Under the Hood: Examining Mechanics and Calibrating Motivators
Most training on game mechanics asks you to study them in the abstract. This course takes the opposite approach: you learn mechanics by playing games.
Under the Hood is a self-paced, mobile-first learning experience built for designers who'd rather get their hands dirty than read another slide deck. You'll play three real mobile games and use each one to practice spotting the mechanics that make it work, as well as the player personas each game is built to resonate with.
Every quest is designed to fit into a 5–15 minute session outside of gameplay, so you can complete one on your commute, on a break, or whenever you've got a few free minutes. There's no fixed schedule and no need to block out hours. You move through the quest at your own pace, on your own time.
The purpose of this quest is twofold:
- To provide you with an opportunity to identify the MOST dominant and recurring game mechanics in some popular free games that you can play on your phone.
- To think about what motivators are being activated as a result of these mechanics.
