Course
How a game holds you
Work out what a game is doing to keep you playing, and where good design ends and extraction begins.
The shape of it
7 lessons
About 23 minutes in total. Your progress is kept on this device — no account, nothing sent anywhere.
Course complete
Put your name on it and print it, or save it as a PDF. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The lessons
A loop you can feel
Break any game down into the action it repeats.
6 steps · about 3 min
Difficulty is a curve
Predict when a player quits from boredom and when from frustration.
6 steps · about 3 min
Randomness that feels fair
Explain why true randomness feels broken to players.
6 steps · about 3 min
Numbers that go up
Tell apart progress that means something and progress that is a counter.
7 steps · about 4 min
The economy inside
Trace a game currency from where it enters to where it leaves.
7 steps · about 4 min
Matchmaking is a rating
Say what a matchmaking system is optimising for.
6 steps · about 3 min
When design starts working on you
Tell apart a design that respects your time and one that harvests it.
7 steps · about 4 min