Game Design Fairness and Frustration Audit

Audit a design by asking whether it feels fair, understandable, and worth retrying.

Use this skill when the real question is not merely "is it balanced" but "why does this make players mad?" This audit combines three lenses:

• attribution theory: who or what players blame
• flow theory: whether challenge and skill stay aligned over time
• perceived randomness: whether uncertainty feels exciting, suspicious, or rigged

Focus on player perception. Mechanical correctness is not enough if the experience still feels hostile.

Read references/family-conventions.md when you want the shared style, prioritization, and diagnosis rules for this game-design skill family. Read references/output-patterns.md when you want the preferred recommendation and minimal-fix structure.

Core principle