Throughout my work on this game design course I have tried to read up on the most important game design theories and mechanisms. It’s not an easy task to figure out what’s the most relevant material, and I guess I could’ve used the entire semester on just this assignment.
During this time, I have also played a lot of the brilliant Audiosurf, a rhythm-based “racing” game that creates tracks out of music files on your computer, and many of the mechanisms that are described as good design choices could directly be applied to Audiosurf. The game doesn’t get static or boring, as one basically have access to an infinite number of tracks. Players are able to get into the game straight away, with minimal training, but it would take a great deal of training to be able to compete with the elite. The game’s core mechanism is extremely easy, just moving your vehicle to the left or right, and the the gameplay is easily discernable and visible through the use of colors.
It’s easy to apply Raph Koster’s notions on mastery, and the learning of patterns to Audiosurf. Indeed, the game is mainly about creating said patterns by collection blocks of different colors, making matches and training the brain to handle more and more complex tracks. If we were to look to LeBlanc’s typology of “fun”, we could say that Audiosurf is “fun” due to the challenges it provides. The pleasure of mastering the challenge, not to mention the social aspect when you see your name on the top of the high score list of the song! LeBlanc also speaks of submission, the game as “mindless pastime”. Bring me one of those as well.
Also Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow term is something that we could use in this context, taking into consideration Audiosurf’s challenging activities and clear goals and feedback.
I asked a friend what he found funny with Audiosurf. Of course this is not an easy question to answer, but he first described the diversity of the game, as the tracks are dynamically created by the software and a music file. He did also mention the social aspect and the thrill of hitting the top of the high score lists, as well as the fun of playing with a friend on the same computer. He didn’t really describe any further game mechanics as such, but these are often hard to express in words.
Another game that shares much of the same characteristics is Tetris, also a mindnumbingly addictive and extremely fun game.
