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GAME: a machine (structure) that generates play (Game Design (is the fine…
GAME:
a machine (structure) that generates play
Game Design
is the fine art of creating play machines
Game Elements
Playspace
The space, defined by the rules, on which the game is played
Actions
The activities players carry out in pursuit of the game's goals
Objects
The things players use to achieve the game's goals
Goals/Intentionality
The outcome players try to achieve through their play, whether they be measurable or purely experiential
Players
The operators of the game
Rules
The instructions for how the game works
Game Design Concepts/Tools
Direct Action
The action the player performs matches the in-game action. The kind of action(s) that allow players to have immediate interaction with objects and the playspace.
Indirect Action
Indirection is the process of designing the actions of a game in a way that players do not have direct access to perform the actions. Or, another way to think of it is that the player is physically doing one thing in order to perform in-game actions; Indirect control of in-game actions. Indirect actions are those that occur without direct contact by the player or the primary objects they use to perform actions.
Abstraction/Stylization
Abstraction is the modeling of complex phenomenon into game form.
Storytelling
Exposition
Player Action
Story told through the player's actions as she plays.
Contextual Information
Constraint
Constraint is the limitation(s) we put on players through the design of the actions, objects, and playspace of a game.
Bernard Suits' "lusory attitude."
Decision-Making & Feedback
The player needs to access her situation; her short and long term goals; and how the actions she can take will help her achieve those goals.
The feedback is the mechanism by which the player can assess the success or failure of her actions. The player carries out an action and the game provides feedback to let the player know the action happened and to let her know the outcome of that action.
Goals
A game's goals give shape and purpose to play experiences by giving players objectives.
Challenge
The ways in which a game resists players. Sometimes challenge comes from the difficulty of achieving a game's goals, and sometimes it comes from the concepts embodied in the game.
Flow: Challenge v. Skill
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow State: a state of high focus and enjoyment
Absorption
Skill, Strategy, Chance, Uncertainty
Theme
The logical framework for how a game is represented
Context of Play
When will players play the game?
Where?
With whom?
Etc.
Kinds of Play
Chance-and-Uncertainty-Based Play
A kind of play that asks players to develop strategies to allow for unpredictable moments or aspects of the game. Purely chance-based games remove decision-making from the player experience.
Whimsical Play
A kind of play that emphasizes silly actions, unexpected results, and a sense of euphoria by generating dizziness and a play experience that you need to feel to understand. Whimsical play is often based on:
Silly interactions
and/ or constraint as whimsy
and/or conceptual absurdity
Cooperative Play
A kind of play in which players work together to achieve the game's goals.
Symmetrical Cooperation
Asymmetrical Cooperation
Symbiotic Cooperation
Performative Play
A theatrical kind of play that generates dramatic action and acting and often includes a good deal of player improvisation. Performative play can generate unintentional performance and conscious performance.
Unintentional performance
Conscious performance
Competitive Play
A kind of play in which some players will win and some will lose.
Player v. Player
Player v. Game
Asynchronous Competition
Symmetrical Competition
Asymmetrical competition
Expressive Play
A kind of play that often subverts player choice in an effort to clearly express and share something about human experience. Expressive play might involve authorial expression or player expression.
Authorial expression
Player expression
Skill-Based Play
A kind of play the emphasizes player skill development in the pursuit of the game's goals.
Active Skill
Mental Skill
Experience-Based Play
A kind of play focused on providing players with an experience of the game through:
Exploration
and/or Unfolding a Story
and/or Communal Engagement
Role-Playing Play
A kind of play that generates stories through players inhabiting different roles and following a loose set of rules through which all sorts of possibilities can emerge, limited only by players' imaginations. Types of role-playing story generation include emergent storytelling and progressive storytelling.
Progressive storytelling (Jesper Juul's "Games of progression")
Emergent storytelling (Jesper Juul's "Games of emergence")
Simulation-Based Play
A kind of play that models a real-world system and presents a point of view (sometimes political, sometimes in terms of a player's perspective on the world) about that system to the player. Players might engage with a top-down simulation or a bottom-up simulation.
Top-up simulation
Bottom-up simulation
The Iterative Game Design Process
is the shaping and refining of the play experience by:
Prototyping
Testing
Evaluating
Conceptualizaing
Important Concepts
Second-Order Design: We are designing the play experience indirectly through the game
Space of Possibility:
The potential experiences a designer creates through their combination of the Game Elements.
Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
Game State:
A particular moment in the game, a "snapshot."
Action Theory:
A framework to understand the dynamics of what happens when people encounter a given situation: Beliefs; Reaction; Desire; Intention; Action.
The Player Experience
Way
example
Flywrench
example
The McDonald's Game
example