Understanding Game Design: A Behavioral Perspective
- Vlad "DBuilD" Nizhutin
- Apr 29
- 11 min read
Have you ever felt an impulse you couldn’t quite explain or resist? Or perhaps you’ve noticed people repeatedly falling into the same behavioral patterns. Some activities consume your time and focus effortlessly, making hours feel like minutes, while others seem to stretch endlessly. You might have also recognized that certain themes and experiences you enjoy appear across various cultural phenomena—books, movies, games, sports, or even business interactions—without fully understanding why.
Today, we’ll explore game design from a behavioral perspective, focusing on how people behave in different circumstances and why their neurochemical processes drive them in certain ways. By shifting our perspective, we can uncover new ideas and analyze game design from fresh angles, allowing us to see patterns and possibilities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
We’ll primarily examine these concepts through neurophysiological and psychological lenses, but to keep things accessible, we’ll avoid overly complex terms, explanations, and nuances. To the experts in neuroscience—consider this a simplified take, not a deep dive.
Before diving into the gaming process itself, we need to establish some key terms. Since we’re focusing on a behavioral perspective, we’ll discuss the brain and its reactions on a medium abstract level—avoiding deep dives into hormones, neurochemicals, and complex social behaviors like willpower or higher-level cognition.
To put it simply: for this article, “brain” equals “human,” with all the corresponding simplifications.
The Brain as an Energy-Conserving System
From an evolutionary standpoint, energy conservation is a fundamental principle. Organisms aim to waste as little energy as possible while storing any excess. For example, the body prefers storing fat over muscle because muscles require constant energy to maintain, while fat serves as an efficient energy reserve. This mechanism helps survival in environments where food is scarce.
However, we’ve also learned to “trick” this system—by exercising and consuming less food, we can force the body to preserve muscle and burn fat instead.
Now, let’s apply this idea to the brain. The human brain consumes around 20% of the body’s energy, making it one of the most resource-intensive organs. While cognitive power is useful, it’s also wasteful to operate at full capacity all the time. Instead, the brain seeks efficiency—minimizing effort while still processing enough information to ensure survival.
Introducing the Dynamic Stereotype
So how does the brain balance energy conservation with environmental awareness? It creates shortcuts in thought processes.
When we experience similar environments, objects, and patterns repeatedly, the brain forms automated mental scripts to handle familiar situations without reanalyzing them every time. This is what we call a dynamic stereotype—a built-in “shortcut” that automates behavior in known environments.
Let’s summarize: A dynamic stereotype is an automated mental program that allows the brain to process familiar situations with minimal effort.
So, why does this matter? Because every time a dynamic stereotype is broken or disrupted, the brain experiences high levels of stress, consuming significantly more energy. Essentially, when a mental shortcut no longer works, the brain is forced out of its “energy-efficient” state and begins searching for a new stable pattern.
You’ve likely felt this in real life. Think about moving to a new place—or even a different country. Everything feels strange, unfamiliar, and mentally exhausting. During this transition, it’s easier to form new habits and break old ones, but daily life feels far less comfortable. That discomfort persists until you successfully build a new dynamic stereotype, at which point your surroundings begin to feel natural again.
Another clear example is how people behave differently in various social groups. You act differently with your family than you do with your party friends, and your behavior at work is distinct from both. This happens because each social setting reinforces its own dynamic stereotype, allowing your brain to operate with minimal effort within each environment.
This concept is also widely used in effective communication strategies. If you want someone to feel more relaxed, you should create an environment that matches their existing relaxation stereotype—for example, a dimly lit, soft, and quiet space. However, it’s important to note that it’s not the darkness, softness, or quietness itself that makes someone relaxed. Rather, it’s the fact that the person has already associated those conditions with relaxation in the past, forming a pre-existing dynamic stereotype.
The Mechanisms Behind Habits and Stereotypes
Before we go further, we need to understand what builds habits and dynamic stereotypes in the first place.
Even though we said we wouldn’t dive into brain chemicals, dopamine is too important to ignore—it’s also one of the most misunderstood concepts on the internet.
Most people think of dopamine as a “happiness hormone”, but that’s not quite accurate. Dopamine is more like a “motivation and anticipation” chemical—it helps us imagine the results of our actions and pushes us to seek rewards. Instead of just making us feel good, dopamine reinforces behaviors that help us survive and encourages us to pursue goals beyond what is immediately accessible.
Dopamine in Evolution: Why We Search Before We Find
To understand dopamine’s evolutionary purpose, imagine one of our distant ancestors sitting on a tree, looking out over the yellow fields of the savanna. Somewhere in the grass, a predator—like a leopard—might be hiding. If our ancestor casually glances around, he might miss the predator and fail to react in time, leading to a very short future for his bloodline.
To survive, he must actively scan his surroundings, looking for familiar patterns that indicate danger. This is where dopamine comes in.
If he spots a hidden predator, his brain releases dopamine, reinforcing the behavior—“I searched, I found, I survived.”
If he doesn’t find anything, the dopamine system keeps him searching because the reward (staying alive) is still possible but not yet achieved.
Over time, his brain learns that scanning the environment is important, reinforcing it as a habit that happens automatically in the future.
This is a core dopamine function: it doesn’t just reward success, but also drives us to keep seeking and anticipating rewards—whether they exist yet or not.
This is how habits and stereotypes form: when a behavior leads to a desirable outcome, dopamine strengthens the neural pathways that make us more likely to repeat that behavior in the future.
Connecting It All to Game Design
Finally, let’s bring everything together. By now, you’ve probably seen where this was leading.
With this perspective, we can define our core objective as game designers:
Since our goal is to make games that people want to play, we must carefully construct stereotypes in the player’s brain and use dopamine feedback to reinforce actions.
This leads us to six key insights that game designers can use to build better, more engaging games.
1. Genres Work Because They Rely on Pre-Existing Mental Shortcuts
From this perspective, we can see that genres aren’t just a collection of mechanics—they are cognitive shortcuts that reduce mental effort.
For example:
Shooter games feel intuitive because our brains already associate soldiers with guns and bullets with lethal force.
Racing games work because we expect cars to have engines, sound, speed, and specific handling physics.
It’s important to clarify: this isn’t about cultural familiarity—it’s about cognitive efficiency. Players don’t need to “learn” shooters or racing games from scratch because the brain already has shortcuts for these elements, making immersion easier.
Thus, the more your game builds on existing mental models, the easier it is for players to get into it.
On the other hand, the more experimental your game is, the harder you’ll have to work to build a new stereotype for the player.
2. Unique or Experimental Games Require More Reinforcement
Games aren’t one-to-one simulations of reality—they introduce new rules and mechanics that don’t exist in the real world.
For example, in most racing games:
Cars don’t crash realistically.
Drivers don’t die.
Physics often feel “game-like” rather than real.
These game conventions don’t work by default—players must internalize them as new stereotypes.
This is why the more unique or unconventional your game is, the more effort it takes to establish these new mental models. And how do we do that? Through dopamine-driven reinforcement.
This brings us to our second major insight:
The more unique your mechanics, the more time and effort you must spend reinforcing them.
This is why tutorials are critical in experimental games. While “free and open” tutorials might work for familiar genres like shooters or city-builders, they may not be suitable for more abstract or experimental experiences.
But here’s a key mistake: simply telling players the rules isn’t enough.
The brain doesn’t internalize new information unless it is reinforced through actions and dopamine feedback.
Thus, for every new mechanic or rule deviation, designers must create mini-games that help players form new habits and patterns—making the new mechanics second nature.
3. Using Old Mechanics to Reduce Cognitive Load
Since new mechanics require reinforcement, we usually don’t build games entirely from scratch—instead, we reuse familiar mechanics to make learning smoother.
However, designers must also be cautious about how old mechanics interact with new ones.
For example, consider racing games before realistic destruction physics:
Players were accustomed to cars simply slowing down after a crash (e.g., classic Need for Speed games).
When realistic destruction was introduced, it clashed with the existing stereotype, leading to player frustration.
Even though car damage is realistic, it felt wrong because it disrupted an already established mental shortcut.
This means that even if individual mechanics are familiar, their combinations can create unexpected cognitive friction.
4. Early Dopamine Feedback is Critical for Player Retention
We don’t want long-term dopamine rewards in the tutorial phase, or we risk losing players before they get invested.
For long exploration-based games, designers must ensure that early interactions provide short-term dopamine hits—whether through:
A satisfying interaction (e.g., picking up an item with a click sound).
Quick initial victories (e.g., defeating an easy enemy).
Immediate positive reinforcement (e.g., a rewarding visual animation).
5. Reinforcement Can Come from Any Sensory Feedback
Dopamine reinforcement doesn’t have to be complex or mechanical—it can be as simple as a well-designed sound effect.
For example:
The “tick” sound when landing a critical hit.
The distinct sound of picking up an item.
Visual feedback when taking damage or healing.
These elements, often overlooked in traditional game design discussions, are actually essential to forming dynamic stereotypes in the player’s brain.
From our behavioral perspective, they serve as reinforcement tools that help build cognitive shortcuts and keep players engaged.
6. Balance Stereotype Disruption, or Risk Losing the Player
If you disrupt too many stereotypes too quickly, you create stress instead of engagement, and the player quits.
This gives us a concrete way to analyze game flow—instead of relying on vague terms like “fun” or “emergent gameplay,” we now understand that:
Flow happens when familiar patterns are slightly broken, but not to a frustrating degree.
This means when analyzing a game, we shouldn’t just ask:
“Is it fun?”
But instead:
“How much stress are we creating by disrupting the player’s mental shortcuts?”
Breaking Down Games Through a Behavioral Lens
Now that we have a new perspective on game design, let’s put it to the test.
We’ll analyze how popular games reinforce behaviors, manage dopamine feedback, and reshape player stereotypes—starting with one of the biggest recent breakthroughs in game design:
Vampire Survivors: The Perfectly Reinforced Loop
On a high level, the optimal way to play Vampire Survivors is simple:
Walk in circles.
Kite enemies.
Gather experience.
Level up and grow stronger.
This is an extremely easy pattern for the brain to grasp—it requires minimal cognitive effort due to its simple controls and predictable progression.
But here’s the key:
The game never explicitly tells you to move in circles. Instead, it subtly reinforces the behavior through dopamine feedback.
How does it do this?
Enemy drops = EXP chunks. When you pick them up, your EXP bar fills up.
Leveling up = instant reward. After gaining enough EXP, you immediately get a power-up selection, reinforcing the idea that picking up EXP is beneficial.
Early progression is fast. The first level-up happens almost immediately, giving players an instant dopamine hit and teaching them the core loop without a tutorial.
Enemies come from all directions. This forces players to keep moving, but if they stop thinking and just follow their instincts, they naturally start kiting in circles to optimize EXP collection.
Damage feedback is gradual. Instead of dying instantly, the player slowly loses HP, creating negative reinforcement that helps them recognize what behaviors to avoid.
The result?
Players stop thinking and start acting on instinct, driven by a constant loop of kill → collect → upgrade → survive.
And notice how every step of this process is reinforced by sound design:
EXP pickups have a sound cue.
Each enemy hit plays a sound.
The more enemies you hit, the more sounds you hear.
This continuous stream of auditory feedback amplifies the dopamine loop, making each action feel rewarding.
Roguelikes & Dopamine Manipulation
Now let’s expand this idea to roguelikes and roguelites, a genre that has reshaped the market by mastering dopamine reinforcement.
Some of the most influential roguelikes include:
The Binding of Isaac
Enter the Gungeon
Risk of Rain
These games thrive on a mix of short-term and long-term dopamine reinforcement:
Short-term dopamine: Small stat boosts, item pickups, and weapon upgrades give the player an instant sense of progress.
Long-term dopamine: The true power of the build is realized much later, creating anticipation of future success.
This is why random item generation works so well:
The player doesn’t just get stronger—they start imagining how strong they will become in future fights.
Once they defeat the boss using their build, they experience a massive dopamine spike, leading to the thought:
“That was awesome. Let’s do it again.”
This design philosophy revolutionized the industry because it allows developers to reduce content production (dialogue, locations, characters) while maximizing player engagement through procedural mechanics and randomized reinforcement.
Different roguelikes implement this in unique ways:
Binding of Isaac: Uses wildly different item effects, increasing the power of combinations.
Risk of Rain: Uses exponential stat scaling, making power infinitely stackable.
Enter the Gungeon: Uses crazy weapon variety, reinforcing exploration and discovery.
Additionally, they all use randomized chests to reinforce short-term dopamine loops:
Players don’t know what’s inside but anticipate something valuable.
Different tiers of chests (rarity-based, locked vs. unlocked) keep the anticipation fresh.
Dark Souls: Breaking & Rebuilding Stereotypes
Finally, let’s look at Dark Souls, a game that completely reshaped RPG design.
At first glance, Dark Souls seems too hard and punishing to have succeeded. But its brilliance lies in how it systematically breaks and rebuilds player expectations.
1. The First Boss: Immediate Stress & Stereotype Destruction
Most RPGs start with easy enemies to let the player ease into the mechanics.
Dark Souls does the opposite.
The first major boss is brutally difficult, immediately shattering the player’s existing RPG stereotype.
This sudden cognitive stress forces the brain into “stereotype reconstruction mode.”
The player thinks: “Wait, this isn’t like other RPGs. I need to rethink everything.”
2. Gradual Learning Through Fair Punishment
Once the player accepts the difficulty, the game starts introducing core mechanics in a natural way:
Roll dodging, parrying, stamina management, bleeding resistance—instead of a tutorial, these are taught through failure and experimentation.
The game never tells you explicitly what to do—it makes you figure it out, reinforcing each lesson through trial and reward.
Each time the player overcomes a challenge, they experience a huge dopamine surge, reinforcing the newly built stereotype of “I can overcome difficult things if I adapt.”
Final Takeaway
This behavioral perspective offers a powerful way to analyze games, shifting our focus from ideas to the brain itself.
Instead of asking:
“What mechanics are fun?”
We ask:
“How do these mechanics reinforce behaviors and create stable dynamic stereotypes?”
By understanding how the brain forms habits, anticipates rewards, and balances stress, we unlock new tools for game design—ones that go beyond traditional ideas of “fun” and “balance” and into the core of player psychology.
Comments