Week 7 Game Decision

 Game Decision 

This week we are learning about flow and decision making in game design. Flow is the psychological theory that we can adapt to create engaging and challenging games. This helps make framework of game play based on human psychology. The flow state is when a player is presented  with a challenge and they really engage with it. In simpler terms it is when you get lost in a game to a point where your sense of time is warped. An engaged player is highly likely to consume more, unlike a disinterested player who is more likely to forsaken the game all together.

Flow progression has three stages. First a player is presented with a challenge. the way to go about this would be to create a challenge slightly more difficult than the players abilities. This is done using a flow graph. Players will quickly lose interest in games if success is too easy. If levels are too hard the player is more inclined to abandon the game. on the other side of the graph if a game is too difficult it will create anxiety and stress for the player. 

Gamer

Then the player enters a rhythmic flow state. Now the player is engaged it is up to the developer to keep them engaged. this is done by increasing the difficulty of each level in some way. Adding an extra villain, speeding up the task or cutting a time limit are all ways to keep challenging your player in a slight incline.  If your game can not grow with the players abilities and skills, the player will not get into the flow state. 

Finally the player maintains the flow state. Game designers need to keep the player hyper-focused on the game. All these tactics make the work flow that create a satisfied player sure to replay the game over and over.