Games Decisions

 For this weeks readings we were tasked with Building a Princess Saving App ,  Flow experience in computer game playing among Thai university students and with watching the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8pQyyXxHg. 

In this weeks readings we learn about flow theory. Flow theory is the psychological theory to keep players engaged and entertained whilst playing a game. Game designers create challenges in the game to match the players skill level so that the game does not become to anxiety inducing by making it too challenging or too boring by making the game too easy.

The structure of flow experience can be divided into two flows being cognitive flow and emotional flow. The cognitive flow reflects on qualities such as evaluation, expectation, control and decision making and consists of 1. challenge skill balance, 2. clear goals and 3. unambiguous feedback whilst emotional flow consist of 1. action awareness merging, 2. concentration at the task at hand , 3. sense of control, 4. loss of consciousness and 5. time transformation. 

Screenshot from Flow experience in computer game playing among Thai university students.

The best way to keep the flow in a game is to:

1. Present the player with a challenge
2. Player achieves a flow state
3. Maintain the flow state

It is important to keep a flow state in the game so that the game does not become too difficult or too easy which may result in the player leaving the game. We do this by matching the game to the players skill level and keeping it engaging. As the player develops a better skill level throughout the game we then make the challenges more difficult to further match their new and developed skill level. This makes sure the game does not become boring for the player.

Some things to consider whilst creating a game to ensure there is a good flow are:

1. Does your game have any difficulty spikes?
2. Does the game have long sections of easy tasks or empty content?
3. Do you always get the player to do roughly the same thing?
4. Does your game keep introducing new skills or new ways to use the current skill set?

These are all very important in creating and maintaining a flow state in your game to ensure the player keeps engaged and interested while playing.