Opinions On Game Design

Image of game from Wikipedia

Recently I read about what makes a game and game design, there is no definitive definition for what a game is nor specific words for the different components of a game which of course makes it hard to talk about games without comparing them to other games that are already out there, as the article talked about.

Many people are trying the make words for the elements of games more common so as to make it easier to discuss games but this is not as easy as it seems. However the elements that make up a game are agreed upon, what makes a game is much less agreed upon. There are people who debate on whether things such as Rubik's cubes or Dungeons and Dragons are games, often because they have no obvious end goal.

I thought that this blog explained it very well.

Image of game design from here

The title game design encompasses many things as explained here, level design, content design and system design just to name a few but despite the common misconception it does not involve art, animation or programming. System design focuses on defining the rules of the game currently being made, how the game begins, what the players can do and how that affects them and the end goal of the game. This blog goes more in depth about iterations in and interesting way.

In order to do this the game designer must be an architect, to design blueprints for buildings in the game, lawyers, to define the rules of the game and artists. Game design can involve all these things and more. A key element to game design is iteration, iteration can help bring a game from  just playable to a likeable game, it brings the game from its original idea to the end result.

Games and game design is an interesting, diverse and complicated subject that will be satisfying to learn more about.