What Are Games Made Of?

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What Are Games Made Of?
Adapted from Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
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Four Basic Elements
More visible
Less visible
The Elemental Tetrad
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Elemental Tetrad

• Mechanics
• Procedures and rules of your game
• Describe the goal of your game, how players can
  try to achieve it, and what happens when they try
• Main differentiator between games and linear
  entertainment experiences (books, movies, etc.)
• Choose technology that can support your
  mechanics, aesthetics that emphasize them clearly
  and a story that allows your mechanics to make
  sense.

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Elemental Tetrad

• Story
• Sequence of events in your game
• May be linear and pre-scripted or branching and
  emergent
• Choose mechanics that strengthen your story and
  allows your story to emerge
• Choose aesthetics to help reinforce ideas of your
  story and technology that is best suited to the
  story

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Elemental Tetrad

• Aesthetics
• How your game looks, sounds, smells, tastes and
  feels.
• Most direct relationship to the players
  experience
• Choose technology that will amplify and reinforce
  your aesthetics
• Choose mechanics that make players feel immersed
  in the world that the aesthetics have defined
• Choose a story that allows your aesthetics to
  emerge at the right pace and have the most impact

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Elemental Tetrad

• Technology
• Doesnt just refer to high technology but any
  materials and interactions that make your game
  possible
• Paper and pencil, plastic coins, etc.
• The choice of technology enables your game to do
  certain things and prohibits other things
• Technology is the medium in which the aesthetics
  take place, the mechanics will occur and through
  which the story will be told.

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Elemental Tetrad

• None of the 4 elements are more important than
  the others
• Technological elements tend to be the least
  visible to players aesthetics are the most
  visible.
• Other ways of organizing the tetrad
• Technology and mechanics are left brain
  elements
• Aesthetics and story are right brain elements
• All four elements are essential to a game