This great Polygon article: about some of the tricks video game designers use to enhance game experience is a delight to read. The author: Jennifer Scheurle has probed the greatest designer minds and came up with some pearls of game design cheat. Here is a peak behind the curtain:

In System Shock we made your last bullet do double damage, similar trick to the last bit of health thing.

— Rob Xemu Fermier (@xemu) September 1, 2017

And this one great trick: do nothing and present false information!

Not a mechanic persee, but in Hi Octane we simply displayed different stats for vehicles without ever actually changing them under the hood

— Alex Trowers (@BulkPaint) September 1, 2017

For more great discoveries be sure to read the article.