Read Chapter 12 of "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses"

[zaphodb2002]

Chapter 12: Some Elements are Game Mechanics

Mechanic 1: Space

• Every game takes place in some kind of space. The "magic circle"
• generally:
  • Are either discrete or continuous
  • Discrete means a finite number of positions, like a grid
  • Continuous means freely moveable within the space, not locked to the grid
  • Have some number of dimensions
  • Monopoly = 1D, Chess = 2D, Basketball = 3D
  • Have bounded areas that may or may not be connected
  • these areas are also spaces that can be broken down in the same way

    Zero Dimensions

    Something like a guessing game, with no concept of "space" other than to present information

LENS 026: The Lens of Functional Space To use this lens, think about the space in which your game really takes place when all the surface elements are stripped away. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the space of this game discrete or continuous?
2. How many dimensions does it have?
3. What are the boundaries of the space?
4. Are there subspaces? How are they connected?
5. Is there more than one useful way to abstractly model the space of this game?

Mechanic 2: Time

Discrete and Continuous Time

• turns vs real-time

Clocks and Races

• mechanisms designed to limit gameplay through absolute measure of time
• Clocks can measure discrete or continuous time
• Clocks can be nested
• Races measure relative time, either to another player or the game itself

Controlling Time

• pausing, time-outs, fast-forwards, rewinds

  LENS 027: The Lens of Time It is said that "timing is everything". Our goal as designers is to create experiences, and experiences are easily spoiled when they are too short or too long, too fast or too slow. Ask these questions to make yours just the right length:

  1. What is it that determines the length of my gameplay activities?
  2. Are my players frustrated because the game ends too early? How can I change that?
  3. Are my players bored because the game goes on too long? How can I change that?
  4. Would clocks or races make my gameplay more exciting?
  5. Time limits can irritate players. Would I be better off without time limits?
  6. Would a hierarchy of time structures help my game? That is, several short rounds that together comprise a larger round? Timing can be very difficult to get right, but it can make or break a game. Often, it makes sense to follow the old vaudevillian adage "Leave 'em wanting more."

Mechanic 3: Objects

• Things in the space. Characters, props, terrain, etc. the Nouns.
• Objects generally have 1 or more attributes, one of which is usually the current position in space
• Attributes = information about the object. each has a current state
  • can be static or dynamic
  • state machines

LENS 028: The Lens of the State Machine To use this lens, think about what information changes during your game. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the objects in my game?
2. What are the attributes of the objects?
3. What are the possible states for each attribute?
4. What triggers the state changes for each attribute? Gameplaying is decision making. Decisions are made based on information. Deciding the different attributes, their states, and what changes them is core to the mechanics of your game.

Secrets

• Who knows what? Some things are hidden from the player, often including attributes of another player
• It makes sense to think of a game's opponent logic as another player

  LENS 029: The Lens of Secrets Change who has what information, and you change your game completely. To use this lens, think about who knows what, and why. Ask yourself these questions:

  1. What is known by the game only?
  2. What is known by all players?
  3. What is known by some or only one player?
  4. Would changing who knows what information improve my game in some way? Gameplaying is decision making. Decisions are made based on information. Deciding the different attributes, their states, and who knows about them is core to the mechanics of your game. small changes to who knows what information can radically change a game, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Who knows about what attributes can even change over the course of a game—a great way to create drama in your game is to make an important piece of private information suddenly become public.

Mechanic 4: Actions

• Verbs. What can the players do?
• Basic Action. Move, jump, attack, etc
• Strategic Action. How the player applies the basic action

Emergent Gameplay

• What strategic actions develop naturally is "emergent gameplay". Interesting emergent actions are a hallmark of good game design. Example is BotW, here's the toolkit, go and figure out how to apply it.
• Add more verbs
• Verbs that can act on many objects
• Goals that can be achieved in more than one way
• Many subjects (lots of things happening at once)
• Side effects that change constraints (actions that act on other actions)

LENS 030: The Lens of Emergence To make sure your game has interesting qualities of emergence, ask yourself these questions:

1. How many verbs do my players have?
2. How many objects can each verb act on?
3. How many ways can players achieve their goals?
4. How many subjects do the players control?
5. How do side effects change constraints?

LENS 031: The Lens of Action To use this lens, think about what your players can do and what they can't, and why. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the basic actions of my game?
2. What are the strategic actions?
3. What strategic actions would I like to see? How can I change my game in order to make those possible?
4. Am I happy with the ratio of strategic to basic actions?
5. What actions do players wish they could do in my game that they cannot? Can I somehow enable these, either as basic or strategic actions? A game without actions is like a sentence without verbs -- nothing happens. Deciding the actions in your game will be the most fundamental decision you can make as a game designer. Tiny changes to these actions will have tremendous ripple effects with the possibility of either creating marvelous emergent gameplay, or making a game that is predictable and tedious. Choose your actions carefully, and learn to listen to your game and your players to learn what is made possible by your choices.

Mechanic 5: Rules

Parlett's Rule Analysis

1. Operational rules = What the player does to play the game (roll 1d6, add to str)
2. Foundational rules = an abstract representation (str increased by random number btw 1-6)
3. Behavioral rules = also known as "good sportsmanship". Games are a social contract between players
4. Written rules = documentation
5. Laws = for competition
6. Official Rules = laws written down
7. Advisory Rules = not really rules, just like tips
8. House Rules = feedback, tuning to audience

Modes

• modes can have very different rules
• be careful to be clear and not too complex with mode switching

Enforcer

• Computer does this for us

  Cheatability

• undermines intrinsic value

  The most important rule

• State your game's goal and state it clearly
  1. Concrete
  2. Achievable
  3. Rewarding

LENS 032: The Lens of Goals To ensure the goals of your game are appropriate and well balanced, ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the ultimate goal of my game?
2. Is that goal clear to players?
3. If there is a series of goals, do the players understand that?
4. Are the different goals related to each other in a meaningful way?
5. Are my goals concrete, achievable, and rewarding?
6. Do I have a good balance of short- and long-term goals?
7. Do players have a chance to decide on their own goals?

Wrapping up Rules

LENS 033: The Lens of the Rules To use this lens, look deep into your game, until your can make out its most basic structure. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the foundational rules of my game? How do these differ from the operational rules?
2. Are there "laws" or "house rules" that are forming as the game develops?
3. Are there different modes in my game? Do these modes make things simpler, or more complex? Would the game be better with fewer modes? More modes?
4. Who enforces the rules?
5. Are the rules easy to understand, or is there confusion about them? If there is confusion, should I fix it by changing the rules or by explaining them more clearly? There is a common misconception that designers make games by sitting down and writing a set of rules. this usually isn’t how it happens at all. a game’s rules are arrived at gradually and experimentally. the designer’s mind generally works in the domain of “operational rules,” occasionally switching to the perspective of “foundational rules” when thinking about how to change or improve the game. the “written rules” usually come toward the end, once the game is playable. Part of the designer’s job is to make sure there are rules that cover every circumstance. be sure to take careful notes as you playtest, because it is during these tests that holes in your rules will appear—if you just patch them quickly and don’t make a note, the same hole will just show up again later. a game is its rules—give them the time and consideration that they deserve.

Mechanic 6: Skill

• what the player brings
• remember flow channel
  1. Physical skills
  2. Mental skills
  3. Social skills

Real vs. Virtual skills

• we're talking about player skill, not skill points
• virtual skills are useful but cannot remove player skill as a factor

Enumerating Skills

LENS 034: The Lens of Skill To use this lens, stop looking at your game, and start looking at the skills you are asking of your players. Ask these questions:

1. What skills does my game require from the player?
2. Are there categories of skill that this game is missing?
3. Which skills are dominant?
4. Are these skills creating the experience I want?
5. Are some players much better at these skills than others? Does this make the game feel unfair?
6. Can players improve their skills with practice, leading to a feeling of mastery?
7. Does this game demand the right level of skill? exercising skills can be a joyful thing—it is one of the reasons that people love games. of course, it is only joyful if the skills are interesting and rewarding and if the challenge level strikes that ideal balance between “too easy” and “too hard.” even dull skills (such as pushing buttons) can be made more interesting by dressing them up as virtual skills and providing the right level of challenge. Use this lens as a window into the experience the player is having. because skills do so much to define experience, the lens of skill works quite well in conjunction with lens 002: Essential Experience.

Mechanic 7: Chance

Ten Rules of Probability Every Game Designer Should Know

1. Fractions are Decimals are Percents
2. Zero to One -- That's It!
3. "Looked For" divided by "Possible Outcomes" equals probability
4. Enumerate possible outcomes
5. In some cases, "or" means add
6. In some cases, "and" means multiply
7. One minus "Does" equals "Doesn't"
8. The sum of multiple linear random selections is NOT a linear random selection (rolling many dice resolves to median over time)
9. Roll the Dice (test and record actions to verify)
10. Geeks love showing off (Gombaud's Law)

Expected Value

• basically calculates how likely an outcome is to achieve
• calculate all outcomes (value = chance x outcome worth, do this for each possible outcome and sum)

LENS 035: The Lens of Expected Value To use this lens, think about the chance of different events occurring in your game and what those mean to your player. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the actual chance of a certain event occurring?
2. What is the perceived chance?
3. What value does the outcome of that event have? Can the value be quantified? Are there intangible aspects of value that I am not considering?
4. Each action a player can take has a different expected value when I add up all the possible outcomes. Am I happy with these values? Do they give the player interesting choices? Are they too rewarding, or too punishing? Expected value is one of your most valuable tools for analyzing game balance. The challenge of using it is finding a way to numerically represent everything that can happen to a player. Gaining and losing money is easy to represent. but what is the numerical value of “boots of speed” that let you run faster or a “warp gate” that lets you skip two levels? these are difficult to quantify perfectly—but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a guess. as we’ll see in the next chapter, as you go through multiple iterations of game testing and tweaking parameters and values in your game, you will also be tweaking your own estimations of the values of different outcomes. Quantifying these less tangible elements can be quite enlightening, because it makes you think concretely about what is valuable to the player and why—and this concrete knowledge will put you in control of the balance of your game.

Skill and Chance get tangled

1. Estimating chance is a skill
2. Skills have a probability of success
3. Estimating an opponent's skill is a skill
4. Predicting pure chance is an imagined skill
5. Controlling pure chance is an imagined skill

LENS 036: The Lens of Chance To use this lens, focus on the parts of your game that involve randomness and risk, keeping in mind that those two things are not the same. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What in my game is truly random? What parts just feel random?
2. Does the randomness give the players positive feelings of excitement and challenge, or does it give them negative feelings of hopelessness and lack of control?
3. Would changing my probability distribution curves improve my game?
4. Do players have the opportunity to take interesting risks in the game?
5. What is the relationship between chance and skill in my game? Are there ways I can make random elements feel more like the exercise of a skill? Are there ways I can make exercising skills feel more like risk taking? Risk and randomness are like spices. a game without any hint of them can be completely bland, but put in too much and they overwhelm everything else. Get them just right, and they enhance every flavor in your game. Unfortunately, using them in your game is not as simple as sprinkling them on top. You must look into your game to see where elements of risk and randomness naturally arise, and then decide how you can best tame them to do your bidding. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that elements of chance only occur around die rolls or randomly generated numbers. on the contrary, you can find them wherever a player encounters the unknown.

Recommended Reading

• Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Adams and Dormans
• The Oxford Book of Board Games by Parlett
• Uncertainty in Games by Costikyan
• The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Unfinished Letter that Made the World Modern by Devlin