Game Elements: what they are made off!

   

Games are made up of many different things, but the key elements to a game are the formal elements that build up the skeleton framework of gameplay.
These formal elements include things like;

• Players
• Objectives
• Rules
• Resources and resource management
• Game state
• Information
• Sequencing
• Player information
• Theme, narrative, backstory, setting
• Games as systems

    This week I will discuss three of these elements that I have learnt about, that I did not already know, or ever really think about.

Players

    Players are a very big part of gameplay. Designers and developers must always take the player into consideration.

They must also think about how many players the game supports; single player, multiplayer, teams , 1v1, team v team (v team).

Things like this contribute to the way that the game is payed, how many rounds and turns on each round, is it turn based or is everyone playing at the same time?

Sequencing

    Depending on how many players there are in a game, sequence can then be decided. A lot of games, like your classic board games are turn based. This is usually in a clockwise fashion but this has developed a lot over the years. Some games take turned based on who is winning  or skipping the first player to eliminate the 'first player advantage'.

Other games are turn based but the players draw at the same time and often write things like actions down or turn action cards and the like.

Games as systems

    Changing even just one of the many formal elements in a game can change the game entirely. They greatly influence user experience.

Although this is turn, systems can sometimes change as new information is obtained, but changing one formal element has an effect on all other elements of the game.

    Due to the game working this way, you can describe it as a system, everything effects everything else, and some elements are not possible without other elements.

    -signing off

      Ak

image found on pineterest