What makes a good game?

After reviewing my notes from playing through each type of game, here is a list of the key components of what makes a good game (for me). These are not in order of importance. I'm not sure that I would be able to rank them. I think that you really need all of these to make a really good game:

1) Quick Entry: If I can't figure out what to do or how to do it fairly quickly, I will become frustrated and probably move on to another game or activity.

2) Feedback: This probably the biggest category, because it comes in many forms. I need to know where I stand, whether this is a health bar, or a progress bar for XP, or health bars for my enemies so that I can determine whether to fight or run. It also means that I need to have some idea of whether I am making progress or not toward my goal. In education, this would be called a formative assessment. There need to be activities that somehow let me gauge my improvement and what I still need to do, and also to provide me with incremental steps to reach those goals. Finally, when I get stuck, I need feedback to offer guidance. In gaming, this often comes in the form of NPCs offering suggestions, or in-game hints. I don't want to be told what to do and how to do it, but if I am facing a difficult challenge, and I am going about it the wrong way, it is extremely helpful to get feedback to get me headed in the right direction.

3) Consistency and clarity: Things need to make sense in the world of the game. That doesn't mean that everything has to work as I would expect it to in the real world. I can accept game mechanics that defy logic or physics, but only if they are consistent and can be clearly identified. Also, I need at least some idea of my objectives. I am fine with having flexibility and multiple forms of victory, but I need to have some indication of what I am trying to accomplish. If I can't figure it out, I am wandering aimlessly.

4) Puzzles and challenges: I love a good puzzle and welcome challenges in games and in life. However, when learning something new, if the challenges are immediately immense, then I am less likely to persist. I am reminded of the experience my son had with two different sports. First, he had an interest in fencing. He tried it, and loved the action and the equipment, and the competition. However, he quickly realized that there was so much to learn that he was rarely getting to actually do the things that he wanted to do, and the skills that he would need to get there would take a long time to develop. He quickly lost interest. Next, he tried archery: and the experience was completely different. After learning the basic mechanics of holding the bow, drawing and shooting an arrow, he had learned essentially everything there was to know to participate, and he could engage in simply getting better. He loved it. This is informative to gaming as well as learning. The more time we have to spend acquiring new skills without any application, the less time we spend enjoying the action. Also, with regard to puzzles, make sure they have a purpose. In one of the games, there was a mechanic involving finding different keys to unlock a particular area. However, there was also a way to access the area without any of the keys. This meant that there was no need to solve the puzzle, and that aspect of the game was pointless. Give everything a purpose.

5) Mix it up: The best games, for me, are the ones that require different styles of play in order to reach the objective. In some cases, this goes to having different classes of players and characters. In other cases, it simply means that there is a shift between all-out action, strategy, puzzle-solving, and exploration. There are certainly single-mode games that can be entertaining, but when you need to flex different muscles at different points in the game, the long-term playability increases.

The blog with my thoughts on each game type can be found here.