Chosen pieces

I've started reading some game design-related books, and I thought I'd share some advice that I found in there. The quotes below are not what I find most interesting in these books, but rather concrete advice that I could put to use quickly.

From A Theory of Fun

This isn't an algorithm for fun, but it's a useful tool for checking for the absence of fun[...]. Simply check each system against this list:

• Do you have to prepare before taking on the challenge?
  
• Can you prepare in different ways and still succeed?
  
• Does the environment in which the challenge takes place affect the challenge?
  
• Are there solid rules defined for the challenge you undertake?
  
• Can the rule set support multiple types of challenges?
  
• Can the player bring multiple abilities to bear on the challenge?
  
• At high levels of difficulty, does the player have to bring multiple abilities to bear on the challenge?
  
• Is there skill involved in using an ability? (If not, is this a fundamental "move" in the game, like moving one checked piece?)
  
• Are there multiple success states to overcoming the challenge? (In other words, success should not have a single guaranteed result.)
  
• Do advanced players get no benefit from tackling easy challenges?
  
• Does failing at the challenge at the very least make you have to try again?
  

If your answer to any of the above questions is "no", then the game system is probably worth readdressing.

I'll try and post the rules of the game system as it is today, and match it against this checklist to see where the "nos" are.

From LevelUp!

Foreshadowing is a powerful tool to get a player excited qbout the activities and dangers found in a level. Building anticipation is just as important as delivering on it. In all my years of making haunted houses, I've found that a scare is bigger and better if the victim knows it's coming. It's waiting for the scare to happen that drives them nuts.

For me, I guess that would mean to give the players a glimpse of what they will be able to get (and preferably make them want to get it),. Doing this would increase the emotional reward for the players when they get this long-awaited skill or orb for instance.

From Reality is Broken

[...] Initially, the researchers were perplexed by the gamers' positive emotional reaction to "complete and unquestionable failure in the game". When we fail in real life, we are typically disappointed, not energized. [...] After much consideration, they concluded [..] The players hadn't failed passively. They had failed spectacularly, and entertainingly. [...] The The right kind of failure feedback is a reward.

A key point for me in playing online, persistent games. Usually, failure is perceived as something to strongly avoid, since it often goes hand in hand with some kind of loss (XP - therefore time - equipment, money, possessions - in building games like Travian or ManKind - etc.). If we want the players to look for interaction, and keep looking and defying each other after a loss or failure, the cost of loss must not be so high that they only want to quit.
For The Five Orbs, I have thought of several options. First, no "material" loss when defeated. The ranking may fall for instance, but the player should not feel they have less than before the fight.
The "entertaining" loss immediately made me think about "fatalities" in the Mortal Kombat games. The fight is over, but you still have a mean to interact with your opponent. In that case, it was a means to destroy them even more, but you could think of many other possible interactions (like congratulations, mocking, respect, even the old fatality) that could have real in-game effects.

And the one simple trick used over and over again [to make players feel epic] is this: always connect the individual to something bigger.

One of the core aspects will have to be the multiplayer experience. And by multiplayer, I don't mean one vs. one, or even team vs. team, but how large groups of people could interact together. It's a part of the game I have not given many thoughts about though.

[...] any good game [...] needs compelling goals, interesting obstacles, and well-designed feedback systems.

Yeah, another checklist! :)

[...] good game mechanics. Player action has direct and clear results.

Again, the feedback system is a key point.

So, next step for now is to take my existing game system, write it down here, and check it again all of this advice.