Game atoms & the feel of play
What mechanics are made of: the five game atoms (actions, resources, goals, rules, feedback), mapping atoms to mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics with Pac-Man, micro-mechanics and game feel (latency, coyote time, input buffering, polish), combos and progressive skill development, the system layer versus the representation layer, schemas, and how interacting loops produce emergence. In the practical you audit a game's atoms, then design, prototype and test a new rule.
Slides: use the arrow keys or swipe; press F for full screen and Esc for an overview.
- Break a game into atoms: actions, resources, goals, rules and feedback.
- Trace atoms to mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, and find where the chain breaks.
- Separate a mechanic's system from its surface, and use latency, forgiveness and polish on purpose.
- Design loops and simple rules that combine into emergent play.
Play the first two chapters of a precision platformer (Celeste if you have it) and note one forgiveness rule you can feel. Build a glider in the Game of Life demo in the slides, then read the GDnD wiki page on cellular automata.
Activity files
Key reading
Swink, S. (2009) Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Cook, D. (2007) 'The chemistry of game design', Gamasutra.
Juul, J. (2002) 'The open and the closed: games of emergence and games of progression', Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, pp. 323–329.
GDnD wiki: Game Atoms and Micro-Mechanics Link
GDnD wiki: Game Feel Link