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Gameplay Design

Gameplay design within games can consist of challenges, mechanics, progression, goals, rewards, secrets and Easter eggs within levels, emergent gameplay, sandbox, unforeseen gameplay, replay values, balance and flow, and fair and unfair player punishment. Gameplay design is the central part of the games experience, how people play the game.

Emergent Gameplay

Emergent gameplay refers to situations in games that unexpectedly emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics designed by a game’s creators. These situations can be intentionally found by the players or simply created from natural play. Game designers create general rules which encourage players to experiment when determining solutions. This allows for players to have greater freedom and flexibility to enjoy the title and have a feeling of ownership over their interactions.

An example of this is in the game Scribblenauts, where it allows you to type in your custom solutions to puzzles such as getting to a high ledge by the player summoning a ‘jetpack’, ‘rocket’, or ‘ladder’, or even crafting a ‘T-Rex’ and running up its back. In this game, the developers designed a mechanic for the players to create their own solutions for puzzles but did not factor in all possible outcomes as it could possibly be endless and encourage players to create something new that they can have ownership over.

Unforeseen Gameplay

Some examples of unforeseen gameplay include speedrunning, rocket jumping, strafing, wall jumping, bomb jumps, level skipping, combos, etc. These are all mostly found and created by players so they can have more fun throughout games and most of the time not intentionally created by designers however can still be possible, making the game feel more enjoyable.

Non-Linear Gameplay

Non-linear gameplay introduces gamers with a selection of options as to how they can pursue goals available to them, which gives the player a lot more freedom. This can be done through world maps, level selects, or world maps. It presents the player with a larger range of play styles, where they can further choose their experience to their preferred mode of gaming. For example, the player might enjoy easy missions over harder ones, quicker objectives over slower ones, car-based racers over cycling, etc.

Sandbox

Sandbox titles allow the player to explore the world of the game, limited only by the edge of the map. E.g. Minecraft, GTA V, and Arma 3. Free-flow gameplay lets the player choose when and where they will explore, and sandbox titles allow for a greater emergent experience due to their open-ended structure.

Challenges

Challenges can include obstacles that players need to get past, by defying their abilities throughout the game and trying to stop them from reaching the end of the level.

The point of adding challenges is to keep the player distracted from getting bored playing the game, however it is important to make sure the challenges are not too hard for the player as they might get frustrated and give up, but also not to make it too easy.

Some challenges in games can include mini-missions, different difficulties, and mini-bosses within levels.

Having different difficulties in a game where the player can choose can help increase player engagement as they have more options of gameplay to choose from.

Mechanics

Some games can include core gameplay mechanics to make their games unique and fun to play.

Some of these mechanics can include double jump, rocket boosts, speed boost.

Progression

One key factor of great game design is progression. This can include special/rare weapons, checkpoints, better character stats. Adding progression to the game is a key factor as it can help the player feel like they are getting somewhere by playing a game and making progress or else they will feel like they are playing the game for nothing, get bored and stop playing.

Goals

Goals are the core targets within a game that the player strives to achieve. Player usually must complete these goals to complete the game.

A game can have big goals, such as defeating a hard boss, or reaching a certain level, or getting the best items in the game, or it could have a smaller goal such as reaching the next stage or killing a few enemies. However, most games have both big and small goals within their game to keep the player interested and playing more.

An example of goals in a video game could be in most Call of Duty games.

A small goal in this game could be winning a game or levelling up.

Whereas a big/long term goal could be reaching the maximum level, getting the dark matter camo on your guns, getting the best stats you can.

Rewards

Rewards are a key part in making players engaged and motivated to play the game. In most games players are encouraged to complete challenges and goals, and in return gain some sort of reward.

These rewards can range from in-game currencies, in-game cosmetics or abilities that are gifted to the player.

An example of this could be in Clash of Clans, where if you win a battle, you gill gain a certain amount of gold, elixir and dark elixir, or Clan Games Rewards.

Easter Eggs and Secrets

Secrets and Easter eggs in games are normally hidden objects, messages, references, jokes, or features that game developers secretly add to their game which do not add to the gameplay. These are not typically known to the public and are only meant to be seen by a handful of people for either hard work done to find these secrets, or hidden messages only people close to the developers can see.

An example of this can be seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare where you can summon a ‘Godzilla Teddy Bear’ in game.

Replay Value

A replay value for a game means that once a player completes the game, they will be able to replay it without getting bored. This is seen in many popular games such as Far Cry and Call of Duty where players can play it repeatedly without feeling the sense of repetition.

Replay values in games could also lead to alternate endings within games and secrets or Easter eggs.

Balance and Flow

Games need balance and flow to become playable by the player. This means that a game cannot be too easy or too hard for the player or else they will not want to play it anymore.

Fair and Unfair Player Punishment

On the other hand of player rewards, the player should also be punished for actions in games. This can include losing a life and score reduction.

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Hybrid games are based on having elements from different genres and mixing them together creating a single new game. The mix of genres allows for more creative gameplay as the game developers will not be restricted to the conventions of a single game genre. This creates a broader appeal to the game as you have fans from all genres you have mixed into your game. This widens the audience and increases marketing and sales because you will have more players that are interested in the game. This means there are increasingly more possibilities with games.

An example of the hybrid genre would be action, crossed puzzle. A game in this genre is Superhot. It uses the ability to move around shooting and killing enemies before they kill you from the action genre, and mixes it with the puzzle genre in which you can freeze time when you stand still you need to predict where the enemies bullets and weapons are going to be so you can avoid them.

Assassin’s Creed Origins is a good example of an action-adventure game. The game is set in an open world in the third-person perspective however, you need to use your combat and stealth skills to take down enemies. As you explore the open-world map there are many interactive points of interest such as tomb you can raid and side quests.

Mario Golf is a sports game where players can play golf but also includes role-playing game elements. The game allows you to choose from a variety of different characters and selects from a range of courses which have features adapted to the Nintendo world. The game is very easy to play is it doesn’t have any of the complicated real-life aspects from golf, only incorporating the fun to play features.

Rocket League is a simulation and sport game as you need to drive a rocket-powered car whilst playing football. You need to use your car to hit the ball into the opposing player’s goal and score points throughout a match to win. This game gets fans of simulation and driving games to play, and fans of football and the sports genre.

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Action games are some of the most popular genres of games. They challenge the player by requiring accurate hand-eye coordination, good timing, and quick reflexes, which can also be referred to as twitch gaming (not to be confused by the platform ‘Twitch’). Players that are committed to these games often have a higher chance of winning as they are constantly improving all these requirements. However, not all players must be dedicated to playing as action games are typically easy to pick up and start playing whenever. Examples of this would be Call of Duty and Overwatch, as they do not require the best timing and reflexes but having it would increase the chances of you winning.

At the start of the games industry, a lot of games were released in arcades before being released on home systems as they were more popular. The arcade business model was suited to shorter games with punishing gameplay making it more likely for the player to die and lose the game, which resulted in you having to pay more money to play again or get extra lives. An example of this is Space Invaders, as it is a quick game designed for the player to lose the game as soon as possible, without making it obvious.

However, in the 1990s, home consoles overtook arcades as the main gaming platform. As this happened, gamers wanted longer experiences as they could play at home, which resulted in developers adding features such as regenerating health to avoid the “Game Over” screen so the consumers can play for a longer amount of time. Over recent years, action games have seen a revival due to mobile phones and competitive multiplayer which are both suited to shorter, and more intense games such as Flappy Bird and Fortnite.

Platform games usually involve avoiding obstacles to get to the end of the level by running, jumping, or falling. They get their name from the fact that the player normally interacts with platforms in these levels. Most platformers also include power-ups that grant the character special abilities such as the Mega Mushroom in Mario which makes the player increase in size and can crush any opponent. Developers tried to differentiate their games by making memorable characters or adding special abilities. For example, Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man and Donkey Kong are some of the most popular and recognizable game’s characters in the genre.

When games made the transition to 3D, most platformers struggled to translate the same pace in a 3D environment. Platform games have seen a revival in the form of endless runner games. e.g. Temple Run 2.

In the late ’90s, rhythm-action games were created, which are based on music. The arcade version of rhythm-action games included custom hardware which was mostly big dance floors. An example of this is ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ which required a big machine which you can see in bowling alleys and arcades. This custom hardware was vastly different from traditional game controllers, so home console versions required special controllers to play. These home versions include a guitar and drum set for ‘Band Hero; and a DJ station for ‘DJ Hero’ which are a lot smaller and cheaper than the ones you see in arcades. Many popular rhythm games included licensed tracks from established artists which can make the game better and can also help those artists careers. Some of the top rhythm game names include Beat Saber and Piano Tiles which have seen a minor revival on smartphones and in VR in recent years.

The fighting games subgenre refers to games that focus the action on hand-to-hand or melee combat. Scrolling “beat ‘em ups” involve reaching the end of a level by fighting lots of enemies, such as the game Double Dragon. Most beat ‘em ups would include temporary weapons and boss battles to add variety to the game. Whereas tournament fighting games are usually one-on-one matches which you can use special moves and combos to win. An example of this is Street Fighter 2. Both games mostly include the feature to swap and choose playable and unlockable characters. Beat ‘em ups have largely disappeared, or have been subsumed into other genres, but tournament fighters still have loyal fan-bases such as Mortal Kombat 11 and Super Smash Bros.

Shooter games are the more popular types of games and they include the use of ranged weapons such as guns and lasers to engage in action. The objective of these games is usually to kill or take out the opponents/enemies. The first shooters were single-screen levels with waves of enemies. E.g. the game Space Invaders, where you shoot aliens coming down the screen. Later games had scrolling levels with a variety of enemies and environments and evolved from there. 3D shooters started as single-player games with limited multiplayer. However, the multiplayer side of FPSs (first-person shooters) became more popular than single-player campaigns. FPS games with battle royal modes have recently become extremely popular such as Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and Warzone.

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Simulation games focus heavily on the development and management of entities. These games mostly involve the simulation of specific real activity, such as flying planes or driving cars around a map. These can range from attempted realistic games including walking around as animals and farming to simple entertainment such as building cities and creating games.

Many simulation games try to accurately recreate controlling special vehicles such as aeroplanes, tractors, and buses. Some of these games require special controllers to get the best experience. This is by making it more realistic. An example of this is for driving/racing games where you can buy steeling wheels, gears, and pedals to make you feel like you are driving a car. This can also improve how well you do in these games.

Many vehicle simulators come with a few basic vehicles, but additional vehicles and environments can be purchased as DLC packs. For example, Train Simulator 2019 has over 600 DLC items on Steam totaling nearly £10,000. This is an extreme amount of money to spend on a game however some people are willing to spend it. Vehicle simulations are usually complicated and are often viewed as niche products, so they don’t have a massive userbase where lots of people play them, but players that do play them are very dedicated, which is why they can have so many DLCs because those players will want to buy them.

Life simulators focus on controlling aspects of an individual character. These simulator games have a wide appeal outside of the typical “core-gamer” audience which proved to be very profitable. So, people who tended to play life simulators such as The Sims, would not call themselves gamers. The Sims allowed the player to control things like when the character eats, drinks, and goes to the toilet. If you did not look after the sims, it could die. The various expansion packs were often in the PC top-ten charts for many months after release.

The life simulator genre built on “virtual pet” toys that required the owner to keep it alive by feeding, cleaning, and playing with it, but added RPG mechanics such as stats and levelling up. The companies creating these games could also create real-life products to co-exist with the online game so they could make more money. Tamagotchi and other related products around that time were some of the first life simulators which The Sims and other games build upon the idea of. Nintendogs returned to the idea of caring for a pet and went on to be one of the most successful series of its generation.

Some games allow you to control and manage features of a business or city making it feel like your own personal place. Some simulators allow incredibly detailed control such as in Theme Park, players are able to change the amount of salt in the food to increase sales. Some sims are limited to screens of statistics and are criticized as “glorified spreadsheets”, but others allow the player to enter the simulated environment; for instance, in Farming Simulator, players are allowed to drive the tractors around. Business/city sims introduce new features gradually to allow for progression such as unlocking new buildings in Sim City. Simulations will often include objectives to guide the player, for example, you need to make a certain amount of money or to serve a certain number of customers.

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• RPG (Role-Playing Game)September 24, 2020
• Strategy GamesOctober 1, 2020
• Sports GamesOctober 1, 2020

Adventure games are mostly focused on exploring the game world. This is normally a large map which the player can explore at their own will. However, these games may include mechanisms which limit the players access to different areas. The player must find and obtain certain equipment and items to unlock the next areas. Unlocking these areas can help the player to progress further into the game. This can also direct the player to complete certain quests throughout the game that are critical to the main story.

Although having a large open world can give a sense of freedom, this can make traversing the map a chore. In most large open-world games, the developers can include a fast-travel feature to cut down on travelling time, which can also make the player believe they are progressing faster than they should be. These fast-travel features can be added to the game in the form as an in-game item. These can be different items such as a car, bike, horse or even a pair of running shoes, that speed up movement time. An example of this is in Pokémon, where you get given a bike which you can ride and facilitate faster movement. These items are normally unlocked by the player in the early stages of the game. Some very large open-world games can feel repetitive and some have been accused of having “filler quests” to pad out the world. An example of this is the game, Zelda Breath of the Wild.

Some adventure games include a narrative and focus on the development of a story. They have their origins in gamebooks such as the Choose Your Own Adventure series from the 1970s and 80s. In this game, the player is presented with choices that affect the overall outcome of the game. The earliest adventure video games, such as Zork and Colossal Case Adventure, were limited to text descriptions and the player would have to type commands to proceed. However, nowadays, modern adventure games have detailed graphics and use mouse, or controller support.

Some adventure games also include puzzle elements. These can include solving a riddle, moving objects, or breaking a code. For example, the player might have to find a key to unlock a secret door. This could lead to a player getting stuck if the solution is not clear, or even resorting to a walkthrough. Nintendo made the 3DS version of the water temple level, from 1998’s Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, easier because so many players struggled with the original version.

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There are many types of puzzles games, and most of them are about solving problems. The main types include physic, logic, matching, shape manipulation puzzles, and word puzzles. All of which are extremely popular on mobile devices and are popular to a wider audience than users who are traditional “core” gamers.

Physics puzzle games depend on the simulation of physical properties of an object, such as weight, friction, inertia, bounciness, strength, etc. For example, in Portal, players must place the portals down to get the right angle and inertia to reach parts of the level. However, in logic-based puzzle games, you use mathematics to solve problems which are loosely connected by a story or rules. In Sudoku puzzles your objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contain all of the digits from 1 to 9. This shows how you use a set of fixed rules that need to be applied to find the solution.

Candy Crush is one of the most popular puzzle games and is a match-three puzzle. The game requires the player to move pieces turn by turn to create rows of three, which then explode. Creating bigger combinations rewards the player with special pieces such as pieces that can remove an entire row. These games have multiple levels, so when you complete one puzzle, you move onto the next level which gets increasingly more difficult as you progress through the levels. Candy Crush made $930 million in the 12 months ending July 2018. This shows how popular puzzles games are and that is why there is so many of them. Most of them are free to play however they have microtransactions which the player can purchase and help them progress through the levels if they are stuck or need some help. An example of this is Threes, which is a sliding block puzzle game, where players match numerical blocks to create the highest number possible. Another developer released an app called 2048, which was very similar but had more downloads because it was free to play.

Another type of puzzle game is the shape manipulation puzzle games. These shape puzzles require the player to manipulate (rotate, move, etc) different shapes to solve a puzzle. An example of shape manipulation puzzle games is Tetris. Tetris has shapes, called Tetronimos, that must be manipulated as they fall. If a complete row is filled in, the blocks disappear. The objective is easy to understand and it is easy to visualize solutions however the game increase in speed as the player progresses which makes it harder and harder to beat a high score.

The last main type of puzzle games is word-based puzzles. Word-based puzzles often require the player to create words from a set of provided letters. Many of the words provide bonus points for using difficult letters or creating longer words. Many word-based puzzles can be based on “American English” spelling which can be frustrating for people who have different spellings such as “British English”. This could be the difference between the word ‘colour’ and ‘colour’. Some popular word games include a turn-based multiplayer element, but this can lead to cheating as your opponent could google words or spellings to win the game.

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• Gameplay DesignNovember 20, 2020
• Hybrid GamesNovember 12, 2020
• Action GamesNovember 7, 2020

Sport genre games are usually based on their real-world counterparts such as football, rugby, and cricket. These will appeal to fans of the real sports and will share some of the same rules. Real world sports games are often licensed to use the teams and player of their specific sport. Some games aim for maximum realism (e.g. FIFA) but others go for a more arcade-like approach to its gameplay. However, there are games that are based on entirely fictional sports. These will often borrow features from real sports, such as the goalposts in Rocket League, but will include features that may not be safe or possible in real life (e.g. cars driving up the walls of a stadium and flying around).

One key feature to making a sports game, a sports game is opponents. Most sports games allow you to play against real or AI (artificial intelligence) opponents. In earlier games, AI opponents were too predictable and could easily be beaten so some developers tried to overcome this by making the AI faster or more powerful, but this was often seen as “cheating”.  This was particularly obvious in racing games, where AI players would always stay just behind the player regardless of how well the player is driving. Some examples of racing games are Mario Kart and Formula 1.

The sports genre includes games which require skill to win against your opponents, which is also required in real life sports. An example of this is in Rocket League as you are required to have more skill than your opponent(s) to score more goals than them to win the game. The player would need to use their skills in different aspects of the game such as defending, attacking, their awareness and more.

Rocket League is a game based on football, but with rocket powered cars. The player needs to use their rocket powered cars to hit a ball into their opponent’s goal and score points to win the round. The game uses a trading feature which can bring more excitement to the game. The players can buy keys to open crates they have been rewarded with by playing the main football feature of the game to obtain rare items which they can trade with other people.

Another feature in this category is multiplayer. Before the Internet became widely used and was fast enough, all multiplayer games were local (e.g. playing against each other on the same console), but as technology developed over time, online multiplayer became possible. Online multiplayer games allow access to many more players but can be affected by poor network connections (lag) and are more susceptible to cheating. There are also safeguarding issues when allowing younger players to play online with total strangers. Local multiplayer games can often be more sociable as you are in the same room but does mean sharing the same screen so players can see each other’s view. For most games’ genres, online multiplayer became the preferred method of playing, however local multiplayer is still popular for many of the sports titles.

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The strategy game genre requires the player to use a strategic mind set and the ability to think ahead, whether that be to outsmart an enemy or to upgrade a unit you think you might need next. These games often require you to harvest resources such as food, gold, or fuel. These resources are then used to build or upgrade units and buildings, or even to feed your army so they do not leave. However, some resources are only found in specific areas of the map. This can cause some issues such as leading to battles or negotiations. The player may need to build specific buildings or units to gather and store these resources. Some examples of this could be building mines to gather certain minerals or to build storage tanks to store your minerals you have collected.

An example of the strategy genre would be Clash of Clans. This game uses resources as a currency system, in which you are able to purchase upgrades to level up your buildings and units. At the start of your game, all your units and buildings are level one and you need to go to battle to gather more resources, so you can upgrade these buildings to progress. To begin upgrading your units you would need to upgrade your laboratory. The game also requires the player to research new technologies to unlock new units and building. For example, you need to upgrade your barracks to unlock new troops. The strategic aspect to resources and the game is that all units and buildings need the same three materials to upgrade them. This leads to the fact that you need to choose what you want and what is needed to be upgraded first. Another strategic aspect to Clash of Clans is war. Once you have built your team and upgraded it, you can go to war and battle other online players and test your army against their base. This means you need to think about what units you have in your army, what level they are and how you are going to place them.

Clash of Clans, and most other strategy games such as Civilization, Dawn of War, Gears Tactics and more, also require the players to be dedicated to playing the game and become a persistent user or else they would progress very far in the game. Most of these games also have a pay to win feature where the users can purchase resources and other items which would else take them days or weeks to collect. This leads to players that have spent heavy amounts of money on the game to be vastly ahead of the players who do not spend any money on it. This can also lead to players who have not spent anything, to feel left out and then when they do decide to purchase something, the game keeps persuading them to pay more. Sometimes these games incorporate other challenges and side missions with some big rewards. These can be random or seasonal, such as events, which gives users a need and want to open the app a lot more often to check what events are on at that time and what rewards they are offering. These events can give more reward than playing the game normally, so it makes the player want to complete them as soon as possible. However, as soon as they complete it, the game offers a new mission/event which offers even more reward and value to entice the player to engage with it.

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Role Playing Games (RPGs) are all heavily based on creating a character to go fight and battle enemies whilst you are exploring the sandbox game world and progressing through missions throughout the game. On completing these missions, you level up and unlock a variety of new and unique items, such as weapons and armour, and equip them to further personalize your character to the way you want and increasing the characters statistics. This creates the feeling that the player is being rewarded and is used to keep them playing longer and become more engaged. Some of these equipment items may be locked to specific classes or only equipable at certain character levels, this implementation means the player would have to play more and work harder to level up to the correct level so they are able to use the rare new item they have just been rewarded with.

Skyrim introduces a level system as well as a perk tree system that grants you a finite amount of points in which you can upgrade and activate perks. Every time a level is gained, a point is granted to spend on a perk, in which there are a maximum of 80 points to spend. However, points do not need to be used immediately as they can be saved for use later on.

Upon leveling up your character, players can acquire some sort of ability points to upgrade their skills or unlock new ones. Upgrading their skills, abilities and items makes them stronger so you can progress through the game and take on bigger and harder challenges and quests. Some skills may be locked until a player reaches a certain level or may be dependent on previous skills being unlocked first. This feature creates the ability to further personalize your custom-built character to your play style and gives the player a rewarding feeling throughout the game which further entices the player to play more.