How can I ensure the player learns all skills in a single open level?

Question

I am making a game that only has a single level. It is a survival game. If there were multiple levels, I can have the player learn new skills gradually. For example, level one requires jumping, level 2 requires climbing, level 3 requires both.

As a single open-world level which is intended to be replayed multiple times, I am having trouble finding any linearity in which I can teach the player how to play the game a little bit at a time. I am tossing them to the wolves.

Is there a common strategy to force the player to learn all the necessary skills to succeed? Currently I have 4 directions which the player can travel from the starting point. Each of which teaches them something. But my fear is that they will learn a single way and then have no reason to learn the other three skills, as each skill is equally beneficial.

How can I force the player to learn all four gameplay skills when only one is required to succeed at the game? Keep in mind, because of mechanics of this particular game and there only being one level, they must have the ability to learn all 4 skills from the beginning.

I hope this is not too foolish of a question, but I am stumped on how to make the players learn all four skills without front loading a tutorial.

Reason for only one level is time and scope. Just can't make more. Gotta get this one right.

Answer 1

As @davidvanbrink said in a comment, gating is a common way of doing this: either put the starting position in an large enclosed area that requires all the skills to escape and contains basic tutorials on each, or have certain portions of the game be blocked by barriers that require one of the skills and make sure that every critical path contains one of each kind of gate.

Another approach is the rock-paper-scissors trick. Have challenges that require or are immune to one or more of the skills in question. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time had enemies that required certain skills to defeat, forcing you to learn those skills.

Finally, you can try the redundant solution approach popularized by Deus Ex, where you show multiple paths to an objective, each more easily traversed with a different skill. That way they can complete the game with a single approach but can clearly see that they've "missed" a path that they can return to in a repeat play with a different strategy.

Answer 2

Achievements. After learning one skill from set, display progress information like "Skill learned: 1 / 4" (eg. "Lighting fire: 1/4 skills learned"). This way player will know there are 3 other skills to learn.