Resonance


Game Design: The Lens of Resonance

You must look for hidden power.

  • What is it about my game that feels powerful and special?
  • When I describe my game to people, what ideas get them really excited?
  • If I had no constraints of any kind, what would this game be like?
  • I have certain instincts about how this game should be. What is driving those instincts?

The Lens of Resonance is a quiet, delicate instrument. It is a tool for listening to yourself and others. We bury important things deep inside ourselves, and when something causes them to resonate, it shakes us to our very core. The fact that these things are hidden gives them power, but also makes them hard for us to find.

(The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell, Carnegie Mellon University, 2008. Page 56)