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
Category: Game Design
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
Dirty Vs. Clean
When creating something purely digital, one of the greatest dangers is to create something aseptic. Images too clean, sounds too perfect, scenes too staged. Computer animation studios spend a huge amount of time making things look used or worn, yet their films often still look clean. Hand-drawn and stop motion animation usually do not have… Continue reading Dirty Vs. Clean