I have been teaching myself game design. I’m doing it by reading a book called Rules Of Play by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. The authors talk a lot about “meaningful play”. The basic idea is you are not just designing cards and rules. You are designing an experience. Chess is not about the pieces. It’s about how the players play those pieces in an attempt to outwit each other. The pieces themselves could be anything, really. It is the choices and decisions the players make that really make the game.
The optimal player experience you’re going for when you design a game is a state called Flow. This is that state where you feel you are in control of your own fate. It is a state of “focused and engaged happiness”. And according to the authors, there are four things a player needs for flow to happen:
1. A task the player has a chance of completing.
2. The ability to concentrate on what he or she is doing.
3. Clear goals.
4. Immediate feedback.
During flow, players don’t have any concerns for everyday worries. They are too “into” the choices they are making. They are not even thinking of themselves anymore. They are “in” the game. They are the soldier landing at Omaha beach. They are the bishop looking for a way to take the queen. Even time itself seems to slow down. And once the player emerges from the other side and has successfully completed his or her mission, the feeling is one of intense exhilaration.
But flow isn’t just a game thing. In fact, it’s what we all strive for everyday. And since I’ve gone freelance, I have had some time to think about the things that kill flow. One of the biggest is meetings. They are notorious flow-killers. Email is another one.
This past month, I spent my weeks in another city working at an agency there. My days were spent solving problems for their clients. And some nights were spent that way, too. But other nights I got to dive deep into designing the game I’m working on. I found myself writing rules at one in the morning. And I realized, I had been in flow. I wrote and rewrote the entire rulebook in two weeks, something I had been messing around with for a couple of months but couldn’t figure out.
Flow is awesome. But I don’t want to have to move hundreds of miles away from friends and family to get it. So, how can we design flow into the games of our lives? Here are my rules for freelance flow:
1. Know your task. Are you supposed to write a script or build a new interface? If you don't know, you're never gonna feel the flow.
2. Set a measurable goal for yourself. "I will come up with ten ideas for campaigns in the next four hours. I will not stop for coffee breaks." Write it down.
3. Cancel your meetings. In fact, start a rule that you need to have one or two days a week where there are no meetings allowed. Or at least some mornings. Try to schedule three hour blocks for yourself. Tell people you have a doctor’s appointment. Get out of the office and work somewhere else. Get shit done.
4. Shut off the Internet. Impossible, you say? Not true. A program like Freedom does the trick. It literally turns off your Internet for any amount of time that you specify. And you can’t get back on before the time is up without rebooting your machine. Check out the video here.
5. For crying out loud, if your phone bings or vibrates every time you get an email, shut that shit off. It is literally making you insane. And me too. If people really need you to do something NOW, they can call you. Again, schedule time to check email. Because you know most of it is stupid crap from Fab.com.
6. Employ the ancient art of Sitzfleisch. This is one of those awesome German words that there’s not an English equivalent for. It literally translates to “sit-flesh”. But what it really means is keep your butt in the chair and just do it. (This is how the Germans became engineering gurus.) Do not get up to have a coffee. Do not get up to walk the dog. Just sit there in that chair until you are done with your task.
Writing a blog entry, for instance.
Okay, Daisy. Time for walkies.
