For my creative research project, I'm interested in looking at how difficulty and learning function in video games. I'd like to examine the learning curves, experience curves, and other elements of difficulty in several games. Ideally, I'd like to try and uncover which types of curves and rates make for the ideal level of challenge in a game, with as little frustration or boredom as possible.
I'd also like to look into player metrics, to uncover tried and tested methods of measuring difficult concepts, such as learning, experience, and difficulty. If possible, I'd like to run primary test rounds on players, gathering data on their progression and how they feel the game is going. To do this, it would be ideal to have access to games with notable tutorial styles, such as Super Mario or Portal, but I'd also be interested in creating my own game - such as a simple puzzle game or platformer - and testing its tutorial capabilities.
Areas of note for me to research, so far, include classical learning and experience curves as seen in psychology, Will Wright's take on learning curves, the psychological model of Flow, and information on player metrics such as Seif El-Nasr's Game Analytics.
By the end of this project, I hope to have some answers to questions such as;
- Is player learning in a game constant, constantly increasing, or exponential?
- What constitutes a general ideal learning rate in a game?
- How can this ideal be implemented? How is this difficult to do?
- Can mathematical models describe certain useful learning curves?
- What methods are best for gathering player data?
As an aspiring video game designer, my ultimate goal is a practical, applicable experience in instilling the correct difficulty progression in a video game.
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