CO1301: Games Concepts
Lecture 9
Gameplay
Dr Nick Mitchell (Room CM 226)
email: [email protected]
Material originally prepared by Gareth Bellaby
References
 Rollings and Morris, Game Design and Architecture.
 Chapter
3
 Rollings & Adams, Rollings & Adams on Game Design.
 Chapter
7.
 Rabin, Introduction to Game Development:
 2.2:
"Game Design"
Topics
 Importance of Gameplay
 Two definitions of Gameplay
 Implementing Gameplay
 Interesting Choices
 Dominant Strategy Problem
Importance
 Gameplay is connected to subjects such as:
 game theory
 game balance
 game design
 strategy
 tactics
Importance
 Gameplay is independent of:




Story (story may conflict with gameplay!)
Audio
Graphics
Interface
 Gameplay is separate from other elements of the game
but may interact with them, e.g. it's reasonable to say
that the clarity of the graphics support the gameplay, or
that the interface is so poor that it gets in the way of the
gameplay.
First Definition
 Sid Maier - "gameplay is a series of interesting
choices".
 Used by Rollings and Adams in particular, but also
cited by Rollings and Morris.
Secondly Definition
 Gameplay is:
The core mechanics of a game.
 How the game plays.


A discussion of mechanics will probably be of
most use to yourselves.
Implementing Gameplay
Gameplay is something intrinsic to the game. There
are lots of different chess sets, pieces in the shape of
characters from Alice in Wonderland, stylised pieces,
etc. The shapes are interesting and have value in their
own right but they have nothing to do with the
gameplay of chess.
 Intrinsic: "belonging to a thing by its very nature..."
 Extrinsic: "not forming an essential part of a thing or arising or
originating from the outside...”
(Both definitions are from WordNet).
Implementing Gameplay
 Not all computer games may contain gameplay, e.g.
Sim City, the demon mission in Kohan II.
 Gameplay may be secondary to some other purpose,
e.g. the social aspect of MMOs.
 Since gameplay is about game mechanics, the
different families of games have their own techniques
and issues.
Exercise
 Some types of games have identical gameplay.
 Is there any difference in the gameplay of most FPS's?
Identify the core mechanics of a FPS.
 What distinguishes FPS's if they do have identical
gameplay?
 Identify two FPS's with different gameplay.

Interesting Choices
 Choice should be:
Non-trivial
 Have good consequences
 Have bad consequences
 Be informed (nothing irritates so much as an
important game choice with no support).

 Feedback to the player is useful...
A choice
 Does my sorcerer:

throw a fireball which damages all of the enemies
but won't kill anyone outright.

or use his turn to stone spell which only affects
one enemy but is guaranteed to knock him or her
out.
Build, Infiltrate or Fight?
 In Dawn of War units cost requisition points (which is in
limited supply) and count towards a squad limit.
requisition
Marines:
200
Servitors:
75
Scouts:
90
squad size
2
1
1
 Marines are stronger than Scouts. Servitors have no
combat capability but are needed to build structures.
Dimensions
 Choices get more interesting if they operate in
several dimensions at once.
 The fireball has a backwash which affects members of
my own team...
 The units in Dawn of War cost requisition points and
count towards the squad limit...
Dominant Strategy Problem
 No commonly agreed language to talk about the
topics in game design and development.
 The dominant strategy problem is a gameplay
problem: one particular strategy is so strong that it
becomes the obvious choice.
 The DSP breaks gameplay because it undermines
choice.
Transitive Relationship
 a > b and b > c => a > c
 A transitive relationship in a game gives rise to a
dominant strategy.

Why build unit of types 'b' or 'c' if a unit of type
'a' is obviously better.

Why adopt strategy 'b' or 'c' if strategy 'a' is
obviously better.
Transitive Relationship
Giant
bigger and stronger than
Human
bigger and stronger than
Pixie
Non-Transitive Relationship
 a > b, b > c, c > a
 A non-transitive relationship makes for a far more
interesting series of choices and hence for better
gameplay.
Non-Transitive Relationship
Cavalry
beat
beat
Spearman
beat
Bowmen