Design: Quick time events:

Quick-time-events, or QTE, are a popular way of giving a character limited control during a cutscene or cinematic during the a videogames gameplay action.

A simple enough concept, QTE are button mashing sequences during a cutscene, that will advance a cutscene to the designed outcome for the player.

There a couple of positive and negatives to QTE's.  First, it gives the player the illusion of control during complicated action sequences.   These action sequences are also used to progress the players story in a logical sequence. 

The downside of quicktime events are 2-fold. One, they only give the user the illusion of control, they in-fact, have no real control, they either pass, and the game continues, or they fail, in which case they are forced to do it again until they pass.  Two, they are incredibly overused in gaming, and they really shouldn't be used at all.  Plenty of games I've played cannot go a level without entering multiple quick time events.

User Design of animals

The animal kingdom is filled with creatures who all specialize in their own design.

Lets look at an anteater for instance.  These creatures have great natural mapping for eating ants. With there long snouts and thin tongues, they specialize in eating tiny ants and removing them from their burrows.  Of course, for the same reason that they specialize in eating ants, they would make a terrible predatory animal.




Lets take a look at a great carnivore, the jaguar. 

The jaguars build would make it a terrrible anteater, with its snub nose and sharp teeth, this animal would struggle to pick up ants and remove them from their home.  At the same time, however, with their long claws, sharp teeth, and strong jaws, combined with explosive legs and lightning quick reflexes, the jaguar makes an ideal predatory animal.  Both of these animals show the natural design and specialization of mother nature, in the gift of some of natures most amazing animals.