Yeah I know I’m putting myself at a disadvantage right off the bat by avoiding addiction mechanics but I’ve spent too much of my life designing them. Time to pursue better ideas, I appreciate the thoughts!

I agree, removing those addictive mechanics will certainly lead to less retention and that’s exactly the middle ground I’m trying to find with GG. Right now I’m thinking about leaving out rewards completely and this just being more of a task tracker than anything.

For me this coming year, the move is picking things that feel good along the way, not just at some imaginary finish line.

I'm also focusing on smaller daily wins, but even those can be tough most days. Either way, let's make some cool shit.

Nailed it. The real work is designing the experience itself, not sprinkling points on top of it.

Thanks for the article and all the links in it that I need to read now.

However, I am intrigued about how that broccoli would taste…