Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design

Chapter 4. The Player Experience

In this chapter we look at the kinds of knowledge players need to play games. We look at the five layers of player experience: sensory, information, interaction, frame, and purpose.

In the previous chapter we talked about the different kinds of play games can create for players. But to play the games, we ask more of our players than just using the actions to interact with the objects and other players inside a playspace. Game designers, particularly videogame designers, need to understand a little bit about cognition, a little about hand-eye coordination, a little bit about information and interface design, and a slew of other topics that help them design for people. As game designers work, they need to keep in ...