Games Inspired by Cognitive Principles

Many intriguing games rely on innovative gameplay to offer players novel experiences. In the process of designers’ creative thinking, there are numerous sources of inspiration, one of which includes various scientific principles, cognitive science being among them.

1. Echo Chrome and Monument Valley Another game from the PSP era, Echo Chrome, boasts a black-and-white line art style, markedly different from the low-poly style of Monument Valley on iOS devices. Yet, both games draw inspiration from concepts like the Penrose triangle, and impossible spaces.

The Penrose triangle is an impossible shape that appears three-dimensional from certain angles but cannot be physically constructed in the real world. Our brain attempts to interpret it as a three-dimensional object, but due to the contradiction in its form, we cannot arrive at a coherent explanation. This demonstrates the brain’s capacity for pattern recognition and interpretation when processing visual information. Attempting to understand or decipher illusions like the Penrose triangle consumes cognitive resources. The brain has to work hard to process this contradictory information, potentially leading to increased cognitive load, similar to encountering bottlenecks when dealing with complex tasks or multitasking. When confronted with visual paradoxes like the Penrose triangle, the brain exhibits a degree of flexibility and adaptability. We can “re-interpret” these images from different perspectives or explanations, reflecting the cognitive system’s ability to adjust and update its understanding of the environment.

Impossible spaces, commonly found in works by M.C. Escher, challenge our understanding of space and geometry. They force the brain to attempt to understand and explain spatial relationships that do not exist in the real world, engaging the brain’s spatial cognition and geometric reasoning abilities. Depth Perception and Illusions rely on depth cues such as perspective lines, shading, and texture, which usually help us perceive three-dimensional space. When these cues are deliberately misleading, they can create spaces that appear plausible but are contradictory.

1. Superliminal Superliminal is a first-person puzzle game based on forced perspective and optical illusion elements, which you can find on Steam. Before you play, be prepared for the possibility of experiencing disorientation. This is not to say that it isn’t a good game; in fact, it creatively exploits the principle of perspective that we take for granted. By keeping the size of a selected object constant on the screen and altering its actual size by placing it in different environmental contexts relative to other objects, it completely upends the brain’s understanding of the world. Inevitably, it makes the brain think that it needs to purge toxins due to accidental ingestion, leading to feelings of dizziness and even nausea – this is one explanation for motion sickness experienced during 3D video viewing and in virtual reality. Regardless, the game requires players to think outside the box and counteract their cognitive biases, which can be a very engaging experience for gamers.
2. Shadowmatic Another intriguing puzzle game is available on mobile devices. Players need to rotate a set of abstract objects under a spotlight until their shadows projected onto the wall become recognizable shapes. Perhaps you’ve marveled at similar creativity at an art exhibition before. This type of interaction, which imbues unrelated objects with meaning and connection through our cognitive experiences, is truly captivating. There are several ways games can present targets, with the difficulty progressively increasing: directly displaying the target’s picture, presenting the noun of the target object, and offering the adjective that describes the target object. The challenge in the last two types of hints is that they demand the player to integrate their comprehension of the text with their personal life and cognitive experiences to envision the goal, and continuously assess whether their actions match their prior conceptions. This is more intricate than just comparing against an illustration, and it depends more significantly on the active engagement of the brain during gameplay.
3. Moncage Montage is an adventure puzzle game where the player confronts a cube, each face of which showcases entirely distinct spaces. By turning the cube, the images from these separate spaces join up, generating a new narrative. In contrast to Echochrome and Monument Valley, Moncage pursues innovative level designs within a more focused space, utilizing richer imagery, and incorporating deeper storytelling into the gameplay. It delves into themes such as loneliness, interpersonal relationships, and self-awareness, skillfully merging the act of “viewing from a different angle” with the concept of “thinking from a different perspective,” serving as a valuable effort in the ongoing evolution and innovation of games of this kind.

Furthermore, it is a relatively newer game, and you can find it in the Nintendo eShop.

These games demonstrate how strenuously the brain endeavors to interpret the information it perceives, even when those interpretations may contradict reality; they also showcase the learning and adaptability of the cognitive system, enabling us to better handle anomalous or contradictory information. They are not only excellent games but also provide a window into the complexity of cognitive processes and the adaptability and flexibility of the brain when confronted with challenges.