Category Archives: Game Design
Tuning Your Core Game Mechanic
It can be said that novels are about what characters think, plays are about what characters say, and films are about what characters do. Where does that leave games? Well, games are about what players do.
The actions that players perform and the reason for performing those actions are called the games mechanics. An example is the jump mechanic in a platforming game: jump to reach a platform.
A core mechanic encapsulates what the spirit of a game is really about at its heart. Usually it is the action that the player uses most frequently in the game and the foundation upon which the other game elements are built.
- Core Action: The thing players actually do in the game
- Core Purpose: The reason why players are doing it
- Explore to collect resources
- Use resources to build combat units
- Fight to defeat enemy combat units
Here are some examples of core mechanics in games:
| Game | Core Action | Core Purpose |
| Chess | Move pieces | to capture opponent’s pieces |
| Candy Crush | Match 3 candies | to destroy them |
| Tetris | Rotate pieces | to create lines |
| Super Smash Bros | Attack | to knock opponent back |
| Doom | Run and shoot | to kill enemies |
| World of Warcraft | Fulfill quests | to improve character’s abilities |
Some games have several core mechanics. A real-time strategy game has several core mechanics that define the game:
Because the player uses the core mechanic(s) over and over to progress from the game’s start to the game’s resolution, the core mechanic needs to be fun to do all by itself. There’s no point in creating challenging obstacles, intriguing goals, immersive levels or compelling storylines if the core mechanics isn’t well-tuned, because if the core mechanics are fun, the game won’t be fun.
Many properties of even something as simple as a jump mechanic may need to be tweaked – which controls are used, whether the character needs to run to jump, how far or high the character can jump, whether the character can move while jumping, the effects of gravity, the maximum vertical velocity – before the action itself is fun.
Once you’ve decided on what you want the players to experience while playing your game, determine what actions (mechanics) are essential for creating that experience. Next, prototype those mechanics – on paper if you can, or in software if you can’t – and refine them until the actions themselves are fun to do before moving on to the other elements of your game.
Choosing Game Elements To Create The Proper Player Experience
Last week I discussed finding the fun in your game. In that post, I explained how the game designer’s job is to craft experiences for the player to enjoy. Of course, players are individuals who find different things fun, but behavioral psychology has developed models to identify people’s primary motivations, and game designers have looked to these to identifying the broad categories of activities that players find to be fun.
In today’s post, I’ll explain how to start building a game around the play value, or fun, that forms your player experience. To make the process more manageable, I’ll categorize play value into Jason Vanderberghe’s Five Domains of Play.
Novelty
This domain distinguishes open, imaginative experiences from repeating, conventional ones.
| Low | High |
| Reality-Based | Fantasy-Based |
| Predictability | Surprises |
| Practical Tasks | Artistic Tasks |
One way that game designers can adjust the degree of novelty in their games through choice of the game’s theme or premise. Art, audio and story can be used to create a setting that can vary from familiar and realistic to unfamiliar and fantastical. Another tool in the designer’s toolbox is to use game mechanics to determine the amount of randomness in a game or to create modes or goals that either exercise the player’s existing skills and knowledge or to allow the player to express their creativity.
Challenge
This domain determines who much effort or self-control is required from the player to achieve the game’s objectives.
| Low | High |
| Easy Goals | Difficult Goals |
| Procrastination | Discipline |
| Disorganization | Order |
Game designers can determine the degree of challenge in a game through choice of mechanics, resources, obstacles and objectives. If the game’s challenge is to be low, the game designer can incorporate mechanics that require little dexterity or strategic skill to use properly, provide abundant resources for meeting goals, introduce obstacles that can be easily defeated, and place few demands on the player for meeting goals. If the challenge is to be high, then the game designer can adjust game elements accordingly.
Stimulation
This domain covers the emotional element and social engagement of play.
| Low | High |
| Slow-Paced | Fast-Paced |
| Unemotional | Excitement, Humor |
| Passive | Assertive |
Game designers can determine the degree of stimulation in a game through choice of player format (single-player vs. multi-player), mechanics (turn-based ys. real-time) and theme (abstract vs. emotional narrative).
Harmony
This domain reflects the rules of player-to-player interaction.
| Low | High |
| Competition | Cooperation |
| Harm | Help |
| Destroy | Build |
Game designers can determine the degree of harmony in a game through choice of player format (free-for-all versus group quest) or objectives (destroy your enemies versus help your neighbors).
Threat
This domain determines the game’s capacity to trigger negative emotions in the player.
| Low | High |
| Low Risk | High Risk |
| Calm | Tension, Suspense |
| Cheerful | Gllomy |
Game designers can determine the degree of threat in a game through choice of player format. We will feel less threat if we work with other plays as a team in a way that our weaknesses are not exposed; however, if our individual achievements (or lack thereof) are highlighted on a leader board for all the world to see, then we risk the threat of humiliation. The environment that the game takes place in, such as a brightly-colored candy land or a desolate post-apocalyptic world, will also determine the amount of threat we feel. Finally, game penalties that are harsh, causing the player to lose progress or even the entire game will determine that actually amount of threat in a game.
One exercise that I have may game design students to is to take a simple game “bounce the ball to score points” game and decide how to change the game experience. I have them describe the new game experience by picking three words related to any of the 5 Domains of Play, and then identify five changes to make to the game’s theme (art, audio, or story), rules, goals, resources or obstacles that support that game experience. Here is one example:
- Surprises
- Walls will randomly appear throughout the room once bounced off of.
- Multiple balls will come out at once.
- Difficult
- The speed of the ball will increase each time the player click’s on it.
- The walls will be able to push the ball.
- Competition
- The game will display a high score screen when the game is over.
I’ve found that my game design students come up with much more innovative ideas when they start defining a game experience first and then select game mechanics to support it than when they start off a game design by first defining the game mechanics and hope that it will lead to a fun game experience.
David Mullich 