The important point with game momentum is that the player should never, ever, ever feel like they’re going backwards. So even though the player is not learning anything new, they are still making progress through experience and leveling up. The player knows that every fight they win, no matter how hard or easy that they will gain experience and move ever closer to their goal. Playing a traditional JRPG, if a boss is too tough for you, you can always grind out levels to overtake them stat wise. That’s where game progression momentum comes in and it’s about using the systems and abstracted mechanics to push the player on. The problem with player progression momentum is that it is finite, eventually the player will reach the point where they can’t learn anymore and either will get through that wall, or be defeated by it. If you can’t figure out the enemy attack patterns and when to attack, you’re never going to win period. I’ve spoken multiple times about how important the player’s skill is at winning a game like Dark Souls. What’s great about League of Legends is that win or lose, you’re still making momentum towards unlocking something new. Even though the player dies or messes up, they’re learning through their failure what was the correct action and get better in the process. Player progression momentum is mainly seen in skill based titles like Dark Souls, Mario, fighting games and so on. And just like how there are two forms of progression, momentum can be gained via two methods.

Motivating someone to keep playing a video game can be tough, especially if they are having trouble or are stuck at a certain part. However, when the game itself puts up the wall forcing the player to feel frustrated and stop playing, then the player leaves with a negative experience. Mastering a game usually leaves the player content at the fact that they’ve seen everything they wanted and they can go on to another game without having any loose threads left. There is a positive aspect of this and it is when a player masters a game and has seen everything there is and moves on. Going back to the concepts of progression, this could mean either the player has reached the point where they can’t learn anymore or the player has reached a wall in terms of content and can’t move forward. This is why the concept of game saving was such a godsend towards making games accessible and why unorthodox save systems are frowned upon or criticized more.Īnother part of wasting time is the ever unpopular state of getting stuck in a game. You run out of lives and all the progress you made playing was gone and the slate was wiped clean.Īction titles are all about player progression which can make them very rewarding or very frustrating if you hit a wall.įrom experience I can tell you that one of the most frustrating things is repeating the same exact content after already mastering it. This is what made early video games very challenging and frustrating as there were no save functions or even passwords. I’ve yet to meet anyone who loves to have their time being wasted and even more so when playing a video game. Both forms of progression have the same goal: To prevent the player from feeling like their time is being wasted. Obviously someone who is really good at the game will be able to beat more levels and earn more achievements compared to someone who isn’t. What’s interesting about the two is that you can’t really track player progression on its own, but it can be measured through game progression. Game progression refers to momentum earned via in game abstraction: Leveling up a character, unlocking a new skill, beating level one and going to level two and so on. Such as learning the right combos and special moves to use in a fighting game.

Player progression refers to the player’s skill level improving and learning how the game works. Hearthstone is just about dead to me in the same way that Card Hunter was and both suffer from one of the biggest things a designer has to worry about: Keeping someone interested in playing.Īn important element of any video game made is progression and it can be divided into player and game. I’ve been struggling to keep my enthusiasm up while playing Hearthstone, but each time I stopped playing it was not out of being tired but not wanting to play anymore.

Game progressions hiide