Intro
- Different theories of fun: fun is learning, fun isn’t’ important etc
- Lesson 1: Kids are smarter than you
- Kids said the game was fun but they’re not learning anything
- TLDR: fun is learning is the beginning, not the end
- The emotion lens: identified 7 universal emotions across all cultures. But none related to fun -> fun/learning isn’t one emotion -> but a sequence or process
“Sophia” Lens
- “Sophia”: The game learn emotion: fun is cognitive mechanical process by which we convert fear into happiness through surprise
- Analogy to learning about human microbiome
- Some games have more “Sophia” than others
- Connection to real world
- Exploring a confusing space and creating order
- Meaningful games make the jump between game model and world model
- E.g candy crush: closed system
- E.g. Journey: connects to world model -> meaningful game + sticky
- An emotional taxonomy of games: fear, speed, fiero, together, complicity
- All game genres have at least a bit of Sophia in them
- Sophia is the engine, and the engine drives the core emotion
- When we make learning games, we know the effect we want to achieve, but the trick is finding the emotion -> what progression of emotions do we want to have? (e.g. “this si complicated but i feel strong and smart”)
- Sophia is a lens with which to view your game.
- Could your problem be…
- Lack of clarity of core emotion?
- Not enough surprise preceding satisfaction?
- Lack of tension because the fear is not illuminated?
- Could your problem be…
