游戏设计艺术读书笔记 Notes of Art of Game Design

2018-01-03

读书笔记

There is only one path to becoming a game designer, and that is the path of designing games — and more to the point, designing games that people really like.
That means that simply jotting down your game idea isn’t enough. You must build the game, play it yourself, and let others play it.
When it doesn’t satisfy (and it won’t), you must change it. And change it. And change it again, dozens of times, until you have created a game that people actually enjoy playing.
When you have been through this a few times, then you will start to understand what game design is.
There’s an saying among game designers: “Your first ten games will suck — so get them out of the way fast.”

Skills a Game Designer Need

Communication - Communication, Listening, Public Speaking
Arts - Visual Arts, Animation, Cinematography, Architecture, Sound Design, Music
Technical - Engineering, Technical Writing, Mathematics
Creativity - Creative Writing, Brainstorming, Psychology, History, Anthropology
Business - Business, Management, Economics

Lens #1: The Lens of Emotion
People may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. —Maya Angelou
● What emotions would I like my player to experience? Why?
● What emotions are players (including me) having when they play now? Why?
● How can I bridge the gap between the emotions players are having and the emotions I’d like them to have?

Lens #2: The Lens of Essential Experience
● What experience do I want the player to have?
● What is essential to that experience?
● How can my game capture that essence?

Venue

It takes a bit of a mental shift to look past the technologies we use and instead to see the patterns of how we use them

Lens #3: The Lens of the Venue
The places that we play exert tremendous influence on the design of our games.
To make sure you aren’t designing in a vacuum, ask yourself these questions:
● What type of venue best suits the game I’m trying to create?
● Does my venue have special properties that will influence my game?
● What elements of my game are in harmony with my venue? What elements are not?

What is a Game

Fun is pleasure with surprises

Lens #4: The Lens of Surprise
Surprise is so basic that we can easily forget about it. Use this lens to remind yourself to fill your game with interesting surprises.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What will surprise players when they play my game?
● Does the story in my game have surprises? Do the game rules? Does the artwork? The technology?
● Do your rules give players ways to surprise each other?
● Do your rules give players ways to surprise themselves?
Surprise is a crucial part of all entertainment — it is at the root of humor, strategy, and problem solving. Our brains are hardwired to enjoy surprises.
In an experiment where participants received sprays of sugar water or plain water into their mouths, the participants who received random sprays considered the experience much more pleasurable than participants who received the sprays according to a fixed pattern, even though the same amount of sugar was delivered.
In other experiments, brain scans revealed that even during unpleasant surprises, the pleasure centers of the brain are triggered.

Lens #5: The Lens of Fun
To maximize your game’s fun, ask yourself these questions:
● What parts of my game are fun? Why?
● What parts need to be more fun?

Work and play … become equivalent to servitude and freedom.
Play is manipulation that indulges curiosity.

Lens #6: The Lens of Curiosity
To use this lens, think about the player’s true motivations — not just the goals your game has set forth, but the reason the player wants to achieve those goals.
● What questions does my game put into the player’s mind?
● What am I doing to make them care about these questions?
● What can I do to make them invent even more questions?

[A game is] an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.

Lens #7: The Lens of Endogenous Value
To use this lens, think about your players’ feelings about items, objects, and scoring in your game. Ask yourself these questions:
● What is valuable to the players in my game?
● How can I make it more valuable to them?
● What is the relationship between value in the game and the player’s motivations?
Remember, the value of the items and score in the game is a direct reflection of how much players care about succeeding in your game.
By thinking about what the players really care about and why, you can often get insights about how your game can improve.

A game is a closed, formal system, that engages players in structured conflict, and resolves in an unequal outcome.
– Tracy Fullerton, Chris Swain, and Steven Hoffman

Q1. Games are entered willfully.
Q2. Games have goals.
Q3. Games have conflict.
Q4. Games have rules.
Q5. Games can be won and lost.
Q6. Games are interactive.
Q7. Games have challenge.
Q8. Games can create their own internal value.
Q9. Games engage players.
Q10. Games are closed, formal systems.

“I like playing with my friends” “I like the physical activity” “I like feeing immersed in another world” “I like solving problems.“
The enjoyment of problem solving seems to be an evolved survival mechanism.

One of the first things we do is to state the problem we are trying to solve, that is, define a clear goal (Q2). Next, we frame the problem. We determine its boundaries and the nature of the problem space. We also determine what methods we are allowed to use to solve the problem; that is, we determine the rules of the problem (Q4) …

A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude.

Lens #8: The Lens of Problem Solving
To use this lens, think about the problems your players must solve to succeed at your game, for every game has problems to solve. Ask yourself these questions:
● What problems does my game ask the player to solve?
● Are there hidden problems to solve that arise as part of gameplay?
● How can my game generate new problems so that players keep coming back?

The Four Basic Elements

More Visible
 Aesthetics
      |

Mechanics ——-+——– Story
|
Technology
Less Visible

Lens #9: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad
To use this lens, take stock of what your game is truly made of. Consider each element separately, and then all of them together as a whole.
Ask yourself these questions:
● Is my game design using elements of all four types?
● Could my design be improved by enhancing elements in one or more of the categories?
● Are the four elements in harmony, reinforcing each other, and working together toward a common theme?

Lens #10: The Lens of Holographic Design
To use this lens, you must see everything in your game at once: the four elements and the player experience, as well as how they interrelate.
It is acceptable to shift your focus from skin to skeleton and back again, but it is far better to view your game and experience holographically.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What elements of the game make the experience enjoyable?
● What elements of the game detract from the experience?
● How can I change game elements to improve the experience?

Theme

To write a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
– Herman Melville

Unifying Themes
Step 1: Figure out what your theme is.
Step 2: Use every means possible to reinforce that theme.

Most game themes are experience-based, that is, the goal of the design is to deliver an essential experience to the player.

Lens #11: The Lens of Unification
● What is my theme?
● Am I using every means possible to reinforce that theme?
The Lens of Unification works very well with the Lens of the Elemental Tetrad. Use the tetrad to separate out the elements of your game, so you can more easily study them from the perspective of a unified theme.

Resonance

But there is another kind of theme that can be just as resonant as an experience-based theme; sometimes more so. This is the truth-based theme.
Consider the movie Titanic … The main theme is not experience-based. Instead, it is a simple statement … “Love is more important than life, and stronger than death.”
This is a powerful statement. But it is a statement that many of us believe deeply in our heart of hearts. It is certainly not a scientific truth, but for many, it is a deeply held, though rarely expressed, personal truth.

Lens #12: The Lens of Resonance
To use the Lens of Resonance, you must look for hidden power.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What is it about my game that feels powerful and special?
● When I describe my game to people, what ideas get them really excited?
● If I had no constraints of any kind, what would this game be like?
● I have certain instincts about how this game should be. What is driving those instincts?
The Lens of Resonance is a quiet, delicate instrument. It is a tool for listening to yourself and listening to others. We bury important things deep inside ourselves, and when something causes them to resonate, it shakes us to our very core. The fact that these things are hidden gives them power, but also makes them hard for us to find.

Idea

“The secret is: don’t look to other jugglers for inspiration — look everywhere else”

Lens #13: The Lens of Infinite Inspiration
When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru. – Ram Dass
To use this lens, stop looking at your game, and stop looking at games like it. Instead, look everywhere else.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What is an experience I have had in my life that I would want to share with others?
● In what small way can I capture the essence of that experience and put it into my game?
Using this lens requires an open mind and a big imagination. You need to search you feelings and observe everything around you. You must be willing to try the impossible — for surely it is impossible for a roll of the dice to capture the excitement of a swordfight, or for a videogame to make a player feel afraid of the dark — isn’t it? Use this lens to find the non-game experiences that will inspire your game. Your choices in the different quadrants of the tetrad (technology, mechanics, story, and aesthetics) can each be united by a single inspiration, or each can build on different inspirations, blending them together to create something entirely new. When you have concrete visions based on real life that guide your decision making, your experience will acquire an undeniable power, strength, and uniqueness. This lens works hand in hand with Lens #1: Essential Experience. Use the Lens of Infinite Inspiration to seek and find beautiful experiences, and the Lens of Essential Experience to bring them into your game.

State the Problem

People who come up with clever solutions are almost always the same people who take the time to figure out the real problem.
Three advantages of clearly stating your problem:

Broader creative space. Most people jump to solutions too fast and start their creative process there. If you start your process at the problem instead of at a proposed solution, you will be able to explore a broader creative space and find solutions that are hiding where no one else is looking.

Clear measurement. You have a clear measurement of the quality of proposed ideas: How well do they solve the problem?

Better communication. When you are designing with a team, communication is much easier if the problem has been clearly stated. Very often, collaborators will be trying to solve quite different problems and not realize it if the problem has not been clearly stated.

Lens #14: The Lens of the Problem Statement
To use this lens, think of your game as the solution to a problem.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What problem, or problems, am I really trying to solve?
● Have I been making assumptions about this game that really have nothing to do with its true purpose?
● Is a game really the best solution? Why?
● How will I be able to tell if the problem is solved?
Defining the constraints and goals for your game as a problem statement can help move you to a clear game design much more quickly.

Subconscious

Subconscious Tip

#1: Pay Attention

#2: Record Your Ideas

#3: Manage Its Appetites (Judiciously)

#4: Sleep

#5: Don’t Push Too Hard

Brainstorming

Brainstorm Tip

#1: The Write Answer

#2: Write or Type?

#3: Sketch

#4: Toys

#5: Change Your Perspective

#6: Immerse Yourself

#7: Crack Jokes

#8: Spare No Expense

#9: The Writing on the Wall

#10: The Space Remembers

#11: Write Everything

#12: Number Your Lists

#13: Mix and Match Categories

#14: Talk To Yourself

#15: Find a Partner

Iteration

pick an idea and decide you are going to make it happen
be ready to reverse your decision when you realize it is wrong

The Eight Filters

Lens # 15: The Lens of the Eight Filters
To use this lens, you must consider the many constraints your design must satisfy. You can only call your design finished when it can pass through all eight filters without requiring a change.
Ask yourself the eight key questions:
● Does this game feel right?
● Will the intended audience like this game enough?
● Is this a well-designed game?
● Is this game novel enough?
● Will this game sell?
● Is it technically possible to build this game?
● Does this game meet our social and community goals?
● Do the playtesters enjoy this game enough?
In some situations, there may be still more filters; for example, an educational game will also have to answer questions like “Does this game teach what it is supposed to?” If your design requires more filters, don’t neglect them.

The Rule of the Loop: The more times you test and improve your design, the better your game will be.

● Loop Question 1: How can I make every loop count?
● Loop Question 2: How can I loop as fast as possible?

The Spiral Model, Barry Boehm, 1986

Come up with a basic design.
Figure out the greatest risks in your design.
Build prototypes that mitigate those risks.
Test the prototypes.
Come up with a more detailed design based on what you have learned.
Return to step 2.

Mechanic might not be as fun as we think.
Have a programmer make a very abstract version of this gameplay mechanic, with simple geometric shapes … You can probably have a working game in a week or two, and start answering questions about whether it is fun right away.

(Technical limits) The game engine might not be able to handle XXX
Build a quick prototype that does nothing but XXX, to see if the engine can handle it. This prototype has no gameplay; it is purely to test technical limits. If it can handle it, great! If it can’t, you can figure out a solution now, before any art has been generated. Again, this prototype will be a throwaway.

Creating all the art assets might take more than we have
Have an artist create one house and one animated character immediately to see how long it takes, and if it takes longer than you can afford, change your design immediately.

We aren’t sure people will like our characters and story.
An art prototype … Have your artists draw some concept art, or produce test renders of your characters and settings. Create some storyboards that show how the story progresses. Once you have these, start showing them to people (hopefully people in your target demographic) and gauge their reactions. Figure out what they like, don’t like, and why. Maybe they like the look of the main character, but hate his attitude. Maybe the villain is exciting, but the story is boring.

Lens # 16: The Lens of Risk Mitigation
To use this lens, stop thinking positively, and start seriously considering the things that could go horribly wrong with your game.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What could keep this game from being great?
● How can we stop that from happening?
Risk management is hard. It means you have to face up to the problems you would most like to avoid, and solve them immediately. But if you discipline yourself to do it, you’ll loop more times, and more usefully, and get a better game as a result. It is tempting to ignore potential problems and just work on the parts of your game you feel most confident about. You must resist this temptation and focus on the parts of your game that are in danger.

Prototyping Tip

1: Answer a Question
2: Forget Quality

When working on a prototype all that matters is whether it answers the question. The faster it can do that, the better … polishing your prototype may even make things worse. Playtesters (and colleagues) are more likely to point out problems with something that looks rough than with something that looks polished.

3: Don’t Get Attached

The first versions of your system … (are) prototypes that you will need to discard before you build the system the “right” way… you won’t throw out everything — you’ll keep little pieces here and there that really work and you’ll combine them to make something greater.

4: Prioritize Your Prototypes

the biggest risks first….the “upstream” prototype is your highest priority.

5: Parallelize Prototypes Productively
6: It Doesn’t Have to be Digital
7: Pick a “Fast Loop” Game Engine
8: Build the Toy First

Lens # 17: The Lens of the Toy
To use this lens, stop thinking about whether your game is fun to play, and start thinking about whether it is fun to play with.
Ask yourself these questions:
● If my game had no goal, would it be fun at all? If not, how can I change that?
● When people see my game, do they want to start interacting with it, even before they know what to do? If not, how can I change that?
There are two ways to use the Lens of the Toy. One way is to use it on an existing game, to figure out how to add more toy-like qualities to it — that is, how to make it more approachable, and more fun to manipulate. But the second way, the braver way, is to use it to invent and create new toys before you even have any idea what games will be played with them. This is risky if you are on a schedule — but if you are not, it can be a great “divining rod” to help you find wonderful games you might not have discovered otherwise.

Closing the Loop

Game designer Mark Cerny … argues that you are in pre-production until you have finished two publishable levels of your game, complete with all necessary features… usually this point is generally reached when 30% of the necessary budget has been spent.

50% rules

When planning, make sure you could have a shipable game at 50% budget.
All core gameplay elements should be fully playable at 50% schedule.

Lens #18: The Lens of Passion
At the end of each prototype, when you are carefully mitigating risks and planning what to do next, don’t forget to check how you feel about your game with these important questions:
● Am I filled with blinding passion about how great this game will be?
● If I’ve lost the passion, can I find it again?
● If the passion isn’t coming back, shouldn’t I be doing something else?
At the end of every sprint, when you are studying your prototypes and planning what to do next, you must remember to also do a “passion check.” Passion is the way your subconscious tells you that it is excited about your game. If the passion has gone away, something has gone wrong — if you can’t figure out what it is, it is very likely your game will be dead on arrival. Passion has its dangers — it is an irrational emotion, after all, but you must take it seriously, for more often than not, passion is what knocks down obstacles and carries a game to success.

Player

Einstein’s Violin
Project Yourself

LeBlanc’s Taxonomy of Game Pleasures

Sensation
Sensory pleasure is often the pleasure of the toy (see Lens #15). This pleasure cannot make a bad game into a good one, but it can often make a good game into a better one.
Fantasy
Narrative
Challenge
Fellowship
Discovery
Expression
Submission

Misogynist?
Males: Mastery, Competition, Destruction, Spatial Puzzles, Trial and Error
Females: Emotion, Real World, Nurturing, Dialog and Verbal Puzzles, Learning by Example, Social

Lens #19: The Lens of the Player
To use this lens, stop thinking about your game, and start thinking about your player.
Ask yourself these questions about the people who will play your game:
● In general, what do they like?
● What don’t they like? Why?
● What do they expect to see in a game?
● If I were in their place, what would I want to see in a game?
● What would they like or dislike about my game in particular?
A good game designer should always be thinking of the player, and should be an advocate for the player. Skilled designers hold The Lens of the Player and the Lens of Holographic Design in the same hand, thinking about the player, the experience of the game, and the mechanics of the game all at the same time. Thinking about the player is useful, but even more useful is watching them play your game. The more you observe them playing, the more easily you’ll be able to predict what they are going to enjoy.

Bartle’s Taxonomy of Player Types

♦ Achievers
♠ Explorers
♥ Socializers
♣ Killers
```
Acting
```
Killers | Achievers
Players ——–+——– World
Socializers | Explorers
```
Ineracting
```

Lens #20: The Lens of Pleasure
To use this lens, think about the kinds of pleasure your game does and does not provide.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What pleasures does your game give to players? Can these be improved?
● What pleasures are missing from your experience? Why? Can they be added?
Ultimately, the job of a game is to give pleasure. By going through lists of known pleasures, and considering how well your game delivers each one, you may be inspired to make changes to your game that will increase your players’ enjoyment. Always be on the lookout, though, for unique, unclassified pleasures not found in most games — for one of these might be what gives your game the unique quality it needs.

Experience

Modeling

Focus

key components … to put a player into a flow state:
● Clear goals.
● No distractions.
● Direct feedback.
● Continuously challenging.

Lens #21: The Lens of Flow
To use this lens, consider what is holding your player’s focus.
● Does my game have clear goals? If not, how can I fix that?
● Are the goals of the player the same goals I intended?
● Are there parts of the game that distract players to the point they forget their goal? If so, can these distractions be reduced, or tied into the game goals?
● Does my game provide a steady stream of not-too-easy, not-too-hard challenges, taking into account the fact that the player’s skills may be gradually improving?
● Are the player’s skills improving at the rate I had hoped? If not, how can I change that?

Motivation

Three mental needs, Ryan and Deci

Competence: need to feel good at something.
Autonomy: need freedom to do things my own way
Relatedness: need to connect with other people.

Lens #22: The Lens of Needs
To use this lens, stop thinking about your game, and start thinking about what basic human needs it fulfills.
● On which levels of Maslow’s hierarchy is my game operating?
● How can I make my game fulfill more basic needs than it already is?
● On the levels my game is currently operating, how can it fulfill those needs even better?
It sounds strange to talk about a game fulfilling basic human needs, but everything that people do is an attempt to fulfill these needs in some way. And keep in mind, some games fulfill needs better than others — your game can’t just promise the need, it must deliver fulfillment of the need. If a player imagines that playing your game is going to make them feel better about themselves, or get to know their friends better, and your game doesn’t deliver on these needs, your player will move on to a game that does.

Wanna vs. Hafta

          External
punishment   |    rewards

Pain avoiding —-+—- Pleasure seeking
shame | fun
Internal

Lens #23: The Lens of Motivation
Every game is a complex ecosystem of motivations. To examine them more closely, ask yourself these questions:
● What motivations do players have to play my game?
● Which motivations are most internal? Which are most external?
● Which are pleasure seeking? Which are pain avoiding?
● Which motivations support each other?
● Which motivations are in conflict?

Novelty

Lens #24: The Lens of Novelty
Different isn’t always better, but better is always different. —Scotty Meltzer
To ensure you harness the powerful motivation of novelty, ask yourself these questions:
● What is novel about my game?
● Does my game have novelties throughout or just at the beginning?
● Do I have the right mix of the novel and the familiar?
● When the novelty wears off, will players still enjoy my game?

Judgment

Lens #25: The Lens of Judgment
To decide if your game is a good judge of the players, ask yourself these questions:
● What does your game judge about the players?
● How does it communicate this judgment?
● Do players feel the judgment is fair?
● Do they care about the judgment?
● Does the judgment make them want to improve?

Mechanics

Space

Lens #26: The Lens of Functional Space
To use this lens, think about the space in which your game really takes place when all surface elements are stripped away.
● Is the space of this game discrete or continuous?
● How many dimensions does it have?
● What are the boundaries of the space?
● Are there sub-spaces? How are they connected?
● Is there more than one useful way to abstractly model the space of this game?

Time

Lens #27: The Lens of Time
It is said that “timing is everything.” Our goal as designers is to create experiences, and experiences are easily spoiled when they are too short or too long, too fast or too slow. ask these questions to make yours just the right length:
● What is it that determines the length of my gameplay activities?
● are my players frustrated because the game ends too early? How can I change that?
● are my players bored because the game goes on too long? How can I change that?
● Would clocks or races make my gameplay more exciting?
● Time limits can irritate players. Would I better off without time limits?
● Would a hierarchy of time structures help my game? That is, several short rounds that together comprise a larger round?
Timing can be very difficult to get right, but it can make or break a game. Often, it makes sense to follow the old vaudevillian adage “leave’em wanting more.”

Objects, Attributes and States

Lens #28: The Lens of the State Machine
To use this lens, think about what information changes during your game. ask yourself these questions:
● What are the objects in my game?
● What are the attributes of the objects?
● What are the possible states for each attribute?
● What triggers the state changes for each attribute?
Gameplaying is decision making. Decisions are made based on information. Deciding the different attributes, their states, and what changes them is core to the mechanics of your game.

Secrets (Information)

Lens #29: The Lens of Secrets
Change who has what information, and you change your game completely. To use this lens, think about who knows what and why. ask yourself these questions:
● What is known by the game only?
● What is known by all players?
● What is known by some or only one player?
● Would changing who knows what information improve my game in some way?
Gameplaying is decision making. Decisions are made based on information. Deciding the different attributes, their states, and who knows about them is core to the mechanics of your game. Small changes to who knows what infor- mation can radically change a game, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Who knows about what attributes can even change over the course of a game—a great way to create drama in your game is to make an important piece of private information suddenly become public.

Action

Add more verbs
Verbs that can act on many objects
Goals that can be achieved more than one way
Many subjects
Side effects that change constraints

Lens #30: The Lens of Emergence
To make sure your game has interesting qualities of emergence, ask yourself these questions:
● How many verbs do my players have?
● How many objects can each verb act on?
● How many ways can players achieve their goals?
● How many subjects do the players control?
● How do side effects change constraints?

Lens #31: The Lens of Action
To use this lens, think about what your players can do and what they can’t and why. ask yourself these questions:
● What are the basic actions in my game?
● What are the strategic actions?
● What strategic actions would I like to see? How can I change my game in order to make those possible?
● am I happy with the ratio of strategic to basic actions?
● What actions do players wish they could do in my game that they cannot? Can I somehow enable these, either as basic or strategic actions?
A game without actions is like a sentence without verbs—nothing happens. Deciding the actions in your game will be the most fundamental decision you can make as a game designer. Tiny changes to these actions will have tremendous ripple effects with the possibility of either creating marvelous emergent gameplay or making a game that is predictable and tedious. Choose your actions carefully, and learn to listen to your game and your players to learn what is made possible by your choices.

Rules

Operational rules: what the players ‘do’ to play the game
Foundational rules: abstract, mathematical representation of game state and how and when it changes
Behavioral rules: “good sportsmanship”, “Unwritten Rules”
Written rules: interactive tutorials, “How will players learn to play my game?”
Laws: “tournament rules”
Official rules
Advisory rules: “rules of strategy”
House rules: “feedback”, players tune the operational rules to make the game more fun

Modes, Enforcer, Cheatability

you must be able to state your game’s goal and state it clearly … the more easily players understand the goal, the more easily they can visualize achieving it, and the more likely they are going to want to play your game.
Good game goals are as follows:

Concrete

Achievable

Rewarding

Lens #32: The Lens of Goals
To ensure the goals of your game are appropriate and well balanced, ask yourself these questions:
● What is the ultimate goal of my game?
● Is that goal clear to players?
● If there is a series of goals, do the players understand that?
● are the different goals related to each other in a meaningful way?
● are my goals concrete, achievable, and rewarding?
● Do I have a good balance of short and long term goals?
● Do players have a chance to decide on their own goals?

A game is not just defined by its rules, a game is its rules.

Lens #33: The Lens of Rules
To use this lens, look deep into your game, until you can make out its most basic structure. ask yourself these questions:
● What are the foundational rules of my game? How do these differ from the operational rules?
● Are there “laws” or “house rules” that are forming as the game develops? Should these be incorporated into my game directly?
● Are there different modes in my game? Do these modes make things simpler, or more complex? Would the game be better with fewer modes? More modes?
● Who enforces the rules?
● Are the rules easy to understand, or is there confusion about them? If there is confusion, should I fix it by changing the rules or by explaining them more clearly?
There is a common misconception that designers make games by sitting down and writing a set of rules. This usually isn’t how it happens at all. a game’s rules are arrived at gradually and experimentally. The designer’s mind generally works in the domain of “operational rules,” occasionally switching to the perspective of “foundational rules” when thinking about how to change or improve the game. The “written rules” usually come toward the end, once the game is playable. Part of the designer’s job is to make sure there are rules that cover every circumstance. be sure to take careful notes as you playtest, because it is during these tests that holes in your rules will appear—if you just patch them quickly and don’t make a note, the same hole will just show up again later. a game is its rules—give them the time and consideration that they deserve.

Skill

Physical skills: dance games
Mental skills: games are interesting when there are interesting decisions to make
Social skills: Poker is largely a social game

… find the right mix of real and virtual skills … it is important that you draw a clear distinction between them in your mind.
Make a list of all the skills required in your game.

Lens #34: The Lens of Skill
To use this lens, stop looking at your game, and start looking at the skills you are asking of your players. ask yourself these questions:
● What skills does my game require from the player?
● Are there categories of skill that this game is missing?
● Which skills are dominant?
● Are these skills creating the experience I want?
● Are some players much better at these skills than others? Does this make the game feel unfair?
● Can players improve their skills with practice, leading to a feeling of mastery?
● Does this game demand the right level of skill?
Exercising skills can be a joyful thing—it is one of the reasons that people love games. Of course, it is only joyful if the skills are interesting and rewarding and if the challenge level strikes that ideal balance between “too easy” and “too hard.” Even dull skills (such as pushing buttons) can be made more interesting by dressing them up as virtual skills and providing the right level of challenge. Use this lens as a window into the experience the player is having. because skills do so much to define experience, the lens of Skill works quite well in conjunction with lens #2, Essential Experience.

Chance

Probability

regret: People avoid the options that cause the most pain… willing to pay a price/take risks to eliminate the potential of regret. Tversky: “When it comes to taking risks for gains, people are conservative. They will make a sure gain over a problem gain. But … when people are faced with a choice between a small, certain loss and a large, probable loss, they will gamble.”

沉没成本

Lens #35: The Lens of Expected Value
To use this lens, think about the chance of different events occurring in your game and what those mean to your player. ask yourself these questions:
● What is the actual chance of a certain event occurring?
● What is the perceived chance?
● What value does the outcome of that event have? Can the value be quanti- fied? are there intangible aspects of value that I am not considering?
● Each action a player can take has a different expected value when I add up all the possible outcomes. am I happy with these values? Do they give the player interesting choices? are they too rewarding, or too punishing?

Expected value is one of your most valuable tools for analyzing game balance. The challenge of using it is finding a way to numerically represent everything that can happen to a player. Gaining and losing money is easy to represent. but what is the numerical value of “boots of speed” that let you run faster or a “warp gate” that lets you skip two levels? These are difficult to quantify perfectly—but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a guess. as we’ll see in the next chapter, as you go through multiple iterations of game testing and tweaking parameters and values in your game, you will also be tweaking your own estimations of the values of different outcomes. Quantifying these less tangible elements can be quite enlightening, because it makes you think concretely about what is valuable to the player and why—and this concrete knowledge will put you in control of the balance of your game.

Skill and Chance

Estimating chance is a skill

Skills have a probability of success

Estimating an opponent’s skill is a skill

Predicting pure chance is an imagined skill

Controlling pure chance is an imagined skill

Lens #36: The Lens of Chance
To use this lens, focus on the parts of your game that involve randomness and risk, keeping in mind that those two things are not the same. ask yourself these questions:
● What in my game is truly random? What parts just feel random?
● Does the randomness give the players positive feelings of excitement and challenge, or does it give them negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control?
● Would changing my probability distribution curves improve my game?
● Do players have the opportunity to take interesting risks in the game?
● What is the relationship between chance and skill in my game? are there ways I can make random elements feel more like the exercise of a skill? are there ways I can make exercising skills feel more like risk taking?
Risk and randomness are like spices. a game without any hint of them can be completely bland, but put in too much and they overwhelm everything else. but get them just right, and they bring out the flavor of everything else in your game. Unfortunately, using them in your game is not as simple as sprinkling them on top. You must look into your game to see where elements of risk and randomness naturally arise, and then decide how you can best tame them to do your bidding. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that elements of chance only occur around die rolls or randomly generated numbers. On the contrary, you can find them wherever a player encounters the unknown.

Balance

… it is generally considered the most artful part of game design

Fairness

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Lens #37: The Lens of Fairness
To use the lens of fairness, think carefully about the game from each player’s point of view. Taking into account each player’s skill level, find a way to give each player a chance of winning that each will consider to be fair.
ask yourself these questions:
● Should my game be symmetrical? Why?
● Should my game be asymmetrical? Why?
● Which is more important: that my game is a reliable measure of who has the most skill or that it provide an interesting challenge to all players?
● If I want players of different skill levels to play together, what means will I use to make the game interesting and challenging for everyone?
Fairness can be a slippery subject. There are some cases where one side has an advantage over the other and the game still seems fair. Sometimes this is so that players of unequal skill can play together, but there can be other reasons. In the game Alien vs. Predator, for example, it is generally recognized that in multiplayer mode, Predators have a significant advantage over the aliens. Players do not consider it to be unfair, however, because it is in keeping with the Alien vs. Predator story world, and they accept that if they play as an alien, they will be at a disadvantage and will need to compensate for that with extra skill. It is a badge of pride among players to be able to win the game when playing as an alien.

Techniques for striking a proper balance:

● Increase difficulty with each success
● Let skilled players get through easy parts fast
● Create “layers of challenge”: to give a grade at end of each mission (“C”, “A+”)
● Let players choose the difficulty level: not a very good option
● Playtest with a variety of (a mix of skilled and novice) players
● Give the losers a break: Mario Kart, players who are behind get good stuff

“What percentage of players do I want to be able to complete this game?”
“…a few early successes can do a lot to build a player’s confidence — a confident player will give up less easily…”

Lens #38: The Lens of Challenge
Challenge is at the core of almost all gameplay. You could even say that a game is defined by its goals and its challenges. When examining the challenges in your game, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the challenges in my game?
● are they too easy, too hard, or just right?
● Can my challenges accommodate a wide variety of skill levels?
● How does the level of challenge increase as the player succeeds?
● Is there enough variety in the challenges?
● What is the maximum level of challenge in my game?

Choices

A good game gives the player meaningful choices… choices that will have a real impact on what happens next…

● If choices > desires, then the player is overwhelmed.
● If choices < desires, the player is frustrated.
● If choices = desires, the player has a feeling of freedom and fulfillment.

…you need to figure out the types and number of things the player would like to do.

Lens #39: The Lens of Meaningful Choices
When we make meaningful choices, it lets us feel like the things we do matter. To use this lens, ask yourself these questions:
● What choices am I asking the player to make?
● Are they meaningful? How?
● Am I giving the player the right number of choices? Would more make them feel more powerful? Would less make the game clearer?
● Are there any dominant strategies in my game?

Triangularity: Low risk, low reward — High rist, high reward

Lens #40: The Lens of Triangularity
Giving a player the choice to play it safe for a low reward or to take a risk for a big reward is a great way to make your game interesting and exciting. To use the lens of Triangularity, ask yourself these questions:
● Do I have triangularity now? If not, how can I get it?
● Is my attempt at triangularity balanced? That is, are the rewards commensurate with the risks?
Once you start looking for triangularity in games, you will see it everywhere. a dull, monotonous game can quickly become exciting and rewarding when you add a dash of triangularity.

● Manual or automatic?
● Kart or bike?
● Use speed boost pads?
● Left or right?

David Perry: …such that players are doing three things at all times: exercising a skill, taking risks, and working a strategy.

Lens #41: The Lens of Skill vs. Chance
To help determine how to balance skill and chance in your game, ask yourself these questions:
● Are my players here to be judged (skill) or to take risks (chance)?
● Skill tends to be more serious than chance: is my game serious or casual?
● Are parts of my game tedious? If so, will adding elements of chance enliven them?
● Do parts of my game feel too random? If so, will replacing elements of chance with elements of skill or strategy make the players feel more in control?

Lens #42: The Lens of Head and Hands
Yogi Berra once said, “baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” To make sure your game has a more realistic balance of mental and physical elements, use the lens of Head and Hands. ask yourself these questions:
● Are my players looking for mindless action or an intellectual challenge?
● Would adding more places that involve puzzle solving in my game make it more interesting?
● Are there places where the player can relax their brain and just play the game without thinking?
● Can I give the player a choice—succeed either by exercising a high level of dexterity or by finding a clever strategy that works with a minimum of physical skill?
● If “1” means all physical and “10” means all mental, what number would my game get?
This lens works particularly well when used in conjunction with lens #19, The Player.

Competition and cooperation are basic, animal urges.

Lens #43: The Lens of Competition
Determining who is most skilled at something is a basic human urge. Games of competition can satisfy that urge. Use this lens to be sure your competitive game makes people want to win it. ask yourself these questions:
● Does my game give a fair measurement of player skill?
● Do people want to win my game? Why?
● Is winning this game something people can be proud of? Why?
● Can novices meaningfully compete at my game?
● Can experts meaningfully compete at my game?
● Can experts generally be sure they will defeat novices?

Lens #44: The Lens of Cooperation
Collaborating and succeeding as a team is a special pleasure that can create lasting social bonds. Use this lens to study the cooperative aspects of your game. ask these questions:
● Cooperation requires communication. Do my players have enough opportunity to communicate? How could communication be enhanced?
● Are my players friends already, or are they strangers? If they are strangers, can I help them break the ice?
● Is there synergy (2 + 2 = 5) or antergy (2 + 2 = 3) when the players work together? Why?
● Do all the players have the same role, or do they have special jobs?
● Cooperation is greatly enhanced when there is no way an individual can do
a task alone. Does my game have tasks like that?
● Tasks that force communication inspire cooperation. Do any of my tasks force communication?

Lens #45: The Lens of Competition vs. Cooperation
Balancing competition and cooperation can be done in many interesting ways. Use this lens to decide whether they are balanced properly in your game. ask these questions:
● If “1” is competition and “10” is cooperation, what number should my game get?
● Can I give players a choice whether to play cooperatively or competitively?
● Does my audience prefer competition, cooperation, or a mix?
● Is team competition something that makes sense for my game? Is my game more fun with team competition or with solo competition?

length of the gameplay

…For the fist 90 seconds, the player has unlimited lives…
…after twenty minutes, Armageddon begins…

Rewards
…people want to be judged favorably.

● Subway surfers…gradually increase the value of the rewards as the player progresses in the game.
● Power of variable rewards over fixed ones — delightful surprise

Lens #46: The Lens of Reward
Everyone likes to be told they are doing a good job. ask these questions to determine if your game is giving out the right rewards in the right amounts at the right times:
● What rewards is my game giving out now? Can it give out others as well?
● Are players excited when they get rewards in my game, or are they bored by them? Why?
● Getting a reward you don’t understand is like getting no reward at all. Do my players understand the rewards they are getting?
● Are the rewards my game gives out too regular? Can they be given out in a more variable way?
● How are my rewards related to one another? Is there a way that they could be better connected?
● How are my rewards building? Too fast, too slow, or just right?
Balancing rewards is different for every game. Not only does a designer have to worry about giving out the right ones, but he have to worry about giving them at the right times in the right amounts. This can only be determined through trial and error—even then, it probably won’t be right for everyone. When trying to balance rewards, it is hard to be perfect—you often have to settle for “good enough.”

Punishment

…One way to remove powers fairly is to take them away temporarily…
…reward is always a better tool for reinforcement than punishment…

Lens #47: The Lens of Punishment
Punishment must be used delicately, since after all, players are in a game of their own free will. balanced appropriately, it will give everything in your game more meaning, and players will have a real sense of pride when they succeed at your game. To examine the punishment in your game, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the punishments in my game?
● Why am I punishing the players? What do I hope to achieve by it?
● Do my punishments seem fair to the players? Why or why not?
● Is there a way to turn these punishments into rewards and get the same or a better effect?
● Are my strong punishments balanced against commensurately strong rewards?

…cutting out boring, complex, or unnecessary decisions and actions…
It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

● Innate complexity: …the very rules of the game get very complex…often gets a bad name…the pawns in chess…
● Emergent complexity: … a very simple rulesets that give rise to billions of intricate…create a simple ruleset which emerges balanced surprises..

Lens #48: The Lens of Simplicity/Complexity
Striking the right balance between simplicity and complexity is difficult and must be done for the right reasons. Use this lens to help your game become one in which meaningful complexity arises out of a simple system. ask yourself these questions:
● What elements of innate complexity do I have in my game?
● Is there a way this innate complexity could be turned into emergent complexity?
● Do elements of emergent complexity arise from my game? If not, why not?
● Are there elements of my game that are too simple?

Elegant: simple systems that perform robustly in complex situations.

There is an old Hollywood rule of thumb: if a line in a script doesn’t serve at least two purposes, it should be cut.

Lens #49: The Lens of Elegance
Most “classic games” are considered to be masterpieces of elegance. Use this lens to make your game as elegant as possible. ask yourself these questions:
● What are the elements of my game?
● What are the purposes of each element? Count these up to give the element an “elegance rating.”
● For elements with only one or two purposes, can some of these be combined into each other or removed altogether?
● For elements with several purposes, is it possible for them to take on even more?

Character

Lens #50: The Lens of Character
Elegance and character are opposites. They are like miniature versions of simplicity and complexity and must be kept in balance. To make sure your game has lovable, defining quirks, ask yourself these questions:
● Is there anything strange in my game that players talk about excitedly?
● Does my game have funny qualities that make it unique?
● Does my game have flaws that players like?

Detail and Imagination

● Only detail what you can do well: …use subtitles…the player’s imagination will fill in a voice…this idea goes for scenery, sfx, characters, animations…if you can’t do it well, try to find a way to leave it to the player’s imagination.
● Give details the imagination can use
● Familiar worlds do not need much detail
● Use the binocular effect: …filling in the close-ups on the tiny distant figures
● Give details that inspire imagination: …it is a fantasy—it only has to be tied to reality by a thin thread…

Lens #51: The Lens of Imagination
All games have some element of imagination and some element of connection to reality. Use this lens to help find the balance between detail and imagination. ask yourself these questions:
● What must the player understand to play my game?
● Can some element of imagination help them understand that better?
● What high-quality, realistic details can we provide in this game?
● What details would be low quality if we provided them? Can imagination fill the gap instead?
● Can I give details that the imagination will be able to reuse again and again?
● What details I provide inspire imagination?
● What details I provide stifle imagination?

Game Balancing Methodologies

Don’t jump in with balancing before thought clearly about problem statement.
Doubling and halving
Train your intuition by guessing exactly: guess exactly erery time you put food in microwave.
Document your model
Develop a better model about how things are related as you experiment with balancing…alter your model if it doesn’t match…writing down your observations and your model.
Plan to balance: … put in systems that make it easy to change the values expect to have to balance.
Let the players do it: … mostly, balancing the game is better left to the designers.

Lens #52: The Lens of Economy
Giving a game an economy can give it surprising depth and a life all its own. But like all living things, it can be difficult to control. Use this lens to keep your economy in balance:
● How can my players earn money? Should there be other ways?
● What can my players buy? Why?
● Is money too easy to get? Too hard? How can I change this?
● Are choices about earning and spending meaningful ones?
● Is a universal currency a good idea in my game, or should there be specialized currencies?

Problems of ‘adjust to the player’s skill level on the fly’:
If players know all of their op’s skill are not absolute but relative to the player’s skill, it damages the illusion… (e.g. in one NFS op’s car have a relative position no matter the player’s speed, feels unfair, and Ace Combat 7)
Players improve with practice: …many players felt insulted, diappointed—they wanted to keep practicing to master the challenge.

Lens #53: The Lens of Balance
There are many types of game balance, and each is important. However, it is easy to get lost in the details and forget the big picture. Use this simple lens to get out of the mire, and ask yourself the only important question:
● Does my game feel right? Why or why not?

Puzzles

A Puzzle is a Game with a Dominant Strategy…puzzles are just games that aren’t fun to replay…a puzzle is anything that makes you stop and think…

Make the goal easily understood, if players aren’t sure what they are supposed to do, they will quickly lose interest, unless figuring out what to do is actually fun.

Lens #54: The Lens of Accessibility
When you present a puzzle to players (or a game of any kind), they should be able to clearly visualize what their first few steps would be. ask yourself these questions:
● How will players know how to begin solving my puzzle or playing my game? Do I need to explain it, or is it self-evident?
● Does my puzzle or game act like something they have seen before? If it does, how can I draw attention to that similarity. If it does not, how can I make them understand how it does behave?
● Does my puzzle or game draw people in and make them want to touch it and manipulate it? If not, how I can I change it so that it does?

Sense of Progress

Game of Twenty Questions
Visible progress is the primary driver of mood in the workplace.

Lens #55: The Lens of Visible Progress
Players need to see that they are making progress when solving a difficult problem. To make sure they are getting this feedback, ask yourself these questions:
● What does it mean to make progress in my game or puzzle?
● Is there enough progress in my game? Is there a way I can add more interim steps of progressive success?
● What progress is visible, and what progress is hidden? Can I find a way to reveal what is hidden?

…give them several different related puzzles at once…if they get tired of one of them, they can go off and try another for a while. “A change is as good as a rest”

Lens #56: The Lens of Parallelism
Parallelism in your puzzle brings parallel benefits to the player’s experience. To use this lens, ask yourself these questions:
● are there bottlenecks in my design where players are unable to proceed if they cannot solve a particular challenge? If so, can I add parallel challenges for a player to work on when this challenge stumps them?
● If parallel challenges are too similar, the parallelism offers little benefit. are my parallel challenges different enough from each other to give players the benefit of variety?
● Can my parallel challenges be connected somehow? Is there a way that making progress on one can make it easier to solve the others?

Lens #57: The Lens of the Pyramid
Pyramids fascinate us because they have a singular highest point. To give your puzzle the allure of the ancient pyramids, ask yourself these questions:
● Is there a way all the pieces of my puzzle can feed into a singular challenge at the end?
● Big pyramids are often made of little pyramids—can I have a hierarchy of ever more challenging puzzle elements, gradually leading to a final challenge?
● Is the challenge at the top of my pyramid interesting, compelling, and clear? Does it make people want to work in order to get to it?

…a well-timed hint can renew their hope and thier curiosity…

…experience is triggered not by solving the puzzle but by seeing the answer…

…Perceptual Shift…involve almost no possibility of progress…should be used sparingly…

Lens #58: The Lens of the Puzzle
Puzzles make the player stop and think. To ensure your puzzles are doing everything you want to shape the player experience, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the puzzles in my game?
● Should I have more puzzles, or less? Why?
● Which of the ten puzzle principles apply to each of my puzzles?
● Do I have any incongruous puzzles? How can I better integrate them into the game? (Use lens #49, Elegance, to help do this).
In the last few chapters, we have focused on game internals—it is now time to
consider an external element, the interface of the game.

Interface

The goal of an interface is to make players feel in control of their experience.

Lens #59: The Lens of Control
This lens has uses beyond just examining your interface, since meaningful control is essential for immersive interactivity. To use this lens, ask yourself these questions:
● When players use the interface, does it do what is expected? If not, why not?
● Intuitive interfaces give a feeling of control. Is your interface easy to master or hard to master?
● Do your players feel they have a strong influence over the outcome of the game? If not, how can you change that?
● feeling powerful = feeling in control. Do your players feel powerful? Can you make them feel more powerful somehow?

Lens #60: The Lens of Physical Interface
Somehow, the player has a physical interaction with your game. Copying existing physical interfaces is an easy trap to fall into. Use this lens to be sure that your physical interface is well suited to your game by asking these questions:
● What does the player pick up and touch? Can this be made more pleasing?
● How does this map to the actions in the game world? Can the mapping be more direct?
● If you can’t create a custom physical interface, what metaphor are you using when you map the inputs to the game world?
● How does the physical interface look under the lens of the Toy?
● How does the player see, hear, and touch the world of the game? Is there a way to include a physical output device that will make the world become more real in the player’s imagination?
The world of videogames occasionally goes through dry spells where designers feel it is not feasible to create custom physical interfaces. but the marketplace thrives on experimentation and novelty, and suddenly specially crafted physical interfaces, like the Dance Dance Revolution mat, the Guitar Hero guitar, and the Wiimote appear bringing new life to old gameplay by giving players a new way to interact with old game mechanics.

Lens #61: The Lens of Virtual Interface
Designing virtual interfaces can be very tricky. Done poorly, they become a wall between the player and the game world. Done well, they amplify the power and control a player has in the game world. ask these questions to make sure that your virtual interface is enhancing player experience as much as possible:
● What information does a player need to receive that isn’t obvious just by looking at the game world?
● When does the player need this information? all the time? Only occasionally? Only at the end of a level?
● How can this information be delivered to the player in a way that won’t interfere with the player’s interactions with the game world?
● Are there elements of the game world that are easier to interact with using
a Virtual interface (like a pop-up menu, for instance) than they are to interact with directly?
● What kind of virtual interface is best suited to my physical interface? Pop-up menus, for example, are a poor match for a gamepad controller.

Lens #62: The Lens of Transparency
No matter how beautiful your interface is, it would be better if there were less of it. —Edward Tufte
The ideal interface becomes invisible to the player letting the player’s imagination be completely immersed in the game world. To ensure invisibility, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the player’s desires? Does the interface let the players do what they want?
● Is the interface simple enough that with practice, players will be able to use it without thinking?
● Do new players find the interface intuitive? If not, can it be made more intuitive, somehow? Would allowing players to customize the controls help or hurt?

feedback: one example is the net on a basketball hoop…does not affect the gameplay at all—but it slows the ball as it descends from the hoop so all players can clearly see that it went in…

Lens #63: The Lens of Feedback
The feedback a player gets from the game is many things: judgment, reward, instruction, encouragement, and challenge. Use this lens to be sure your feedback loop is creating the experience you want by asking these questions at every moment in your game:
● What do players need to know at this moment?
● What do players want to know at this moment?
● What do you want players to feel at this moment? How can you give feedback that creates that feeling?
● What do the players want to feel at this moment? Is there an opportunity for them to create a situation where they will feel that?
● What is the player’s goal at this moment? What feedback will help them toward that goal?

Respond to player input within Tenth of a Second

second-order motion: motion that is derived from the action of the player.

Lens #64: The Lens of Juiciness
To call an interface “juicy” might seem kind of silly—although it is very common to hear an interface with very little feedback described as “dry.” Juicy interfaces are fun the moment you pick them up. To maximize juiciness, ask yourself these questions:
● Is my interface giving the player continuous feedback for their actions? If not, why not?
● Is second-order motion created by the actions of the player? Is this motion powerful and interesting?
● Juicy systems reward the player many ways at once. When I give the player a reward, how many ways am I simultaneously rewarding them? Can I find more ways?

Lens #65: The Lens of Primality
Some actions and interfaces are so intuitive that animals were doing them hundreds of millions of years ago. To capture the power of primality, ask yourself these questions:
● What parts of my game are so primal an animal could play? Why?
● What parts of my game could be more primal?

Channels of Information

List and Prioritize Information: Immediate surroundings, Health, … Inventory
List Channels of information: top of screen, sound effects, avatar …
Map Information to Channels.

Lens #66: The Lens of Channels and Dimensions
Choosing how to map game information to channels and dimensions is the heart of designing your game interface. Use this lens to make sure you do it thoughtfully and well. ask yourself these questions:
● What data need to travel to and from the player?
● Which data are most important?
● What channels do I have available to transmit these data?
● Which channels are most appropriate for which data? Why?
● Which dimensions are available on the different channels?
● How should I use those dimensions?

Modes

Use as few modes as possible
Make different modes look as different as possible

Lens #67: The Lens of Modes
An interface of any complexity is going to require modes. To make sure your modes make the player feel powerful and in control and do not confuse or overwhelm, ask yourself these questions:
● What modes do I need in my game? Why?
● Can any modes be collapsed or combined?
● Are any of the modes overlapping? If so, can I put them on different input channels?
● When the game changes modes, how does the player know that? Can the game communicate the mode change in more than one way?

Steal: top-down approach
Customize: bottom-up approach

Interest Curves

…any entertainment experience is a series of moments.

Lens #68: The Lens of Moments
Memorable moments are stars that make up the constellation of your interest curve. To chart what is most important, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the key moments in my game?
● How can I make each moment as powerful as possible?

Lens #69: The Lens of the Interest Curve
Exactly what captivates the human mind often seems different for every person, but the most pleasurable patterns of that captivation are remarkably similar for everyone. To see how a player’s interest in your experience changes over time, ask yourself these questions:
● If I draw an interest curve of my experience, how is it generally shaped?
● Does it have a hook?
● Does it have gradually rising interest, punctuated by periods of rest?
● Is there a grand finale, more interesting than everything else?
● What changes would give me a better interest curve?
● Is there a fractal structure to my interest curve? Should there be?
● Do my intuitions about the interest curve match the observed interest of the players? If I ask playtesters to draw an interest curve, what does it look like?
Since all players are different, you may find it quite useful to use the lens of the Interest Curve and lens #19, The Player, at the same time, creating a unique interest curve for each of the types of players your game is trying to reach.

Story

The String of Pearls: cut scene, game level, cut scene, game level … Ico, The Last of Us…
The Story Machine: a story is a sequence of events… a good game is like a story machine—generating sequences of interesting events.

Character

Avatars
We have the ability to project ourselves into just about anything we control.
First Person View: greater projection
Visible Avatar: power of empathy…as if the avatar is a kind of kinesthetic voodoo doll for the guest…subconscious…

The Ideal Form the kind that they player has always wanted to be… people we sometimes dream about being.

When you combine an iconic character with a detailed world, you get a powerful combination.

Lens #85: The Lens of the Avatar
The avatar is a player’s gateway into the world of the game. To ensure the avatar brings out as much of the player’s identity as possible, ask yourself these questions:
● Is my avatar an ideal form likely to resonate with my players?
● Does my avatar have iconic qualities that let a player project themselves into the character?

Creating Characters

…list all the functions…then list the characters you had been thinking of putting in the game, and see how they match up.

Lens #86: The Lens of Character Function
To make sure your characters are doing everything your game needs them to do, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the roles I need the characters to fill?
● What characters have I already imagined?
● Which characters map well to which roles?
● Can any characters fill more than one role?
● Do I need to change the characters to better fit the roles?
● Do I need any new characters?

Traits
…define a small, distilled list of traits that encapsulate the character.
their actions should demonstrate the traits…if your character is sneaky, does it show in his jump animation?

Lens #87: The Lens of Character Traits
To ensure that the traits of a character show in what they say and do, ask yourself these questions:
● What traits define my character?
● How do these traits manifest themselves in the words, actions, and appearance of my character?

Interpersonal Circumplex

Lens #88: The Lens of the Interpersonal Circumplex
Understanding the relationships between your characters is crucial. One way to do this is to create a graph with one axis labeled hostile/friendly and the other labeled submissive/dominant. Pick a character to analyze, and put them in the middle. Plot out where other characters lie relative to that character, and ask yourself these questions:
● are there any gaps in the chart? Why are they there? Would it be better if the gaps were filled?
● are there “extreme characters” on the graph? If not, would it be better if there were?
● are the character’s friends in the same quadrant, or different quadrants? What if that were different?

Lens #89: The Lens of the Character Web
To flesh out your characters’ relationships better, make a list of all your characters, and ask yourself these questions:
● How, specifically, does each character feel about each of the others?
● are there any connections unaccounted for? How can I use those?
● are there too many similar connections? How can they be more different?

Lens #90: The Lens of Status
When people interact, they take on different behaviors depending on their status levels. To make your characters more aware of each other, ask yourself these questions:
● What are the relative status levels of the characters in my game?
● How can they show appropriate status behaviors?
● Conflicts of status are interesting—how are my characters vying for status?
● Changes of status are interesting—where do they happen in my game?
● How am I giving the player a chance to express status?

Lens #91: The Lens of Character Transformation
We pay attention to character transformation, because we care about what might change us. To ensure your characters are transforming in interesting ways, ask yourself these questions:
● How does each of my characters change throughout the game?
● How am I communicating those changes to the player? Can I communicate them more clearly, or more strongly?
● Is there enough change?
● are the changes surprising and interesting?
● are the changes believable?

Space

Coping with Bad Suggestions

When someone makes a bad suggestion … it just means they are trying to help.
And most of the time, when one of these bad suggestions comes up, it is a solution to an unstated problem.
… if you can figure out what problem the client is trying to solve with their suggestion,
perhaps you can come up with a solution that does a better job of solving the problem, and the client will be thrilled.

… the importance of finding ways for them to feel like creative partners on your game