I am a self-taught UX designer and a huge fan of video games. Apart from enjoying the feeling of completing a good game, I’m fascinated by the way game designers employ a whole new dimension of user experience and the way humans interact with computer games.

This article is the story of how I designed my own Video Game from scratch — from understanding the basics of game design to overcoming the challenging stages along the way. The game finally got developed thanks to my friend Vivek Kumar (p.s. I’m no coder 😛).

Understanding the Experience of Gaming 🎮

Courtesy: Resident Evil; Source: gfycat.com, alessandromarques

While playing a game, suppose you want to go from door 1 to door 2 in a hallway. One way would be to simply walk across the floor… yeah, that’s no fun 😪. Another way would be to dodge laser obstacles along the way…that sounds a bit cool 😁. Now suppose there are zombies coming out of the floor and you’ve to avoid them and the lasers…now that’s a challenge 😳.

Video games introduce a voluntary effort from the user to solve problems and overcome unnecessary hurdles for fun. — Bernard Suits

To understand the basic concepts of game design, I went through multiple tutorials and read a number of articles. But the best way to learn something is to experience it yourself. Playing different kinds of games and observing the small things gave me enough insights to start designing my own game:

Meaningful Play

People play games for fun, but that’s not enough. Why would someone wanna stick to the end of a game, what motivates them to play for hours?

Goals: a simple, clear and authentic goal is at the heart of every game (for eg. in angry birds the goal is to kill all the birds and retrieve the eggs whereas in far cry 3 goals can range from finding a gun to saving the captured friends from tribes).

a simple, clear and authentic goal is at the heart of every game (for eg. in angry birds the goal is to kill all the birds and retrieve the eggs whereas in far cry 3 goals can range from finding a gun to saving the captured friends from tribes). Discovery: making the player curious about what’s gonna happen next, so that they keep on progressing (for eg. what kind of enemies would come in this level and where would the next level take me to).

making the player curious about what’s gonna happen next, so that they keep on progressing (for eg. what kind of enemies would come in this level and where would the next level take me to). Rewards: giving a feeling of accomplishment to the player for his efforts (for eg. by empowering the player’s character or by using badges, victory royales, leaderboards, etc.) at regular checkpoints or intervals.

Balanced Approach

So you’re playing your favorite video game and as you proceed through the levels and gain skills, have you noticed that the enemies also keep getting stronger. Game designers try to keep things balanced so that the game is challenging enough to keep you interested, not too challenging that you give up discouraged nor too easy that you feel bored.

‘Engageability’

As UX designers, we’re inclined to design products that solve problems, are functional and delightful. Apart from designing for usability, Game UX aims for engage-ability (the ability of a game to engage its users).

Game UX = Usability + Engage-ability

By using the ingredients of balance and motivation along with appealing to the emotion of the player, game designers take them to a state called gameflow (a state of deep focus and immersion devoid of any distraction).