we typically think.

Ben Follington has an excellent new essay hitting on similar themes but with significantly more depth and nuance.