🧝🏾 🔣 ⛄️ How to keep the player's attention in the game 🎂 👍🏿 🤘🏾

Hello, my name is Enona, I am a beginner orchestra man.

Today I would like to talk about the importance of one gaming feature. It describes how well the game copes with not letting go of the player’s attention for a second. For simplicity's sake, let us call this characteristic Zalitelnost and reveal its significance.

So why is she so important? Because the game is a different world, and ideally, the player should be so immersed in it so as not to switch to the reality around. This guarantees the very state of the flow, which is so pleasing to the human mind, or, to the extreme, a full immersion in another reality.

Usually MMORPG, MOBA and RTS (although this happens!) Do not suffer from related problems, where all events occur in real time and it is quite difficult to start drooling while looking at the screen. It is rather a problem of turn-based games where you need to wait.

So how to brighten up this expectation? (In my opinion, out of all the turn-based games I've known, Hearthstone has dealt with this task best of all, so it will often appear in the examples).

Animation

In modern games, one beautiful picture is not enough. Animation is as important as graphics. It is important in order to maintain attention. “Oh, something is moving” - and my eyes involuntarily stick to the screen. It is much easier to turn away from a static picture, because you know that nothing will change on it in a second or a minute. An animated game is more interesting to follow.

The game must breathe. This is how the heroes of the game Yes, Your Grace.

The main thing is that you can animate anything: avatars, heroes, buttons, backdrops, cursors, who have enough imagination. However, according to subjective feelings, I can say that the most interesting thing is to follow living beings.

From a personal example: I once opened Blast Voyage. I did not particularly like the game, but the girl, ~~clearly under the substances~~ on the swaying boat, pleasantly brightened up my company. True, I still dropped the game, but 10 levels later.

Reminders

I do not think this technique is good, because it is used when the player is already thinking, but he is and certainly not superfluous.

Usually this is the character’s reaction: Sonic looks at the player and impatiently stamps his foot, and the characters from Hartstone on behalf of the player voice what they need to think now.

It can also increase the sound volume if you have a ticking timer, or other sound.
The bottom line is to return the player’s attention to the game.

Text information

The point is, while the player is waiting, give him something to read. Usually this technique is used during loading, because it is obvious that in this place the player will get bored, especially if he has a weak connection or a slow comp. This means that he can switch to the next tab, see what the girl of his dreams wrote to him, after which he will immediately go on a date with her and begin to lead a social life, and will never play your games again!

I just want to say that the boot screen can be used wisely. Someone writes information about the ENT in the game, someone prompts how to play the game, someone petrosyanit (like me, only better).

But do not abuse pop-up dialogs or tips. In most cases, adding text to a game does not make it better, because players prefer to play rather than read.

Though with a stretch (since the player listens more often than reads), dialogs between characters in Dragon Age can be attributed to this point. Running around between locations, which sometimes still tires, the authors brightened up a chatter between the partners of Hero Ferelden, which is cool, because it helps to reveal the characters.

Interactive elements

It is important to remember that GAME = INTERACTIVITY. It’s good when you can play with all the game elements - even with the cursor! If any tapping or clicking on the screen causes a reaction in the game, then this is wonderful!

How is this possible?

When I saw how Blizzards got confused, I honestly was impressed.

When you click on the screen, the eye on the cursor blinks. When the sand on the screen - it rises. But besides that! They have several blanks for the stage with various interactive elements - sometimes you can play a melody by clicking on the giant's nails, sometimes grow a garden, or turn on the light in the house. This keeps in the game, and somehow pleasantly relaxes, the game is somehow intense. :)

Music and sounds

What do you think when a bunch of words “Music” and “Game” appear in one sentence? I think of Heroes of Might and Magic III. There is not a single track that is not worthy of attention and a deep sense of respect. This music adjusts to the desired atmosphere from the first seconds, I can even deliberately sip it in the main menu or my castle to let the game caress my ears.

But not with all games it happens.

Perhaps a matter of taste, but honestly, I can’t hear that already.

Explain to the player what is happening while they are waiting.

The expectation is annoying, but the human psyche is such that people are ready to endure inconvenience, for good reason. When you say that the game needs to load Assets, something like “well, assets is important, I don’t want to play without assets” in the subcortex, and the player is no longer forced to endure an incomprehensible expectation, but he himself gives him internal approval.

Hearthstone very well thought up the opportunity to monitor the enemy: he selects a map now, or reads a description, or he intended to hit your enemy, but at the last moment changed his mind. Firstly, it warms up the imagination: what kind of card does he have there, why does he choose between these two? Secondly, it makes it possible to better study the behavior of another player.

The course needs to be thought out very carefully.

The more combinations for the move, the longer you can think about it. Chess is a good example. You can often see how two chess players bend over the board and freeze motionless for several minutes. All then to think over all possible future moves. Otherwise, do not win.

This is a feature of a good turn-based strategy. When you play Battle for Wesnoth, you get a similar experience. There are several heroes who constantly need to cover each other and guard their leader, trying at the same time to reach the enemy. And even if there are only 10 units, it matters where each of them is located and in what order they will attack.

And in Civilization, for example, it’s also very easy to occupy yourself during the opponent’s turn: you need to calculate so much information that it hardly fits in your head. In addition, you can always take a closer look at the situation in your cities, foreign cities, or once again go through the resources on the map.

Here in Hartstone, the player has several cards on his hand and not so many possible moves. Perhaps that is why they have to use so many other tricks.

Continuously submit information for thought

We continue the theme of civilization. There is so much going on in a course that you can analyze the course for a long time and in detail. And, therefore, there is something to do not in one's turn.

This happens due to the fact that many actions occur automatically - cities grow, workers build roads, scientists study, barbarians take to meet new neighbors. Not all games can boast such a luxurious, vibrant in-game world. When the game seems like a practically living system, it's generally very cool, but it's a topic for another conversation.

Conclusion

If you want to bother your player and make you think only about your game (at least while he plays it), analyze where he might get bored. Use the opportunity to supplement such places with content that will not only save your game from the presence of a weak spot, but rather make it more interesting and stronger.

How to keep the player's attention in the game