Most games won't stick into the players' minds.

They could be technically good, but they're shallow experiences with no meaning attached to them; they're games for the sake of it. To turn them into meaningful experiences, the player must resonate. With a Resonance-driven game design, you'll empower players' thinking skills and create a whole new level of interactivity between your and the player's brain.

This week, I'll show you what Resonance is and how it creates meaningful game experiences in the players' minds.

A Modern Game Design makes Resonance his #1 priority.

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We’re going to discover:

• How Resonance Actually Works?
• Example Of Resonance In Games

Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

How Resonance Actually Works?

Resonance happens when two or more meaningful experiences link to each other in your mind.

It's an effect that I'm sure you're familiar with despite never being fully aware of. Consider this.

You're living an experience (it could be of any kind and size), and you catch a deep meaning in what you're experiencing. But, like a shot in the dark, your mind goes back to that event of an experience (a game, for example) with the same Theme. Suddenly, you feel the connection between two experiences that a few moments ago were unrelated.

But this is not the most intense part yet. You now see the two experiences in a different light; you've enriched your perspective on that Theme.

This event is called Resonance.

But what's the point of this?

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Resonance amplifies the relevance of an experience’s meaning in your mind.

The focus activity of Resonance is the meaningful interpretation of an experience and not the experience itself.

3 main factors (among many) will increase a meaning’s relevance:

• The amount of experiences linked to it
• How much (subjectively) deeper the meaning is
• How deep the experience presents it

The stronger these factors, the easier it will be to create the link and to access an experience from memory.

As you might have guessed, curiosity stands at the base of this process. If the player develops curiosity towards a Theme, he’ll seek more resonating experiences to increase the relevance of that meaning. The reason is simple.

Resonating always generates an emotional response from the player since the outcome is learning (Raph Koster’s “A Theory of Fun” fits perfectly here). In other words, Resonating feels good.

But don’t fall prey to an easy mistake.

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The linking factor is never an experience concrete element.

Take, for example, 2 common events. You played (in the past) a game with a specific song, and you listen (now) to that song on Spotify.

That game will probably come to your mind, but that's not Resonance. Let me tell you why. Resonance's main outcome is enriching your point of view about a Theme by making you think about the experience you resonated with. In this case, the 2 experiences are linked by a common element and not by their meanings. You're experiencing what's called nostalgia.

Hence, you're not enriching the understanding of anything. It's just an equality of elements in different contexts.

Those 2 songs are the same song, that's it!

This brings us to another strong misunderstanding about Resonance.

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The linking factor is never a common emotion.

This is one of the most frequent mistakes. When it comes to art, emotion is a tool, a crucial one, but still just a tool.

Like in the nostalgia situation before, imagine feeling an emotion playing a game that reminds you of the same emotion felt in the past. This is not Resonance as well because you’re not increasing the understanding of anything. It’s a reflection of the same emotion in two different contexts.

Don’t mistake the emotion you feel due to the Resonance with the resonating trigger itself. That said, emotion in Resonance is essential since it strengthens the link between experiences.

Now, let’s see a brief yet detailed example of this effect in games.

Example Of Resonance In Games

Imagine playing a game whose Theme is "War".

You then catch an interesting interpretation of the game that hits you. You derive a Message that revolves around a criticism of War.

But that's not the first time you heard about War. So another experience about War (another game, your grandpa telling you a story, a narrative book, etc.) suddenly comes to mind. The 2 experiences have the same Theme (War).

But the new meaning you interpret from the game makes you see the past experience differently. You've enriched your understanding of War as a Theme, and you feel good about this.

Here's how 2 meaningful experiences link in your mind and why people say: "Oh, this game reminds me of…".

However, Resonance is not independent of the person, so it's crucial to understand its subjective factor.

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Resonance events don’t have all the same intensity.

The phenomenon structure is the same, but the intensity will vary a lot. The subjective factor is so big that it would make Resonance not trigger at all for some people.

Several factors give the intensity of the Resonance effect:

• Player’s genetics and environment
• How many elements communicate the meaning, and how
• The player’s mood at that moment
• The player’s knowledge of the Theme

These are indeed big factors!

As you can see, there’s a significant amount of subjectivity to consider; hence, the Resonance effect is not predictable. But, non-predictability is one of the core elements of its power. If it were a deterministic process, it would have no value.

Game Design is always about nudging the player by doing everything possible (as Game Designers) to make him do what we want.

And the Resonance Theory helps us understand why meaningful games are designed to last.

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Key Takeaways:

• Resonance links two or more meaningful experiences to each other in your mind.
• Resonance amplifies the relevance of an experience’s meaning.
• The linking factor is never a concrete element or an emotion.
• Resonance events don’t have all the same intensity.