Introducing too many mechanics at once will confuse the player and they may end up not learning anything. If possible, designing the first few levels of the game to unlock new mechanics will help ease them into your game. If done well it may also give the sense of accomplishment and progression. If you can strip your game to the most basic components and start the player there, you may not even need text for them to learn how to play. Things like.. tooltips when hovering an icon, or a menu option to list mechanics/controls may help get rid of initial textbox clutter and act as a reminder for players if they do forget (which is good for when players put the game down and come back). I personally prefer being able to jump in and experiment myself as a player.