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	May 22, 2013

		Blizzard Entertainment Senior Software Engineer, Server

		Blizzard Entertainment Senior Software Engineer, Game Play

		Blizzard Entertainment Senior Software Engineer, Game Engine

		NetherRealm Studios Senior Software Engineer

		NetherRealm Studios Lead Software Engineer

		Monolith Productions Lead Mission Designer

Gabriel Recchia's Blog

I'm Gabriel Recchia, a recent graduate of the Indiana University Ph.D. program in Cognitive Science. I think a lot about games and game-like systems that help people build positive habits, as well as those that are just plain fun. You can see some of what I've written at Motivate Play, or find out more at my personal website.

Member Blogs

SpaceChem's Zach Barth on educational games & tutorial design
Posted by Gabriel Recchia on Sun, 05 May 2013 03:34:00 EDT in Indie, Console/PC, Design, Production
An informal conversation with SpaceChem's Zach Barth on educational games, lessons learned from SpaceChem, how his studio is adjusting its process for their upcoming game Ironclad Tactics, and the challenges of tutorial design.
Read More... \| 2 Comments

Self-determination theory at GDC
Posted by Gabriel Recchia on Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:20:00 EDT in
Self-determination theory, one of the most well-studied theories of motivation in psychological science, is becoming increasingly applied in the game development industry--at least, if the number of shout-outs it received at GDC is any indication.
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Sixteen ways to motivate - is your game tapping into them?
Posted by Gabriel Recchia on Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:47:00 EST in Design
Multifaceted theories of motivation propose a fixed number of basic desires that motivate human behavior. Is your game tapping into them?
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Intrinsic/extrinsic motivation: A false dichotomy?
Posted by Gabriel Recchia on Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:25:00 EST in
Applying motivational psychology to game design gets complicated when seemingly extrinsic rewards support intrinsic motivation.
Read More... \| 5 Comments

Gabriel Recchia's Comments

Comment In: Fighting Indecision (And So Much More) with Games [Blog - 03/07/2013 - 09:05]
Ben - just wanted to ... Ben - just wanted to say I always appreciate these thoughtful posts about what games can do and in some cases, cannot easily do that go beyond just providing entertainment. Finally got around to adding Dashjump to my RSS. Please keep writing

Comment In: Sixteen ways to motivate - is your game tapping into them? [Blog - 02/21/2013 - 09:47]
That 's a nice insight, ... That 's a nice insight, particularly given that Reiss puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that there are striking individual differences in how much people are driven by each motive--he theorizes that we have innate set points for how much we desire each, and that too much/too little ...