Check out this great video, explaining the detail that went into designing the first 30 seconds of game play in the original Super Mario Brother’s franchise. I had never really thought about it before, but the level of detail and intentionality of teaching game play is sure genius. No wonder the game was such a smash hit.
Some thoughts on how this applies to the Summer Festival Camp game design for our more complex games:
- For those who miss the rules of a game, what built in clues are there in the game to make it easy to catch on?
- How do we teach participants basic skills that will help them later on in the game?
- What are the ways that participants will most likely screw up? How can we prevent those mistakes? And how can we direct them away from those mistakes or get them back on track quickly?
- How do we reward curiosity with in game play?