The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses

Interest curve patterns can be fractal.

when we aren’t happy with how we are judged, we work hard until we are judged favorably.

an experience had by someone else and, ultimately, unsharable. This is why deep listening is so essential for a game design.

Pride in an Accomplishment.

chance means uncertainty, and uncertainty means surprises.

Foundational rules are a mathematical representation of game state and how and when it changes.

Q1. Games are entered willfully. Q2. Games have goals. Q3. Games have conflict. Q4. Games have rules. Q5. Games can be won and lost.

mechanics are the core of what a game truly is. They are the interactions and relationships that remain when all of the aesthetics, technology, and story are stripped away.

phenomenologists who study what game designers care about most — the nature of human experience and “the feeling of what happens.” Their primary tool was introspection — the act of examining your experiences as they happen.

There are four principal mental abilities that make gameplay possible. These are modeling, focus, imagination, and empathy.