Month: October 2006

What are game mechanics?

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The phrase “game mechanics” sends a pleasant shiver down my spine. At the heart of every game are these mysterious whirring clicking mechanisms that deliver to the player pleasure and thrills. We use them, we build them, but I’ve never seen a good unified definition of game mechanics that gives us a practical base upon which to build great games. Here is one. It is clobbered together from a variety of influences though many of […]

Persistent myths about Game Design

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The straw man concept of game design involves the sole genius game designer who writes his thoughts on a golden tablet and passes it down to the production minions to build. There are several beliefs about the process of game design and development evident in this stereotype. Heavy upfront design and preproduction are critical to the creation of a great game. When these activities are not done early in the process, there will be mistakes […]