Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Interactive Systems
Puzzles
(Adds
Problem
)
Contests
(Adds
Competition
)
Games
(Adds
Decisions
)
Figure 4
. A map of the types of interactive systems: everything on the chart is
an interactive system, but not everything is a game. For example, a contest is a
type of puzzle, which is a subset of interactive systems, but not included in the
game category. A game is an interactive system with all three of the features
shown: problems, competition, and decisions.
contest, or game could also be referred to as a
toy
, but that shouldn't
imply that basic interactive systems are only for children. Simulators are
also basic interactive systems.
Video games such as
Dwarf Fortress
and
Minecraft
are sometimes
erroneously called
games
. Some claim that the implicit goal in these ap-
plications is survival—but if that's the case, at what point have you “sur-
vived� and won? If the way that you “win� is by surviving, then this is a
system that cannot be won, because survival is never a condition that is
fulfilled There is no point at which victory is achieved—therefore, these
titles are not
contests,
and being a contest is an important part of being
a game. This point may be confusing, since players often add their own
win conditions to these applications. When they do this, they make a
game out of
Minecraft
in the same way that one makes a game out of a
flight simulator or Legos.
In these cases, a player has actually taken on
the role of game designer!
Minecraft
itself did not ship with any rules for
win conditions, and so the conditions that players add are not an inher-
ent feature.
