DEFINITION

Agency

<aside> ⚓ Game

</aside>

Offer tactical choices to the player, both short-term decisions and long-term decisions so that the player feels their actions are meaningful

• Supported Playstyles
• Multiple fail/success states
  • Costs of failure other than death and repeat
  • Extra rewards
• Multiple meaningful choices with consequences
  • Systemic consequences: give many options, process few outcomes (e.g: 4 choices, 2 give outcome A, 2 give outcome B)
• Moment-to-moment decisions
  • Action economy, threat priority, multitude of available actions

<aside> ⚓ Play

</aside>

Leave enough space for them to express themselves and so that no 2 players will have the exact same experience. Design systems so that players can continue to grow in skill over time.

• Emergent solutions
  • Systemic puzzles where the designer can't predict how the player will solve the problem
• Player creations
  • Customization : Leaving traces on the world
• System mastery
  • Micro-challenges (e.g: fast reload mechanic that requires timing an input)

<aside> ⚓ Empathy

</aside>

Respect players boundaries, give ways for them to express a hard no, change their mind...

• Notifications & Warnings
• Layers of intimacy in social contexts
  • Parallel play : Concerted play : Text Chat : Voice Chat : Real information disclosure
• Ways out
  • Skip : Mute
• Retractability, cancel past or processing choice
• Choice of activity: go from one activity to another when bored or tired