07:03 30 May 2014
Want to get rich out of making video games? Don't worry about winning awards for your graphic artistry – hire some psychologists instead. They can tell you how the simplest of games can hijack our brain's evolved instincts to keep players hooked. Sally Adee and Douglas Heaven
Read more: "Obsession engineers: Mind control the Candy Crush way"
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Humans like matching up patterns. We're born that way: even infants can work out that round pegs don't go into square holes. Casual puzzle games like Tetris (shown here), Candy Crush Saga , Bejeweled and Puyo Puyo tap into this affinity, which may explain why their main objectives are similar: the player must match up the random shapes that appear on screen with other shapes to clear the board and score points.
(Image: EA)
