1) Write a 1-2 paragraph summary of the assigned reading.
In Jolie Menzel’s “Level Design Workshop: Solving Puzzle Design,” she taught all about the art and process behind good puzzles. She defines a puzzle as a “game with a dominant strategy,” indicating that there is one main solution that players are attempting to reach. She tells us how at the core of a good puzzle, it should be fun. She also elaborated on the key elements of a puzzle, noting how puzzles are all about “keys and locks.” She talked about how it’s important that designers know why they’re making a game, because if they don’t know why, their player certainly won’t either. When it actually comes down to building the puzzle, it is integral that the designer: know the player’s goal, give the player feedback, be kind to the player, and have a good story! At the end of her talk, she spoke abut how to troubleshoot puzzle creation, and indicated the importance of always remembering the puzzle is about the player, not the designer.
2) What, if anything, did you find exciting or inspiring about the reading? What do you feel the authors did well? Were there any points that you agreed with?
I was interested by the Emotion of Mastery Sophia loop that Jolie told us about. I had never known about this loop that goes Fear → Surprise → Happiness. I thought about if this is something I had experienced before when I’ve been working on a puzzle, and I definitely had!
I also thought it was interesting how she pointed out that designers will use cameras to push a player a certain direction. That’s probably something I never noticed before, but I could imagine making a huge difference in my player experience.
3) Was there anything that was confusing or unclear? Were there any points that you disagreed with?
I didn’t quite understand what Jolie meant by difficulty dials. I think this means having different levels that work for different player skill sets, but I didn’t quite understand what she meant by this concept.