For our ICT game, we need to redesign the entire thing, including redesigning the challenges. Right now we're studying puzzle games and we have to write several theory documents before we can continue work on the game. In the meantime, I'm also working on my own dissertation about what video games actually are.
This is a really really simple overview of the things I want to cover. It'd be nice if I could get some feedback. A lot of examples, explanation and detail are missing, but a few of my key points are present.
Video Games are like big open-book exams; the game is constantly asking the player questions, and the player must provide answers to the questions through the mechanics. The mechanics, including the player’s inventory of gameplay options (actions they can take) and the world’s rules, need to be taught to the player and tested in the many variety of ways that the mechanics can be explored and exploited. The idea is that no one mechanic is dominant in every situation, and that the player should ideally be eliminating gameplay choices until they can determine what solution works best in the current situation.
The crucial elements that separate games from interactive experiences are the following:
- Goals/Objectives/Motivations: A game requires the existence of a winning condition which defines the whole point of why the player is playing the game, and to win there must be something have to achieve, as well as a reason to achieve it.
- Rules/Options/Limitations/Boundaries: A game must have a list of conditions that define how the world works and what the player can/cannot do. These rules must make logical sense for the game to work. The actions that the player can take must have some effect on the world that allows them to progress from a state of zero to a state of success.
- Obstacles/Challenges/Failure States: A game is about teaching or reinforcing some action/idea which they use to achieve the winning state. There needs to be some element that actually challenges that action/idea, and tests if the player has successfully learned.
- Input/Output: A game must actually involve the player in a meaningful way that allows them to progress, and the game must be able to reflect whatever changes the player makes to the game’s state by showing this to the player.
Any good video game will have two stories; the narrative and the player story. The player story is about creating memorable encounters for the player, but also about challenging them through the mechanics by creating questions/challenges that they need to solve by answering with their mechanics. A good player story has an overarching question and/or constant repeating questions that keep the gameplay/story consistent, and serve as the point to use the mechanics in the first place. With that said, the game designer can never force motivation on the gamer, and so the game should only provide suggestions for motivations to continue through the game. The player may also bring their own motivations which the game should allow them to explore, within logical reason.
Whenever the player enters the game experience, the main rule that needs to be observed by the game developer is that, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. When the player makes or takes action, they expect that they have an effect on the immediate game world (equal reaction), and that action had an effect on their state in the overall game (opposite reaction). Similarly, if any object in the world acts, it should affect the world and player equally.
Games are simulated spaces, which means that the context of the game can be changed on the fly. The environment the player is in, the state of the player’s character, the player’s knowledge and skill with the mechanics and so on will all factor in to how they move through the world, interpret its challenges/questions and actually proceed through the game.
A game becomes frustrating when either:
- The game does not meet or expectations, does not operate in the way we anticipated, and/or the game’s logic remains inconsistent and we cannot learn the pattern of behaviour.
- The game prevents us being able to learn how the rules of the world work.
- The logic/physical action gap between where the player starts and where they need to be to answer a question is too high.
