How to arrange fun: staged vs. artificial ✏️
How to stage fun With pacing, context, and a setup As a game designer, your main responsibility is to satisfy the feelings and emotions of players; you must make sure […]
The maze of play, games and gamification
Play, gaming and gamification My personal take on which is what. There is no clear-cut separation between play and gaming. Gaming is not without play, and is merely an extension […]
Game pillars and a spark; why it is so essential and how to use it
“I have a great idea for a game!” This is often how it starts. What follows is a production rush; a playable prototype, the sketch of the character, moodboards or […]
Empty space for a full mind: The Importance of Downtime in Large maps
No matter how large an open world, there are always locations of low interactivity between the player and the game: a lack or low density of enemies to fight, items […]
May players roam truly everywhere, anytime? How not all paths have to be open in open worlds
The genre of open world games is aimed at players with the motivation to explore—meaning, experience designers must give them a journey. This includes reasons to explore, landscapes that incite […]
Baits, leads and Landmarks: how open worlds let you wander
Open world games tend to make us want to wander—all we need is a destination. That said, part of what makes a journey worth journeying are the little finds we […]
Open World EUX level design: a systematic approach to making scope-sized emotional roam routes
As an entertainment product, games are one of many media forms that rely on providing users an ‘emotional ride’. In other words: to evoke designed emotion, is to create a […]