In
tabletop game
Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games.
Classification according to equipment used
Tabletop games c ...
s and
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, game mechanics are the rules or
ludeme A ludeme is "an element of play" within a card game or board game, as distinct from an "instrument of play" which forms part of the equipment with which a game is played. An example of a ludeme is the L-shaped movement of a knight in chess, whereas ...
s that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. A game's mechanics thus effectively specify how the game will work for the people who play it.
There are no accepted definitions of game mechanics. Some competing definitions include the opinion that game mechanics are "systems of interactions between the player and the game", that they "are more than what the player may recognize, they are only those things that impact the play experience", and "In
tabletop game
Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games.
Classification according to equipment used
Tabletop games c ...
s and
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, 'game mechanics' are the rules and procedures that guide the player and the game response to the player's moves or actions".
All games use mechanics; however, there are different theories as to their ultimate importance to the game. In general, the process and study of
game design
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
are efforts to come up with game mechanics that allow for people playing a game to have an engaging, but not necessarily fun, experience. The interaction of various game mechanics in a game determines the complexity and level of player interaction in the game, and in conjunction with the game's environment and
resources
Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their a ...
determine
game balance
Game balance is a branch of game design that is described as a mathematical-algorithmic model of a game’s numbers, game mechanics, and relations between the two. Game balance consists of adjusting values to create a certain user experience. Play ...
. Some forms of game mechanics have been used in games for centuries, while others are relatively new, having been invented within the past decade.
Game mechanics vs. gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...
could be defined as the combination and interaction of many elements of a game.
However, there is some confusion as to the difference between game mechanics and gameplay. For some, gameplay is nothing more than a set of game mechanics. For others, gameplay—especially when referenced in the term of "basic gameplay"—refers to certain core game mechanics which determine the overall characteristics of the game itself.
For example, the basic gameplay of a shooting or fighting video game is to hit while not being hit. In a
graphic adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
, the basic gameplay is usually to solve puzzles related to the context. The basic gameplay of
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
is to produce certain numerical or categorical combinations.
Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
's basic gameplay is to hit a ball and reach a designated spot.
The
goal
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...
of these games is slightly different from the gameplay itself. For example, while reaching the end of a stage (in
platform game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
s), defeating the
boss
Boss may refer to:
Occupations
* Supervisor, often referred to as boss
* Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier
* Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization
* Fire boss, a ...
, advancing your characters' progress through the story (
RPGs RPG may refer to:
Military
* Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon
**''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade launc ...
) or sinking the ball into a hole (golf) may be the ''purpose'' of playing a game, the ''fun'' is derived primarily by the means and the process in which such a goal is achieved. Basic gameplay defines what a game is, to the player, while game mechanics determine the parts of which the entire game consists.
In video games, gamers have a well-defined notion of what is considered gameplay. This is:
* What the player can do
* What other entities can do, in response to player's actions
What a player and other entities can do within a game would also fall under the mechanics of a game.
However, from a programming or overall design perspective, basic gameplay can be deconstructed further to reveal constituent game mechanics. For example, the basic gameplay of fighting game can be deconstructed to attack and defense, or punch, kick, block, dodge and throw; which can be further deconstructed to strong/weak punch/kick. For this reason, game mechanics is more of an engineering concept while gameplay is more of a design concept.
Game mechanics vs. theme
Some games are 'abstract'—that is, the action is not intended to represent anything;
Go is one famous example. Other games have a 'theme'—some element of representation. ''
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
'' is a famous example where the events of the game are intended to represent another activity, in this case, the buying and selling of properties.
Games that are mechanically similar can vary widely in theme.
Eurogames
The EuroGames are an LGBT multi-sport event in Europe, licensed by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation to a local city host each year and organised (most often) by one or more of the federation's member clubs. Similar to the Gay Gam ...
often feature relatively simple systems, and stress the mechanics, with the theme merely being a context to place the mechanics in.
Some
wargames
''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...
, at the other extreme, are known for complex rules and for attempts at detailed simulation.
Key game mechanics categories
Game mechanics fall into several more or less well-defined categories, which (along with basic gameplay and theme) are sometimes used as a basis to
classify games.
Turns
![Chess (2846141682)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Chess_%282846141682%29.jpg)
A game ''turn'' is an important fundamental concept to almost all non-computer games, and many video games as well (although in video games, various ''real-time'' genres have become much more popular). In general, a turn is a segment of the game set aside for certain actions to happen before moving on to the next turn, where the sequence of events can largely repeat. In a truly abstract game (''
backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
'') turns are nothing more than a means to regulate play. In less abstract games (''
Risk
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...
''), turns obviously denote the passage of time, but the amount of time is not clear, nor important. In
simulation game
Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...
s, time is generally more concrete.
Wargames
''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...
usually specify the amount of time each turn represents, and in
sports game
A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport (s ...
s a turn is usually distinctly one 'play', although the amount of time a play or turn takes can vary.
Some games use ''player turns'' where one player gets to perform their actions before another player can perform any on ''their'' turn (''
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
'' and
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
would be classic examples). Some use ''game turns'', where all players contribute to the actions of a single turn (board-game simulations of
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
tend to have both players pick plays and then determine the outcome; each 'play' or 'down' can be considered a turn). Some games have 'game turns' that consist of a round of player turns, possibly with other actions added in (''
Civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
'' plays with a series of player turns followed by a trading round in which all players participate).
In games that are meant to be some sort of simulation, the on/off nature of player turns can cause problems and has led to a few extra variations on the theme. The
semi-simultaneous turn allows for some reactions to be done during the ''other'' player's turn. The
impulse-based turn
An impulse-based turn system is a game mechanic where a game turn is broken up into a series of discrete, repeating segments, or impulses. It can be considered a fairly complex mechanic, but has been used in three games that have enjoyed long-term ...
divides the turn into smaller segments or ''impulses'' where everyone does ''some'' of their actions at one time, and then reacts to the current situation before moving on to the next impulse (as seen in ''
Star Fleet Battles
''Star Fleet Battles'' (SFB) is a Military tactics, tactical board wargame set in an offshoot of the ''Star Trek'' setting called the Star Fleet Universe. Originally created in 1979 by Stephen V. Cole, it has had four major editions. The current ...
'' or ''
Car Wars
''Car Wars'' is a vehicle combat simulation game developed by Steve Jackson Games. It was first published in 1980. Players control armed vehicles in a post-apocalyptic future.
Game play
In ''Car Wars'', players assume control of one or more ca ...
'').
In some games, not all turns are alike. Usually, this is a difference in what ''phases'' (or different portions of the turn) happen. ''
Imperium Romanum II
''Imperium Romanum'' is a 2008 city-building video game for Microsoft Windows developed by Haemimont Games and published by Kalypso Media (SouthPeak Games only licensed the game for a U.S. release by Kalypso). Players act as governor of a Roman ...
'' for instance, features a "Taxation and Mobilization Phase" in every third turn (month), which does not occur in the other turns. ''
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
'' has an unusual variation on the idea, where every third ''player'' turn is 'night turn' where combat is not allowed.
Even in real-time computer games, there are often certain periodic effects. For instance, a wounded character in ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' will gradually recover health while out of combat. The rate of recovery is calculated from the character's statistics and applied per "tick" as a lump sum, so a character would gain ten health per tick, instead of one every tenth of a tick. These periodic effects can be considered the vestigial remnants of the concept of turns.
Action points
These control what players may do on their turns in the game by allocating each player a budget of "action points" each turn. These points may be spent on various actions according to the game rules, such as moving pieces, drawing cards, collecting money, etc. This type of mechanism is common in many "
German-style board game
A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...
s".
Auction or bidding
Some games use an auction or bidding system in which the players make competitive bids to determine which player gets the right to perform particular actions. Such an auction can be based on different forms of "payment":
* The winning bidder must pay for the won privilege with some form of game resource (game money, points, etc.) (e.g.: ''
Ra'').
* The winning bidder does not pay upon winning the auction, but an auction is a form of a promise that the winner will achieve some outcome in the near future. If this outcome is not achieved, the bidder pays some form of penalty. Such a system is used in many
trick-taking game
A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a ''hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of such g ...
s, such as
contract bridge
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...
.
In some games the auction determines a unique player who gains the privilege; in others, the auction orders all players into a sequence, often the sequence in which they take turns during the current round of gameplay.
Cards
These involve the use of cards similar to playing cards to act as a
randomizer Randomizer most often refers to:
* Scrambler
In telecommunications, a scrambler is a device that transposes or inverts signals or otherwise encodes a message at the sender's side to make the message unintelligible at a receiver not equipped with a ...
and/or to act as tokens to keep track of states in the game.
A common use is for a deck of cards to be shuffled and placed face down on or near the game playing area. When a random result is called for, a player draws a card and what is printed on the card determines the outcome of the result.
Another use of cards occurs when players draw cards and retain them for later use in the game, without revealing them to other players. When used in this fashion, cards form a game resource.
Capture/eliminate
![Sidjah game board 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Sidjah_game_board_3.svg)
In some games, the number of tokens a player has on the playing surface is related to their current strength in the game. In such games, it can be an important goal to ''capture'' opponent's tokens, meaning to remove them from the playing surface.
Captures can be achieved in a number of ways:
* Moving one of one's own tokens into a space occupied by an opposing token (e.g.
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
,
parchisi
''Parcheesi'' is a brand-name American adaptation of the Indian cross and circle board game Pachisi, published by Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in ...
).
* Jumping a token over the space occupied by an opposing token (e.g.
draughts
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
).
* Declaring an "attack" on an opposing token, and then determining the outcome of the attack, either in a deterministic way by the game rules (e.g. ''
Stratego
''Stratego'' ( ) is a strategy board game for two players on a board of 10×10 squares. Each player controls 40 pieces representing individual officer and soldier ranks in an army. The pieces have Napoleonic insignia. The objective of the game ...
'', ''
Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
''), or by using a randomising method (e.g. ''
Illuminati: New World Order'').
* Surrounding a token or region with one's own tokens in some manner (e.g.
go).
* Playing cards or other resources that the game allows to be used to capture tokens.
In some games, captured tokens are simply removed and play no further part in the game (e.g. chess). In others, captured tokens are removed but can return to play later in the game under various rules (e.g.
backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
, pachisi). Less common is the case in which the capturing player takes possession of the captured tokens and can use them himself later in the game (e.g.
shogi
, also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...
, Reversi, Illuminati).
Many video games express the capture mechanism in the form of a kill count, (sometimes referred to as "frags"), reflecting the number of opposing pawns eliminated during the game.
Catch-up
Some games include a mechanism designed to make progress towards victory more difficult the closer a player gets to it. The idea behind this is to allow trailing players a chance to catch up and potentially still win the game, rather than suffer an inevitable loss once they fall behind. This may be desirable in games such as racing games that have a fixed finish line.
An example is from ''
The Settlers of Catan
''Catan'', previously known as ''The Settlers of Catan'' or simply ''Settlers'', is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as ''Die Siedler von Catan''. Pl ...
''. This game contains a neutral piece (the robber), which debilitates the resource generation of players whose territories it is near. Players occasionally get to move the robber, and frequently choose to position it where it will cause maximal disruption to the player currently winning the game.
Another example, often seen in racing games, such as ''
Chutes and Ladders'' is by requiring rolling or spinning the exact number needed to reach the finish line; e.g., if a player is only four spaces from the finish line then they must roll a four on the die or land on the four with the spinner. If more than four is rolled, then the turn is forfeited to the next player.
Other games do the reverse, making the player in the lead more capable of winning, such as in ''
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
'', and thus the game is drawn to an end sooner. This may be desirable in
zero-sum
Zero-sum game is a mathematical representation in game theory and economic theory of a situation which involves two sides, where the result is an advantage for one side and an equivalent loss for the other. In other words, player one's gain is e ...
games.
Dice
These involve the use of ''dice'', usually as randomisers. Most dice used in games are the standard
cubical dice numbered from 1 to 6, though games with
polyhedral dice or those marked with
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
s other than numbers exist.
The most common use of dice is to randomly determine the outcome of an interaction in a game. An example is a player rolling a die or dice to determine how many board spaces to move a game token.
Dice often determine the outcomes of in-game conflict between players, with different outcomes of the die/dice roll of different benefit (or adverse effect) to each player involved. This is useful in games that simulate direct conflicts of interest.
Engine building
Engine building is a mechanism that involves building and optimizing a system to create a flow of resources.
''
SimCity
''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim' ...
'' is an example of an engine-building video game: money activates building mechanisms, which in turn unlock feedback loops between many internal resources such as people, job vacancies, power, transport capacity, and zone types.
In engine-building board games, the player adds and modifies combinations of abilties or resources to assemble a
virtuous circle
A vicious circle (or cycle) is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with detrimental results. It is a system with no tendency toward equilibrium (social, economic, ecological, etc.), at least in the short r ...
of increasingly powerful and productive outcomes.
Movement
![TSR's Divine Right Strategy Game](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/TSR%27s_Divine_Right_Strategy_Game.jpg)
Many
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a comp ...
s involve the movement of playing tokens. How these tokens are allowed to move, and when, is governed by movement mechanics.
Some game boards are divided into more or less equally-sized areas, each of which can be occupied by one or more game tokens. (Often such areas are called
squares
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...
, even if not strictly square in shape.) Movement rules will specify how and when a token can be moved to another area. For example, a player may be allowed to move a token to an adjacent area, but not one further away. Dice are sometimes used to randomize the allowable movements.
Other games, particularly
miniatures games are played on surfaces with no marked areas. A common movement mechanism, in this case, is to measure the distance which the
miniatures are allowed to move with a
ruler
A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines.
Variants
Rulers have long ...
. Sometimes, generally in
naval
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
wargames, the ''direction'' of movement is restricted by use of a
turning key.
Resource management
Many games involve the
management of ''resources''. Examples of game resources include tokens, money,
land
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...
,
natural resource
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
s,
human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...
and
game points. Resource management involves the players establishing relative values for various types of available resources, in the context of the current state of the game and the desired outcome (i.e. winning the game). The game will have rules that determine how players can increase, spend, or exchange their various resources. The skillful management of resources under such rules allows players to influence the outcome of the game.
Risk and reward
Some games include situations where players can "press their luck" in optional actions where the
danger
Danger is a lack of safety and may refer to:
Places
* Danger Cave, an archaeological site in Utah
* Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Indian Ocean
* Danger Island, alternate name of Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean
* Danger Isla ...
of a risk must be weighed against the chance of reward. For example, in ''
Beowulf: The Legend'', players may elect to take a "Risk", with success yielding cards and failure weakening the player's ultimate chance of victory.
Role-playing
Role-playing games
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...
often rely on mechanics that determine the effectiveness of in-game actions by how well the player acts out the role of a
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...
. While early role-playing games such as ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
'' relied heavily on either group consensus or the judgement of a single player (deemed the Dungeon Master or Game Master) or on randomizers such as dice, later generations of
narrativist
GNS theory is an informal field of study developed by Ron Edwards which attempts to create a unified theory of how role-playing games work. Focused on player behavior, in GNS theory participants in role-playing games organize their interactions ...
games use more structured and integrated systems to allow role-playing to influence the creative input and output of the players, so both acting out roles and employing rules take part in shaping the gameplay.
Tile-laying
![Carcassonne-meeple](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Carcassonne-meeple.jpg)
Many games use
tiles
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
- flat, rigid pieces of a regular shape - that can be laid down on a flat surface to form a
tessellation
A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane (mathematics), plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to high-dimensional ...
. Usually, such tiles have patterns or symbols on their surfaces, that combine when tessellated to form game-mechanically significant combinations.
The tiles themselves are often drawn at random by the players, either immediately before placing them on the playing surface, or in groups to form a pool or hand of tiles from which the player may select one to play.
Tiles can be used in two distinct ways:
* The playing of a tile itself is directly significant to the outcome of the game, in that where and when it is played contributes points or resources to the player.
* Tiles are used to build a board upon which other game tokens are placed, and the interaction of those tokens with the tiles provides game points or resources.
Examples of tile mechanics include: ''
Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...
'', in which tiles are letters and players lay them down to form words and score points; and ''
Tikal
Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...
'', in which players lay tiles representing newly explored areas of jungle, through which
archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
(represented by tokens) must move to score game points.
Worker placement
Worker placement is a game mechanism where players allocate a limited number of tokens ("workers") to multiple stations that provide various defined actions.
The worker placement mechanism originates with board games. Stewart Woods identifies ''Keydom'' (1998; later remade and updated as ''
Aladdin's Dragons
''Aladdin's Dragons'' is a 2000 bidding-based board game by Richard Breese. It is a reimplementation of his 1998 game '' Keydom''.
Gameplay
Each player controls a number of servants. The objective of the game is for each player to obtain as many ...
'') as the first game to implement the mechanic. Worker placement was popularized by ''
Caylus'' (2005) and became a staple of the
Eurogame
A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...
genre in the wake of the game's success. Other popular board games that use this mechanism include ''
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
'' and ''
Agricola
Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to:
People Cognomen or given name
:''In chronological order''
* Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85)
* Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the mid ...
''.
Although the mechanism is chiefly associated with board games, the worker placement concept has been used in analysis of other game types. For instance,
Adams and Dormans describe the assigning of tasks to SCV units in the
real-time strategy game
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pla ...
''
StarCraft
''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...
'' as an example of the worker placement mechanic.
Game modes
A ''game mode'' is a distinct configuration that varies gameplay and affects how other game mechanics behave. A game with several modes will present different settings in each one, changing how a particular element of the game is played. One of the most common examples of game mode is the
single-player
A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...
versus
multiplayer
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
choice in video games, where multiplayer can further be
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
or
competitive
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...
.
Common game modes include a
Time Attack Mode, in which the player tries to score, progress or clear levels in a limited amount of time. In ''Marathon Mode'' the goal is to clear a certain number of levels or challenges in a continuous streak without losing.
Changing modes while the game is ongoing can be used as a means to increase difficulty and provide additional challenge, or as a reward for player success.
Power-up
In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...
s are modes that last for a few moments or that change only one or a few game rules; for example power pellets in
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
give the temporary ability to eat the enemies for a few seconds.
Other examples include the availability of a
sandbox mode
A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each player may take on (or even encounter) only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played ...
without predefined
goal
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...
s or
progression. The division of game content in stages or chapters, where each stage expands the rules that a player can use with respect to the previous stage, increases game complexity, and variety. If the game advances through these stages by moving through different areas, these areas are called
levels
Level or levels may refer to:
Engineering
*Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights
*Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical
*Canal pound or level
*Regr ...
or maps; if the character unlocks new abilities through activities or rewards, they receive a currency called
experience point
An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experi ...
s. These points can be used to upgrade or augment various pre-determined abilities.
A game mode may restrict or change the behavior of the available tools ( e.g. play with limited/unlimited
ammo
Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...
, new weapons, obstacles or enemies, a
timer
A timer is a specialized type of clock used for measuring specific time intervals.
Timers can be categorized into two main types.
The word "timer" is usually reserved for devices that counts down from a specified time interval, while devices th ...
, etc.), establish different rules and game mechanics (e.g. altered
gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
;
win at first touch in a fighting game; play with some cards face-up in a
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
game) or even change the overall game goals (following a
campaign
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
* Bl ...
,
story
Story or stories may refer to:
Common uses
* Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events)
** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting
* Story (American English), or storey (British ...
or
character's career vs. playing a limited
deathmatch
Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...
or
capture the flag
Capture the flag (CTF) is a traditional outdoor sport where two or more teams each have a flag (or other markers) and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base", and bring it safely back to their own base. ...
set).
Victory conditions
Victory conditions control how a player wins the game. Examples of victory conditions include the necessity of completing a
quest
A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...
in a
role-playing video game
A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
, or the player being suitably trained in a skill, as is the goal of a
business game
Business game (also called business simulation game) refers to simulation games that are used as an educational tool for teaching business. Business games may be carried out for various business training such as: general management, finance, organ ...
. Some games also feature a losing condition, such as being checkmated in
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
, or being tagged in
tag. In such a game, the winner is the only remaining player to have avoided loss. Games are not limited to one victory or loss condition, and can combine several of these at once.
See also
*
Ludology
Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with a ...
*
Game clock
A chess clock consists of two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. Chess clocks are used in chess and other two-player games where the players move in turn, and ...
*
Kingmaker scenario
In game theory, a kingmaker scenario in a game of three or more players, is an endgame situation where a player who is unable to win has the capacity to determine which player among others will win. This player is referred to as the ''kingmaker'' ...
*
Pie rule
The pie rule, sometimes referred to as the swap rule, is a rule used to balance abstract strategy games where a first-move advantage has been demonstrated. After the first move is made in a game that uses the pie rule, the second player must sel ...
*
Gamification
Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished thro ...
- adding a (sometimes very small) amount of game mechanics to a non-game website, piece of software or activity
*
Dynamic game difficulty balancing
Dynamic game difficulty balancing (DGDB), also known as dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) or dynamic game balancing (DGB), is the process of automatically changing parameters, scenarios, and behaviors in a video game in real-time, based on the pl ...
, a technique to change game mechanics based on the player's ability
*
Ludeme A ludeme is "an element of play" within a card game or board game, as distinct from an "instrument of play" which forms part of the equipment with which a game is played. An example of a ludeme is the L-shaped movement of a knight in chess, whereas ...
, an atomic piece of gameplay
References
External links
Gamification Design Elementsa
Enterprise Gamification WikiList of games sorted by mechanicat
BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition to ...
SCVNGR's Secret Game Mechanics Playdeckat
Tech Crunch
TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...
Game Mechanic Explorer
{{Game theory, state=collapsed
Game design
Video game design
Video game terminology