Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals Foreword Preface Chapter 1: What Is This Book About? Overview .1 Establishing a Critical Discourse Ways of Looking Game Design Schemas Game Design Fundamentals Further Readings Further Reading Chapter 2: The Design Process .1 Iterative Design .1 Commissions Game Design Exercises Creation Modification Analysis Further Reading The Design and Testing of the Board Game- Lord of the Rings Design Process Scripted Game System 10 Playtesting 11 More Changes .12 The Road Goes Ever On .13 Unit 1: Core Concepts .1 Chapter List How does play happen? Chapter 3: Meaningful Play Overview .1 Introducing Meaningful Play Meaning and Play Two Kinds of Meaningful Play .3 Discernable .4 Integrated Summary .6 Chapter 4: Design Introducing Design Some Definitions of Design Design and Meaning .4 Semiotics: A Brief Overview Four Semiotic Concepts A Sign Represents Something Other Than Itself Signs Are Interpreted Meaning Results When a Sign Is Interpreted .7 i Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 4: Design Context Shapes Interpretation .8 Summary .10 Chapter 5: Systems Introducing Systems .1 The Elements of a System .2 Framing Systems Open and Closed Systems .5 Summary .6 Chapter 6: Interactivity Introducing Interactivity .1 Defining Interactivity A Multivalent Model of Interactivity But Is it "Designed" Interaction? Interaction and Choice Choice Molecules Anatomy of a Choice Space of Possibility .10 Further Reading 12 Summary .13 Chapter 7: Defining Games .1 Overview .1 Play and Game Comparing Definitions Definition 1: David Parlett .4 Definition 2: Clark C Abt Definition 3: Johann Huizinga .5 Definition 4: Roger Caillois Definition 5: Bernard Suits .6 Definition 6: Chris Crawford Definition 7: Greg Costikyan Definition 8: Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith .8 A Comparison .10 Our Definition .11 The Puzzle of Puzzles 11 Role-Playing Games 12 Further Reading 14 Summary .14 Chapter 8: Defining Digital Games Overview .1 The Computer Is Not a Computer What Can It Do? Integration .6 Summary .7 Chapter 9: The Magic Circle Overview .1 Boundaries ii Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 9: The Magic Circle Enter In Temporary Worlds The Lusory Attitude Further Reading Summary .7 Chapter 10: The Primary Schemas A Conceptual Framework .1 What Is a Schema? RULES: Formal Schemas .3 PLAY: Experiential Schemas .4 CULTURE: Contextual Schemas Summary .5 Commissioned Game — Richard Garfield Rules .1 Scoring Design Notes Sibling Rivalry .4 Unit 2: Rules .1 Chapter List Chapter 11: Defining Rules .1 Overview .1 A Deck of Cards Other Kinds of Rules Qualities of Rules Rules in Context Summary .6 Chapter 12: Rules on Three Levels Overview .1 Tic-Tac-What? Under the Hood .2 Being a Good Sport .3 Three Kinds of Rules Operational Rules Constituative Rules Implicit Rules The Rules of Chutes and Ladders Chutes and Ladders: Operational Rules Chutes and Ladders: Constituative Rules .6 Chutes and Ladders: Implicit Rules .7 The Identity of a Game Specificity of Rules .9 Designing Elegant Rules .10 Further Reading 12 Summary .12 iii Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 13: The Rules of Digital Games .1 Rules as a Whole So What Are the Rules? The Rules of Tetris Rules and Not Rules .4 Wheels Within Wheels Constituative Operational .7 Implicit Why Rules? Summary .8 Chapter 14: Games as Emergent Systems .1 Introducing Emergent Systems .1 Complexity Messengers and Buildings Simple Complexity .4 What Complexity Is Not .5 Four Kinds of Systems Two Horrible Games .7 Emergence .9 Parts and the Whole 10 Object Interactions 11 Life, the Game 12 Bottom-Up Behaviors 14 Emergence in Games 15 Designing Surprise 16 Engine Tuning .17 Second-Order Design 19 Further Reading 20 Summary .21 Chapter 15: Games as Systems of Uncertainty .1 Overview .1 Introducing Uncertainty Certainty, Uncertainty, and Risk The Feeling of Randomness Probability in Games Dice Probability Chance and Game Play Case Study One: Thunderstorm Thunderstorm Case Study Two: Pig 10 Pig 10 Breakdowns in Uncertainty 12 Breakdown 1: Computer Randomness 12 Breakdown 2: Strategizing Chance 13 Breakdown 3: Probability Fallacies .14 Meaningful Chance .15 Further Reading 16 Summary .17 iv Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 16: Games as Information Theory Systems Introducing "Information" Information Theory .2 Probability and Guesswork Noise in the Channel .5 Redundancy in the System Balancing Act Further Reading Summary .10 Chapter 17: Games as Systems of Information .1 Introducing a Different Kind of Information Perfect and Imperfect Information Enchanted Information Each turn, Enchanted Hiding and Revealing Systems .7 Summary .8 Chapter 18: Games as Cybernetic Systems Introducing Cybernetic Systems Elements of a Cybernetic System Feedback Systems in Games Positive and Negative Basketball Racing Loops Positive Feedback in a Game Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment 10 A Simple Die Roll .11 Putting Feedback to Use .12 Afterword: Don't Forget the Participant .13 Further Reading 14 Summary .15 Chapter 19: Games as Game Theory Systems Introducing Game Theory? Decision Trees Strategies in Game Theory Game Theory Games Cake Division .9 Playing for Pennies .11 The Prisoner's Dilemma 12 Game Theory and Game Design 13 Further Reading 14 Summary .15 Chapter 20: Games as Systems of Conflict Introducing Conflict Conflict Case Studies Centipede Joust Gauntlet Competition and Cooperation .6 New Games v Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 20: Games as Systems of Conflict The Goal of a Game The Level Playing Field of Conflict 11 Pig Redux 13 Further Reading 14 Summary .15 Chapter 21: Breaking the Rules .1 Introducing Rule-Breaking Kinds of Rule-Breaking Player Types Standard Players Dedicated Players Unsportsmanlike Players Degenerate Strategies Degenerate Strategy Ecosystems Cheats and Spoil-Sports Five Player Types Compared Sanctioned Violations: Professional Sports 10 Sanctioned Cheating: Illuminati 11 Hacks, Cheats, and Mods: Digital Rule-Breaking 13 Easter Eggs 13 Cheat Codes 13 Game Guides and Walkthroughs 13 Workarounds 14 True Cheating .14 Hacks 14 Spoil-Sport Hacking .14 Rule-Breaking as a Game Design Practice 15 Further Reading 17 Summary .17 Commissioned Game — Ironclad A game for players .1 Rules .1 Playing Ironclad: The Spectacle of Mechanical Destruction Playing Ironclad: The Technique of Scholarly Discourse Design Notes Ironclad Unit 3: Play .1 Chapter List Chapter 22: Defining Play .1 Introducing Play What Is Play? A General Definition of Play Play is free movement within a more rigid structure .4 Transformative Play Being Playful Ludic Activities .7 Game Play .9 vi Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 22: Defining Play Summary .11 Chapter 23: Games as the Play of Experience Introducing Experience Qualities of Experience Designing Interactive Experiences .4 The Core Mechanic .4 Core Mechanics in Context Tag Verbal Tennis LOOP Breaking Out of Breakout .7 Variations on a Core Mechanic .8 Timed Play .8 Breakthru Steering, Catching, and Invisible Bricks Breaking Out 10 Repetitive Play .10 Putting It All Together 12 Further Reading 14 Summary .15 Chapter 24: Games as the Play of Pleasure Introducing the Play of Pleasure Rule-Bound Autotelic Play .3 Enter Play Stay Typologies of Pleasure Game Flow Sculpting Desire 11 Patterns of Pleasure .13 The Role of the Goal 14 Goals Within Goals .15 Conditioned Pleasure 17 Rewards and Schedules .18 Boredom and Anxiety: Flow Redux 22 Anxiety and Boredom on the High Seas .24 Meaningful Pleasure 26 Against "Addiction" 29 Further Reading 31 Summary .32 Chapter 25: Games as the Play of Meaning Introducing the Play of Meaning Two Kinds of Representation .2 Systems of Meaning System and Context Emergent Representations The Context of Meaning .5 Down the Rabbit Hole In the Queen's Court .7 vii Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 25: Games as the Play of Meaning Framing Play Metacommunication and Play .9 Captured by the Game 10 Further Reading 11 Summary .12 Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play Overview .1 Introducing Narrative Play Narrative Tensions A Framework for "Narrative" .4 Thunderstorm Two Structures for Narrative Play Narrative Goals .9 Confict 11 Uncertainty 12 Core Mechanics 13 Narrative Space 14 Digital Game Spaces 16 Spaces of Adventure 20 Narrative Descriptors 22 Worlds and Stories 25 Crafting Game Narratives 27 Games as Narrative Systems .28 Cutscenes 30 Retelling Game Stories .35 The Replay 36 Recams 37 Games Within Games 38 Further Reading 39 Summary .40 Chapter 27: Games as the Play of Simulation .1 Introducing Simulation Defining "Simulation" Game and Non-Game Simulations .3 Meaningful Play and Simulation Procedural Representation Represented Conflict 11 Procedural Characters 15 Designing Simulations 19 Learning from Wargames 22 The Field of Battle 23 Simulation in Context 25 A Balanced Approach 26 The Value of Reality 28 Framing the Simulation 29 The Immersive Fallacy .31 Metacommunicative 32 Remediating Games 33 The Character of Character 34 viii ... Day Up > Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals Foreword For hundreds of years, the field of game design has drifted... in 8.8-point Myriad by Katie Salen and was printed and bound in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Salen, Katie Rules of play : game design fundamentals. .. fundamentals / Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman p.cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-2 6 2-2 404 5-9 (hc : alk paper) Computer games -Design Computer games-Programming I Zimmerman, Eric II