Videogame Design and Programming - 03 The Structure of Games

The Structure of Games
Videogame Design and Programming

Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi

The Structure
of Games


video game = video + game

what does “video” stand for?

“board game”

“card game”


Similarities and Differences

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5

Players

Both descriptions describe experiences designed for players

In contrast, music is a form of entertainment that does not
require an active participation by the consumers

To become a player, one must voluntarily accept the rules
and constraints of a game (the lusory attitude)

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Objectives

Both descriptions lay out speciﬁc goals for the players

Watching a movie is a form of entertainment with no goal

In games, objectives are a key element without which the
experience loses its structure

Our need to work toward the objective is a measure of
our involvement

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Procedures

Both descriptions give detailed instructions on what the player can do to
achieve the objectives

They guide player behavior and creating interactions that would never take
place outside the authority of the game

Rules

Both descriptions spend a great deal of time explaining exactly what
objectives the game consists and what the player can and cannot do

Clarify what happens in various situations that might arise

Deﬁne game objects and concepts, limit the player behavior

Imply authority and yet there is no person named in either description
with whom to associate that authority

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7

Resources

Certain objects hold a rather high value for the players in reaching their
objectives

Finding and managing resources is a key part of many games

They are valuable for the scarcity and their utility

Conflict

Procedures and rules tend to deter players from accomplish goals directly
(think about golf)

The relationship between the objectives, the rules, the procedures limiting/
guiding behavior create conflict

Players work to resolve conflict in their own favor

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRryeImj4pc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAOplz5ri5k



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10

Boundaries

Rules and goals apply only within the game, not in “real life”

Playing experience is somehow set apart from other experiences by
boundaries, and this is another distinctive element of the structure of
games

Outcome

In both games, the outcome needs to be uncertain

The uncertainty of the outcome is important for the players, if they can
anticipate the outcome, they won’t play

Movies, concerts, books can remain entertaining even when the outcome
is already known

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Colleen Lachowicz is a social worker, foster parent and passionate democrat who’s
running for State Senate in Maine. She’s also an orc assassin rogue named Santiaga within
the massive multiplayer online role playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) – a fact that
her Republican opponents say makes her unfit to be in office.
In a recent mailer sent out by Maine GOP communications director David Sorensen,
Lachowicz is condemned for “living a time-consuming double life as a member of the
World of Warcraft community.”
“Her character’s impressive Level 85 distinction – the highest that can be achieved in the
massive online role playing game,” he wrote. “Studies have found that the average World of
Warcraft gamer is 28 and spends 22.7 hours per week playing.”
“In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments
like the ones below,” reads the website’s header. “Maine needs a State Senator that lives in
the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world.”
Dozens of screencapped messages from forums and website comments populate the
website’s blog. These messages were written by Lachowiz in discussion of the game over a
span of at least seven years.

Formal Elements

the elements that all games share,

that make up the essence of games

the developers goal is to go beyond the basic elements

of games, by exploring new forms of interactivity, etc.

yet, it is important to understand the role of formal

elements in traditional game systems


Engaging the Player

15

•  The formal elements provide structure to the experience of

games, but what gives these elements meaning for the players?

•  What makes one game capture the imagination of players and
another one fall ﬂat?

•  What allows players to emotionally connect with a game?

•  The sense of engagement comes from different things for

different players, and not all the games require elaborate means
to creat it


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9YaFY8S75M


Engaging the Player

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19

Challenge

The conﬂict challenges the player and create tension as well as creates
varying level of achievement or frustration

Increasing the challenge as the game goes on increase the tension, but too
much challenge causes frustration

Premise

Overarching premise gives context to the formal elements and creates
engagement (monopoly)

The premise of World of Warcraft is that players are characters in a rich
fantasy world with archetypical quests

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Engaging the Player

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20

Character

Agents through which stories are told
with whom players can empathize

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Story

Some games engage players emotionally
by using the power of the story within
or surrounding their formal elements

How story can be integrated into
gameplay is an ongoing debate

How much story is too much?
Or too little?

Should the gameplay change the story?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYr5J877tsU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LwQDF-iBN0


Games are systems and systems, by deﬁnition,

are groups of interrelated elements

These elements work together

to form a complex whole

“whole is greater than the sum of its part”

Game designers have to look at a game system not only

as separate elements but also as a whole in play


“Game: a system in which players engage in

an artificial conflict, defined by rules,

that results in a quantifiable outcome”

Rules of Play


Videogame Design and Programming - 03 The Structure of Games

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