The following document is provided as it was originally written for my dissertation. Despite several years of research into emotion-driven design, I still, frustratingly, felt like I hadnt quite grasped what it really means, even as I graduated. And that was evident in my projects. It wasnt until a couple years later that I saw Matt Shakman talk about having a strong "emotional throughline" when directing Disney+'s WandaVision series that it finally clicked. I had been trying to map emotions onto an existing story/mechanics. I had it backwards. Journey did not lead with mechanics or story. It instead says "this is what I want the player to feel at this moment in time", then designed the game world and mechanics as needed to fulfil the emotional arc. This has since reshaped my understanding of Game Design and has changed how I approach scope in my personal projects. I do intend to update this post... someday.