Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
is there a maximum number oF mechanisms?
it is impossible to state exactly how many mechanisms a game should have. each indi-
vidual design has its own balance, and of course the answer depends a lot on the game's
intended audience. children's games should be less complex than those for adults, but
even adults can enjoy very simple games. We feel that a game's mechanics should pro-
vide as many gameplay options as its audience will enjoy (and as are consistent with the
game's fantasy), but not so many that they impose an unreasonable cognitive burden on
the player. That is the balance to be struck.
different audiences have different preferences, however, and if you adopt the player-cen-
tric approach that ernest adams advocates, you must keep your player's wishes in mind
at all times. in recent years, a number of fighting games have simplified their mechanics
with Quick Time Events (prompted sequences of button presses in which the player is told
explicitly what to do), much to the disgust of the fans of more traditional fighting games.
antoine de saint-exupéry's famous quote “it seems that perfection is reached not when
there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” (1939) applies
well to game mechanics—so long as the players are happy!
We already know that relatively simple mechanisms can produce emergence, and
games can create interesting gameplay with a small set of mechanics. Using a small
number of design patterns to generate complex gameplay has many advantages.
The design becomes easier to manage for the designer and easier to implement for
programmers and artists, and the game becomes easier to learn for the player. In our
simulation examples ( Diablo 's inventory, health points and dice in Kriegsspiel , and
jumping in Super Mario Bros. ), using analogous and symbolic simulation resulted in a
simpler rule system than an iconic simulation would have. Compared with a com-
pletely detailed, realistic simulation, analogous and symbolic simulation aims to
capture the essence of the source system with fewer elements.
In terms of Machination diagrams, analogous simulation reduces the number of
elements in the diagram by replacing similar mechanisms with only one mecha-
nism. Symbolic simulation goes one step further, by connecting mechanics in the
game where they would not be connected directly in the real world. As is the case
with the use of symbols in spoken and written language, some symbolic simulations
work better than others. The symbols that work best seem to connect two unrelated
rules that still have some affinity between them. In the case of Super Mario Bros. ,
there is a natural relationship between the physical skill and timing involved in
both jumping and fighting.
When used correctly, abstracting features to produce analogous and symbolic simu-
lation reduces the number of elements in a system without affecting its structural
complexity (for example, the number of feedback loops) and emergent properties
too much. This has three advantages:
 
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