Practical Game Design

Content burn

As players interact with your game, they will not only gain mastery over game mechanics and systems, they will also grow more familiar with the contents of your game. Humans love to learn, and good learning opportunities are rewarded with feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction. We easily get excited by anything new—a fresh challenge, an untold story, an undiscovered land. While this part of the human condition leads to our players seeking out and enjoying our games, it also leads to them being bored by repetitive and unchallenging tasks or familiar stories. Boredom is what we try to avoid, and unfortunately for we designers, people are as good at learning as they are at spotting patterns. The same brain that can spot animals ...