At this stage I needed to develop three different game ideas at the same time, and in order to get a clearer understanding of what experiences they could bring to the player, I looked for some references from a number of related games. These references would help me better understand how similar experiences were constructed and what role intuition played in them.
ROOM-9
When constructing this idea, I focused more on games that are centred on space, pacing and environmental pressure. These types of games usually don’t give the player a lot of time to think, and the pace of the game is tight enough to keep the player on edge.
Gameplay footage on the web
Games like INSIDE give me a very visual reference for this. It’s hard for the player to know what’s coming up ahead, and a lot of decisions are driven by the pace and danger of making a move. Players often can’t think at a single point for very long, and many times judgement occurs physically before thought.
In addition, some games that favour space exploration, such as No Man Sky, also made me realise that the player’s judgement in the game does not necessarily come from explicit cues, but from the player’s gradually developing familiarity with the space. When one is familiar enough with the environment, intuition will take precedence over thinking.
Falling Mind
This game idea leans more towards instant reaction. Compared to space-based games, this one focuses more on the actions people make in a short period of time, such as dodging, moving, and so on.
Gameplay footage on the web
This direction reminds me of some games that focus on rhythm and reaction speed. Rhythm Master is a very representative rhythm mobile game in China, where the player needs to follow the rhythm of the song by pressing or sliding the squares in the screen. Often the brain is completely unable to keep up and has to rely on awareness and intuition to keep up.
Here intuition is closer to a trained reflex. The feedback of failure and success is so immediate that the player becomes accustomed to it through repetition. This intuition is fast, intense and very dependent on physical sensations.
Parcel Flow
Parcel Flow is more of a slow-paced judgement game than the first two ideas. It focuses not on immediate reactions, but on the judgement that people develop in repeated processes.
Gameplay footage on the web
This direction reminds me of some management or process-centred games. These are games where players need to stop and think about the rules at first, and as the process becomes more complex, judgement needs to be made faster and faster, even if it no longer requires deliberate thought.
Overcooked, for example, is apparently a co-operative game, but with high-intensity processes, players quickly turn mechanical and gradually rely more on intuition. Gradually, intuition is expressed as a grasp of the rhythm of the process, and players begin to assign tasks based on feelings, rather than rationally analysing each step.