- Identify the basic elements in a game of your choice (actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, players).
The game I want to talk about today is Egyptian Ratscrew, a card game that I used to play at summer camp with my friends.
The actions of the game are to [1] place cards down and [2] slap cards. The goal of the game is to collect the entire deck of cards. The rules are a bit complex, but the version I typically play has 2 types of rules, one pertaining to slapping the deck and the other pertaining to royal cards (Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces). First, you slap the deck when there is a sandwich (1 card sandwiched between 2 of the same number) or double (2 of the same card in a row) on the pile, and you take all the cards on the pile. Second, when a player places a royal card on the pile, the next player has a certain number of chances (depending on the royal card) to place another royal card. If the next player doesn’t place another royal card, then the current player takes the whole pile. Otherwise, the cycle continues. The objects of this game are just a deck of cards. The playspace for this game is the physical world, specifically the pile which is the stack of cards that players place cards on. Finally, in my experience, the players tend to be a group of friends.
- 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.
For my thought experiment, I would apply the rule of no hands in soccer to basketball and no feet in basketball to soccer. First, if players couldn’t use their hands in basketball, their entire style of play would be different. If all other elements remained the same, including the height of the hoop, players would have to adapt by kicking the ball up and having their teammates kick it even higher. It might make the game more collaborative than it already is because there’s no way one person could realistically score consistently. However, this game might be onerous and not very entertaining to watch, so basketball probably wouldn’t work with the rule swap. On the other hand, if players couldn’t use their feet in soccer, I think soccer would become very similar to European handball, which is super popular in Europe already (after searching on Google images, it would actually be pretty much the same). It could be a more fast-paced game than soccer is, and there would be different tricks and passing techniques to win.
- 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.
A simple game that I played as a child was Musical Chairs. I drew out a single moment in the game and the space of possibility. Because the game designer created it so that there are only 3 objects (3 chairs) and 4 players, it means that the action of each player sitting in a chair leads to someone getting eliminated. This leads to the goal of one person taking the last chair, thus winning the game.
- 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 logs (Mario Kart):
Log 1: Player at the start line, unable to go because time hasn’t started yet
Log 2: Time starts, player starts racing down the track.
Log 3: A turn on the road is upcoming. The player steers their wheels and holds their brake to get a speed boost. The player passes an opponent.
Log 4: The player gets a power up. They throw bananas and throw off another opponent.
Log 5: Another turn in the road. Repeat as before.
Log 6: The player dodges an attack from another player.
Log 7: The player gets another power up. They throw a grenade but miss.
Log 8: Another turn in the road. Repeat as before.
Log 9: The player crosses the finish line first. They win!
After logging the game, I noticed that for Mario Kart, the fact that it is real-time increases the space of possibility. For instance, players get power-ups that they can use on other players, but they can choose to do this whenever they want. This means there are many more possibilities than a turn-based game (i.e. you get messed up or you mess someone else up, and this can happen at any point in the race). Another example is when there are turns on the track – if a player fails to execute on the speed boost, it can impact the performance of the entire race. Once again, this can happen anytime and to any player.
Turn-based game logs (Tic-Tac-Toe):
Log 1: Player 1 puts an X in the middle.
Log 2: Player 2 puts an O in the upper right.
Log 3: Player 1 puts an X in the lower right.
Log 4: Player 2 puts an O in the middle first row.
Log 5: Player 1 puts an X in the upper left. They win the game.
Because tic-tac-toe is turn-based and there are only 9 squares on the board, the space of possibility is much more limited. After a certain number of squares are filled, there are only a few options for players to pick. An early blunder in the game can lead to a fast victory by the other person just because there aren’t that many actions to take.
