Emotion design testing: users indicate what emotion they felt on a colour wheel, and when they felt it.

Level design & tutorial design

“Generally, I use 3 stages of tutorialisation; Exposition, Validation and Challenge. This is that you show the player the thing you will be teaching them, you let them experience it and use the mechanic themselves in a safe area, and then you give them a challenge to prove they understand how…

“How to create suspense”

Freakonomics radio (podcast)

I recently had an epiphany where I realised that I’ve created what gives me pleasure making. That is: pleasure in the making, not the experiencing. wowzers. So, yeah, write what you want to see/read/play not just make.

Big Bird and death.

Aaron told me last night about this classic scene in which Sesame Street teaches kids about death.

Thinking about the tension of designing a narrative film and a game about play, and how (among other things I’m doing) I can make play part of the design process…which would then influence the nature of what I create and spill over to the audience/player…

And how the narrative can facilitate playful thoughts…

Caring about objects. Emotion design: we care about children, we feel sorry for those that suffer an undeserved misfortune, that have been rejected, that are considered lesser.

Finally saw “Inside Out”. Emotion design: we care about characters/people who die for the sake of others (sacrifice for good).

Write what you remember

[This is exactly how it felt for so long after my mum died…I didn’t want to feel happiness so I could stay close to her…]

What about a dating game where you don’t find out for sure if your date is human until you get home. Turing test for dates. What if you prefer to date a non-human?

Thinking about play versus playfulness