Robs Weekly Reading MDA: A Formal Approach

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek

MDA - Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics 

MDA is a formal approach to understanding games and development. Closing the gap between games design, development and game criticism.

MDA will help to make the iteration process stronger and making it easier to clarify. As this would be a formal understanding then this will work for all parties ensuring they can decompose, study and design over a broad range of topics.

Iterating helps support the designer in a number of ways. They help you analyse the end result before implementation and to analyse the implementation to refine the result. Being able to study from both perspectives you can consider a wide range of possibilities and interdependencies.

Using this tool is especially helpful when working with high end video games where the interaction between coded subsystems creates complex and dynamic and unpredictable behaviour. Designers and researches bust study the areas carefully and consider all of the mutually dependent areas before implementing changes.

Toward a Comprehensive Framework

Everyone in the games industry at some point need to focus and consider issues outside of their area. Such as the base mechanics, overarching design goals and the desired results of gameplay.

Even AI coder for example who deal with complex code and algorithms will still need some form of these formal design tools as it will trickle into their work and shape the final gameplay. So as games continue to get more complex these tools allow AI and game design to merge.

Systematic coherence comes when its conflicting restraints are satisfied.  So when each part of a game   parts can relate to each other as a whole. Understanding and creating this coherence between all levels of the game from sytems to code, to content and play experience.

Games are described as consumables as the user will buy use and eventually cast away like most other consumable goods.

The difference between games and other entertainment products is their consumption is unpredictable. The events that occur during user playing and the outcome of those events are unknown at the time the product is finished.

The MDA framework formalizes the consumption of games by breaking them into their distinct components.

and their counterparts

Mechanics describes the particular components of the
game, at the level of data representation and algorithms.


Dynamics describes the run-time behavior of the
mechanics acting on player inputs and each othersí
outputs over time.


Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses
evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game
system.


MDA as Lens


Each component of the MDA framework can be thought of
as a "lens" or a "view" of the game - separate, but causally
linked. [LeBlanc, 2004b].

When designing games it is useful to see it from the players as well as the designers perspective. It helps us see changes made on one layer can have an effect other layers.

Aesthetics

When trying to describe what is specifically fun in a game it isn't easy due to a lack of definitive vocabulary. We cant really use words like "fun" and "gameplay" because they lack specific definition.

Now what we can use is a more directed vocabulary.


1. Sensation
  Game as sense-pleasure

2. Fantasy
  Game as make-believe

3. Narrative 
   Game as drama

4. Challenge
  Game as obstacle course

5. Fellowship
  Game as social framework

6. Discovery
  Game as uncharted territory

7. Expression
  Game as self-discovery

8. Submission
  Game as pastime

For example take games like Charades, Quake, The Sims and Final Fantasy now they are each fun however that word lacks a better definition and means so many different things. So it is much more informative to consider a breakdown of its aesthetic components and then what you are left with is:


Charades: Fellowship, Expression, Challenge.

Quake: Challenge, Sensation, Competition, Fantasy.

The Sims: Discovery, Fantasy, Expression, Narrative.

Final Fantasy: Fantasy, Narrative, Expression,    

Discovery, Challenge, Submission.

While there is no grand unifying theory on what makes a game fun these tools definitely help you break down a game to its bare aesthetic qualities that make the game fun in its own right.

Dynamic Models

Dynamics work to create aesthetic experiences.

Challenge can be created by adding time pressure and opponent play
Fellowship can be encouraged by sharing information between players or coming together to tackle an obstacle impossible for a single person to do like capture an enemy base.

Expression comes from games that allow players to leave their mark, systems for purchasing goods or earning in game items.

Dramatic Tension comes from the dynamics that encourage a rising tension, a
release, and a denouement (final resolution of a plot)

Mechanics

Mechanics are basically the player limits. A set of rules that limit the player to act within its rule set or various actions, behaviours and control mechanisms afforded to the player within a game context. Mechanics mixed in with the games levels assets etc supports the games overall dynamics.

So examples of mechanics affecting dynamics would be the mechanics of shooters for example which include the weapons, ammunitions and spawning the dynamics of camping and sniping come into effect.

So adjusting a games mechanics can help us fine tune the dynamics.