Game Elements

 

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This week's reading task is about game elements where we have to explore more important vocabulary that we could use and also consider if we are starting to build our game project.

The first written document that I read was analyzing the qualities of games. It started to give a quick summary about the definition of a game and all of main qualities can be simply called as "Formal Elements" also known as "Atomic Elements of Games". They are the smallest parts of a game that can be studied individually. 

Here are the 10 Atomic elements:

1. Players
2. Objectives (goals)
3. Rules
4. Resources/Resource Management
5. Game State
6. Information
7. Sequencing
8. Player Interaction
9. Theme (Setting, Narrative, Backstory)
10. Game as Systems

After reading each explanation about these elements, I started to understand how important it is to follow this because every one of them has a special role in our game. The whole game could change if we just adjust/remove at least one of the elements. There are some example that I got in the link given from the document such as, sequencing can lead to a different kinds of player interaction, changing the number of players can affect what kinds of objectives can be defined and lastly, rules can govern changes in game state.

The document did not only talk about the Formal Elements of Games, but it also covered the topic of "Critical Analysis" properly. This can be useful when were in the middle of developing our game because we have to look at every part and how they interact in order for us to fully understand how they connect to each other. We must also stop and examine our whole game to see where we could improve or remove things to make it better.

There are also three steps to fully review our game:

1. Describe game's formal elements - Where you simply explain what is there.
2. Describe game's formal elements when put in motion - How do different elements interact? Is it effective?
3. Understand why the designer choses those elements and not the others - What would happen if the designer chosen differently? 

I also checked out the link called Game Design Research (I did not read everything😁). It explained how important it is to know what game design research really does and understanding it could really help us improve our game. Finally, the last thing I looked at was the video about Prototyping. I learned that in game perspective, prototype meant to explore aspects of the game. Even though its proper definition came from industrial and product design where it refers to the creation of a model to represent some aspect of a product's design.

The video also gave me some ideas how I could do my prototype such as creating a paper mock-up where I can visualize the spaces, tools and I could imitate what will be the game experience might be like. They also advice to experience that game physically such as when they started to play ping pong against a wall and tried to roll the ball on the table to see what they can add to their game example. I also took some notes of the questions that I could consider when I start my prototype. Here are the questions: 

What is the primary thing gets to do in the game? 

What is the space of the game will look like? 

How long should the game be?

What should it feel like?

Overall, prototyping could help us refined our game ideas even more. There is even a possibility that we can discover new things as we do the process as every steps we do, our game idea evolves. The video also reminds us how essential for us to have a list of design values and to know atomic analysis to help us keep on track.

Source

• What are the qualities of games?  by Ian Schreiber. Link to an external site.
• "Game Design Research" by Kultima Annakaisa. Link to an external site.
• "Introduction to Game Design: Prototype your Game" Link to an external site.