Roy Caseley
University of the Arts London
Course Leader BA Games Design
London College of Communication (LCC).
University of the Arts London (UAL).
Senior Lecturer in Games Design 2001 to present.
In this capacity I have developed several courses from the ground up, through the validation process and delivered those courses to students through to their graduation.
The students I have worked with have won many auspicious prizes and competitions including a student BAFTA nominations.
I have taught both theoretical and practical units, overseeing many projects from initial ideas, the various stages of prototyping and testing through to the final playable games.
This presentation is the result of formal research I have undertaken at UAL.
I consider myself to be a hands-on Game Design lecturer who integrates both my design and teaching practice.
Roy Caseley is speaking at the following session/s
What Game Designers Can Learn from Cognitive Psychology
As a multi-disciplinary field, game designers often discuss the structure of games and the players’ experience using theories originating from other domains. A well-known example would be the behaviorist theory of positive reinforcement and game reward systems. This lecture introduces another directly connected but overlooked relationship between games design and cognitive psychology.
I will discuss how concepts and theories from the field of cognitive psychology can be applied to the design of games and more specifically puzzle design. The term puzzle is used in a broad context to include any type of challenge which involves an element of mental problem solving. Examples will range from stand-alone puzzles, such as Wordle to those games with puzzles embedded into them, such as Limbo.
Using existing games as examples, I will introduce psychological concepts and models that will provide a framework for game designers to analyze puzzles in terms of their design, and their impact on their players’ thought processes.
The presentation will provide a range of ideas and terminology adapted from cognitive psychology to help designers describe and define new puzzle ideas as well as providing a language by which to communicate design ideas across development teams and with other collaborators.
The presentation will be interesting for all of those involved in game design and development as well as academics working in Higher Education Art and Design as a tangible example of how theory and practice inform each other.
Session Takeaway
- New perspectives on game design and player problem solving within games.
- Understand how players frame and process information, consciously and unconsciously, during puzzle solving.
- A set of concepts and terminology to discuss the game design process and the players response.
- How theory and practice inform each other.
Session speakers
