My Game: Player Experience Goals

The first step of my play-centric design process is to set some basic player experience goals.  These goals are not features of the game but rather an experience that I want my audience to have when playing my game. At this stage, I don't want to detail how these goals will be achieved but will later work the gameplay and story to create situations in which some of these goals may be met.

The player experience goals for my game are:

• Players will have to work as team in order to complete tasks, overcome obstacles and finish the game
• Players will have the freedom to set their own goals and tasks, and pursue these goals in any order and at any pace they choose.
• Players will become emotionally attached to their characters.
• Players will go through a range of emotions throughout the course of the game.

By setting these goals I will be able to add more detail to them and eventually create game mechanics that will fulfill them within the game. I will then run these ideas past other gamers and my tutors to see if these goals would entice them to play my game. With this feedback, I will then be able to update the mechanics until I'm completely happy with them.

When creating my game mechanics from my player experience goals I need to be innovative. Personally I would like to create emotionally rich gameplay and characters that the audience has a deeper empathy for through the use of strong story and gameplay.