Easy To Learn Difficult To Master The Perfect Recipe For Game Design

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Easy To Learn Difficult To Master The Perfect Recipe For Game Design

Players might not stick around if the game doesn't challenge them. (Via: MachineGames) Atari founder Nolan Bushnell made a claim way back in the '70s that a game should be , and this is a pretty perfect recipe for making titles that are continuously engaging. Most of us regular gamers have likely been there — a game starts off on a strong foot and is super exciting as you encounter new opponents, weapons, or lore. But after a while you start wondering why you're not as amped to play the game as you used to be. In extreme cases, this might result in you simply never starting the game up again. Obviously there are a near infinite number of ways for why this could happen. Anything from a lack of leisure time, to a storyline or genre that you realize just isn't gelling with you, or gameplay mechanics that frustrate you. But one particularly interesting reason that can often crop up is that the game's challenge level grows stale. (Via: The Verge)

The Psychological Need For Challenge

In order for the typical player to enter and remain within a state of flow, a few must be satisfied. There are eight established needs, and although satisfying all of them through a game's design might seem like an "easier said than done" scenario, once you see just how simple the concepts are this becomes more possible than ever. One of these eight basic needs is one for challenge. This has actually been identified as to perfect in good game design, because games that challenge players (in just the right amount) lead to enjoyment that keeps the player playing. There must be a balance — a sweet spot between too easy and too difficult. Obviously, different players will have different perceptions of what is too easy or difficult that can vary hugely within a single population at which a game is targeted. So a good way of accommodating for this is through the use of manually-adjustable difficulty levels which has become standard practice these days. (Via: Steam Community)

Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Change The Game

Interestingly, emerging ideas around brain-computer interface technology as applied to gaming could lead us to a point where traditional difficulty level systems are rendered obsolete, thanks to adaptive gameplay. Valve's already looking into that , but we still have a way to go until our games become smart enough to adapt to our unconscious playing needs in dynamic realtime. Until then, here are some pretty solid pointers...

Start Off Easy

Onboarding should be easy because there's initially a lot to process in a new game. All core mechanics and controls must be made clear, and important visual, auditory, or haptic cues that invite the player to react in a certain way must be explained. In sum, the game's essential usability components must be laid out clearly for players to get to grips with as efficiently as possible. For example, if a core mechanic involves the character's vision blurring in response to too much exposure to disturbing in-game imagery (a visual cue for the player that suggests trouble), players must be left with an unambiguous understanding of when that's likely to happen moving forward, and how to rectify it. Communicating this tutorial content in an effective and unpatronizing way can sometimes be tricky. The best rule of thumb, though, is that

The Saw Tooth

Once the initial learning is out of the way, it's time for players to start having some proper fun. Whether you're playing on Easy or Nightmare mode, you should feel varying spikes of challenge sprinkled among segments of relative calm. Too much of either is problematic. You could end up feeling frustrated by too much overwhelmingly difficult combat that keeps beating your ass to the ground and leaving you feeling like a loser, or by too little action that just leaves you bored. (Via: GamingBolt) And of course, neither of those are going to help keep you in that delicious flow state. Games that adopt a “saw tooth” model of challenge, however, are more likely to satisfy that psychological need for challenge, inspire players to seek mastery over the game, and thus keep them around for longer.

The Quest For Mastery

The notion of mastery is such an important one in creating a good game. As : "we must always provide the players with the feeling that there is something in our game worlds that is dangerous and unbeatable," as this is what goads players into continuously coming back for more. These points aren't only applicable to violent shoot-'em-ups or MMORPGs, by the way. The word "challenge" can encompass anything from solving increasingly more complex puzzles, to becoming as rich or kitted-out as possible in or . As long as there's a sustained sense of "I can improve," the core recipe still applies. Once again, good game design can be broken down into smaller, more approachable and versatile components. The importance of dynamic changes in challenge cannot be overemphasized, and should be considered in the making of any game, regardless of its genre. Source: