Week 4: The nuts and bolts: Research and Surveys
It felt like the gears cranked up this week. During our weekly meeting we decided that we were going to mash up two of our favourite ideas from our group rapid ideation sessions. Whilst myself and Hanni set to work on early User Flows and Wireframes, I also continued to research around the topics of replayability and addictive gameplay. I found a lot of useful research papers that explored the differences between playability and replayability, the ludic activities associated with making a game replayable, as well as the key aspects that should be included to achieve this.
The gaming industry continues to grow at an incredible pace, and game developers can find great success by releasing replayable games that engage players and offer opportunities for further titles and world-building expansion packs. In order to find the magic formula, developers will discover that replayability is a balancing act, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of making a game too replayable, or not replayable enough, both of which will affect sales.
“Focusing on design with respect to replayability, the problem lies with balance; too much replayability will not help sell future games, but not enough replayability could result in games that don‘t sell at all.” (Frattesi, 2011)
It is crucial to understand how players perceive both playability and replayability, whether these opinions differ between different groups, and do they match the developers view of replayability. What makes a game replayable and what impact can this have on financial success? Poor replayability not only affects the users experience of that game, which in turn causes them to stop playing, but it can affect any future games developed should the developer wish to expand the series. It can be argued that whilst replayability and success are directly linked, there is not necessarily the same link between playable and replayable. Some games can be considered favourites by players, down to playablity, without being considered replayable. When a consumer purchases a game for an amount of money, then value for money is surely reinforced if the purchased game is high in replayabilty.
Playability - The experience of playing the game for the first time.
Replayability - The reasons behind why a player revisits a game time and time again.
Ludic activities
Ludic activities allow basic replay to exist as they require some form of structure. Ludic activities do not have a formal set of rules, but do require structure (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003, p. 307).
The experience can be replicated through ensureing the game has structure, creating a ‘magic circle’ in which the player can enter time and time again. This is the area in which the game can be replayed, whilst conforming to the rules of the game.
The key ludic activities that should be considered are:
Competition allows the user to determine best strategy for completing a game - so for example on an endless runner, this might be different parts of the terrain that allow the player to finish quicker, or collect more currency.
Chance adds risk to the game, and the randomisation allows for repeated gameplay as each successive game is unpredicatable.
Simulations put the player in new situations that are against their everyday norm, e.g. a flight simulator.
Vertigo provides a feeling that is only relatable to the gameplay, this may encourage the player to replay for this unique experience.
The key aspects of replayability
Difficulty - the player is encourage to beat challenging levels or modes - An increasing performance curve is crucial to making a game replayable. Increasing difficulty levels provide an increasing challenge for players (Adams, Gamasutra - Features - Replayability, Part 2: Game Mechanics, 2001).
Completion - the drive to finish the game, or in our case to gather ALL the trophies
Social Aspects - social interaction due to the game such as competitiveness amongst peers
Randomization - creating a unique experience each time
The Experience - the unique experience gained from playing the game, that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
To sum up, to make a replayable game it must have rules and structure that allow it to be easily replicated time and time again, it must tap into one or more of the key lucid activities of competition, chance, simulation or vertigo, and finally the key replayability aspects should be worked into the gameplay.
User Survey
To gain a better understanding of our target user, and to really get to grips with what players look for when purchasing, renting or borrowing games, I decided to carry out a survey that would inform our design decisions moving forwards.
[SHOW SURVEY]