Game (Not) Over: The Design and Experience of Positive Experiences of Failure in Games

This thesis examines the role of failure in video games. More specifically, it focuses on positive, desirable player experiences of failure in video games, and the challenge of designing them during the game design process. With the stance that player perspective and game design are always in dialogue with each other, this research adopts both positions through a qualitative and a research through design approach.

This research first examines what we mean by ‘failure’ in video games, at a time when games offer very different experiences to players. It explores the player perspective through an exploratory study focused on identifying positive experiences of failure, and the game designers’ perspective through an interview study focused on identifying the challenges and opportunities game creators face when tackling this design challenge. It then shifts to design, with the creation of a toolkit meant to support game designers and developers when addressing the design of failure in their game. The creation of this toolkit provides in depth insight into the process of designing such support toolkits for game design, and into the process of re-framing the concept of failure as designers, for game designers. Finally, this toolkit is put in action in a series of game design workshops, offering a new, moment-to-moment perspective into the process of designing failure in games.

This thesis argues that failure is a highly contextual, personal experience for players, and that while there is no single flawless formula to design it, we can provide game designers with keys to address and unlock its potential by raising the right questions and contextualizing it critically within a game’s gameplay loop, narrative, and intended design pillars.