Game UX Masterclass - Part 3/4: Engage-ability

This Session is Part 3 of a 4-session Masterclass on UX applied to the development of video games. While it can be taken independently from the 3 others, we will draw from a lot of notions tackled in the previous sessions.

Part 3: Engage-ability (3 hours)

Making fun and engaging video games is hard, and with thousands of games being released every year, the competition is fierce. One of the keys to crafting successful video games is to make your game engaging (aka fun).

Engage-ability is about making a game emotional and engaging, which implies a deeper understanding of human motivation and emotion. We will dive into extrinsic motivation (clear goals and rewards), intrinsic motivation (self-determination theory), emotion in design, and the concept of game flow. The “engage-ability” part covers how to successfully onboard players (i.e. first time user experience over, roughly, the first minutes to an hour of play) as well as how to keep players engaged over time, with a specific focus on player motivation. This Part 3 session, along with Part 2, provide participants with a set of ingredients to make their own successful video game recipe (those “ingredients” are relevant to any type of game or platform).

(Not included: Part 1 about brain limitations, Part 2 about usability guidelines, & Part 4 about UX strategy and ethics)

Who is this for?

This Masterclass is targeted to game developers: designers, artists, gameplay/UI programmers, producers, and UX practitioners.

Main takeaways

- Understand why humans do the things they do (motivation).

- Explore how to foster emotional experiences.

- Understand flow in games (onboarding, difficulty curve, & pacing).