Lenses for the Experience

The Designer Creates an Experience §

• The goal is not a game but an experience felt by the players. The game is not the experience. The game enables the experience. Experience is not really (objective) reality, but at the same time experience is all that is (subjectively) real for us.
• Game designers can only design the experience indirectly and this is why game design is hard. Games have to be interactive which necessitates creating meaningful play
• We can use the results obtained from Psychology, Anthropology and Design to guide the creation of experiences.
• Relevant lenses Emotion, Essential Experience.

The Experience Takes Place in a Venue §

• Private Venues - play spaces that have some privacy (i.e., at home). We can divide the home into three areas —
  • The “hearth” which is the more noisy, public area,
  • The “workbench” which is for intense activities performed alone and with focus, and
  • The “reading nook” for more quiet, relaxing places of solitude.
• Public Venues - play spaces out in public. These include
  • The “theatre” for more interactive, dramatic experiences
  • The “arena” for public competitions
  • The “museum” for play spaces that involve exploration and selection from a variety of choice “exhibits”
• Half-Private / Half-Public - play spaces that lie on the boundary between private and public. This includes playgrounds, gaming tables, and “anywhere” — games played anywhere at any time.
• Relevant lenses: Venue.

The Experience Rises Out of a Game §

• The following definitions are only relevant in the realm of design. Defining various aspects of games allows us to gain insight into what it is we are designing.

• Fun is pleasure with surprises. Games are fun.

• Play is manipulation that indulges curiosity. We play because we are willing to indulge in play, and we do it for its own sake.

• Games are Problem Solving activities approached with a playful attitude. In a sense, all games are fundamentally puzzles and we get the satisfaction from having solved the puzzle.

• Relevant lenses Surprise, Fun, Curiosity, Endogenous value, Problem Solving

Experiences Can Be Judged by Their Interest Curve §

• Any entertainment experience is a series of moments. The quality of an experience can be measured by the extent to which its unfolding sequence of events is able to hold interest.

  • Techniques in Writing Story Scenes are applicable here.
  • Applying the analogy of story scenes — games are entire stories. Levels are their own mini-arcs.
  • The level of challenge also follows an interest curve.
  • What we care more about is relative changes in interest.

• Consider the following when analyzing interest

  • Inherent interest - some events are more interesting than others. For example, risky, fancy, and unusual events. Dramatic changes and events.
  • Poetry of Presentation - the aesthetics of the experience.
  • Projection - the extent to which you compel a guest to use empathy to put themselves into the experience. The suspension of disbelief is powerful.
    • Games have the advantage of having the player as the main character.

• Relevant Lenses: Moments, The Interest Curve, Inherent Interest, Beauty, Projection

One Kind of Experience is the Story §

• Narrative techniques apply here. The challenge is that we must adapt storytelling techniques to non-linear stories. It is a myth that interactivity nullifies the need for learning about traditional storytelling techniques. ¹

• Some techniques

  • String of Pearls - a completely non-interactive story is present in the game via the text.
  • Story Machine - a good game generates a series of interesting events. when people play it.

• We must consider the following problems in writing a story for a game.

  • Good stories have unity. The problem presented at the beginning of the story has an impact all throughout. This makes writing a branching story difficult.
  • Combinatorial Explosion. Each choice leads to an additional count. The total count of branches to consider grows exponentially with each new choice.
  • Multiple Endings disappoint. The player ends up feeling either of the following:
    • “Is this the real ending?“. The happiest ending is the one with the most unity, which is unlikely to happen.
    • “Do I have to play the whole thing again to see another ending?” Gameplay is rarely different when the player has to make different choices just to achieve the ending.
  • Not enough verbs. Videogame characters are limited in their ability to do something.
  • Time Travel makes Tragedy Obsolete. Tragic stories are generally off limits to the interactive story teller. The control that comes with interactivity also means that we cannot have a sense of inevitability in the game.

• Some tips for making the story elements in the game as interesting and involving as possible.

  • Respect the story stack. - when developing a game that you hope has a compelling story, do not fall for the temptation of writing the story first. The story stack dictates that, from least flexibility to most we have:
    • Fantasy - a fantasy must appeal to the player, and this is done through the mechanics.
    • Action - dictates what the players do to fulfill the fantasy.
    • Economy - dictates a system of progress that will reward actions, especially those that fulfill the fantasy.
    • World - you need a world to make the economy, action, and fantasy make sense. This creates a place where the rules of the economy make sense.
    • Story - a story makes the world itself make sense, and it gives importance to action and economy.
  • Put your story to work - the story is a flexible tool which can be used to augment the technology, aesthetics or mechanics.
  • Consider, goals, obstacles and conflict. The obstacles of the player character are the obstacles faced by the player. The obstacles should be meaningful and dramatic.
  • Make it real. Imagine you are one of the characters living in the world. Use Worldbuilding and Exposition accordingly.
  • Provide Simplicity and Transcendence. The game world is simpler than the real world. The player is more powerful in the game world than the real world.
  • Consider the Hero’s Journey. Use it as an inspiration, or rather, use it as a lens to see if parts of your story can be improved.
  • Keep the world consistent. Plot holes and worldbuilding inconsistencies are a problem. One flaw and the world cannot be taken seriously again.
  • Make the story world accessible.
    • Realism is second to the experience. What the player will believe and enjoy is more important than what is physically accurate.
    • However, sometimes the game requires strange and novel things. Call attention to these and make the players understand how they work.
  • Use cliches judiciously. Tropes are tools but make sure to use them effectively
  • Sometimes a map brings a story to life. Remember that games happen in a space so having a visual map will bring the world to life even more.
  • Remember surprise and emotion. Emotion and Surprise apply here as lenses. Also, advice from here.

• Relevant Lenses The Story Machine, The Obstacle, Simplicity and Transcendence, The Hero’s Journey, The Weirdest Thing, Story.

Story and Game Structures Can Be Artfully Merged with Indirect Control §

• We don’t have to give the player freedom. The feeling of freedom is enough.

• By very subtle means, the designer can exert control over the player. The freedom of choice trade-off applies and the paradox of choice applies here as motivators for creating a structured experience.

  • Constraints act as a form of indirect control. By constraining the choices, you ensure the players make a guided choice.
  • Establish goals. Players will very likely only do things they think will help fulfill their goals.
    • Important to this is the player’s confidence in the goal and their ability to pursue it, similar to how flow works.
  • The interface can establish indirect control. It sets up expectations on what the player can and cannot do. The limitations of the system do not cross their mind.
  • Consider Visual Design. If you control where the player looks, you control where they go and what they are going to do.
  • Computer controlled characters provide indirect control through empathy. The key, then, is to get the player to empathize with these characters
  • Music speaks to the players on a deep level that it can change their mood unconsciously

• Relevant Lenses Freedom, Help, Indirect Control, Collusion

Stories and Games Take Place in Worlds §

• Transmedia worlds refer to fantasy worlds that can be entered through many different media. These worlds can become more real than the media that defines them. We want them to be real
  • Transmedia worlds are powerful. It is as if the world becomes a personal utopia players fantasize visiting. Successful transmedia worlds tend to promote hardcore fandoms.
  • Transmedia worlds are long lived. Especially worlds that appeal to children where they can experience the world as children and adults.
  • Transmedia worlds evolve over time. As people provide new gateways to the world, the world itself changes to accommodate them. It is, in a sense, an emergent system as people “decide” what fits in the world.
• Successful transmedia worlds have the following:
  • They are rooted in a single medium. They are at their strongest at this specific medium.
  • They are intuitive.
  • They have a creative individual at their core. An auteur with a single creative vision.
  • They facilitate the telling of many stories.
  • They make sense through any of their gateways.
  • They are often about discovery, and hence they encourage visiting from many gateways.
  • They are about wish fulfillment.
• Relevant Lenses: Fantasy, The World.

World Contain Characters §

• Characters from traditional forms of narrative are different from characters to games.

  • Novel characters have more mental struggles, are more grounded in reality, and are more complex .
  • Game characters tend to have more physical struggles, are more rooted in fantasy, and are simpler. It becomes more challenging to make a game character feel like a novel character.

• Players project themselves onto the Avatar. Players play games, not to play as themselves, but as the people they wish they could be.

• Some tips for writing the other characters are provided in Character Design.

• Consider the power of voice acting and facial expressions. Voices give life to the characters. Faces, in particular the eyes, allow the characters to express their emotions.

• However, beware the uncanny valley, if you do not want to unintentionally creep the players out.

• Relevant Lenses: The Avatar, Character Function, Character Traits, The Interpersonal Circumplex, Character Web, Status, Character Transformation

Worlds Contain Spaces §

• Principles in Architecture may be useful here.

• Five common ways of organizing game spaces. We can combine these as well.

  • Linear - player only moves forward or back along a 1D line .
  • Grid - player moves in a grid pattern (i.e., a 2D plane)
  • Web - player moves along a graph or a network.
  • Points in Space - player moves freely in a 3D space. This is used to evoke a feeling of wandering and exploration.
  • Divided Space - players move along a map consisting of sections.

• Good game spaces have good landmarks for both the player’s convenience and to serve as set pieces.

• These references provide additional advice on architecture.

• It is hard for the human mind to map 3D into 2D. Hence, it’s not important that 3D spaces have realistic 2D blueprints, only that the space feels good when the player is in it

  • Know how big the space is. Have a sense of scale. Usually things look out of scale because of:
    • Eye height. People assume they are at eye height similar to their own.
    • Doorways. Doorways are 1 person high. In general, you should have an object that’s 1 person high for reference.
    • Texture scaling.
  • Remember the third dimension. Interior spaces tend to feel crowded if you look from the third dimension.
    • For interior spaces, the best solution is to scale the room, the elements in the room and spread them out.

• Relevant Lenses: Inner Contradiction, The Nameless Quality.

The Look and Feel of a World is Defined by Its Aesthetics §

• Good artwork benefits the game because …

  • It can draw players in
  • It makes the world feel solid.
  • Aesthetic pleasure is a reward in itself.
  • It creates a certain atmosphere when it harmonizes with the rest of the game.
  • Players may tolerate imperfections in the design if it has a beautiful surface.

• Complementary to deep listening is deep seeing. See more than the surface level to better appreciate and analyze the game’s aesthetic.

• Aesthetics can guide design. It can help, for example, to have concept art in the game.

  • Draw but if that’s not possible, have an artistic partner you can communicate with.

    • Let the artists govern the aesthetic vision. Let the engineers govern the technology to match the aesthetic vision. But the ideal is to bridge between the two by having an understanding of the two.

  • A well-rendered image of a good idea is compelling in a way that few people can resist

  • This has the following benefits:

    • It makes the idea clearer to everyone
    • It lets people imagine entering the game world
    • It gets people excited about playing and working on the game
    • It allows you to secure funding.

  • An illustration is a prototype for how the game should look.

  • Tolkien’s Distant Mountains Trick - make the game deeper and richer by creating distant mountains — give names to things that are never seen but give the world an illusion of breadth.

• Aside from visuals, audio is just as important. If, by the beginning of the game, you are able to select the kind of music you want the game to have, you have efficiently made a subconscious decision on what you want the game to feel like — its atmosphere.

• Relevant Lenses: Atmosphere.

Footnotes §

1. Advice from Story by Robert McKee apply here as well. ↩