Master These Game Elements to Improve Your Game
What Makes a Game a Game?
We constantly play games, but are we all well acquainted with the basic concepts of game elements and mechanics that make up our favorite games?
The very concept of "game" is a form of play created for entertainment, education, or pastime. Recently, games are often included in discussions about what constitutes art. Are games art? This debate on art is a key point in the evolving field of game design.
Basics
What are the four basic elements of a game?
The four basic elements are:
- player in the game
- information
- actions
- rewards
What Are the 5 Elements of Game Systems?
The 5 elements include:
- conflict
- strategy
- aesthetics
- story
- reward
What Basic Elements Unite All Games?
All games have players, goals, a system of rules, and feedback. All of this together makes a game a game.
What Makes a Game Effective?
An active game engages players with captivating stories, engaging mechanics, and solid game design.
What Makes a Game Engaging?
An engaging game includes fantastic game design, intuitive controls, adequate player control, and immersive worlds.
Now that we know a bit about the basic components of a game, how can we better develop games and use game elements to take our games to the next level?
6 Game Elements to Improve Game Design
There are several things that can make your game a great game with interesting mechanics. You can add such elements to your game as:
Challenges
Giving the player a clear goal provides clear motivation. Make that motivation relatable to the player.
Limiting Measures
To counter goal progression, using various limiting methods allows the player to grow. In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Alucard is stripped of all weapons and bonuses and can only fulfill his goal—killing Dracula—by recovering them throughout the game.
Strategy
Offer players ways to achieve goals that are not linear. The more freedom the player has to solve specific tasks, the better they think and create engaging scenarios.
Player Engagement
Before a player picks up your game, they need to be captivated. In Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch Productions created a fantastic, captivating trailer composed of gameplay. The trailer showcases all the game's mechanics in a cinematic manner.
For those seeking a more realistic, emotional, and cinematic take on a samurai's quest for redemption, this trailer fit perfectly.
FUN
Perhaps this is the most important part of what makes a game a game—giving players the chance to have fun is key to good game design. You don't want the player to do hard work or perform quests (unless they are fun).
Pacing
This overlooked game element is the foundation of all gameplay. Although a game like Persona 5: Royal was fantastic in almost every way, the pacing could be a bit off.
For two hours, the player is focused on battles and an engaging story. After the battle, you spend another two hours on school-themed activities.
Although the communication makes Persona games engaging, these parts are so different from each other that I found myself just skipping through all the dialogue because I wanted to get back to the action and story. I like the game, but the pacing was off in some places. Don't let that happen in your game.