Game Decisions

 For this weeks readings I looked at the theory of flow state, this was very interesting and taught me a lot about game engagement. A flow  state is when a video game player is hyper focused and fully immersed in the game they're playing. Flow is a skill used by game developers to keep players highly engaged with the game for as long as possible. This is achieved by presenting your player with a challenge. The type of challenge you present to the player has to be dependent on their skill level, this is because the player will become disinterested if they can complete the tasks too easily while on the other hand they'll grow frustrated and likely quit if they struggle with the challenge because it isn't matched to their skill level. So once you have provided a sufficient challenge to your player you have gotten them into the flow state, to keep them there you must do a few things, the difficulty of the challenges must rise as the players skill set and understanding of the game increases. The game must also adjust if the player if finding it too challenging at some points or if they're easing through each obstacle, this is how you keep the player in flow state. You can ask yourself a few questions about your game to see if its engaging enough, Does your game have any difficulty spikes? Does your game have any long sections of easy tasks? Do you get the player to do the same tasks and fight the same enemies repeatedly? Does your game introduce new skills and ways to use the skillset.