Game Design Workshop (Tracy Fullerton)

In Game Design Workshop, Tracy Fullerton wants to "help you become a game designer."  She does so by making you "game literate," which means "understanding how games systems work, analyzing how they make meaning, and using your understanding to create your own game systems."  She explains:

- her playcentric approach to game development (keeping player experience always in view)
- the structure of games, both formal and dramatic elements
- the theory of games as systems, with interacting objects, properties, behaviors, and relationships
- designing games (conceptualizing, prototyping, playtesting)
- testing games for functionality, completeness, balance, fun, and accessibility
- working as a game designer, including understanding the game industry and selling your ideas

Each chapter is filled with useful information and peppered with "designer perspective" asides, where insiders across the industry explain their background and approach to the subject.

Below I summarize the structural elements of games, both formal and dramatic.  Quotes and paraphrases are from the text.

Formal Elements
These "are those elements that form the structure of a game."  They include:

- players: those who voluntarily participate in a temporary world, with specific constraints, to achieve an outcome.  The designer must consider number of, role(s) of, and nature of interaction between players (competitive, cooperative, one vs. many, etc.).

- objective: "what players are trying to accomplish within the rules of the game."  They should be challenging but achievable.  They can be one or many, and be the same for all players or unique.  Obejctives are important because they set the tone and shape dramatic elements.  Some generic objectives: capture, chase, race, alignment (arrangement of components), rescue/escape, forbidden act (example: Operation), construction, exploration, solution, outwit.

- procedures: "the methods of play and the actions that players can take to achieve the game obejctives."  Covers "who does what, where, when, and how."

- rules: "define game objects and define allowable actions by the players."  This includes restricting actions and determining effects/consequences.  Define them in such a way to give players meaningful choices and some degree of control of the gameplay.

- resources: objects with "both utility and scarcity" in the game system.  Managing resources is a key element of gameplay.  Resources can include lives, units, health, currency, actions, power-ups, inventory, and time.

- conflict: this "emerges from the players trying to accomplish the goals of the game within its rules and boundaries."  These are often deliberately inefficient, and "do not allow players to accomplish their goals directly."  Done well, this creates challenge and enjoyment by forcing players to use particular skill(s) "to gain an ultimate sense of achievement."  Three common sources of conflict: obstacles, opponents, and dilemmas.

- boundaries: "what separates the game from everything that is not the game."  It could be physical dimensions or rules that dictate the permissible and forbidden (example: you can't introduce your own money into Monopoly).  But boundaries also separate the game from daily life, meaning you're free to do things in the game that would be socially unacceptable (or worse) outside of the experience.

- outcome: this "must be uncertain to hold the attention of the players."  It's always related to the "player interaction patterns" (competitive, cooperative, etc.) and affected "by the nature of the game objective."

Dramatic Elements
These are "those elements that engage the players emotionally with the game experience and invest them in its outcome."  They include:

- challenge: players want "tasks that are satisfying to complete, that require just the right amount of work to create a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment."  Challenges require skill, have clear goals/feedback, give players influence over uncertain outcomes, and can be so engaging that we lose ourselves in the experience.

- play: this is "freedom or movement within a more rigid structure."  It's where the players have freedom to act within rules, creating "the opportunity for emergent experience and personal expression."  Play is subjective, and people play for different reasons (to compete, explore, achieve, tell stories, build, etc.).

- premise: this "establishes the action of the game within a setting or metaphor."  It's an element of drama used to emotionally engage players.  It's an element of story, and sets time, place, characters, objective, conflict, etc.

- character: "the agents through whose actions a drama is told."  Consider protagonists and antagonists, and (when designing) ask "what do they want, need, hope, and fear?"

- story: like outcomes, stories have uncertain endings.  They should be resolved- in this context, by the player.  Part of story is world building- creating "compelling environments that cannot be fully explored or exhausted within a single work" (think Lord of the Rings).  Stories should follow a dramatic arc, maintaining tension with escalating conflict until story climax/resolution.

Review
This is a good resource.  In particular, her discussion on game structure- formal and dramatic elements- is excellent, which is why I summarize it above.  Though geared towards video games, most chapters are fully relevant to those interested in board game design, and this is a good starting place.  It gave me the vocabulary and understanding necessary to intelligently approach my own goal (designing a board game in 2018).

Rating: A