Essay: Aspirational Play – Adding a Sense of Wonder to Game Design

Overview

Aspirational game elements are a great add-on to any fundamentally strong game, and are worth the extra money and time used to make them because the possibility found in those aspects motivates and inspires players to continue playing.

What

  • Adding secret levels/stuff to your game may take extra time/money but is worth it
  • People don’t just experience what is given to them in the game, but the internet shares with them other things
  • Aspirational play: the idea of being able to experience something in the future

Why

  • When creating aspirational game elements they should focus on a sense of possibility to make players want to start/continue playing
  • Players will experience the mystery elements of your game/want to find them, and will help make the money back to the effort that was put in to make the hidden stuff in the first place

How

  • Core game can’t be boring or people won’t care about finding hidden things
  • Aspirational aspects inspire people to pick up the game and/or keep them playing the game

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