Integrating Level Design and Mechanics - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 238

can you use machinations as a leVel desiGn tool?
The machinations framework was not set up to explore level design in much detail.
as you can see from the examples, it works better with simple representations of game
spaces, consisting of a handful of pools to represent locations. This is particularly suitable
for point-and-click adventure games, but you will end up duplicating many mechanics
if you are making a more detailed level design. moving units around the map is poorly
supported. still, it can be done, and using machinations can be a good way to explore
and experiment with different structures for game levels. The fact that machinations
forces you to focus on the abstract level structure allows you to try out and implement
ideas much faster than most prototyping techniques would allow, and it makes the inter-
actions among the game space, its mission, and its game mechanics visible.
learning to Play
Part of the level designer's job is to train the player in the required gameplay skills
necessary to complete the game. Nowadays, players don't want to read manuals
to play a game; they expect to learn the mechanics as a natural part of playing the
game. This is especially true of casual gamers playing games online or on mobile
devices. This means that you must structure your levels in such a way that they
introduce the mechanics to the players in an incremental, comprehensible pro-
gression. In this section, we will discuss two slightly different but compatible
approaches to teaching the mechanics while the player plays the game.
Skill Atoms
In an article entitled “The Chemistry of Game Design” published on the Gamasutra
website, designer Daniel Cook analyzed the way that players learn skills to play
games (2007). He broke his hypothetical game into multiple skill atoms. Each atom
constitutes a step in the learning process and consists of four events:
1. Action. This is the action the player performs, such as pressing a button or
moving a mouse cursor.
2. Simulation. The game responds by applying mechanics and changing its state.
3. Feedback. This is the way the game communicates its state change via output
devices. (Note that this is not positive or negative feedback within the mechanics
but information “fed back” to the player.)
4. Modeling. The player then updates her mental model of the game.