Integrating Curiosity and Uncertainty in Game Design

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To Alexandra Ali Safinah Kaufman Geoff Hammer Jessica
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

Curiosity as a psychological state or trait is characterized by a preference for uncertainty that motivates responses such as exploring, manipulating, and questioning. Given the established link between curiosity and player engagement levels, game designers can thus induce curiosity by creating or increasing the salience of information gaps. To this end, a thorough understanding of curiosity - its varieties, antecedents, and consequences - is an essential addition to the designer’s toolbox. This paper reviews five key types of curiosity: perceptual curiosity, manipulatory curiosity, curiosity about the complex or ambiguous, conceptual curiosity, and adjustive-reactive curiosity. It further examines a variety of game examples to show how each form can manifest during play. In addition, the present analysis ties established understandings of curiosity to Costikyan’s well-known theory of uncertainty in games, proposing that designers can employ uncertainty to motivate, manipulate, and accommodate players’ curiosity levels.