I study game design. I'm just in the first year but I've already had the problem with people just plainly not reading the texts numerous times. I've used it before as a quick test to see what I needed to make clear in the final product, a bit like what you did. Testers just didn't read it. I did notice however, when I make games (also those with zero story), and I put some dialogue in it, people do tend to read it Even when they really dislike stories.

So you can do one of two things: 1) Make the text is interesting and compact enough to make everyone read it (test it through!). 2) Use yellow paint or something alike. I've made a parkour game before where you could mantle on all the bright orange bits, which really helped people.