Robs Weekly Reading Game Design Atoms

Robs Weekly Reading

Game Design Atoms

The game state and game views

Game state - A collection of all relevant virtual information that may change during play.    

Game view - The game view can represent the game board, game level or the whole world as in an MMO. The perceivable area of play for the player.

Players, Avatars, and Game Bits

Players set the rules in motion.

Avatars are how the player is represented in the game. i.e In monopoly for example Though players can also represent them selves as in Poker and Risk.

Mechanics

Mechanics are essentially game rules. So mechanics are the rules that act upon players.

common classes of mechanics that are found in games:

Setup - You need a rule to describe how the game begins.

Victory Conditions - There also needs to be a rule to explain how the game ends. There is some games out there without any win conditions however some designers do not see these as games.

Progression of play- Mechanics that govern how the game progresses like who goes next or how players interact with each other during certain moves.

Player Actions - What players can do to effect the game state.

Definition of game Views - Mechanic governing game information. What a player knows and when.

Dynamics

A pattern of play that is formed from the mechanics. So examples of these are race to the end or territory acquisition

Metagame is used to explain interactions that are formed outside of the game and mechanics like players forming alliances or trading with each other.

Goals

Goals usually incorporate the victory condition. It gives the player incentive to beat the game or go certain areas.

Theme

Information that sets the mood of the game. In itself it isn't necessary for the game to work but provides the aesthetic. 

What comes first?

Say you start with a dynamic like resource collection. The question that comes next is one of mechanics like how does one go about collecting these resources. Then there is also a question of the game theme to then think about. Also what is being collected and the motivation for collecting the resources. Most of the time you will think of a theme first then design a game that fits in.

 Putting it all together

So you start with a theme, for example a car building game and you draw cards in turn to eventually build a car as each card has a small piece of the card on it. Now as it is it isnt much of a game however all games start off like this and you add other elements and mechanics to make the game more  dynamic. Now some example mechanics that can be added to build the game up are

• A production pipeline
• production pricing that would force players to allocate workers, parts and the like, to determine optimum output
• Sabotage, so that one player could affect another production pipeline
• Random cards that introduce luck into the equation by causing production break downs, price drops, favourable publicity, and so on.