Choose a game to play, and play through at least one scene of the game. If the scenes are short, or if you're not sure where one scene ends and the next begins, play for at least 15 or 20 minutes.Next, write about your experiences during play. What happened? What was your experience of the shape of the scene: wide-open, with lots of room for many choices? Narrow, with crucial moments of decision

and pressure? Was there a climax or a twist to your experience, and what aspects of the game created these moments? What do you think the purpose of this scene was, in the context of the rest of the game? Describe what the most important or interesting choice you made was, and talk about how it affected your experience.

What will be an ideal response?

Choose a game that you enjoy or know a lot about. Evaluate how much elements of chance play a role in this game. How much does randomness determine the outcome? Is the game you chose a highly random game (Chutes & Ladders), a game with no randomness (chess), or somewhere in between (poker)? (If the answer seems really unclear, try the same exercise with a different game.)

Now design a new version of the game you chose, but adjust how much randomness is involved. If you picked a highly random game, create some new rules that decide random events in the game in a less random way. For example, instead of rolling a die, what if players were required to use skill instead? If you picked a game with very little or no randomness, introduce or change some rules so that more randomness is involved. This could involve a random number generator for digital games, or elements like dice and drawing cards for an analog game. If your game is in the middle, choose either of these approaches. What do you think of the modified version of the game you've created? Is it more fun or less fun? Is it still practical to play? If you decide it's unplayable or no longer fun, make some more drastic changes to see if you can fix the problem without going back to the game's original level of randomness. What else do you have to change to make the new amount of randomness work?