Rahul Vohra (Superhuman): How to Apply Game Design to Create Emotion

Good PMs obsess about customer problems, great PMs also obsess about how they want customers to feel

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Dear subscribers,

Peter Yang @petergyang

Good PMs obsess about customer problems. Great PMs also obsess about how they want the customer to feel while using their product.

Nobody has spoken more about using game design and emotion to craft great products than Rahul Vohra, founder of Superhuman (the fastest email experience ever made). I had the pleasure of speaking to Rahul about:

1. His background in gaming

2. Applying game design to create emotion

3. Championing craft and delight in products

Below are lightly edited notes from our conversation.

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Rahul’s background in gaming

What were your favorite games growing up?

Rahul’s favorite games include Super Mario World, Goldeneye, and Runescape

There are so many games that spring to mind — two of my favorites are Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo and Goldeneye on the N64. 

Super Mario World created an incredible fantasy world with just the right amount of narrative for a child to follow along. It told the story of the Koopas in the context of a larger world with fortresses and castles. It took what worked in the original Mario games to another level while keeping what made these games special in the first place.

A classic example of this is the jump button, which is very aphysical.

If you run and jump in a Mario game, you can still use the d-pad to control Mario’s direction. Of course, no jump works like this in the real world. But it's also what makes the game fun to play. You can course-correct and narrowly avoid danger.

Goldeneye on the N64 is another game that I enjoyed. It took the first-person shooter and made it accessible to people in the living room. This ushered in a whole new era of friends being able to experience first-person shooters together.

I also love MMORPGs such as Runescape and World of Warcraft, which let us build communities and real-life friendships. These games appeal to all four types of players by letting us indulge in exploration just as much as fighting the environment. 

I think you got your start in game development at Runescape?

Yes, I was a game designer at Runescape and it was one of the most fun jobs that I ever had. It's kind of like being a product manager. You're generally running the project and pulling together the disparate pieces (graphics, sound, art, and design). You're also the one programming it all together.

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Applying game design to create emotion

Most PMs focus on solving customer problems, but you also emphasize how important it is to think about how the customer feels. Can you share more?

Emotions are the foundations of our memory. 

If you want your product to create amazing memories that people will talk to each other about over dinner or a glass of wine, you need to analyze emotion.

That's why I'm a fan of creating a large vocabulary to discuss emotion. There are multiple models that you can use, the most famous being Plutchik's wheel. Plutchik identified eight core emotions along with the ability to blend them. For example, you could blend joy and anticipation to get optimism or joy and trust to get love. In practice, however, I found that this wheel is just not nuanced enough for game and product design. 

Nowadays, I use a model from the Junto Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning:

The Junto wheel of emotions

At the center, there are emotions like joy, love, and surprise. Beyond that, an emotion like love might split into longing, romantic love, desire, tenderness, or peacefulness. The third level is where the emotions get really subtle, and that's where game designers need to play. At this level, love might split into caring, affection, sentimentality, passion, and other nuanced emotions.