Game Elements

 

Game Elements Image source

 

Beginning my research for this blog post, I watched a video called  Introduction to Game Design: Prototype Your Game. Which helped me redefine what a prototype is and why it is important.

The term "prototype" comes from industrial and product design and refers to creating a model to represent an aspect of a products design.

A prototype in a game is meant to explore aspects of the game and other elements. through this process of prototyping, we learn a few things.

1. What primary thing that the player does
2. What the setting looks and feels like.
3. How long a player gets to play a game along with learning different ways to play the game.

While I was reading through the documentation on Gamasutra, I found it a very long and daunting read. it was hard to grasp and skim through which is hard enough with my attention span, but then again, it was written over 20 years ago. 

The main focus, from what I understood, relied on game design and the tools involved in creating them. The author also explained simplistic controls from the likes of Super Mario Bros which help the player make good guesses about what should happen.

The author then dove deeper into "consequences" with the game. The outcomes of choices players make in the game will cause certain reactions to happen that developers have programmed in such as fork in the road choices that will lead do different outcomes. Some good, Some not so good.

When designing games one must critically analyze a game, this includes its formal elements, how they interact and why the developer decided to use these elements. Only then will a person become familiar and knowledgeable in game design, moving one step closer to making an original and fun game. This artical wasn't one I enjoyed at all but I will continue to hunt for more modern and interesting articles.