ixd play 05: affective design

05

IXD P

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05:

AFFEC

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DESIG

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EA

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HI, I’M CHELSEA

• Creative Director at EA Mobile, Austin

• Co-founder Queerness & Games Conference

• Lecturer at California College of the Arts

• GDC Advisory Board member

• Fast Company’s Most Creative People 1000

• Global Game Jam SF Organizer

• IndieCade Super Juror

• IGF Design Jury

Say hi back!@manojalpa

BLAH B

LAH

BLAH

2@ M A N O J A LPA C H E L S E A H O W E

I REALLY LIKE GAMES

9 hrs/wk * 52 wks * 22 yrs = 10,296 hrs


Engagement Economy:

Where attention is currency and

games won the lottery.

GAMES ARE REALLY POWERFUL


SO WHY AREN’T THEY BETTER?


“What does it mean?”

“How does it make you feel?”

“What do you think when you see this?”


“Nicecombo!”

“These graphics

are insane.”

“My turn!” 8@ M A N O J A LPA C H E L S E A H O W E

ENTE

R THE

THES

IS:

HO

W D

O W

E MA

KE E

VO

CAT I V

E

I NT E R

AC

T I VE E

XP E R

I EN

CE S ?


FLOWThe

“Optimal Experience”

Theory

The Environment

1. Clear Goals

2. Immediate Feedback

3. Balance between Challenge and Skill

The Experience

1. Action/Awareness merge

2. Distractions are excluded from consciousness

3. No fear of failure

4. Self consciousness disappears

5. Sense of time is distorted

6. Activity becomes autotelic

FLOW: THE BULLET POINTS


FLOW: THE ENVIRONMENT

Clear GoalsGames vs ToysAccessibility of Objectives

Immediate FeedbackProgressFailure

Balance Between Challenge/SkillFrustration/BoredomAdaptive Difficulty


FLOW: THE EXPERIENCE








FLOW: “SELF CONSCIOUSNESS DISAPPEARS”

We are on automatic

Action without contemplation

Doing without feeling


YOU CAN’T FEEL WHEN YOU FLOW


YOU CAN’T FEEL WHEN YOU FLOW

shit.


WHAT OTHER THEORIES ARE OUT THERE?

Psychology?

Cognitive Science?

Human-Computer Interaction?

“Enchantment” – McCarthy et al, 2006


ENCHANTMENT

“Enchantment is an

experience

of being caught up and

carried away,

in which, although we are

disoriented,

perception and attention

are heightened.

To the extent that it

awakens us to wonder

and to the wonder of life, it

is enlivening.”

ENCHANTMENT: HOW IS IT DIFFERENT?

Deep Engagement: Emotional, intellectual, and sensory

Moments that make players go “Wow”

Complex Cognition: Elevation Revelation Wonder


ENCHANTMENT: THE ENVIRONMENT

“If our first thought on encountering a new interactive system is that

‘… it is just like …’

– just like another system,

just like this other game–

there is little chance of being enchanted.”


ENCHANTMENT: DEPTH

• offer the potential for the unexpected

• give the chance of new discoveries

• provide a range of possibilities


ENCHANTMENT: SENSIBILITIES FOR IXD

1. A Sense Being in Play

2. The Sensuousness of the System

3. Holistic Player: Desires, Feelings,

Anxieties

4. The Transformational Experience

5. Paradox, Openness, Ambiguity


ENCHANTMENT: 1. A SENSE OF BEING IN PLAY

Systems or objects that challenge familiar categories and values are more likely to be enchanting.


ENCHANTMENT: 2. SENSUOUSNESS OF A SYSTEM

Activating and appealing

to the senses:

compelling stylesvisceral textures tantalizing audio

mesmerizing motion


ENCHANTMENT: 3. HOLISTIC PLAYERS: DESIRES, FEELINGS, ANXIETIES

Designing for generic players begets generic games.


ENCHANTMENT4. THE TRANSFORMATIONAL EXPERIENCE

The Gestalt Shift


SCALE CHANGES

ENCHANTMENT4. The Transformational Experience

SECRET SPACES


BOUNDARY BREAKS


EMERGENTFUNCTIONALITY


NOVEL I/O


ENCHANTMENT: 5. PARADOX, AMBIGUITY, OPENNESS


THIS IS MORE THAN ENCHANTMENT


AMBIGUITY THROUGH MINIMALISM


OPENNESS

Players project themselves into

the spaces we leave behind.


ABSTRACTION


THE LITTLE CIRCLES SERIES + CHALLENGE

The Big Question: Can systems tell stories?

The Big Test: Create a game with no explicit imagery or text. Every

actor in the system is represented with a circle.


THE RESULTS I noticed how many of the nodes created the same color, just like

how many people feel the same way even if

they have no connection to one

another.

How does this reflect society? Maybe, this reflects how at one

time, physical distance between two people faded their human connection over time.

Today, this fading may be caused by censorship, digital

isolation… the tip of the iceberg.

Simple yet elegant –

transforming a network of

individuals to become whole can be a life

changing experience.

The pulsing color is a bit like a heartbeat. You could say on one hand you have a frozen captive

hivemind and others are pulled in. But what I got out of it is the idea

that if you stop and work on something, and just keep

concentrating on what you’re trying to build/do… the magnetism of the project will, eventually, speak for

itself. I liked that the rules were not given, but were there to be

discovered. I thought it would be interesting if the passage of the mouse could create a

current or stream in the environment, much like our actions in the world move

and effect people outside of our direct contact.

Hundreds ofUnique Interpretations

IN REVIEW

Everyone is playing games, a lot, so let’s make them better: more evocative, meaningful

Flow is great for immediate engagement, but not for evoking complex emotions

Enchantment focuses on lasting impact through complex sensory, emotional, and intellectual engagement

Openness and Ambiguity enable players to create their own meaning and stories through game systems.

Minimalism and Abstraction let us analyze how interactivity – not aesthetics – can be as evocative as aesthetics.


BUT BEF

ORE W

E GO:

WHY

FEEL

INGS?


EVERY TIME YOU FEEL AN EMOTION, IT SPREADS ON AVERAGE TO 6 OTHER PEOPLE YOU KNOW.


THEN TO 36 PEOPLE THEY KNOW.


AND THEN 216 PEOPLE THEY KNOW.


Every day, you are changing over 250 lives

– for better or for worse – just by how you feel.


Feel Deeper.Mean Better.

Make Powerful Games.


THANK YO

U

ST A

Y I

N T

OU

CH

! HO

WE

. CH

EL S

EA

@G

MA

I L. C

OM


ixd play 05: affective design

Design

h o w e

autotelic flow

self consciousness

fear of failure

actionawareness merge

sense of time

optimal experience theory

wonder of life