We can see the contrast between these two perspectives in Clint and Ben’s writing about Far Cry 2. Only through hours of observation and deduction do the dynamics and mechanics gradually become clear. One can enjoy Wii Sports tennis without necessarily knowing the exact dimensions of the virtual court. Thus, designers tend to see mechanics and work outwards.Ĭonversely, players are immediately familiar with their own emotional response to a game regardless of whether they understand the underlying rules. Schreiber calls this a “second-order design problem” and it’s the reason why game design is challenging.
They want to make their games fun and engaging, but only have indirect control of the player’s experience. Game designers only have direct control of the game’s mechanics the mechanics work together to generate the dynamics, which in turn generate the aesthetics. And lastly, the aesthetics would likely be frustration at the prospect of coming back into play only to be killed again immediately.Īs illustrated above by Clint Hocking 2 (lead designer of Far Cry 2) and Ben Abraham (blogger, musician, Far Cry 2 enthusiast), designers and players experience games from different perspectives. This leads to the dynamic where a player may sit next to a spawn point and immediately kill anyone as soon as they respawn. In a First-Person Shooter video game, a common mechanic is for players to have “spawn points” – dedicated places on the map where they re-appear after getting killed. In his post on MDA, Schreiber also offers the following example: The enemy dynamics present a challenge to the player, creating an aesthetic of fun and excitement. Together, these rules create a dynamic wherein the player becomes boxed in by Pinky in the front and Blinky from behind. Each ghost has a unique seeking mechanic: Blinky targets the tile that the player currently occupies, while Pinky targets four tiles ahead. The pathfinding logic of the enemies is defined by a formal set of rules. We can illustrate these concepts with the classic game Pac-Man. In simple terms, what makes the game fun? Aesthetics describe the player’s experience of the game their enjoyment, frustration, discovery, fellowship, etc.In programming terms, the “run-time” behaviour of the game. Dynamics describe how the rules act in motion, responding to player input and working in concert with other rules.These rules define how the game is prepared, what actions the players can take, the victory conditions, the rule enforcement mechanisms, etc. Mechanics are the formal rules of the game.These words are often thrown around casually in game design discussions, but in MDA they have very specific meanings: It stands for mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, the three layers that define a game. Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek defined MDA in 2001. The curriculum has covered a number of thought-provoking concepts, but the real light bulb moment for me came in his discussion of the MDA framework 1. This summer I’ve been casually following Game Design Concepts, Ian Schreiber’s experimental online game design course.
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