Game mechanics


In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics define how a game works for players. Game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide player actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, while a ludeme is an element of play, such as the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. The interplay of various mechanics determines the game's complexity and how the players interact with the game. All games use game mechanics; however, different theories disagree about their degree of importance to a game. The process and study of game design includes efforts to develop game mechanics that engage players.
Common examples of game mechanics include turn-taking, movement of tokens, set collection, bidding, capture, and spell slots.

Definition of term

There is no consensus on the precise definition of game mechanics. Competing definitions claim that game mechanics are:
  • "systems of interactions between the player and the game"
  • "the rules and procedures that guide the player and the game response to the player's moves or actions"
  • "more than what the player may recognize, they are only those things that impact the play experience"

    Game mechanics vs. theme

A game's mechanics are not its theme. Some games have a theme—some element of representation. For example, in Monopoly, the events of the game represent another activity, the buying and selling of properties. Two games that are mechanically similar can be thematically different, and vice versa. The tension between a game's mechanics and theme is ludonarrative dissonance.
Abstract games do not have themes, because the action is not intended to represent anything. Go is an example of an abstract game.

Game mechanics vs. gameplay

Some game studies scholars distinguish between game mechanics and gameplay. In Playability and Player Experience Research, the authors define gameplay as "the interactive gaming process of the player with the game." In this definition, gameplay occurs when players interact with the game mechanics. Similarly, in Dissecting Play – Investigating the Cognitive and Emotional Motivations and Affects of Computer Gameplay, the authors define gameplay as "interacting with a game design in the performance of cognitive tasks". Video games researcher Carlo Fabricatore defines gameplay as:
  • What the player can do
  • What other entities can do, in response to player's actions.
In Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings on game design, the authors define gameplay as the combination and interaction of many elements of a game.
However, popular usage sometimes elides the two terms. For example, gamedesigning.org defines gameplay as the core game mechanics that determine a game's overall characteristics.

Categorization

Scholars organize game mechanics into categories, which they use to classify games. For example, in Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design, Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev classify game mechanisms into categories based on game structure, turn order, actions, resolution, victory conditions, uncertainty, economics, auctions, worker placement, movement, area control, set collection, and card mechanisms.

Examples of game mechanics

The following examples of game mechanics are not a strict or complete taxonomy. This list is alphabetical.

Action points

Each player receives a budget of action points to use on each turn. These points may be spent on various actions according to the game rules, such as moving pieces, drawing cards, collecting money, etc.

Alignment

is a game mechanism in both tabletop role-playing games and role-playing video games. Alignment represents characters' moral and ethical orientation, such as good or evil. In some games, a player character's alignment permits or prohibits the use of additional game mechanics. For example, in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux, alignment determines which demon assistants a player can or cannot recruit, and in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, players aligned with the light and dark sides of The Force gain different bonuses to attacks, healing, and speed.

Auction or bidding

Some games use an auction or bidding system in which the players make competitive bids to determine which player wins the right to perform particular actions. Such an auction can be based on different forms of payment:
  • The winning bidder must pay for the won privilege with some form of game resource. For example, Ra uses this mechanic.
  • The auction is a form of a promise that the winner will achieve some outcome in the near future. If this outcome is not achieved, the bidder pays a penalty. Such a system is used in many trick-taking games, such as contract bridge.

    Capture/eliminate

In some games, the number of tokens a player has on the playing surface represents their current strength in the game. A central goal is capturing an opponent's tokens, which removes them from the playing surface.
Captures can be achieved in a number of ways:
  • Moving one of one's own tokens into a space occupied by an opposing token, also known as a replacement capture or displacement capture.
  • * If the space immediately opposite must either be off the board or a marked trap space, it is known as a push capture.
  • Jumping a token over the space immediately occupied by an opposing token, known as a jump or leap.
  • * When the opposing token can be any distance along an unobstructed line, it is known as a flying capture.
  • Occupying the adjacent squares of an opposing token, also known as a custodian capture, custodianship or interception.
  • Occupying one immediately adjacent square to an opposing token, also known as approach.
  • The reverse of approach: capturing an adjacent opposing token by moving away from it in a straight line, also known as withdrawal.
  • Capturing two opposing tokens by occupying the single square separating them, also known as intervention.
  • Declaring an "attack" on an opposing token, and then determining the outcome of the attack, either in a deterministic way by the game rules, or by using a randomizing method.
  • Surrounding a token or region with one's own tokens in some manner, also known as enclosure.
  • Playing cards or other game resources to capture tokens.
  • Other specialized mechanisms that do not fall neatly into any of the above categories.
In some games, captured tokens are simply removed and play no further part in the game. In others, captured tokens are removed but can return to play later in the game under various rules. Some games allow the capturing player to take possession of the captured tokens and use them later in the game, also known as conversion.
Many video games express the capture mechanism in the form of a kill count, reflecting the number of opposing pawns eliminated during the game.

Chance and randomization

Dice

The most common use of dice is to randomly determine the outcome of an interaction in a game. An example is a player rolling a die or dice to determine how many board spaces to move a game token.
Dice often determine the outcomes of in-game conflict between players, with different outcomes of the die/dice roll of different benefit to each player involved. This occurs in games that simulate direct conflicts of interest.
Different dice formulas are used to generate different probability curves. A single die has equal probability of landing on any particular side, and consequently produces a linear probability distribution curve. The sum of two or more dice, however, results in a bell curve-shaped probability distribution, with the addition of further dice resulting in a steeper bell curve, decreasing the likelihood of an extreme result. A linear curve is generally perceived by players as being more "swingy", whereas a bell curve is perceived as being more "fair".

Risk and reward

Some games include situations where players can "press their luck" in optional actions where the danger of a risk must be weighed against the chance of reward. For example, in Beowulf: The Legend, players may elect to take a "Risk", with success yielding cards and failure weakening the player's ultimate chance of victory.

Crafting

Crafting new in-game items is a game mechanism in open world survival video games such as Minecraft and Palworld, role-playing video games such as Divinity: Original Sin and Stardew Valley, tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, and deck-building card games such as Mystic Vale. Crafting mechanics rely on set collection mechanics, since crafting new items requires obtaining specific sets of items, then transforming them into new ones.

Modes

A game mode is a distinct configuration that varies gameplay and affects how other game mechanics behave. A game with several modes presents different settings in each, changing how a particular element of the game is played.
A common example is the choice between single-player and multiplayer modes in video games, where multiplayer can further be cooperative or competitive. A sandbox mode allows free play without predefined goals. In a Time Attack Mode, the player tries to score, progress or clear levels in a limited amount of time.
Changing modes while the game is in progress can increase difficulty and provide additional challenge or reward player success. Power-ups are modes that last for a few moments or that change only one or a few game rules. For example, power pellets in Pac-Man give the player a temporary ability to eat enemies.
A game mode may restrict or change the behavior of the available tools, such as allowing play with limited/unlimited ammo, new weapons, obstacles or enemies, or a timer, etc. A mode may establish different rules and game mechanics, such as altered gravity, win at first touch in a fighting game, or play with some cards face-up in a poker game. A mode may even change a game's overarching goals, such as following a story or character's career vs. playing a limited deathmatch or capture the flag set.