Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, famously said the best video games are “easy to learn, hard to master.”
Game designers call it Bushnell’s Law. It is why we lose track of time playing Tetris, Mario, or Minecraft. We jump in quickly, succeed at something small, and feel capable.
But just as quickly, the layers of challenge begin to reveal themselves. Each level demands more focus, skill and creativity. Mastery takes work.
Schools would do well to borrow from that playbook.
Too often, classrooms offer the opposite experience: tasks that are confusing from the start or activities so simple they are dismissed before students have even begun. Neither inspires curiosity or persistence. Bushnell’s Law offers a vision of learning that is welcoming at the outset yet deep enough to hold a student’s attention for the long haul.
Video games thrive on feedback loops
Consider how games handle failure. Players miss jumps, lose lives, or see “Game Over” flash across the screen, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times, before finally breaking through.
But in that world, failure is not a label. It is feedback. You learn from what did not work and immediately try again.
In many schools, though, a single low grade can follow a student for months or years, turning a learning moment into a permanent mark. If we want mastery, we need to make room for retries, revisions, and opportunities to improve that do not carry a stigma.
Games also thrive on feedback loops. A gamer knows instantly whether a choice worked or failed. That immediacy drives the next attempt.
In schools, we sometimes wait days or weeks before returning graded work. By then, the learning moment has passed.
Imagine if students got constant signals about how they are doing through quick formative assessments, digital dashboards, or peer feedback, so they could adjust in real time.
Turning learning into a series of levels
Bushnell’s Law also reflects how games layer challenge. No one starts with the final level. Players tackle simple levels first, building skill and confidence, and then face increasingly complex obstacles.
Schools can mirror this with scaffolded instruction and clear progression. Badges, competency pathways, and visible learning targets can show students exactly what they have mastered and what comes next, turning learning into a series of levels instead of a single high-stakes test.
Another key design element is agency. In games, you choose your character, your strategy, your path. Those choices deepen engagement.
In schools, offering choices in projects, in how students show mastery or in pacing can have the same effect. When students feel like active players rather than passive participants, they lean into challenges rather than avoiding them.
Collaboration also matters. Some of the hardest games are beaten only when players team up, sharing strategies and celebrating wins together.
Schools can create similar cultures of shared success through group problem-solving, peer tutoring, and classroom communities where students see themselves as allies rather than competitors.
Why design drives engagement
All of this works because games connect to meaning. The best ones do not just throw random obstacles at you. They wrap challenges in a story. There is a reason to keep going.
Schools can borrow that narrative drive by embedding learning in real-world problems, authentic audiences and projects that matter beyond the classroom walls.
Rewards in games also reflect Bushnell’s Law. You do not just rack up points. You unlock new levels, tools and experiences that make you want to keep pushing.
Schools can also rethink rewards, celebrating growth rather than one-time achievements, such as noticing how much better a second draft is or how improved fluency in math has opened the door to a new project.
And then there is replay value. Gamers return to levels they have already beaten because they want to get even better. Imagine if schoolwork felt like that, if students saw revising an essay or retaking an assessment not as punishment but as part of the journey to mastery.
Here is the remarkable thing. The video game industry generated nearly $ 190 billion worldwide in 2024, surpassing the combined revenue of movies and music, as designers have mastered the art of capturing attention and sustaining engagement.
That is not just trivia. It is evidence. Engagement is possible when the experience is designed well.
Bushnell’s Law is not just a clever line from a game designer. It is a challenge to educators. Make learning easy to enter but rich enough to reward persistence. Build classrooms where failure is viewed as feedback, goals are clear, and mastery is something students strive for.
If video games can keep millions of people up late at night striving to get better, schools can learn a thing or two from them.
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