Thanks! Good to hear there is not some magic game design text (TM). And extra good to hear psychology is the way to go. I seem to be on the right track then, roughly. And yes, read read read. Great to learn about your work, by the way!

I agree! I am new to game development, and want to do exactly this, understand the player psychology beyond the scope of just motivation, but I don't know how to do this, or where to find out more. Can you recommend resources?
This talk explains why, fyi: indiebio.co.za/2025-2/

I want physical world assets in casual games, it's been hard to be active in e.g. earth observation groups, and games, and open source... They all have their cultures and the entry barrier is quite high. The Metaverse presents even more of a challenge, but also a huge opportunity to facilitate this.