One game I enjoy/have enjoyed playing in the past is Fireboy and Watergirl; it primarily uses a series of loops and skill chains because players might have to combine skills to create compound interactions. Thinking about the elements of the loop, a new player might have no idea how to control the fireboy/watergirl characters, but they make a decision to choose a key to press, press it, and see how the rules play out as they see feedback of the character moving on the screen. The loop continues and the player can update their mental model with the skills they learn. Levels also can get harder over time as you learn more skills that are hierarchical and build on each other. However, the game does not use arcs as much because there is not very much evocative content, just repeated goals of escaping/collecting gems at each level.
