1. Identify the basic elements in a game of your choice (actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, players).
My game of choice is Bananagrams, and I will break the elements down one by one below:
Example of a Bananagrams crossword
Actions: Players receive letter tiles and create crosswords with all the letter tiles they have.
Goals: Players try to be the first person to use up all their letter tiles to create crosswords.
Rules:
- Each player starts with a set of 11-21 letter tiles (depending on player number), starting facedown. Remaining letter tiles stay facedown in the middle draw pile.
- All players flip over their own tiles and start the race of creating crosswords with it.
- First person who finishes using their tiles in a crossword calls “peel”, and all players need to take one tile from the middle draw pile.
- Players can call “dump” and exchange one of their own pile for 3 in the draw pile, leaving it facedown in there.
Objects: Letter tiles.
Playspace: The game can occur on any surface where letter tiles can be placed to create crosswords
Players: 1-8 players are allowed in 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.
Let’s say we swap the goals of Super Smash Bros and Untitled Goose Game, both digital video games available on Switch. Smash is a fighting game between different Nintendo characters, and The Untitled Goose Game is a game where players take the role of a mischievous goose playing pranks on a small town.
Untitled Goose Game
Super Smash Bros
For the sake of the exercise, I will discuss a specific playing mode of Smash where players each have three lives, and the goal is to attack the opposing players to become the last person standing alive.
The Untitled Goose Game’s goal, on the other hand, is to have the players complete a list of pranks on the town people. For example, trap the boy in the phone booth!
Task list in The Untitled Goose Game
If Smash takes on the goal of completing a list of tasks—for example, within one game, the player has to perform at least one of each type of attack method on the opposing player—the play experience would require a lot more intentional strategizing to determine when and how the attacks take place. In the current play experience, beginners can enjoy the game without mastering all the controls because as long as they mash console buttons, damage will be done to the opponent and the player will get closer to their goal. A swap like this would make the learning curve much steeper for a beginning player. The new goal would also lengthen the game by a lot: rather than having many attack mechanisms to achieve one goal, players have to achieve many mini goals with one attack mechanism each.
If The Untitled Goose Game takes on the goal of being the last goose standing in a competitive game against the other player, the game would have to reduce plays that require collaboration. Currently, many pranks require the collaboration between two geese, whereas a competitive model would prioritize speed and preciseness of a single goose to differentiate players of different skill levels. The goal would also need to increase ways for the player to lose. Right now, players can fail to achieve tasks, but there are no ways for the player to “die” and lose. With more ways to lose, the game would feel more high stakes and pressured.
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.
In Cats Cradle, the space of possibility is limited to a set of string figures that can transform between each other. Two or more players start from the Cats Cradle string figure and continue to transform the shape into new figures in each turn. The playspace can be wherever players can hold a string in their hands. When a player drops the string or can’t create a new figure, they lose.
When I played as a child, there was a correct sequence of string figures as shown in the diagram below.
The common sequence of figures that I followed as a child
Occasionally, you face a string figure that can be transformed into more than one figure, such as the beginning state Cats Cradle. This simple version of the game leaves the space of possibility limited—there are often only 1-2 correct moves to continue the game.
Example of two possibilities at the beginning game state of Cats Cradle
Upon searching online, I found more advanced string figures that expands the set of potential figures. Advanced players have expanded the space of possibility by inventing more complex string figures. Since Cats Cradle’s rules don’t define a set of valid string figures, the space of possibility can expand as players continue to innovate in string figure construction.
Why Knot’s Butterfly Figure Tutorial on Youtube
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.
My game of choice is Tic Tac Toe, a real time turn based game between two players. One player is assigned ‘O’, and the opponent is assigned ‘X’. Each player gets to leave one mark of their own in one square of the 3×3 grid play space in each turn, and the first to align three vertically, horizontally, or diagonally wins.
Example of a winning state in Tic Tac Toe
After observing people play tic tac toe on Youtube, I concluded the following game states:
- Blank board: no one has placed any marks yet.
- Game in progress: no one has aligned three marks yet
- One player wins: ‘o’ or ‘x’ aligns in three
- Tie game: neither player aligns three marks
Since each square can either be empty, ‘X’, or ‘O’, there are 3^9 possible game states (unique boards). The game’s space of possibility is finite and constrained—the pace of the game is defined by the same action per turn, players are confined within the 3×3 grid playspace, and the goal is limited to a finite set of outcomes. When players develop best practices, such as placing a mark in the center square, the space of possibility becomes even more limited.
Image Citations:
https://s7.orientaltrading.com/is/image/OrientalTrading/32130?$PDP_VIEWER_IMAGE$
