It happens too many times. I turn on my computer and want to play a game I really like, for example Doom 2 or Half Life and suddenly quite a bit of time has passed. The worst case was when I first played Sid Meiers Civilization V: I started the game, played a bit to learn the ropes and as I got hungry and went to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich, it was already past midnight. I played this game for over 6 hours non stop that day.

What this means, besides me most likely having an addiction, is that this game has good cognitive flow.

Cognitive Flow: What is it?

Before I share my opinions on how to achieve cognitive flow in videogames, I want to give you a short description of what flow actually means.
Flow is part of positive psychology and it is the state of extreme focus and immersion into one specific task or activity. Flow isn't only achievable in games, but also in writing, music production, drawing, any activity that you enjoy, can get you in a state of extreme immersion and focus.

I think all of you can relate to this feeling of experiencing flow, but you may not know what causes it in a videogame.

How Flow can be achieved in Games

Games can achieve flow in many ways, suprisingly though, it doesn't only come down to well coded and fun gameplay mechanics. As it is the case for many aspects of gamedesign, flow cannot be achieved with good game mechanics on their own most of the times.

The things that impact flow in a game are the following:

• Map Design
• Health and Ammo Placement
• Cutscenes
• Variation in Gameplay
• Game Mechanics
• The Learning Curve

Of course there are way more aspects in a game that can impact the flow

I will explore every single one of those aspects in the game Half Life 2, which is one of the best examples for immersive gameplay.

Map Design

In a linear, story driven shooter like Half Life 2, map design is one of the most important aspects for creating flow. The Half Life series is known for creating immersive maps which give the player a sense of progression and adventure when navigating them. When you approach the end of a map, the game loads and then lets you progress onward.

So the player can traverse City 17 and surrounding areas more easily without it getting boring. The areas were downsized quite a bit, and built in a way that the player can navigate them easily. Especially lighting and NPCs can aid the player in traversing a map easily.

Health and Ammo Placement

You don't want your game too be too hard to complete, or too easy to even bother playing! Half Life 2 always made sure to give you anything you needed the most in the form of supply crates in addition to handplaced items and charging stations.

Charging stations occur rather often inbetween fights and infinite ammo boxes are mostly present before and during fights, while the supply crates and miscellanious items were handplaced in the map. The supply crates work like this: The game sees that you dont have that much health and revolver ammo, so some supply crates give you more medkits and revolver rounds. While this system makes it easy for the developers to balance the game, it is an easy solution when compared to carefully balancing maps. As a result, quite a few players find Half Life 2 a little too easy, even on the hardest difficulty setting.

Cutscenes

In some games they are nescessary, but it is still better to have less of them. Cutscenes can destroy flow in an instant. Half Life 2 does not have cutscenes, but it does drag on a bit due to exposition scenes. The gameplay is never interrupted, but some scenes, especially in the beginning, drag on for quite a while and only feature people talking to each other. On the first few playthroughs this might not be a problem, but on repeated playthroughs those scenes can be a chore to play through.

A more extreme example for this game design flaw, would be Max Payne 3. This game has excellent shooting mechanics, features a satisfying degree of violence and used the Euphoria engine to its fullest potential, but it is not enjoyable to replay. Cutscenes interrupt the game constantly, some can be skipped, but others are disguised loading times that are unskippable and this can make a game really frustrating to play, even on a first time playthrough.

Variation in Gameplay

While you don't need variation in the gameplay to achieve flow, Half Life 2 used this technique heavily and successfully. The game always gives the player different things to do to mix things up. There are combat sections, puzzles to complete, driving sections and also combat sections that focus on the use of one particular mechanic.

Some of the most memorable moments of Half Life 2, include the Ravenholm section, which you can play entirely while only using the gravity gun, then exploring the highway with your buggy and also the super gravity gun nearing the end of the game, which can even throw larger objects than normally possible and enemies.

Variation can keep the player engaged, but the core mechanics and design principles of the game, should always be present.

Game Mechanics

Game Mechanics should always be designed nicely and utilized throughout the game. For Half Life 2 those include the rather average shooting mechanics, the use of physics in puzzles and combat and the squad mechanic. While the use of physics is pulled off excellently in Half Life, the combat lacks a bit, but the variety in gameplay, definitely makes up for this flaw.

What also aids the flow, is how game mechanics are introduced. In Half Life 2, there is no training room tutorial like in its predescessor, but it teaches you how to play the game while playing the game. It rarely transitions into a standard tutorial mission and mostly just briefly displays a little text prompt telling you what to press to perform the action you want to do. So instead of a radio transmission telling you how to pick something up, a metro cop orders you to pick up that can.

The Learning Curve

Every game has a learning curve, especially multiplayer games. Games can be extremely difficult by design, or really simple. Some games are easy to get into, but hard to master, others are easy overall and thus this maybe is the most subjective category in my list. In Half Life 2 the core gameplay mechanics are really simple and the combat is very barebones at parts. So to showcase how the Learning Curve can aid flow, I will use Team Fortress 2 as an example here.

In Team Fortress 2 you have nine different classes at your disposal that you can play at any time. Each one of those classes has a specific purpose, and the first step to mastering Team Fortress 2, is to learn when and how to use a certain class. Then the player might find out that you can redirect projectiles with the airblast ability and others even use rocketjumping to increase their mobility and speed on the map.

There is always a technique or mechanic that you can perfect or learn in Team Fortress 2 and this in turn can be very addicting.

Summary

To create a game that can get players invested and focused for hours, you need to consider many different aspects of game design. The maps need to have a good progression, the game mechanics should be solid, variation can help a lot to preserve immersion and a well made learning curve, can extend the playtime of online games tremendously.

Flow is important, it keeps us invested and entertained, not just in games, but also in more productive activities, like writing, drawing or producing videos.

All those aspects and presumably many more combined, can make a game very addicting and enjoyable to play. Games I get completely immersed in include:

• Dishonored
• Half Life 1/ 2
• Doom 1/ 2
• Mount and Blade Warband
• Sid Meiers Civilization V

...and of course some more!

Tell me which games you always get immersed in. If you found this article interesting, please give me some feedback and consider following me for more multi medial content!