- Identify the basic elements in a game of your choice (actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, players). In board game Splendor, the actions are that players can take different gem tokens and use the tokens or gem cards to buy more resource cards. The goal is to get fifteen point. There are a few rules regulating players’ actions. First, players can perform only one action in their turn, either take three gem tokens or buy something. Second, players can’t take more than two tokens of the same gem and if they do, they can only take two tokens. Third, players can use their gem cards to substitute for the gems they need to pay to get the tokens. Fourth, if players collect the right patterns of cards listed on the noble cards, they will be able to possess that noble card and get the points. The objects of this game are the gem tokens and the cards. The Playspace is usually a table where we lay out all the cards and tokens. There will be max four players for this game.
- 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. It’s said that table tennis is created when two tennis players want to play tennis in their house, so they move the playspace of tennis to be a table in the room and that creates a new sports. Though this story might not be true, it suggests that when we swap the playspace of tennis to table tennis, it will result in a different type of sports.
- 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.
- 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. I observed real-time game Spot It and turn-based game Tic-Tac-Toe.
Game log for Spot It
Player 1 takes the card
Player 1 takes the card
Player 2 takes the card
Player 1 takes the card
…
Game log for Tic-Tac-Toe
Turn 1
– | – | –
———
– | – | –
———
– | – | –
Turn 2
– | – | X
———
– | – | –
———
– | – | –
Turn 3
O | – | X
———
– | – | –
———
– | – | –
Turn 4
O | – | X
———
– | X | –
———
– | – | –
Turn 5
O | – | X
———
– | X | –
———
O | – | –
Turn 6
O | – | X
———
– | X | X
———
O | – | –
Turn 7
O | – | X
———
O | X | X
———
O | – | –
Both game state logs show only one possibility of the game’s dynamics and outcome and whether it’s real-time game or turn-based game, they all have much more possibility of how the game unfolds. However, I do see that turn-based game tends to be more structured and the game state is always alternating between players. On the other hand, real-time game embraces more flexibility because it’s more simultaneous each turn can be taken by different players. For both game, in each turn, we see players interacting with one of the basic element. In Spot It, it’s the card and in Tic-Tac-Toe, it’s the chess token.
