The difference between engaging and appealing, and why I'm rethinking my tile animations
I was watching a video recently that broke game design down into two core pillars: engaging (fun to play once you're in) vs. appealing (enticing enough to start). Simple split, but it clicked in a way that made me immediately look at my own project differently.
The part that stuck with me most was the idea of the "toy factor." That the best games feel like toys strung together with challenges. The example was a sword with a satisfying swing and screen shake. Before any game loop exists, swinging it is just fun. That's the toy.
It made me audit my own game. I have a mechanic where you select tiles and they appear where they need to go. Functionally it works, but it's kind of instant and inert right now. Some haptic feedback, no personality. I started wondering: if I add a little animation - a slide, a pop, a satisfying settle, does it cross the threshold into feeling like a toy?
The video also talks about the "power of but" — that interesting decisions come from competing goals, not just challenges. A game isn't engaging just because it's hard; it's engaging because you're choosing between things that both matter.
Curious what your toy moments are in your own projects. What's one mechanic you kept playing with before the game loop even existed? And has anyone else found that something purely cosmetic ended up being load-bearing for engagement?