How I Made My Game No Fun
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Published on May 11, 2015 There are lots of suggestions about how to make a game fun. Best practices are everywhere, but you can't just follow them blindly. To create a fun game, you have to figure out how best practices integrate into your specific game. Come see what we did wrong, and what we learned along the way.
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How I Made My Game No Fun
- 1. HOW I MADE MY GAME NO FUN Amazon Appstore, 2015 DEVELOPER EVANGELISM DEVELOPER MARKETING, AMAZON @AmazonAppDev
- 2. I wanted a presentation on HOW TO MAKE A FUN GAME The kind of fun that: • Increases game session length • Increases number of sessions per day
- 3. We had it all figured out METHODOLOGY • Collected top ranked, top downloaded games • Looked at features they have in common • Created a baseline game without these features and get feedback • Added the identified features
- 4. A big list of THE FEATURES FUN GAMES HAVE What are hallmarks of good casual games? · Most of these apps are single touch and simply designed o such as Flappy Bird, Tippy Tap or Temple Run, · Bushnell’s age-old theorem (Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master) o Easy to start enjoying (low barrier to entry) · The best games on the App Store are those that have made the most of their hardware. Hearthstone uses the touchscreen so the player can place cards; Warhammer Quest uses it for turn-based strategy; Brave Frontier uses a tap or a swipe for different attacks; each game is made with swipe or tap mechanics in mind, and thus seem intuitive for new players. Card games, strategy games, puzzle games and point-and-click games are all genres that are perfect for touchscreen gaming; especially because, in one form or another, each comes under the umbrella of “turn-based combat”. · - simple to understand (eg fruit ninja) - put you straight into the action (eg jetpack joyride) - have controls that are made for mobile (eg streetfighter adaptation) - have some sort of leveling or achievement mechanic (eg tiny tower) - have great sound effects and personality in style (eg top girl) Little delights or surprises Some hard aspirational stuff (jewel combos in Bejewled) Build a tutorial that doesn't feel like one. This can be achieved by staggering the amount of instructions to simply building a very intuitive game mechanic that speaks for itself. UI that appears simple at its surface, but can be deeper if the user is looking for it. Try to limit the amount of buttons, pop-ups, and icons A great hook. Fishing with a shotgun, birds used to kill pigs, a 9 to 5er bent on destroying aliens Growth and ownership. Whether this is traveling from point A to point B, becoming the strongest X in the universe, or simply maintaining a high score, let the concept define the goal Content. With the core mechanics in place make sure to add additional wrinkles every few weeks or even months. Don't be afraid to
- 5. Video loop of game here Rock Paper Scissors Tag Multi-player Fire TV and Fire TV Stick game
- 6. Is Rock Paper Scissors Tag FUN? FUN GRADEBOOK Rock Paper Scissors Tag Fun – Winner Fun - Loser B+ C
- 7. Put the Sumo slide here. This game could be more fun NEVER LEAVE A PLAYER HOPELESS A player must always feel that they have a reasonable chance to reach an objective or to win.
- 8. Fix disparity with GAME GRAVITY Help players that are behind be better, faster, stronger than before.
- 9. Game Gravity GO FASTER! If you are behind, you go faster.
- 10. FUN GRADEBOOK With Game Gravity Rock Paper Scissors Tag Fun – Winner Fun - Loser C C+
- 11. Screen shot or video of a player getting bigger when beating an opponent To improve feedback: YOU GET BIGGER AND SLOWER Bigger is slower Players might get that That might seem fair
- 12. FUN GRADEBOOK With Game Gravity v2 Rock Paper Scissors Tag Fun – Winner Fun - Loser D C
- 13. We implemented features and WE MADE OUR GAME NO FUN! We followed the best practices. It was empirically successful. But people didn’t want to play our game anymore.
- 14. I wanted a presentation on HOW TO MAKE A FUN GAME
- 15. We got the right results, so WHY DIDN’T THAT WORK?
- 16. Maybe I’m ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION Why do I like to play games?
- 17. Maybe features aren’t fun. Maybe… IT’S HOW FEATURES MAKE PLAYERS FEEL • Instead of a list of features to implement… • … how about implementing conditions for fun feelings.
- 18. Video of Warren Miller Flow Interviews
- 19. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines FLOW The mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
- 20. A Flow state has a REAL EFFECT ON THE BRAIN In a state of Flow, the brain: Tighten focus Norepinephrine and Dopamine Block pain Endorphins Prompts lateral thinking Anandamide Happiness and well-being Serotonin Kolter, Steven: Harvard Business Review, Brozoski TJ: Cognitive deficit caused by regional depletion of dopamine in prefrontal cortex of rhesus monkey”, University of Connecticut professor John Salamone
- 21. ?? That super-engaged state YOU KNOW IT WHEN YOU FEEL IT Hyper-focused You were solving tough problems Lost track of time Forgot to eat or sleep
- 22. ?? Flow is THE KIND OF FUN YOU WANT YOUR PLAYERS TO HAVE Flow can drive: • Longer sessions • More sessions per day • Deeper engagement in the game • Better reviews • Longer engagement with the app
- 23. Jenova Chen (MA: USC Interactive Media) Jenova Chen wrote the game Flow to test these principals. http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames Flow: • Best Downloadable Game at the 2008 Game Developer Choice Awards • Downloaded 100,000 times in the first week • Released on PS3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita
- 24. FUN GRADEBOOK With Game Gravity v2 Rock Paper Scissors Tag Fun – Winner Fun - Loser D C
- 25. ?? WHAT CONDITIONS FACILITATE FLOW? 1. Clear Goals 2. Few Distractions 3. Immediate Feedback 4. Balance perceived difficulty vs. perceived skill
- 27. Few Distractions • Game Controls • Rules • Irrelevant info 2
- 28. Monkey Video Clear Rules Arbitrary or capricious rules make a game no fun Dr. Sarah Brosnan, HumanimaFoundation, humanimafoundation.org
- 29. Monkey Video Clear Rules Arbitrary or capricious rules make a game no fun
- 30. Few Distractions • Game Controls • Rules • Irrelevant info 2
- 31. A Few Too Many Distractions Interruptions and Overload Break Flow Pick new image
- 32. • Goal-Referenced • Actionable • Timely Immediate Feedback3 • Goal-Referenced • Actionable • Timely
- 33. Balance perceived difficulty and perceived skills Challenges have to be real… …yet perceived as achievable 4
- 34. CREATE A FLOW GRADEBOOK CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust
- 35. HOW TO MAKE A FUN GAMEFUN AGAIN
- 36. HOW DID ROCK PAPER SCISSORS TAG DO? CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust
- 37. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B-
- 38. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D
- 39. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C
- 40. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F
- 41. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A
- 42. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A
- 43. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A
- 44. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A A
- 45. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A A B
- 46. Now we have a FLOW GRADEBOOK We can start fixing things that break Flow CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A A B
- 47. Some things will be EASY TO FIX On first-launch documentation should fix these. No real-time programmatic adjustment required. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A A B
- 48. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A A B Some things will be HARDER TO FIX Impact: Set minimum speed Balanced Difficulty: Adjust dynamically Based on player feels
- 49. HOW DO YOU MEASURE THAT?
- 50. Indicative behaviors are WHAT WILL I MEASURE When Flow is out of balance, players will: Abandon rate Score Delta New games Additional sessions CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely PERCEIVED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust B- D C F A A A A B
- 51. Video loop of game here What can I change? Change • Speed differential • When to implement speed change • How slow is slow • Cool-down time
- 52. How I will IMPLEMENT Since I’m unsure about the magnitude of change required, I will set up A|B Tests.
- 53. A|B TESTING For more info: developer.amazon.com/ab-testing
- 54. For every point delta over 2, make the difference in speed accumulate by y. y: Game Gravity Variables: 1% | 3% | 5% Speed differential When to implement speed change How slow is slow Cool-down time Implementation
- 55. Speed differential When to implement speed change How slow is slow Cool-down time Implementation For every point of delta over x, make the difference in speed accumulate by y. x: Trigger Variables: 1 | 2 | 3 y: Game Gravity Variables: 1% | 3% | 5%
- 56. Speed differential When to implement speed change How slow is slow Cool-down time Implementation For every point of delta over x, make the difference in speed accumulate by y, but make minimum speed z. x: Trigger Variables: 1 | 2 | 3 y: Game Gravity Variables: 1% | 3% | 5% z: Minimum speed: 40%| 50% |60%
- 57. Speed differential When to implement speed change How slow is slow Cool-down time Implementation For every point of delta over x, make the difference in speed accumulate by y, but make minimum speed z, and reduce losing player cool-down timer by n: x: Trigger Variables: 1 | 2 | 3 y: Game Gravity Variables: 1% | 3% | 5% z: Minimum speed: 40%| 50% |60% n: Cool-down Variables: 0% | 3% | 5%
- 58. Implementation For every point of delta over x, make the difference in speed accumulate by y, but make minimum speed z, and reduce losing player cool-off timer by n: x: Trigger Variables: 1 | 2 | 3 y: Game Gravity Variables: 1% | 3% | 5% z: Minimum speed: 40%| 50% |60% n: Cool-down Variables: 0% | 3% | 5% Measure impact on my proxies: Abandon Rate Score Delta New Games Additional Sessions
- 59. Implementation For every point of delta over x, make the difference in speed accumulate by y, but make minimum speed z, and reduce losing player cool-off timer by n: x: Trigger Variables: 1 | 2 | 3 y: Game Gravity Variables: 1% | 3% | 5% z: Minimum speed: 40%| 50% |60% n: Cool-down Variables: 0% | 3% | 5% Measure impact on my proxies: Abandon Rate Score Delta New Games Additional Sessions Commit Values that Work Best
- 60. CLEAR GOALS Objectives Impact FEW DISTRACTIONS Game Controls Rules Irrelevant info IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK Goal-Referenced Actionable Timely BALANCED DIFFICULTY Measure and Adjust A A A A A A A A A Rock Paper Scissors Tag v2.0 Fully instrumented and adaptive to sustain a Flow conducive environment FUN GRADEBOOK With Support for Flow Rock Paper Scissors Tag Fun – Winner Fun - Loser A+ A
- 61. A great presentation on HOW TO MAKE A FUN GAME
- 62. Thank You! Services Referenced: A|B Testing: developer.amazon.com/ab-testing Analytics: aws.amazon.com/mobileanalytics Learn More: Learn about IAP from the best: http://bit.ly/Top50IAP @AmazonAppDev Developer.amazon.com/blog Developer.amazon.com/welcome Developer.amazon.com/events
Editor's Notes
- [iStockPhoto] I really wanted to do a presentation on what features to add to make your game more fun. It was going to be brilliant! Fun games are good because we want our players to want to spend more time in our games (longer sessions, more sessions per day). If we can deliver the session-lengthening, use it more kind of fun, It will be good for us as developers as well, because we get more ad impressions and more IAP opportunities. So not just the “Oh that’s cute!” kind of fun, but the “Wow, that’s addictive!” kind of fun. [Ken: Dreamstime]
- We had our methodology figured out. [iStockPhoto]
- We collected our data…
- And we wrote a reference game that we could test, iterate on, add features to, and test again. on of the things we didn’t like in our reference game was that one of our colleagues is really good at the game; none of us could beat him. (tell a bit more about the game development) [Ken: Paul Cutsinger wrote this game for us to use]
- We had our methodology figured out. [Notebook background from Dreamstime]
- Talk about hope! Nobody wants to be the little guy here. If you believe you have no chance of winning, you probably won’t play. There are techniques for dealing with this. In racing games, for example, the guy in back is actually ‘assisted’ in keeping up with the pack. That particular practice is called Game Gravity. [iStockPhoto]
- [Amazon Fire TV image] So we decided to fix that with Game Gravity. Also called rubber-banding, and used a lot for racing games, Game Gravity typically boost those behind or eases their challenge to help them keep up. So we applied Game Gravity to our game. How did we do that?
- Pretty easy, really. We just made the player who was behind faster in proportion to the number of points he was behind. Simple right? You bet! And guess what?
- Pretty easy, really. We just made the player who was behind faster in proportion to the number of points he was behind. Simple right? You bet! And guess what?
- … where the player in the lead would get bigger and slower after each win. And still, it didn’t work. So much for my presentation “on how to make a fun game” We implemented a feature from the best practices list, so what could have gone wrong? I’m convinced our premise was wrong; there is no magic set of features that will make a game fun.
- … where the player in the lead would get bigger and slower after each win. And still, it didn’t work. So much for my presentation “on how to make a fun game” We implemented a feature from the best practices list, so what could have gone wrong? I’m convinced our premise was wrong; there is no magic set of features that will make a game fun.
- So we implemented this feature that would make the game more fun… …and we made our game no-fun. Not what we were expecting. So we tried some different permutations like this one… [iStockPhoto]
- So much for my presentation on making a fun game. Time for a title change. [iStockPhoto]
- I mean, the feature worked, the delta between players narrowed significantly, games were closer, Empirically, this was a success. We implemented a really fun feature from really fun games. Why didn’t this work?
- I think our premise was wrong. I mean, I don’t look at a game ad think “Oh Wow! It has Game Gravity and soft and hard currency items! I’ll play this game!” I play them because I get absorbed, and forget to eat and don’t go to bed on time.
- So maybe if we focused on creating conditions for losing yourself, Create loops that encourage you to forget to sleep Games that make you forget you’re hungry. That’s kind of the way these players feel: [Reinforce: Execute features perfectly: But the game was still no fun] [iStockPhoto]
- You want that switch flipped in your players. Ken: Excerpts from YouTube clips
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this Flow. He defined it as The mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. And he talked about flow in the context of the psychology of Optimum Performance. Okay! I think we’re going in the right direction now. And Flow is something I know quite a bit about. [Ken: from Amazon.com]
- …neurobiologists have mapped the chemical impact of flow on the brain. Steven Kolter in an article for the Harvard Business Review, discussed studies of the brain chemistry associated with Flow “In flow, the brain releases norepinephrine, dopamine, endorphins, anandamide, and serotonin. All five affect performance. Norepinephrine and dopamine tighten focus, helping us shut out the persistent distractions of our multi-tasked lives. Endorphins block pain, letting us ignore hunger, postpone sleep and ignore that ache in our backs. Anandamide prompts lateral thinking which greatly assists problem solving. And serotonin, which is associated with feelings of happiness and well-being. (Dopamine often associated with pleasure, actually impacts motivation and focus according to research by University of Connecticut professor John Salamone. The improved focus often leads to feelings of pleasure.) But can conditions for Flow really be designed into a game? Does it work in that way?... [iStockPhoto]
- You guys have probably felt this. Think back to a time when you were truly engaged in an activity. When you were hyper-focused, and maybe you lost track of time and forgot to eat. Or maybe something a few seconds long seemed to take minutes. [iStockPhoto]
- Flow is a great state for our players to be in. Flow can drive all the characteristics we want: Longer sessions More sessions per day Deeper engagement in the game Better reviews Longer engagement with the app Flow also drives very real effects on the brain… [iStockPhoto]
- Jenova Chen, who wrote a game specifically designed to prove flow works in gaming. How’d it do? It did alright. My favorite Flow quote come from Chen: Flow explains why people prefer certain games more than other games and how they become addicted to these games. If a game meets all the key conditions of Flow, any content could become rewarding, any premise might become engaging. As long as the conditions are met and the challenge is balanced against skill and difficulty, players can experience flow in the first few moments of playing a game or hundreds of hours later, as an expert. (Chen, 2007, p. 9) So how do we create the conditions for flow in Rock Paper Scissors? With the help of sports psychologists! …. [Ken: From Jenova Chen Flow website. See reference next page]
- So how am I going to add flow to this game? Fortunately, Csikszentmihalyi has a list of conditions required to attain a state of Flow.
- MC created a listof conditions for flow. Chen and others have Here is the list of conditions necessary to facilitate flow: Clear goals: If you don’t know what you’re supposed to do or what the rules are, you’re not going to be in Flow. Immediate Feedback: Flow is the ability to absorb and process feedback subconsciously, and turn that into subconscious actions. Without the stream of feedback, you’re operating in the dark. Balance Perceived Difficulty and Perceived Skill: You need a real, substantive challenge to keep interested and engaged, but if you don’t have a chance to win (like RPS), you won’t want to play. [iStockPhoto]
- Objectives: Don’t know what you’re supposed to do, hard to stay if flow! For games like Crossy Road or Flappy Bird, the objectives are pretty simple and speak for themselves, but any more complicated and I need help. I appreciate games like Halo or Skyrim, where they have an Objective pointer on screen so I don’t have to pop in and out of a menu or map all the time to figure out where to go. Impact: If you feel that what you do in the game doesn’t make a big difference in the outcome, you’re never going to get into a state of Flow. It doesn’t need to be complicated control, just the right control. The timing of your taps in Flappy Bird for example. The worst is when random things just happen to you and you have no idea why, or if there was something they could have done to prevent this. (imagine random meteor strikes that kill your character while you battle bosses, or just wander around exploring.) [iStockPhoto]
- Game Controls can be a big distraction if you don’t understand how they work. [Madden example] If you don’t understand what the rules are, or if they seem random, that’s frustrating to the point of being totally distracting. [Monkeys]… [iStockPhoto]
- Everyone values fair play. Even monkeys get this. When we sense that we’re being cheated or taken advantage of, we’re not in a condition for Flow. Ken: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QijfsvQO-54) http://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/fair-use.html#yt-copyright-four-factors
- Everyone values fair play. Even monkeys get this. When we sense that we’re being cheated or taken advantage of, we’re not in a condition for Flow.
- Game Controls can be a big distraction if you don’t understand how they work. [Madden example] If you don’t understand what the rules are, or if they seem random, that’s frustrating to the point of being totally distracting. [Monkeys]… --- If the developer floods the screen with information not immediately relevant to the task at hand, it takes attention away from what I’m trying to do and pulls me out of flow. Same thing for sounds. It it doesn’t support the task or goal at hand, please wait until I’m done before you surface that info. If you’re game, do a Google or Bing search for “Distracting UI”!... [iStockPhoto]
- …It’s kind of fun to see what folks out there have tagged as distracting UI! [Ken: google search result page]
- Advice is not Feedback! Advice is: “Wear the goggles to see invisible bad-guys.” “Move all your threes before combining fours.” You may wish to give advice if a player is stuck, but that’s not feedback. Feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal. I hit a tennis ball with the goal of keeping it in the court, telling me “you looked great!” is nice, but NOT goal-referenced! Good feedback is seeing where it lands—in or out, in relation to the line. If you take the line away and just say in or out, that’s not very actionable. If it’s out, you don’t know if if was long or wide, and you don’t know how far out it was. That feeback is not actionable. I fire magic arrows at a demon with the goal of reducing his health to 0, and my arrows do or don’t do damage. Imagine if I can’t see the effectiveness of my arrows until after the demon dies or I do. Not Timely. [Call of duty] Feedback is letting the player see the effect part of cause and effect. Timely feedback is critical to flow, as it helps us adjust (often subconsciously) to our task at hand. [iStockPhoto]
- We need to give our players challenges. “…intense and ecstatic Flow experiences are commonly reported among individuals who are absorbed in demanding tasks that have critical implications.” – Arthur Maar, formerly of Bell Labs. So they’ve got to be real challenges with real consequences in order to facilitate Flow, but they need to be balanced against the player’s perception of their skill to achieve the goal. Some games (I’ll go back to CoD), have a boot camp. “30 seconds, you can do this in Hard!” [iStockPhoto]
- We know our features work, but I’m not sure how well they work for the players. How can I make my game support Flow? I need to get my Flow grade.
- So much for my presentation on making a fun game. Time for a title change. [iStockPhoto]
- We know our features work, but I’m not sure how well they work for the players. How can I make my game support Flow? I need to get my Flow grade.
- Objectives: If you don’t know what you need to do, how can you possibly be in Flow? For RPS, well, everyone knows how to play, right? Okay, maybe we could explain how the RPS Tag part works, and that you can change your hand between RPS subject to the cool-down timer.
- Impact: If your actions don’t make a difference in the outcome, why bother? We were doing okay on this until we added Game Gravity. When really big, the player ahead might as well not even try to move, they go so slowly.
- Game Controls: The Joystick part was super intuitive! The button you press to switch between RPS was not. If you have a one tap game like Crossy Frog or Flappy Bird, you probably can get away with little or no guidance, but I don’t think we can.
- Rules: Everybody understands RPS right? Yeah, but our players didn’t get why the other player got so much faster.
- Irrelevant info We do really well here. No interruptions at all. No ads, no hints, no requests for chats, just game. We have limits on the amount of information we can process. The more inputs we get, the more divided our attention becomes, particularly when multiple inputs compete for our attention. --- Displays and sounds should support completion of the task or goal at hand. Delivering new information when the player needs to be most focused will break Flow. Introducing a new combat move while a player is in the middle of clearing a big room full of zombies is not the right time. Wait until after the room is cleared, or the level completed. In a casual game, when you are furiously trying to find word matches before time runs out, now is the wrong time to tell them they have a new chat request or a new skin for their game board.
- Feedback: Advice is not Feedback! Advice is: “Wear the goggles to see invisible bad-guys.” “Move all your threes before combining fours.” You may wish to give advice if a player is stuck, but that’s not feedback. Feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal. I hit a tennis ball with the goal of keeping it in the court, and I see where it lands—in or out. Imagine tennis without the line… I fire magic arrows at a demon with the goal of reducing his health to 0, and my arrows do or don’t do damage. Imagine if I can’t see the effectiveness of my arrows…. I give a presentation with the intent of delivering relevant, valuable and interesting material, and see that some of the audience is doing eMail, or not. Feedback is letting the player see the effect part of cause and effect. Timely feedback is critical to flow, as it helps us adjust (often subconsciously) to our task at hand. Goal Referenced: In RPS, we do a good job of this. Almost all feedback is directly related to beating your opponent. Only the score is irrelevant to your winning this specific contest.
- Actionable: In RPS, we do a good job of this. You absolutely know when your cool-down timer is done. You know what RPS you opponent is using. You know where everyone is. Grant Wiggins – ASCD specialist in learning feedback has identified characteristics of good feedback, and I’ve tweaked the list to be relevant to game designers: Goal-Referenced. Easy to understand. Actionable, Timely Imagine having to wait until you die to find out how much damage you’re doing to an orc. Postponing feedback can increase difficulty (crossword errors not revealed until end of game), Ongoing – The feedback should continue until the task is complete, and it should be consistent for each task attempted.
- Timely: You get the feedback as it happens. Just imagine a game in which your character takes damage and you don’t know it until your character dies. (Call of Duty grenade story.)
- Balanced difficulty: We do adjust speed difference between players when we measure a difference in score, but we don’t measure if we’re adjusting enough or too much.
- Here is the list of conditions necessary to facilitate flow: Clear goals: If you don’t know what you’re supposed to do or what the rules are, you’re not going to be in Flow. Immediate Feedback: Flow is the ability to absorb and process feedback subconsciously, and turn that into subconscious actions. Without the stream of feedback, you’re operating in the dark. Balance Perceived Difficulty and Perceived Skill: You need a real, substantive challenge to keep interested and engaged, but if you don’t have a chance to win (like RPS), you won’t want to play.
- Some things will be easy to fix. For most of these highlighted items, on first-launch documentation will fix these.
- Some things will be easy to fix. For most of these highlighted items, on first-launch documentation will fix these.
- So much for my presentation on making a fun game. Time for a title change. [iStockPhoto]
- Some things will be easy to fix. For most of these highlighted items, on first-launch documentation will fix these.
- Now I know what I want to measure, What levers do I have? What can I change to try and impact my proxies?
- [iStockPhoto]
- [Amazon Dev Portal]
- I really wanted to do a presentation on what features to add to make your game more fun. It was going to be brilliant! Fun games are good because we want our players to want to spend more time in our games (longer sessions, more sessions per day). If we can deliver the session-lengthening, use it more kind of fun, It will be good for us as developers as well, because we get more ad impressions and more IAP opportunities. So not just the “Oh that’s cute!” kind of fun, but the “Wow, that’s addictive!” kind of fun. [iStockPhoto]
- As Amazon, we have a pretty unique view of the industry. We have Game Studios, an Appstore, AWS infrastructure used for games, several different pieces of hardware and services like appstream that enable more, and now, Twitch, a game streaming service. With that, perspective, we’re always looking for ways to help game developers excel. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned. Jesse: Tighten up – Whole beginning to be cut out. (kill shooting slide, use some dev thing instead), Win over Audience with self deprecation. Madden story is good. It shows how I learn about game weaknesses.