Game Decisions

This week I read two articles and watched a video examining and explaining "Game flow" or it is also known as "being in the zone". This has been studied and used by game designers to keep the players engaged and playing their game for as long as possible. It also keeps the player coming back for more game play.  

Gigity McD's video best explained game flow and helps us visualise this with charts like the one below. He starts by explaining how every new player that is introduced to your game is a blank slate and isn't equips with the skills to "beat the boss" or play the more advanced levels of the game. They must first start with simple tasks that introduce the controls and skills you will need to complete each level. If the skills are introduced too quick and the level is too advanced this will cause the player to go into an anxiety state as the will not be able to play the game. This breaks the players flow and causes them to stop playing the game. The opposite to this is when the game is too easy for the player and their skills are too advanced they will get bored again breaking the game flow causing them to stop playing the game. 

"In order for a player to be optimally engaged, challenges should be presented at a level equivalent or slightly higher than their current skill level. Not to easy not to hard" 

"Challenge should then be increased as the players skill increases. Being aware drastic changes in challenges may cause loss of engagement" 

To keep the player in this flow channel and keep them engaged with the game you as the designer can use this information to your advantage by 

• Being conscious of how skilled the player is and increase the games challenge as the player gets better at the game.

• If the player is struggling you want to scale the challenge back to keep engagement.

• If the player is flying through the game you may want to up the challenge again to keep engagement.

• Make sure your game doesn't have with no content or loads of easy tasks in a row.

• Make sure the game isn't to repetitive.

• Make sure you keep introducing new skills and slowly increase the difficulty of the game.

There can also be negative affects of game flow on the player. When the player is in the same he or she may loose track of time and spend too much time playing the game. The player can also get addicted to these games using them as an escape with can alter their idea of reality. This can make the players unsocial and lonely. When designing a game we must take all this information about "Game flow" into account. 

References: 
Building a Princess Saving App (PDF), by Dan Cook. Aimed at interaction designers to explain what productivity applications can learn from games.

What is FLOW THEORY in game design? - The Basics - (Part 1)
(Video) by Gigity McD. He explores the theory of Flow design with a variety of examples.

 Flow experience in computer game playing among Thai university students  (PDF) by Sanjamsai S, Phukao P. To examine flow experience in computer game playing among university students and examine their behaviors.