Game Elements

Game Elements - Starloop Studios

Hey! Today I will be writing about Game Elements. Here is the article I read to find out more about Game Elements. 

There are many different elements of a game. In the book “Challenges for Game Designers”, the authors refer to them as “atoms”. They say that these are the smallest parts of a game and that they should be studied individually. The book was created to challenge you, improve your brainstorm abilities and sharpen your game design skills.

What are the Atomic Elements of Games?

Similar to the definition of a “game”, there is no perfect description. But when you look at all of the games as a whole, we can see that a pattern emerges. 

The Atomic Elements of games include:

• Players
• Objectives
• Rules
• Resources
• Game State
• Information
• Sequencing
• Player Interaction
• Theme (Narrative, Backstory, Setting)
• Games as Systems

Lets look into some of them individually.

Players:

Here is the article I read to find out more about how players are essential to games. All games must include players, without players then it wouldn’t be much of a game. it is critical that players exist in a game unless there would be nobody to carry out tasks and overcome the challenges. Numbers of players can vary depending on the game you play.

For example:

• 1 player vs. the game system. The card game, Solitaire and the video game, Minesweeper are examples of this.
• Head-to-head. Examples of these types of games are Chess and Go.
• “PvE” (multiple players vs. the game system). World of Warcraft and Knizia’s Lord of the Rings are examples of these types of games.
• One-against-many (1 player vs. multiple players). The board gameScotland Yard is a great example of this.

Objectives:

Here is the article I read to find out more about how objectives are essential to games. When designing a game you must figure out what the goal of the player is. This is initially the foundation of the game. Once a foundation is built then the rest of the game elements with come into play. The objectives that the plays overcome would assist them to win the game.

Common objectives are:

• The players could capture or destroy the opponent by eliminating their pieces in games like Chess or Stratego.
• Solve. This is when the player’s objective is to solve a problem or puzzle. Castle of Magic and Sleuth are some examples.
• Chase/race/escape. This is when the player’s objective is to run towards or away from something. Examples of this type of game is Super Mario Bros. This game could also be played in real life, it’s called Tag.

Rules:

Here is the article I read to find out more about how rules are essential to games. There are usually 3 categories of Rules. 

The 3 categories are:

• Set up (things you do once at the beginning of the game)
• Progression of play (what happens during the game)
• Resolution (how does the game end)

Rules is what makes a game challenging. Without rules, it would be a very unsatisfactory game to play. Some rules can be vague and others could be very specific.

For example, the card game Uno has many different rules. Everybody plays the game differently, so technically if a player plays the game in another way then it’s not really considered “breaking the rules”. Some players even make up rules as they play. This is the beauty of games, no game can ever be complete, games can keep being developed all the time.

Now let’s talk about prototyping!

First of all what is a prototype? A prototype is a creation of a model to portray some aspect of a product’s design. However, in the world of game design, the prototype is used to explore the aspects of a games.

When starting to prototype, its ideal to start off with a quick model instead of coding. These prototypes can be simple made with just pens and pieces of paper. You could use cut up pieces of paper to demonstrate the moving parts of the game.

You could also use physical objects and your own body to prototype a game experience. For example you could use ping pong paddles and balls to demonstrate the moving parts of the game. 

After you have a general concept on how the game is suppose to work, you could start creating prototypes in digital form. This gives the designer something to work with as soon as possible.

Prototypes may not seem hight quality at first, but that’s the idea, its not meant to be anything amazing. This process just builds the foundation of the game idea. It’s such an essential step for game designers as this would help you develop your game ideas even further. Your idea evolves within every iterative process so always remember to start prototyping first because you could unlatch new discoveries!

Here is the video I watched to find out about prototyping: