Emotional journey 1: Frustration

How to make people frustrated, i wondered?

By creating something which is in itself frustrating. It could be as simple as an easy to understand, but difficult to solve, game.

I drew a little sketch of an interface that would be frustraing in my sketchbook, which is loosely based upon the 'matching pair' game premise. Where you have lots of card facing down, and you have to find matching pairs turning only two over at a time:



http://www.hatley.info/youngsters/game.html

My sketch looked like this:

fig 1

It would be slightly different as there is only one pair (coloured in black), and the rest would be blank (white)

fig 2

.fig 3

fig 2: shows how the game would start. you'd then click on random boxes hoping that they'd be the right combination
fig 3: shows the finished game

I realised that this wouldn't be difficult or frustrating enough though. This is because in a game of 36 squares, with 18 pairs to make, i finished it in a minute or so (like most adults), with only minor irritation. Also, the game is aimed at children so it couldn't be too hard.

. In my notes, i thought about the idea of a 'reset schedule' i.e. you only get a certain amount of tries to complete the puzzle, and then the correct combination changes, and you have to start guessing again! I could apply this to any frustration mechanism i end up creating.

Also... i thought having a split screen may be a fantastic idea. i.e. having audio/visual information on the right that shows you which part of the experience you are at, and having to do the frustrating puzzle on the left in order to access the next part of the experience!

This would mean that i have made progression more difficult than someone else may have found it, or they can experience my sometimes easily irritated personality, whereas they themselves might be really patient and not have found the experience annoying as i did!

I came across an idea whilst doing this. Perhaps you could also make an experience harder/easier i.e. based on the amount of mobility/skill/experience the individual had. So... being able to do something with someone elses limitations/talents. i.e. something as simple as viewing a browser with partial sightedness, or being able to play the piano really well. Or, experiencing something with someone elses personality i.e. going to a flower arranging show through a garden enthusiasts eyes

Anyway, I'd like to play with the idea of frustration first, and trying to combine it with say.... getting the Internet to work. So, whilst your playing the game on the left and getting it wrong, on the right it would affect the computer, and it might come up saying 'unable to connect'... or 'Internet has low or no connectivity'. the interface would just be a different, more difficult way of getting it to work.

Today, i'm going to see if i can get the basic premise of my frustrating game to work (ignoring the reset schedule for now!), in visual basic. If not, i will create a few example page layouts in paintshop pro to demonstrate how it would work.