- Identify the basic elements in a game of your choice (actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, players).
The game of my choice is Candy Crush. In Candy Crush, the action is to combine 3 or more same type of candy. Depending on the level you are at, the goal varies. There are 5 possible goals in the game – reach a target score, clear all the jelly, collect particular ingredients e.g cherries, collect certain points within a time limit, or collect specific candies in a specified number of moves. There are several rules in the game. The main rule is to swipe the candy right, left, up, or down to combine the candies. There are some special candies that can be created e.g a striped candy when 4 candies are combined, a cookie when 5 candies are combined. Some levels give you limited moves or limited time that you need to complete the level in in order to move to the next level. You have a total of 5 lives and these renew after a particular time if you use them all. The objects in this game are the candies, some obstacles, jelly, and ingredients. The playspace is a virtual board with candy on it. This is an individual player game where the player is the individual playing the game.
2) As a thought experiment, swap one element between two games: a single rule, one action, the goal, or the playspace. For example, what if you applied the playspace of chess to basketball? Imagine how the play experience would change based on this swap.
The two games I selected are tic tac toe and baseball. I chose to swap the goal of the games. So now the goal of tic tac toe is to complete a run – in this case it would be to move from one square to another on the tic tac toe grid and complete a round. The goal for baseball becomes to make 3 in a line. The way I interpret this is that as long as a player runs 3 bases at once, they win or gain a run. The play experience drastically changes and more rules or a change of other elements would be needed to make the game make sense.
3. Pick a simple game you played as a child. Try to map out its space of possibility, taking into account the goals, actions, objects, rules, and playspace as the parameters inside of which you played the game. The map might be a visual flowchart or a drawing trying to show the space of possibility on a single screen or a moment in the game. 
4. Pick a real-time game and a turn-based game. Observe people playing each. Make a log of all the game states for each game. After you have created the game state logs, review them to see how they show the game’s space of possibility and how the basic elements interact.
Real time game: Waterpolo
Match Begins: Match begins as ball is thrown into the water. Players from both teams swim towards the ball
Clean Pass: A player from team A gets the ball and passes it to another player on team A
Possession Changed: This player passes the ball back to the center and a player from team B gets the ball
Goal Attempt: Player from team B tries to score but fails and Team A gets the ball
Pass: The goalie of team A shoots the ball to the other side and a player from team A gets the ball
Goal scored: This player shoots to the goal and is successful. Team A scores a point and the game is restarted.
Turn-based game: Phase 10
Player 1: Draws a card and discards a 7. No phase completed yet
Player 2: Draws a card and discards a 4. No phase completed yet
Player 3: Draws a card, discards a 6 and places cards face down. Player 3 completed Phase 1
Player 1: Draws a card and discards a 5. Not yet completed phase 1
Player 2: Draws a card, discards a 3 and places cards face down. Player 2 completes Phase 1
Player 1 is unable to complete phase 1. Cards are shuffled and each player is dealt new set of cards. Player 2 and 3 advance to phase 2 and player 1 stays at phase 1.
In waterpolo, the game state is continuously changing as players are both offense and defense at the same time. Whereas in phase 10, each player gets a turn one after the other in a systematic manner. The possibility is constantly changing in waterpolo but in phase 10, there is some insight or prediction on the possibility that can be made.
