Well, I agree with guys who says that you have to look anywhere. Yesterday I read an article which sums up with: play is everywhere. I say that design is everywhere, also. That’s why every time I experience something new that feels fun I try to analyze it and learn more about designing this experience.

So as you can probably guess I was for the first time on the climbing wall. I was scared, I fell down couple of times but gosh, that was fun to do I even got an achievement: the peak man!

So first time what I did was to analyze myself afterwards and to sum up what elements as I think were important to design of this climbing wall. Then, when I got home I went online and searched more about climbing wall design. That site helped me a lot.

But first let’s see what I felt afterwards, because if games could excite as much… that would be darn cool!

1. I could start real experience really fast. Everything was intuitive. I climbed before so I knew how to do it and it was easy. –> It wasn’t hard to learn how to climb. I didn’t have to work some way just to start the fun.
2. Later a difficulty laid in finding the right way so I had a stones to reach, then even later stones were in bigger distances so it wasn’t as easy to grab or step on them. –> Difficulty was gradually increasing.
3. I was happy when I reached about half of the climbing wall – only a half to the top! –> Just by looking I could tell what my progress was. Even if I was tired at this moments I could maintain my focus, because it was so closer to the top!
4. What’s more when I reached the half I could see on line of sight a second floor of the mall. That was something, right? I could feel that I was really high already.
5. Still, that part of my journey to the top was the most difficult for me. I fell down couple of times and I had doubts about getting to the top. –> But I had a clear focus so I kept going on. Also when I fell down the guy who secured me didn’t let me fell to the floor. Instead I fell just couple of meters and I could start my climbing just from the spot where I lost.
6. At the beginning I was afraid to fell down. I was secured of course and I trusted my instructor, but I was afraid. After the first time I knew that falling is safe and even… quite fun –> It’s ok to fall down, even that it’s part of the fun!
7. It was strange to feel how my hands was sliding from the stones, because with the time I stopped, they were sweating.. –> You have to be fast. Making stops as short as possible in order to prevent too much sweating. A mechanism that keeps you motivated. Gravity prevents you from cheating
8. I learned just by playing, experimenting, i.e.: that I can catch one stone with two hands so I can climb up just by holding one stone, not always two as I did. –>  I learned by myself to be better in the future and I could feel that I discovered something (Aha! moment). I didn’t need any tutorial to make this… Just a stone that was bigger and I thought why not to try? Of course I was in the safe play circle and I knew that nothing dangerous will happen to me.
9. It was just me and the experience. My instructor, let’s call him the master didn’t interrupted me. He just suggested couple of times what I should do. He was my secure. –> I wasn’t irritated, because I didn’t feel that someone told me what to do. I was feeling free just like in good games.
10. Afterwards I felt: WOW! It was something amazing and I wanted to tell everyone about this. Couple of hours passed and I was still excited about this, just like I was still there climbing… What a powerful experience! –> But it was fun. We could easily make a game from this, but… Can a game be as much exciting? Yes, I believe it can! But I can remember only couple of games like this and… just the moments in these games that made me feel excited. Why it’s like this?

I felt I achieved something great. Why so? What was the theme of this experience? Reach the height you wouldn’t think you could reach? To be able to look from the top? And… Why we love to do so many things at the height? Even if we don’t love this we still adore this… Why?

I thought that we can learn something from this. That’s why I analyzed some articles about climbing design. I even bought this book, still waiting for it, though.

More in the next article!

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games connected · new experiences · wall climbing