Studio 6 - Flow Theory & Fun Keys

Flow Theory Key Factors

1. Tasks that offer a chance of completion

(No-one plays a game for long if it seems too difficult to succeed)

2. Tasks that facilitate concentration

(such that people become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic…)

3. The task has clear goals

(It is important in any game that the player knows what they are attempting to do, as soon as they lose sight of this their desire to play decreases)

4. The task provides immediate feedback

(Player’s want to know how well they are doing; hence the need for a score or energy bar)

5. The task leads to deep but effortless involvement

(that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life)

6. A task that facilitates a sense of control over one’s actions

(People like to feel seamlessly in charge of the experience)

7. Concern for the self disappears during the task, yet paradoxically sense of self emerges as stronger when the flow task is completed

(for example the sense of victory if you do well in a game)

8. The sense of duration of time is altered

(Everyone has lost track of time when playing a particularly good game)

The 4 Fun Keys create games' four most important emotions:

1. Hard Fun: Fiero - in the moment personal triumph over adversity
2. Easy Fun: Curiosity
3. Serious Fun: Relaxation and excitement
4. People Fun: Amusement

(source: http://www.xeodesign.com/whyweplaygames.html)

So now we now what flow theory and the 4 fun keys are all about and what they concern, I am now going to apply the flow theroy and 4 different fun keys to some different games in order to demonstrate how these principles can be integrated into any game.

Game 1 - The Text Express

You can try this game for yourself at: http://uk.games.yahoo.com/d/ztextexp.html

The text express is basically a game concentrated around the user typing or using the mouse to come up with as many words as possible, and it is designed as a race. At the top of the game screen there are two trains (one is AI and one is the users), the more words, and faster the user types using the letters given the faster their train will move across the tracks to the end of the line. The main objective here is obviously to get your train to the finish line as fast as possible, whilst beating the AI train in order to progress onto the next level.

I believe when you apply the flow theory to this game, the game, itself covers all areas of the flow theory with good measure. I can vouch for this because as I personally went to spend 10 minutes giving the game a brief evaluation I found myself being immersed into the game and before I knew it an hour had past. From the very beginning of loading this game the instructions told me cleary what my objective was, how to achieve this task and time was flying past without me even realising.

The only negative thing that I can mention in terms of the flow theory is that the game didn't require effortless input because whilst trying to constantly think of new words that can be made, typing them as fast as possible for an hour long was quite painful to the user's hand.

Hard fun

I believe that this game comes under the category of hard fun mainly because the game over time became more challenging and a lot more frustrating to the user.

One of the reasons that the game became more challenging was because after each level was completed the AI train would move faster along the track which means that the user is forced to think and type words faster in order to complete the new levels. Only after a few levels some users became stuck because on the games language (it uses US English) so when the user attempted certain words they would be incorrect because they were not spelt the American way.

The reason that the game was deemed frustrating was because the user feels like that have achieved something in the game only once they had completed a level. As levels progressed so did the users frustration because of the language barrier and the constant need to type faster and faster each level, which eventually caused pain to users hands.

Other types of fun

This game didn't fit under the category of serious fun because it isn't really an exciting game and the only user satisfaction seems to be derived from completely a level only.

It also did not fall into the category of easy fun because at times the game became quite challenging and frustrating. Easy fun games should be based up relaxed gameplay, easy to understand/pick up from scratch and also have very little challenge to them.

People fun is non-existent within this game because it is solely a single player derived game with no expansion for multi-player. The only interaction the user has when playing this is game is with the AI train (which doesn't really use AI as it is programmed to follow certain speeds for each level), and the keyboard/mouse.

Game 2 - RocketMania!

This game can be found at: http://uk.games.yahoo.com/d/zrmania.html

The concept of this game is that the user has to try to 'fix' a messed up grid of pipes which will connect the flames on the left-hand side to the rockets on the right-hand side. Whilst they are attempting this the user is made aware, that there is a time limit and an objective of a certain number of rockets need to be launched in order to gain access to the next level.

In terms of flow theory I believe that this game can not really be applied to the theory because once you get to a certain higher level most users become stuck, even when the game is set on easy mode. Also because there is a lack of competition there isn't any real incentive for the user to carry on playing the game except for the satisfaction of completing the lower levels over again until the become stuck once more. So once the main factor of enjoyment is taken away the user is left simply to feel frustrated by the game. As well as all this there is also a steep difficulty curve applied within this game which is clearly shown by the user getting stuck on certain levels for long periods of time.

Hard fun applies to the RocketMania! game because it can be very frustrating on certain levels and at certain times throughout the game whilst the user is trying to figure out how to 'fix' the circuit of pipes in order to launch a rocket. Thus meaning that the main enjoyment from this game is when the user manages to complete a level.

Serious fun also applies (to a degree) because whilst the game can be frustrating it can also be quite exciting for the user attempting to complete the connections between flames and rockets against the timer because there is an object to be met or its game over. There is also a good balence of difficulty implemented within this game because it allows the user what difficulty setting they would like to play the game on, these are; easy, normal and hard.

Easy fun obviously doesn't apply to this game because it is difficult and frustrating at times for the user which is the opposite of what the principle of easy fun is.

RocketMania! does not fit into the People fun category because it is a single player game with no outside interaction with other people at all. The main aspect of this game is that it is based around one person playing the game without the need of multi-player versions.