Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Lenticular Game Design

posted by n1 on Thursday April 03 2014, @11:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the nothing-like-call-of-duty dept.

lhsi writes:

Mark Rosewater, the head designer for Magic: The Gathering, has written an article where he explains Lenticular Design. Some of the article uses cards from Magic: The Gathering as examples, but the main explanation is mostly generic.

The idea of Lenticular Design is that when designing a game, make some components mean different things to different levels of players so all skill levels can access them. If a component is complex, a newer player might be confused by it (which will put them off playing your game), but highly experienced players may eventually get bored with too many simple parts. Lenticular Design adds hidden complexity into components so newer players don't notice them, but more advanced players can take advantage of this additional level of complexity.

He lists a number of rules when designing (within the context of designing a card game, however the descriptions are general enough that they could apply to a lot of game types).

Rule #1 Some Complexities are Invisible to Inexperienced Players
Rule #2 Cards Have to Have a Surface Value
Rule #3 Experience Is Connected to How Far Ahead a Player Thinks
Rule #4 Novices Tend Not to Think of Causality
Rule #5 Players Will Try to Use the Cards to Match Their Perceived Function
Rule #6 Let the Players Play the Game They Want to Play

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Lenticular Game Design | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 18 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by clone141166 on Friday April 04 2014, @02:17AM

    by clone141166 (59) on Friday April 04 2014, @02:17AM (#25989)

    I agree, I think a key example of where this is applicable is user interface design.

    I think the real challenge to UI design is making an interface that is intuitively understandable to novice users while still maintaining more complex functionality that - while obscured from novice users - is still easily accessible by experienced users.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 1) by gishzida on Friday April 04 2014, @02:47AM

    by gishzida (2870) on Friday April 04 2014, @02:47AM (#26007) Journal

    I recently read somewhere a review of the Angry Birds UI [mauronewmedia.com]... which showed why it works as well as it does and does exactly what you have just described.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @04:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @04:53AM (#26041)
    In contrast with Windows 8 Microsoft made complex functionality harder for experienced users, and even made logging out and shutting down harder for novice users.