Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs – Eleanor

A game I enjoyed a lot is Overcooked. It has a game architecture mixing interesting yet challenging loops and trivial arcs. The beauty of this game isn’t about the arcs (at least to me because I never paid attention to the story it tells). The learning process in the loops is what makes the game fun.
In the first level, it introduces the first few loops, teaching players the basic mechanics of the game, including walking, cooking, and serving. Players practice repeatedly by completing dish orders. By the end of the first level, players have mastered the basic skills. In the following levels, players gradually learn to master more advanced skills and operate more cooking wares. At the end of each chapter (which consists of six levels), players have to go back to the castle and watch a dialog before they can proceed. But because the arcs were not the point of the game, I rushed through them, only aiming to unlock new levels and face new challenges. After players master all the necessary skills, the levels start to become more challenging, incorporating more terrain constraints, time constraints, and more diverse menus. New loops are then introduced for players to challenge themselves and master the game.

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