Ernest Adams, one of my favorite writers about game design, has written a piece about mixing in action game elements into other formats. Along the way, he talks about accessibility, challenge, and design principles. Now, I’ve argued in different places for not throwing in gratuitous twitch elements, based upon some instinctive reactions, but he makes a cogent case why it’s wrong in a broader context.
In short, his argument is that throwing in twitch reactions rewards the twitch gamer, and precludes other players. And, when the game genre doesn’t naturally support it, it might preclude the audience you want. For learning games, this is more the case, when you want to keep the focus on important decisions. You can still have random events, keep score, etc, but don’t require motor skill coordination unless that’s essential to the ultimate performance.
Glad to have someone else say it, with the nuanced discrimination it needs. Recommended.
Leave a Reply