Main items to focus on when designing a game:

1. Context
2. Participants
3. Meaning

Examples of games’ cores:

• Territorial acquisition
• Prediction
• Spatial reasoning
• Survivial
• Destruction
• Building
• Collection
• Chasing or evading
• Trading
• Race-to-the-end

Game elements:

1. Players.

“Game design calls for players to interact with one another and the game system.” (Nacke, 2014)

• Player VS Game
• Co-operative Gameplay
• Team Competition
• Unilateral Competition
• Multiple Individual Players VS Game
• Player VS player
• Nultilaeral Competition

2. Objectives

“Objectives are important for the motivation of your players to engage in gameplay. The best game goals seem attainable but are still perceived as challenging.” (Nacke, 2014)

• Capture
• Chase
• Race
• Alignment
• Rescue
• Forbidden Act
• Construction
• Exploration
• Solution
• Outwit

3. Procedures

“These are actions or methods of play allowed by a game’s rules.” (Nacke, 2014)

• Starting
• Progression
• Special
• Resolving

4. Rules

“These are the exact objects and concepts of your game; they are the building blocks of the game system.” (Nacke, 2014)

• Rules define objects and conditions
• Rules restrict player actions
• Rules determine effects on players

5. Resources

“These are game objects that have a value for players in reaching their individual objectives. The value of these items can be determined by their scarcity and utility.” (Nacke, 2014)

• Lives
• Units
• Health
• Currency
• Actions
• Inventory
• Time

6. Conflict

“Conflict emerges through procedures and rules in the game that prevent a player from achieving their goal.” (Nacke, 2014)

1. Obstacles

2. Opponents

3. Dilemmas

4. Boundaries

“This is the border to the real world (the separation of the magic circle and real world). This also relates to actions that are only possible in a game but would have much different consequences outside the game boundaries.” (Nacke, 2014)

8. Outcome

“The outcome of a game has to be uncertain to foster player interest.” (Nacke, 2014)

Smallest possible design elements as a game atom

• Players/Avatars/Game bits
• Objectives/Goals
• Rules/Mechanics
• Resources
• Game States
• Game Views
• Information
• Sequencing
• Player Interaction
• Theme/Setting

Reference

Lennart Nacke. (September 12, 2014). The formal systems of games and game design atoms. The Acagamic. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from http://acagamic.com/game-design-course/the-formal-systems-of-games-and-game-design-atoms/.