Player Skill & Game Design Concepts

A set of question-and-answer flashcards reviewing key ideas about player skills, skill vs. chance, head vs. hands, and competition vs. cooperation from the lecture.

What attributes typically make up a player’s PHYSICAL skill in games?

Strength, dexterity, hand-eye coordination, speed, and endurance used to perform real-time actions.

SOCIAL skill

Reading or fooling opponents, coordinating with allies, communicating or concealing information, and guessing others’ intentions.

MENTAL skill

Memory, observation, puzzle solving, strategic decision making, and general problem-solving under uncertainty.

VIRTUAL skill

A skill possessed by the player’s character in-game; the real player only pretends to have it (e.g., lock-picking stat).

REAL skill

A capability the actual player must personally perform through the game’s mechanics (e.g., aiming, timing jumps).

Why must designers balance real and virtual skills?

The right mix creates fun and accessibility; too much real skill raises the skill ceiling, while too much virtual skill can feel hollow.

How do SKILL and CHANCE act as opposing forces in design?

Increasing one tends to reduce the influence of the other; too much of either can undermine balance and fun.

What three ingredients make a game addictive?

1) Letting players exercise a real skill
2) confronting them with uncertainty or chance
3) allowing them to work a strategy.

What does the HEAD-vs-HANDS balance question ask?

How much of the play should demand physical activity (hands) versus thinking and planning (head).

Two methods to adjust a game’s Head-vs-Hands balance.

Add puzzle-solving sections to an action game, or include action/light sections that require little thinking in a heavy strategy game.

How do games of SKILL differ from games of CHANCE?

Outcomes depend primarily on player ability in games of skill, while randomness dominates results in games of chance.

SYNERGY

Cooperative interactions that amplify the effectiveness of participants working together.

ANTERGY

Interactions that hinder or negate teammates’ efforts, reducing overall effectiveness.

Why do humans naturally engage in both competition and cooperation?

To survive and thrive: we learn our own and others’ abilities, improve skills, and discover how to work together when needed.

How can poorly measured player skill affect feelings about winning?

If victory stems from chance rather than skill, players may feel less pride and the result may seem hollow or unfair.

What design challenges arise when strangers must cooperate?

Ensuring communication tools exist and creating tasks that truly require collaboration without frustrating forced dependence.

How can assigning fixed roles both help and hurt gameplay?

It can foster teamwork through clear responsibilities but may restrict freedom and lead players to ‘do their own thing’ if roles feel forced.

Why might alternating sections of skill and chance broaden a game’s appeal?

Different player types enjoy different mixes; alternating keeps both risk-takers and skill-focused players engaged.

How does TEAM competition supply both cooperation and competition?

Players cooperate inside their team while simultaneously competing against other teams, satisfying both social drives.

PHYSICAL activity

How strong the player is, how fast they can move their hand-eye coordination, and how long can they play

What role does continuous decision-making play in most games?

It provides ongoing mental challenge, sustains player agency, and keeps gameplay engaging even in single-player experiences.

Play, free, rigid structure

___ is ___ movement within a more ___

Rules

The context or environment wherein play takes place

What is play (2nd def)?

the manipulation that indulges curiosity

Interactive structure, endogenous meaning, struggle towards a goal

A game is an ____ of _____ that requires players to ________

Fun

the business of games

Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Fellowship, Challenge, Expression, Submission, Discovery

LeBlanc’s Taxonomy of Game Pleasures

Embedded Narrative

Narrative that designers put in the game

Emergent Narrative

Narrative created thru player action

Will the players have fun?

When u start making the game, ask this.

“How do I make a game that is fun for the player?

Planning ahead. More difficult to answer, but the answer can be used as early as the game’s design phase.

Designers, players

____ create the game, ____ consume.

1. Pre-production

2. Production

3. Testing

4. Pre-launch 

5. Launch

6. Post-Production (Maintenance)

6 Key Stages of Game Development

Design Team

Knows everything (the script, story, scenes, sounds, etc). A lot of planning and control involved

What makes games different/unique media?

Some control in the player’s hands

Players aren’t part of the design team

Player’s experience determines how good the game is

Lack of predictability

the essence of play

replayability

factor of a game that makes it fresh to consume

Stories

are a single-threaded experience that can be enjoyed by an individual

Games

allow for many possible outcomes that can be enjoyed by a group or in some cases, individuals

Traditional storytelling

Audience is supposedly completely passive as they just listen

Interactive Storytelling

Field in digital entertainment where the storyline is not predetermined and the narrative is self-generated

The participant’s ability to take action

In games, the ____allows the experience for interactive storytelling to be different

Game system

entities in the game interacting with one another through behaviors, as dictated by the rules

Experience - Driven Design

That thing we call fun is a feeling that we want to invoke, and that feeling is an experience.

The MDA Framework