Triângulo mágico: referências conceituais do game design

Abstract

The present research aims at the formulation of a new method, called “Magic Triangle”. Designed to help and assist the game designer in analyzing and creating digital games. The magic triangle brings in its structure three conceptual pillars: affordances, imaginary and flow. Using this method the developer will work on a new layer. The method brings new ways of thinking a game with all its technical complexities, but with a strong theoretical framework that will support the developers. This work begins with a brief history of videogames, bringing some peculiarities and pointing paradigm breaks from one generation to another, in addition it lists the main consoles of each generation. It also presents the concepts that make up the magic triangle, a triad that seeks to establish a relationship between the concepts of affordance and the conception of agent and environment; imaginary and images formulation, as an input for the imagination to be able to keep the games alive in our minds; and the concept of flow and optimal experience, making the game immersive and essential. The research is mainly based on the works of the psychologists James J. Gibson, starting from the studies of the theory of affordances and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi with his studies on flow and optimal experience. The work also is based on the philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Vilém Flusser with their works on the imagination and the imaginary, concept of images, as well as technical images