Concept

Felt experience target

You might say: challenge, discovery, fellowship or expression

A felt experience target names the emotions, choices or situations the designer wants players to have, instead of treating every desired outcome as simply fun.

What it does
Gives playtests a question sharper than whether the game is enjoyable in the abstract.
Ask
What should a player feel at the end of this loop?

Sources

  1. Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek, MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, pp. 2–4Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts
  2. Ernest Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design, ch. 4, p. 81We’ll begin with a way of looking at what kinds of feelings different players like to experience as they play.
  3. Celia Hodent, Cognitive Psychology Applied to User Experience in Video Games, author article: emotions, motivation and game feela game that satisfies basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness
  4. Celia Hodent, Cognitive Psychology Applied to User Experience in Video Games, emotion, motivation and game feela game that satisfies basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness
  5. Steve Swink, Game Feel: The Secret Ingredient, opening; Context; Polish; ConclusionCreate something beautiful at the intersection of player and game.
  6. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics, Now, About That MDA Framework Thing…; The Process of PlayIs the game “fun”? Is play frustrating, or boring, or interesting?
  7. Tynan Sylvester, The Simulation Dream, Creating apophenia; Creating Story-Richness: human-relevant values and emotionsHuman values must be at stake.
  8. Christopher W. Totten, An Architectural Approach to Level Design, Foreword, p. xxiiiit evokes a feeling of playfulness within the mind of any player who actively engages with it.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Felt experience target" (felt-experience) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

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