The Turning Gate

flOw in Games

My kindergartners' favorite game.

Tecmo‘s Ninja Gaiden is one of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s all-time classic games, and one of the crowning achievements of the 8-bit era of gaming. It’s also one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever played; few games ever made me want to smash my controller as much as Ninja Gaiden. The game was brutally difficult and incredibly unfair. Obviously, the designers had never heard of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of Flow.

As a university freshman, Csikszentmihalyi’s theory was required reading. We spent an entire semester of Freshman Seminar applying his theory to discussions of occupation.

According to Wikipedia, Csikszentmihalyi’s theory on Flow goes something like this:

With Flow, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi names the feeling of complete and energized focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfillment. As Csikszentmihalyi sees it, the components of a Flow producing activity are:

• We are up to the activity.
• We are able to concentrate on the activity.
• The activity has clear goals.
• The activity has direct feedback.
• We feel that we control the activity.
• Our worries and concerns disappear.
• Our subjective experience of time is altered.

Not all of these components need to be present together for Flow to be experienced.

In essence, a task should be challenging enough, in relation to our ability, that it’s not boring; on the other hand, it should not be so difficult that it becomes frustrating. When the task rides the fine line between the two, and manages to hold our attention and maintain our engagement, then we have achieved what Csikszentmihalyi terms “flow”.

Jenova Chen, a.k.a. Xinghan Chen, is a first generation video game design graduate from USC School of Cinematic Arts, and the creator of flOw, a Flash-based game that incorporates Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of Flow into a playable game.

Simple. Beautiful. Addictive. flOw is all of these things and more. Because it’s built in Flash, flOw can be played on any system on which Macromedia’s ubiquitous Flash Player is installed. Chen also provides a downloadable version for PCs and Macs that can be played offline.

Those interested in the underlying theory of the game can read Chen’s thesis on flow in games.

This interview with Chen is also very informative.

But most people, my kindergartners included, will just want to play the game.

The game is simple. You play as a snake-like organism in an ocean. You begin short, and grow longer by devouring small creatures scattered around the environment. Your creature will follow your mouse-cursor, and will move faster when you left-click. That’s it.

The object of the game is to eat anything you can. Initially, your diet will consist of small, harmless organisms. Two special organisms will adjust your depth in the abyss; those with a red dot in the center will take you to deeper levels, populated by larger creatures. Those with blue dots will allow you to ascend to the shallows. Some of the larger creatures will require you to attack multiple weak points on their bodies before they’ll break into devourable pieces. When you eat enough, you grow longer, and when you are defeated, you grow shorter and are returned to the previous level of the abyss.

Players can choose their challenges in flOw. There’s nothing saying that you must face off against any given opponent. If the player would rather bypass a particular challenge, they need only locate the next red organism (easily done by following the red rings that occasionally blip in the direction of the organism) and descend to the next area, where simpler prey may or may not be available.

I’m not alone in enjoying this game. I’ve passed the URL on to friends, and they’ve all enjoyed it. And if you Google flOw, you’ll find a great deal of praise for it. But that’s not all.

I’m a kindergarten teacher in South Korea, and for the last two weeks I’ve let some of my children play flOw on my laptop during playtime. I’ve also allowed them access to a few other benign games. The one they keep returning to again and again, however, is flOw. “Teacher, I want to play flOw!” they beg, every playtime. They love it. I’ve sent the URL home with more than half the class, most of whom have returned to class on subsequent days telling me they played at home.

flOw is, therefore, truly a game for all ages. Nonviolent, wholesome entertainment that can impart some basic understanding of the food chain and organic growth mechanics on children, with them ever realizing they’re learning anything at all. And not a single child has walked away from the game feeling frustrated or angry for not having achieved some degree of success. Rather, they all seem very entertained! flOw, indeed.

Play flOw.

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