When designing a game, it’s important to have a clear vision of what you want the game to achieve. The values you weave into the game should bring meaning and purpose, giving players a sense of why they’re there and what they’re aiming for.
As a player interacts with the game, the game responds—an interaction loop. To know if your game is fair, challenging, and holds up as a complete experience, you need to look at how well this loop teaches the player your game mechanics and key ideas. Players start with a basic understanding of what they’re supposed to do, known as a mental model. From there, they make decisions, act on those decisions, receive feedback, and adjust their mental model. These interactions add up, helping players build skills over time. By gradually introducing challenges, you can teach players while keeping them confident and motivated. The frequency of these loops also plays a big part in the game’s pacing.
Interaction arcs help carry out the story and keep players invested. They can guide players through success stories that teach lessons by encouraging trial and error until the right path is found. By designing situations where players need to experiment and try different approaches, arcs make learning feel active. A sequence of arcs lets players stay engaged with more complex scenarios without burning out. Stringing these arcs together allows players to take on more challenging scenarios step by step, so they don’t feel overwhelmed. This keeps the game difficult enough to be interesting and achievable enough to keep them motivated. You can also create the illusion of continuous arcs by breaking a single arc into smaller, more manageable parts to keep the momentum going. Having small wins keeps players motivated, ensuring they stay engaged.
