Here's how you can incorporate logical reasoning for a successful Game Design career.

Here are some ways logical reasoning can be incorporated into a successful game design career: 1. Mechanics Design Logical reasoning helps in creating and balancing game mechanics. By analyzing the rules and interactions within the game, designers can ensure that the gameplay is fair, challenging, and engaging. 2. Level Design Designing levels that are challenging yet solvable requires a logical approach. Understanding the difficulty curve and player progression is essential. Example: In a puzzle game, logical reasoning can help design puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty, guiding players through a learning curve without causing frustration.

For a logical way to predict player behaviour, dive into the Rational Game Design (RGD) framework. RGD breaks design elements into basic components to understand their relationships, often assigning arbitrary scores to inputs, challenges, and mechanics. These scores are then combined to determine the challenge level in a scenario. By using a double-entry table to model a Game Theory experiment, you can predict the most logical player action given the circumstances. Adjust these values through iteration, remembering that humans aren't always logical. This approach helps prioritize logic over intuition in game design and is very useful at a micro level.

I'd suggest balancing difficulty step by step using Rational Game Design, which by itself should give you a good sense of the challenges players would face and the value on the rewards those challenges provide. You can go a step further and build a Game Theory double entry table to analyse the options players would have at a given point. However, you must remember that people aren't logical and won't always pick the best option on paper. You'll have to factor in playstyles and other systems or mechanics influencing that decision. In the end you should not aim to get a perfect balance 100% of the time, but to offer a variety of viable strategies, which can be verified using these methods. Iterate your initial assumptions through testing.

Just as with the micro elements of your design, Game Theory can be a powerful tool for modelling player behaviour at the macro level. Consider the incentives and punishments we impose on players. How logical is it for them to make a certain choice? This can be intuited by applying principles from economics via Game Theory. Remember, though, that people aren't always rational in their choices, and you can influence their decisions. Take XCOM: EU, for example, where positive feedback loops resulted from conservative play, contrary to the designers' intentions, which usually led to negative feedback loops. Consider how these choices compound over time and it ultimately makes sense from the player's perspective to play defensively.

I wouldn't start prototyping from logic, as it’s often a bad idea to begin bottom-up by doing what makes sense. If you want to apply Rational Game Design (RGD) or a similar framework that prioritizes logic, start with a high-level design focused on the experience and emotions you want to evoke. Then think about how to achieve that. When specific problems arise, use RGD or similar frameworks to find solutions. This approach is best for rational design since imagination precedes implementation, and logic doesn’t always aid imagination; sometimes, it can even hinder it.