Game Elements

October 13, 2020

Game Elements

What are the Qualities of Games?

In an article I read by Ian Schreiber - https://tudublin-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/shaun_ferns_tudublin_ie/EWlNUos7p8lFgRytGr80kbYBzMrZ6rnlKTegFJnnr_fSLg?e=3kRB39 he reminds us that even though there is no "perfect" definition to describe a game, every game has the same if not similar qualities. All games have rules, they have conflict, the have goals, they involve decision making and an uncertain outcome. All games can be described as activities, and artificial safe space, a voluntary activity, features elements of make believe and are closed systems. These are all know as the formal elements of games. From the element’s there are parts of these elements which are known as atoms.

What are the atoms of Games?

● Players.

● Objectives. (goals.)

● Rules.

● Resources and Resource Management.

● Game State.

● Information.

● Sequencing.

● Player Interaction.

● Theme. (Narrative, Backstory, Setting.)

● Games as Systems.

Critical analysis is discussed in this article and it is said that critical analysis is more than just a game review or finding faults in a game, it’s about learning all about the game itself and giving critical feedback to examine to progress of the game and to make sure it is being developed fully.

There are many ways to analysis a game but Ian lays it out in 3 simple steps;

1. Describe the game’s formal elements. Do not interpret at this point, simply state what is there.

2. Describe the results of the formal elements when put in motion. How do the different elements interact? What is the play of the game like? Is it effective?

3. Try to understand why the designer chose those elements and not others. Why this particular player structure, and why that set of resources? What would have happened if the designer had chosen differently?

Prototype's;

I watched a video which was an introduction to game design and all about how to prototype your game. - https://youtu.be/ZzQY1OfDc-I

In the video we were told how to prototype a game, they gave amazing tips and tricks which are very helpful. They make it known that is important when creating a game to just dive right in and make a prototype straight away to see how you game would actually work. They discuss the importance of just making a quick model and not spending hours on coding. You can draw your prototype on paper or you can play it with physical objects to geta feel for the game and work out what way you exactly want the game to look like and be played like too. It’s important to try out many different ways and have many iteration when it comes to game design and creating prototypes. The point of prototypes are to find out what works and what doesn’t work, to play around with the game idea and to develop it by making many physical & digital iterations. Its important to play around with the game and to remember that the game doesn’t need to be all figured out at the beginning, by creating prototypes the game will evolve more and more each time.