Game Design Zen

So, gamification is all the rage these days. It was all over GDC 2011 and seems to be the in-thing. In case you haven’t heard about it, take a gander at the vid below. It’s a short and simple explanation of gamification’s pros and cons. Full link here: video at escapist magazine.

Gamification is an interesting idea that will likely affect just about everyone in some way in the coming years. But, before we all go sticking awards and levels on everything, let’s be sure we understand why it works. It works because of the way our brain is wired and it has a lot to do with the theory of Flow.

So what’s flow? Glad you asked! Flow is when you become so totally engaged in an activity that you tune out the rest of the world. It’s when time becomes distorted – both slowing down and flying by at the same time. It can occur anywhere with almost any activity. Heck, I’m in flow right now, writing this post and maybe you’re in flow reading it. Flow occurs while snowboarding, playing chess, reading books, being intimate, and especially when playing a great video game.

Ahh… video games. Our favorite subject. So, this guy, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, researched flow for more than 25 years. (That’s a lotta nuts!) With all that research, he concluded that Flow was extremely important in both work and in play. In his view, flow is an essential part of a fulfilled life. Remember the cliche that money doesn’t make you happy? Well, science shows that to be true. But, did you know that people who have a lot of flow in their daily lives ARE happy? And, what’s more, Flow is mega important in games. Maybe the single most important theory for game designers.

In a nutshell, you need 4 things for flow:

1. clear, achievable goals
2. meaningful feedback
3. a challenge that is balanced with skill
4. minimal distractions

When you have all 4 of those, you’re well on your way to finding flow. It’s true at work, on the slopes, when killing the last boss on that epic raid, and yes, even when trying to get 3 stars in the latest Angry Birds level.

Now.  Think back to gamification. Most of gamification is really just another way of addressing #1 goals and #2 feedback. Heck, that’s half of Flow, right there. Level meters, reward popups, and all that jazz are really just ways to 1) make the goals clear and 2) give better feedback about how you’re doing. It’s that simple. It’s not about the glitz, or the glam. It never has been.

So, that’s gamification. It works for the same reason that good games work. So, learn from gamification and make your games better.

(Thanks to my good friend for the Escapist link)

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My kids heard me talking about gamification and immediately pointed out that their whole life has been gamified. My son gets ‘quests’ to get a soda from the garage and as a reward, he earns faction modifiers. Being rude earns the little ‘minus-minus’ gesture over mom’s head (think the Sims!). While, being kind earns the ‘plus-plus’. The kids ‘level up’ when they use a new real-life skill. Just the other night, right in the middle of a fade-to-white transition in a movie, my son stood up and announced that the ‘free mode’ just ended – please buy the ‘pro’ version to continue.

The other day, a friend sent me a nifty article explaining the difference between immersion and engagement. It’s called, ‘The Pleasures of immersion and engagement: schemas, scripts and the fifth business’ by Douglas and Hargadon, 2001. It’s a fairly interesting read, but here’s the Cliff Notes for now.

The article explores two words we throw around all the time: immersion and engagement. Most of us use them interchangeably. You know. I might say, Totoro was really engaging. Or, Tiny Wings is really immersing. Right? Seems okay to me. Well, apparently, the academics did a bunch of research and determined that the two words do not, in fact, mean the same thing.

So, what do they mean?  Well, immersion is the process whereby you become ‘immersed’ or deeply interested in a story or particular material.  Immersion implies a passive act, rather than something you are actively engaged in. (See what I did there?) Engagement is the process where you are actively ‘engaged’ in solving a particular problem. Engagement implies action – like trying to overcome a challenge, understand some difficult material (like poetry! omg!), or solve some conundrum.

Well, that’s pretty simple. If you revisit my earlier statements, you’ll see they were backwards. Said correctly, I got really immersed watching ‘My Neighbor Totoro’.  The story captures the wonder of being a child and really drew me in. Whereas, Tiny Wings is just totally engaging. The mechanics are elegantly simple and yet deeply challenging at the same time.I still can’t seem to get to the 4th island without doing ANY swoops!!! *ggrrrrr*  (love that game!).

So, there we have it. Immersion vs engagement. In games, immersion is typically about the story whereas engagement is about the game play. Certainly, games can have both immersion and engagement. But, a game without engagement is hardly a game at all. And, sometimes, the distinction is not always so clear. For instance, you could become deeply engaged trying to unravel the complexities of a story. Sure, we were immersed in the new Battlestar Galatica, but sometimes, we were also deeply engaged, trying to understand how Starbuck gets back to Earth late in the series. WTF?!

So, now that the difference is clear (or not), I suppose it begs the question. Should we care?

I recently played ‘Drawn HD’ for the IPad with my family. The kids and I would take turns controlling the game and help each other solve the puzzles. Everyone wanted to control it, ‘Ok, but I want to do the ice griffon.’

Drawn has a wonderfully told story and is just an incredibly well done game. Except for a few, minor issues with the touch interface, there is very little not to love about it. It welcomes new players with simple puzzles, but can also be very challenging.  And, if you are like me, you’re bound to be stumped more than a few times.  It’s fun to play alone, or with family and friends, helping solve the puzzles and noticing little things in the images.

Drawn has a nice, intuitive ability to skip a puzzle if it becomes too hard.  It also provides increasingly detailed hints, allowing you to get a little help or a lot. This works seemlessly in this game and gives some credence to Jenova Chen’s theory of user controlled difficulty. The entire experience provides wonderful feedback, has extremely clear tasks, and in almost all ways, exhibits the essential aspects of Czikszentmihalyi’s Flow theory.

All game designers would do well to study Big Fish Games’ success with this little gem, whether they create story adventures or not. Would make a good G.G. video entry one day.