Reading week 4: Game elements

 Game elements

Learning about game elements made me realise how complex a simple game can be. Game elements are the components that make up a game. I learned that there is no set in stone description of what a game is. They came up with common themes when describing a game.  Some of the themes would be, a set of rules, a goal, conflicts and decisions that lead to an uncertain outcome. 

Next, the blogger writes about 'atomic elements', a term I first heard today. They are named as such because when isolated they are the smallest parts of a game that can be studied individually. There is no exact definition for an atomic element but once you look at each element a theme starts to form. This helps game designers know what they need to build their very own game.

Atomic Elements

     Players        Resources Player     Interaction

 Objectives      Game State         Theme    

          Rules         Information       Games as systems

Game elements

Critical Analysis studies parts of games and how they interact. This is in hopes to understand how all the individual parts relate to the play experience. It is not only a review. It is a thorough unbiased study. Critical analysis is an effective way to examine your own developing game. The blog offers three ways to critically analyse your work in progress. 

The three critical analysis techniques say that firstly, you should describe the game you are creating's formal/atomic elements. State them as simple as possible. At this point, do not interpret. Secondly, describe your results of the atomic elements when put in motion. Ask yourself "how  do all the  different elements interact with each other? Is the gameplay effective, what is it like?". Lastly, evaluate the reasoning behind why you chose your formal elements. Experiment to see what could happen if you had chosen differently.