Creating flow in games

When designing our game experience, we always keep in mind the flow. We want people to get engrossed in our game — Yukon Warrior. We want that player sitting on the bus to forget where they are and miss their stop. Here are some tips to get you started.

Prevent information overload

Limit the amount of information displayed at any one time. Psychologists have proven that your mind can only focus on a certain number of things at a time. In the game, limit the number of things that the player has to pay attention to. Have your player focus most of their attention on the core game-play, each bit of distraction takes away from that.

Limit UI interactions

Every second you force a player to mess with your UI is another second they spend not playing your game. Forcing a UI on the player during the game interrupts the flow of the gameplay. Game interfaces are most often a burdensome sloth blocking you from the game.

Make goals clear

To achieve a flow state, players must understand what their goal is. Avoid situations where the player asks themselves “What am I supposed to do now?” Don’t change things at random and expect players to pick up on it.

Give clear and immediate feedback

Make mechanics obvious and let the player discover them in a controlled way. If a player is doing something wrong, let them discover it early and don’t punish them mercilessly for not getting it right the first time.

Balance perceived skill with perceived challenges

How the player perceives their own skill level compared to how they perceive the difficulty of the game will influence the overall state of flow. You want to prevent Anxiety where the challenge level too high in comparison to perceived skill level. You also want to prevent boredom where the skill level exceeds the challenge level.

Know your audience

Understand what kind of player you are making the game for. It is design fact that you cannot please everyone, so it is better to focus on a pleasing a subset. Are you making your game for technology-native gamers or for soccer moms who have only played Angry Birds?

Test early, test often

Now that you’ve selected an audience, test your game on them! Let them play and don’t interfere by telling them what to do. Try to discover problem areas as they arise organically. If they ask you questions, don’t just give them the answer — ask them “what do you think?”. Observe body language and signs of frustration or boredom. Let them lead you, don’t lead them. Don’t wait 10 months before discovering major issues like we did once.

Why its better to test before its finished

• Players are more likely to give you honest feedback if they see it is a work in progress
• Discover major usability issues and inconsistencies before it is too late to fix
• Refine your core gameplay
• Identify gameplay that is fun and perhaps focus engineering efforts to make it even better
• Identify gameplay that is not fun and why. Consider removing them entirely.

Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost. —Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

What games have created a feeling of flow for you? Drop me a line at brian@raresloth.com