ixd play 05: affective design
TRANSCRIPT
05
IXD P
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05:
AFFEC
TIVE
DESIG
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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
3@ M A N O J A LPA C H E L S E A H O W E
Engagement Economy:
Where attention is currency and
games won the lottery.
GAMES ARE REALLY POWERFUL
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SO WHY AREN’T THEY BETTER?
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“What does it mean?”
“How does it make you feel?”
“What do you think when you see this?”
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“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 ?
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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
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FLOW: THE ENVIRONMENT
Clear GoalsGames vs ToysAccessibility of Objectives
Immediate FeedbackProgressFailure
Balance Between Challenge/SkillFrustration/BoredomAdaptive Difficulty
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FLOW: 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
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FLOW: 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
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FLOW: “SELF CONSCIOUSNESS DISAPPEARS”
We are on automatic
Action without contemplation
Doing without feeling
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YOU CAN’T FEEL WHEN YOU FLOW
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YOU CAN’T FEEL WHEN YOU FLOW
shit.
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WHAT OTHER THEORIES ARE OUT THERE?
Psychology?
Cognitive Science?
Human-Computer Interaction?
“Enchantment” – McCarthy et al, 2006
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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
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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.”
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…
ENCHANTMENT: DEPTH
• offer the potential for the unexpected
• give the chance of new discoveries
• provide a range of possibilities
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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
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ENCHANTMENT: 1. A SENSE OF BEING IN PLAY
Systems or objects that challenge familiar categories and values are more likely to be enchanting.
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ENCHANTMENT: 2. SENSUOUSNESS OF A SYSTEM
Activating and appealing
to the senses:
compelling stylesvisceral textures tantalizing audio
mesmerizing motion
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ENCHANTMENT: 3. HOLISTIC PLAYERS: DESIRES, FEELINGS, ANXIETIES
Designing for generic players begets generic games.
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ENCHANTMENT4. THE TRANSFORMATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The Gestalt Shift
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SCALE CHANGES
ENCHANTMENT4. The Transformational Experience
SECRET SPACES
ENCHANTMENT4. The Transformational Experience
BOUNDARY BREAKS
ENCHANTMENT4. The Transformational Experience
EMERGENTFUNCTIONALITY
ENCHANTMENT4. The Transformational Experience
NOVEL I/O
ENCHANTMENT4. The Transformational Experience
ENCHANTMENT: 5. PARADOX, AMBIGUITY, OPENNESS
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THIS IS MORE THAN ENCHANTMENT
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AMBIGUITY THROUGH MINIMALISM
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OPENNESS
Players project themselves into
the spaces we leave behind.
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ABSTRACTION
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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.
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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.
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BUT BEF
ORE W
E GO:
WHY
FEEL
INGS?
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EVERY TIME YOU FEEL AN EMOTION, IT SPREADS ON AVERAGE TO 6 OTHER PEOPLE YOU KNOW.
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THEN TO 36 PEOPLE THEY KNOW.
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AND THEN 216 PEOPLE THEY KNOW.
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Every day, you are changing over 250 lives
– for better or for worse – just by how you feel.
47@ M A N O J A LPA C H E L S E A H O W E
Feel Deeper.Mean Better.
Make Powerful Games.
48@ M A N O J A LPA C H E L S E A H O W E
THANK YO
U
ST A
Y I
N T
OU
CH
! HO
WE
. CH
EL S
EA
@G
MA
I L. C
OM
49@ M A N O J A LPA C H E L S E A H O W E