Emergence and progression - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 41

FIGURe 2.6
“The devil's
Playground”
mission in
StarCraft 2
In StarCraft 2 , the player has more control over the larger story line of the game. To
a certain extent, players can choose the order of missions and sometimes can choose
between two options. Although this integrates the overall storyline into the game
slightly better than the original StarCraft did, it is not as sophisticated as the integra-
tion between progression and emergence on the level of the individual mission.
Summary
In this chapter, you explored the categories of games of emergence and games of
progression. These categories are frequently used in game studies to indicate two
alternative ways of creating gameplay and challenges in games. There seems to be a
tendency within game studies and among certain game designers to favor games of
emergence over games of progression. This tendency can be attributed to the more
interesting structure of the mechanics that create emergence in games and the size
of the possibility space created by mechanics of emergence.
Games of emergence are characterized by relatively few rules, many interrelated
game elements, and a large and wide possibility space. Games of progression are
characterized by relatively many rules, fewer interrelation between game elements,
and a smaller possibility space that is usually narrow and deep.