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Game elements

Game Design

Vishnu Kotrajaras, PhD

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Games have the following elements

Objectives (provides challenge) Game state and game view Rules (game mechanic) Dynamics Theme Resources Obstacles

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Objectives

Provide challenge. Set a game’s tone.

– Kill (violent)– Get more cards (relax)

Different players in a game may be given different objectives.

One game may have many possible objectives for a player to choose from.

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Objective categories

Capture– Take or destroy something of your opponent.

• Such as territory

– Chess, Quake, Warcraft, Command & Conquer.

Warcraft 3

Chase– Catch or elude an opponent.– Assassin.– Can have one player versus many, player versus

player, player versus computer.

Prediction– Predict opponent’s next move – Rock, paper, scissors

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Metal Gear Soid

Pac Man

Chase games

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Objective categories(2) Race

– Reach the goal before the other players.– Many dice games and racing games.

Alignment (spatial reasoning)– Arrange your game pieces in certain ways.– Othello, Tetris, Tic-tac-toe.– Pure strategy, or strategy together with chance.

Survival– Kill everything in the path– Many FPS are like this.

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ZX SPECTRUM

System 16 arcade

Chihiro arcade system

Panasonic 503i

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Objective categories(3) Rescue or escape

– Get unit(s) to safety.– It usually allows players to come closer to rescue

someone. – Mario, Prince of Persia– This objective is usually combined with other

objectives.• Solve something along the way.

Forbidden act– Get an opponent to do things that they should not.– Stare competition.– Not often found in computer games.

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Rescue the princess

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Objective categories(4)

Construction– This is a more advanced version of “alignment”.– Resource management, or trading.– The success, in each player’s view, is different.

• SimCity, TheSims.• Developing RPG characters.

Exploration– Usually combined with other objectives.

• Find treasures.• Zelda: exploration + puzzle + combat.

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The Sims

Exploration in FF13

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Objective categories(5)

Outwit– Using knowledge to defeat opponent.– Scrabble.

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Game state and game view Game state = information whose value can

change during the course of play. For example:– Chess:

• every piece’s position,

• pieces that can be captured with a special technique,

• whose turn is the current turn.

– Football: • each and every player’s information, including players off the

pitch,

• every possible move that each player can make in his next move.

It can be seen that a game player may not, or does not have to know a game state in its entirety. A game state observable by a game player is called a game view. – For example, in online games, a player never knows each

game state because thousands of other players are also in the same game and its impossible for him to know their states.

– For chess, however, each game state is the same as its corresponding game view.

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Rules Defines allowable actions

– Game state will change according to moves defined by rules.

– Although the game can enforce rules, players have to know and accept them in order to play joyfully.

– Rules for various parts of a game is as follows:• Rules that define how the game starts.

• Rules that define how the game is won. Some type of games, such as online games, do not have this kind of rules.

• Rules that define possible player actions in each game state.

• Rules that define the next game state, following player(s) moves. Rules may state who should go first, how turns are alternated, what happens if players perform actions at the same time.

• Rules that define game view in each game state.

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Example of rules Warcraft 2

– A player must have become a keep and built a stable before he can create a knight unit.

Dynamics Are patterns of play

caused by players making allowed moves. For example:– Seizing an opponent’s

territory.– Hindering other players

until beating them at the finish line.

– Jumping in and making a combination attack, or waiting for an attack and performing a counter move.

Games with similar dynamics may have totally different rules.

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Theme It’s the game’s

atmosphere. It has nothing to do

with rules or game mechanics.

But if chosen well, it can make the game more interesting.

For example: if we want to create a “find a hidden object” game, it is much more interesting to have our hero look for a missing person than to look for a cat.

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resources

Examples– Money, weapons, armor, potions, magic

items.– Help completing the goals of the game.– Must have usage.– Must not be too abundant.

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Resource examples in modern games Lives: Mario Units: chess, RTS games (evolving units).

– Finite, or can be renewable (usually have costs).– It’s a designer’s job to balance costs.

Health Currency Actions

– Number of moves in a turn.– Phases of turn (Magic:The Gathering).– Enter The Matrix: bullet time allowed, but only in

short period.

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Magic: The Gathering

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Cont.

Objects– Armor, weapons– Power-up (Mario’s mushroom)

Terrain– Important for RTS and war games.

• Warcraft, currency extracted from special terrains.

• Scrabble is another example.

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Cont.

Time– Restricting player actions by time.

• Music chair• Mario

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Obstacles Physical Obstacles

– Usually refers to landscapes.– More important role for single player games than

multiplayer games. Opponents

– Can be AI or humans. Dilemmas

– Choices that players have to make.• Monopoly: spend money to buy new property, or

upgrade a property already owned?

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Opponents & allies are utilized on online games