The Game Design Canvas: Long Term Incentive

Photo: Hamed Saber

What makes a person want to continue playing a game?  What takes a game from a 30 second experience to a 30 hour experience?

To answer this, we’ll have to start from the beginning: Why did the player begin playing the game in the first place?  Fun and enjoyment are the most obvious answers.  The thrill of the chase, the challenge, the quest!  The opportunity to interact with others, to improve one’s skills, or to go on an adventure.  All of these are examples of Core Experiences, which gets people to start playing a game.  People want to have interesting experiences, and games are one way to fulfill that.

How about once they start playing, what does the player do then?  They got there because they were seeking the Core Experience, and then they begin to enter into the game itself.  They jump, they run, the roll dice, they make moves.  They begin to interact with the game  and perform actions within the game’s construct.  Seeking an Experience, they are beginning with the Base Mechanics.  They are beginning to become coordinated, so to speak, to learn to move and live in the game’s world.

Once they get going with the Base Mechanics, then they begin to learn the broader gameplay.  They learn that they need to look before they jump, that they should treat villagers with respect when discussing delicate matters, and that they need to use the red bullets when fighting the red enemies.  They begin to map out the interconnections between the actions they are making and the results the game is serving them.  They are making their way through the Punishment and Reward Systems, learning what behaviors are encouraged and which ones aren’t.  Building on top of the Base Mechanics, the P&R Systems draw them even deeper into the game and to the Core Experience they were originally seeking.

But then what?

After the player has learned the game, how it works, how it interacts with them, what makes them continue playing?  What could cause a player to perform the same actions, the same strategies, the same rituals, over and over, yet enjoying themselves at every step?

Enter the fourth Game Design Canvas component: The Long Term Incentive. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »