Good morrow! Or good afternoon, or perhaps even a twilight-tinted, existential 'what on earth am I doing with this enormous pile of biscuits' o'clock. Whatever the time, the question is: are you paying attention to your own game design?
Yes, your life. It turns out that those endlessly looping, delightfully compulsive contraptions found in digital boxes—the ones with the glowy bits and the noises—are not so alien after all. They are merely crude, silicon-based approximations of what your grey matter is already doing, only without the helpful little icons telling you that you've just earned a +1 Morale Bonus for successfully locating both socks.
The Core Loop of Being Human
In games, we have the Game Loop: a beautiful, repetitive cycle. Challenge >> Action >> Reward >> Repeat. Mario spots a gap, jumps (action), avoids death (reward), and then spots the next gap (new challenge). Simple, yes?
Now, look at your own existence.
- Challenge: The sink is full of dubious crockery.
- Action: Wash the dubious crockery.
- Reward: A clean sink, a small puff of self-satisfaction (or at least, the avoidance of The Guilt).
- Repeat: The kettle needs descaling, because the universe abhors a vacuum and loves limescale.
You see? It's not just chores. It's learning a new skill. It's exercising. It’s even the noble and necessary act of making a cup of tea. Every little victory, every solved minor problem, feeds back into the loop, making you slightly more capable for the next one. This, my friends, is the Core Life Loop. Without it, you’re just a loose collection of features, like a very nice armchair that can only hum faintly.
Stringing Together the 'Chains' (or, The Joy of the Streak)
Beyond the loop, we find the glorious Game Chains (sometimes called progression spirals). This is where a sequence of consequent successes yields a disproportionately grand bonus. Think of 'strike bonuses' or 'combos.' You do five things right, and suddenly the game says, "Well done, here is a magical flying goat."
Your non-digital life is full of these latent chains, just waiting for a smart, capable person (which is, by the way, you) to initiate them.
- Small Victory 1: Woke up ten minutes early.
- Small Victory 2: Ate a respectable breakfast.
- Small Victory 3: Completed that one tedious task.
Suddenly, you're not just 'having a good morning.' You’ve triggered a +10 Momentum chain! The dopamine is flowing, the universe feels slightly more cooperative, and you find yourself tackling the afternoon's challenges with the sudden, unwarranted confidence of a wizard who has just found his staff.
The Unpredictable Wisdom: How to Leverage Your Own Game
The trick, the glorious, unpredictable twist, is that you are the designer. You get to decide the challenges and set the rewards.
- Define Your Loops with Clarity: No more vague goals. Instead of "Be a better person," try "Read for ten minutes (Action), feel slightly smarter (Reward), then write down one useful thought (Next Challenge)." Clarity is the cheat code.
- Design Better Rewards: That small reward needs to be satisfying. Don't make the reward for clearing the emails a four-hour existential dread session. Make it a decent cup of coffee, a five-minute walk, or permission to look at pictures of small, fluffy animals. The reward must be proportional and immediate to complete the circuit.
- Initiate Productive Chains: Start small streaks. One day of exercise. Two. Three. Don't worry about the final goal. Focus on the streak itself. The momentum you gain from a five-day 'no hitting the snooze button' chain will carry you further than the initial five extra minutes of sleep ever could.
So, go forth. Embrace the glorious, repetitive, and suddenly profitable routines of your life. Design them well, set sensible rewards, and you’ll find that being happier and more productive is simply a matter of getting better at your own, very unique, video game.
Watch a discussion on how to think about game loops for better design in How To Design a Gameplay Loop and Gameplay Loops Are Out, Chains Are In.
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