The Core Experience

In November 2001, the gaming world changed forever with the launch of Halo: Combat Evolved. The revolutionary first-person shooter was so good that many people, myself included, bought an Xbox for this game alone. 

A few years later, in the documentary about this breakthrough game, The Making of Halo, designer Jaime Griesemer shared how they built this amazing experience. Enter Jaime:

“In Halo 1, there was maybe 30 seconds of fun that happened over and over and over and over again. And so, if you can get 30 seconds of fun, you can pretty much stretch that out to be an entire game.”

Consider how different this idea is from the typical approach. Most product teams create a list of features they ‘need’, often their favorites, draw an arbitrary line, and begin a march towards an equally arbitrary ship date. What if instead we let go of features and worked to nail the core experience people would do over and over?  Jaime continues, 

“And so, you can have all the great graphics, and all the different characters, and lots of different weapons with amazing effects, but if you don’t nail that 30 seconds, you’re not gonna have a great game.”

‘If you don’t nail that 30 seconds, you’re not gonna have a great game.’ Mic drop. 30 seconds of awesome - the essential ingredient to making something people love. I think of this as your core experience, or as Jason Fried calls it, the epicenter. Jason explains,

“If I was to open a hot dog stand on the street, it'd still be a hot dog stand if I didn't have ketchup and mustard and onions and pickles and relish, even the bun. I could just sell the hot dog. If I didn't have the hot dog, it wouldn't be a hot dog stand. All those other things wouldn't matter. So the epicenter is the hot dog.” 

One of my favorite opinionated apps is the word processor iA Writer. That team made a principled decision to create a focused writing experience. Initially, this meant saying no to collaborative editing, folders, WYSIWYG editing, and a million other features. They didn’t ruthlessly limit scope because they liked saying no. They gained the courage to say no, by having a bigger yes. This freed them to focus on what mattered - an immersive writing experience.

The video game Halo made sure your oft-repeated 30 seconds of combat was fun. iA Writer wanted you to lose yourself in your writing. What is your core experience, do you have one? What will people experience again and again - what will keep them coming back?

Just like in grade school, addition easier than subtraction.  Life it seems, has only compounded this effect, but don’t rush, if you create one magical experience, you’ll have plenty of time to add features.

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