Game Decisions
I think that this week's readings were very interesting. It is very educational to be able to read these articles about game design. These people are experienced game designers and I feel it is very beneficial to read their articles.
The first article that I read was "Social Design Practices for Human-Scale Online Games" by Daniel Cook.
Link to article: https://lostgarden.home.blog/2018/12/29/social-design-practices-for-human-scale-online-games/
I found this article very beneficial because it covers a huge range of factors that should be considered when developing a game. What is different about these notes are that they are very extensive and detailed but also they make a lot of references to human physcology and social behavior. The article begins with Mr. Cook talking about friendship groups. Before even referencing game design he goes into detail about different social groups, how we behave and what defines a 'group'. He then makes reference to how the world that we live in and the social groups that we are a part of can be translated into game development.
The second article that caught my attention was "The flow theory applied to game design" by ThinkGameDesign.com
Link to article: https://lostgarden.home.blog/2018/12/29/social-design-practices-for-human-scale-online-games/
This article was really interesting to me. It discusses how a person's skill and the difficulty of a challenge can result in different emotional states. This is what we call the flow theory. In the article it lists different elements of games that can effect the 'flow' of the game, in orders words, how different game elements can effect the mental state of player;s whilst immerse in a game experience. These elements include but are not limited to; rewards, goals, loss of sense of time and contiousness, feedback, control of situation and activity and also the balance between skill and challenge. There are two types of flow; microflow and macroflow. To explain this briefly, microflow is emotionally intense and is most likely repeated and macroflow is when the challenge is relevant to the skill set of the player and these two factors can both gradually increase over time.
The third item that caught my attention was "Theory of Fun for Game Design" by Raph Coster.
This book talks about what makes games fun and how decision making is what brings games to life. In the book it talks about how some games become boring very quickly but others have endless possibilities and bring enjoyment to the player for a long time. The human mind is endlessly searching for patterns and puzzles in everything we do. This is what makes decision making and 'fun' the ingredients of a good game.
Image Information:
Decision making flow chart by http://www.brandnewgame.com/blog/page/5/
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