Resources and resource management
“Resources” is a broad category, and I use it to mean everything that is under control of a single player. Obviously this includes explicit resources (Wood and Wheat in Settlers of Catan, health and mana and currency in World of Warcraft), but this can also include other things under player control:
- Territory in RISK
- Number of questions remaining in Twenty Questions
- Objects that can be picked up in video games (weapons, powerups)
- Time (either game time, or real time, or both)
- Known information (as the suspects that you have eliminated in Clue)
What kinds of resources do the players control? How are these resources manipulated during play? This is something the game designer must define explicitly.
Game State
Some “resource-like” things are not owned by a single player, but are still part of the game: unowned properties in Monopoly, the common cards in Texas Hold ‘Em. Everything in the game together, including the current player resources and everything else that makes up a snapshot of the game at a single point in time is called the game state.
In board games, explicitly defining the game state is not always necessary, but it is sometimes useful to think about. After all, what are rules, but the means by which the game is transformed from one game state to another?
In video games, someone must define the game state, because it includes all of the data that the computer must keep track of. Normally this task falls to a programmer, but if the game designer can explicitly define the entire game state it can greatly aid in the understanding of the game by the programming team.
Information
How much of the game state is visible to each player? Changing the amount of information available to players has a drastic effect on the game, even if all other formal elements are the same. Some examples of information structures in games:
- A few games offer total information, where all players see the complete game state at all times. Chess and Go are classic board game examples.
- Games can include some information that is private to each individual. Think of Poker and other card games where each player has a hand of cards that only they can see.
- One player can have their own privileged information, while other players do not. This is common in one-against-many player structures, like Scotland Yard.
- The game itself can contain information that is hidden from all players. Games like Clue and Sleuth actually have the victory condition that a player discover this hidden information.
- These can be combined. Many “real-time strategy” computer games use what is called “fog of war” where certain sections of the map are concealed to any player that does not have a unit in sight range. Some information is therefore hidden from all players. Beyond that, players cannot see each other’s screens, so each player is unaware of what information is and isn’t available to their opponents.
Sequencing
In what order do players take their actions? How does play flow from one action to another? Games can work differently depending on the turn structure that is used:
- Some games are purely turn-based: at any given time it is a single player’s “turn” on which they may take action. When they are done, it becomes someone else’s turn. Most classic board games and turn-based strategy games work this way.
- Other games are turn-based, but with simultaneous play (everyone takes their turn at the same time, often by writing down their actions or playing an action card face-down and then simultaneously revealing). The board game Diplomacy works like this. There is also an interesting Chess variant where players write down their turns simultaneously and then resolve (two pieces entering the same square on the same turn are both captured) that adds tension to the game.
- Still other games are real-time, where actions are taken as fast as players can take them. Most action-oriented video games fall into this category, but even some non-digital games (such as the card games Spit or Speed) work this way.
- There are additional variations. For a turn-based game, what order do players take their turns? Taking turns in clockwise order is common. Taking turns in clockwise order and then skipping the first player (to reduce the first-player advantage) is a modification found in many modern board games. I’ve also seen games where turn order is randomized for each round of turns, or where players pay other resources in the game for the privilege of going first (or last), or where turn order is determined by player standing (player who is currently winning goes first or last).
- Turn-based games can be further modified by the addition of an explicit time limit, or other form of time pressure.
Player Interaction
This is an often-neglected but highly important aspect of games to consider. How do players interact with one another? How can they influence one another? Here are some examples of player interactions
- Direct conflict (”I attack you”)
- Negotiation (”If you support me to enter the Black Sea, I’ll help you get into Cairo next turn”)
- Trading (”I’ll give you a Wood in exchange for your Wheat”)
- Information sharing (”I looked at that tile last turn and I’m telling you, if you enter it a trap will go off”)
Theme (or narrative, backstory, or setting)
These terms do have distinct meanings for people who are professional story writers, but for our purposes they are used interchangeably to mean the parts of the game that do not directly affect gameplay at all.
If it doesn’t matter in terms of gameplay, why bother with this at all? There are two main reasons. First, the setting provides an emotional connection to the game. I find it hard to really care about the pawns on my chessboard the way I care about my Dungeons & Dragons character. And while this doesn’t necessarily make one game “better” than another, it does make it easier for a player to become emotionally invested in the game.
The other reason is that a well-chosen theme can make a game easier to learn and easier to play, because the rules make sense. The piece movement rules in Chess have no relation to the theme and must therefore be memorized by someone learning the game. By contrast, the roles in the board game Puerto Rico have some relation to their game function: the builder lets you build buildings, the mayor recruits new colonists, the captain ships goods off to the Old World, and so on. It is easy to remember what most actions do in the game, because they have some relation to the theme of the game.
Games as Systems
I’d like to call two things about these formal elements to your attention.
First, if you change even one formal element, it can make for a very different game. Each formal element of a game contributes in a deep way to the player experience. When designing a game, give thought to each of these elements, and make sure that each is a deliberate choice.
Second, note that these elements are interrelated, and changing one can affect others. Rules govern changes in Game State. Information can sometimes become a Resource. Sequencing can lead to different kinds of Player Interaction. Changing the number of Players can affect what kinds of Objectives can be defined. And so on.
Because of the interrelated nature of these parts, you can frame any game as a system. (One dictionary definition of the word “system” is: a combination of things or parts that form a complex whole.)
In fact, a single game can contain several systems. World of Warcraft has a combat system, a quest system, a guild system, a chat system, and so on…
Another property of systems is that it is hard to fully understand or predict them just by defining them; you gain a far deeper understanding by seeing the system in action. Consider the physical system of projectile motion. I can give you a mathematical equation to define the path of a ball being thrown, and you could even predict its behavior… but the whole thing makes a lot more sense if you see someone actually throwing a ball.
Games are like this, too. You can read the rules and define all the formal elements of a game, but to truly understand a game you need to play it. This is why most people do not immediately see the parallel between Tic-Tac-Toe and Three-to-Fifteen until they have played them.
Critical Analysis of Games
What is a critical analysis, and why do we care?
Critical analysis is not just a game review. We are not concerned with how many out of five stars, or any numbers from 0 to 10, or whether or not a game is “fun” (whatever that means), or aiding in the consumer decision of whether or not to buy a game.
Critical analysis does not just mean a list of things that are wrong with the game. The word “critical” in this context does not mean “fault-finding” but rather a thorough and unbiased look at the game.
Critical analysis is useful when discussing or comparing games. You can say “I like the card game Bang! because it’s fun” but that does not help us as designers to learn why it is fun. We must look at the parts of games and how they interact in order to understand how each part relates to the play experience.
Critical analysis is also useful when examining our own works in progress. For a game that you’re working on, how do you know what to add or remove to make it better?
There are many ways to critically analyze a game, but I offer a three-step process:
- Describe the game’s formal elements. Do not interpret at this point, simply state what is there.
- Describe the results of the formal elements when put in motion. How do the different elements interact? What is the play of the game like? Is it effective?
- Try to understand why the designer chose those elements and not others. Why this particular player structure, and why that set of resources? What would have happened if the designer had chosen differently?
Some questions to ask yourself during a critical analysis at various stages:
- What challenges do the players face? What actions can players take to overcome those challenges?
- How do players affect each other?
- Is the game perceived by the players as fair? (Note that it may or may not actually be fair. Perception and reality often differ.)
- Is the game replayable? Are there multiple paths to victory, varied start positions, or optional rules that cause the experience to be different each time?
- What is the game’s intended audience? Is the game appropriate for that audience?
- What is the “core” of the game — the one thing you do over and over that represents the main “fun” part?
Lessons Learned
We covered a lot of content today. The main takeaways I offer:
- Games are systems.
- Understanding a game is much easier if you have played it.
- Analyzing a game requires looking at all of the game’s working parts, and figuring out how they fit together and how a play experience arises from them.
- Designing a game requires the creation of all of the game’s parts. If you haven’t defined the formal elements of your game in some way, then you don’t really have a game… you just have the seed of an idea. This is fine, but to make it into a game you must actually design it.
