Dying usually feels bad in games – disappointing, frustrating, punishing. From a game POV you usually lose something – progress, resources (money, equipment), opportunities (achievements). But more importantly, upon dying you are confronted with your own shortcomings as a player: your incompetence, your deficiencies in reflexes or (muscle) memory, or, even worse, with bad luck.… Continue reading Dying
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Flow
„Flow“ is often regarded a valuable goal of game design, not least by prominent developers such as thatgamecompany. The theory says that you want to hit the sweet spot between overload and underload, not demanding too much from the player but also not demanding too little. „Flow“ can not only fall apart when a game… Continue reading Flow
A Strange Squalor
The best games cease to be for us (or for anyone) and instead strive to be what they are as much as possible. From this indifference emanates a strange squalor that we can appreciate as beauty. Ian Bogost in a text about „Flappy Bird“ from 2015