Psychology and Creativity

After watching Don Norman's TED Video, think about the interplay/interaction of the Visceral, Behavioural and Reflective layers within the flow of gameplay as you formulate your studio project game, as well as for your HTI2 Creativity Game. How could you effectively harness the emotional design factors to maximise fun and enjoyment for your game? What would motivate your players to get involved deeper in the games?

Games are a subset of designs. Like design products, games are made for the enjoyment of people. By that logic, whatever that Don Norman said that applied to design applies to game design as well. Games that appeal to our visceral, behavioural and reflective layers appeal better to us. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that games should look good (visceral), have good gameplay (behavioural) and portray high-value to the user and for the user (reflective).

There's not much to reflect on about effectively harnessing the visceral and behavioural layers in games, because these two have been done so much already. Appealing to the visceral means making things look good in the game; the game packaging, the graphics, the interface design and essentially everything that you see on screen. Video games are continuously advancing in the graphics department, and the first thing new video game consoles boast about is graphical processing power. The game design industry knows full well of the importance of good graphics already.

Appealing to the behavioural level means making controls that fit the game and making sure that the player feels that the game is fair (i.e. if he loses, he understands that its his fault and not because he lacks information the game should provide), so that he feels in control. Again, the industry knows full well of this aspect's importance. Alot of game companies spend lots of money hiring playtesters, not only to weed out bugs in their games, but also to make sure that they deliver the right experience to the players.

What is relatively unexplored in games design is the reflective layer--making the owner of the game feel proud of owning such a game. The reflective layer is also the key to making a player want to get involved in a game, because it conveys that the game has value, that it is worth investing time in. All of the industry's critically acclaimed games have a reflective layer. This reflective layer mostly comes in two forms, either a very interesting story, or a very competitive gaming scene. The former drives people to play to find out more, while the latter drives people to play to better themselves, so that they can convey their worth by winning.

There is alot to explore in games design in the reflective layer, because there are so many more ways to make a game valuable in people's eyes, and games, being an interactive medium, is very well-equipped to do so. Games can control the overall experience so much better than other forms of entertainment because of its interactivity and the array of activities that it can get people involved in.