Basic Mechanics are the building blocks of a game, but they are also heavily dependent on the other aspects of the Game Design Process. While they do make up the actions that the player is taking and constitute nearly 100% of the player’s playtime, a game made up of only Basic Mechanics would be a boring game indeed.
Let’s say someone it’s working on a game. That person knows the genre, and he has a general idea of what he wants it to be about. Let’s say action/adventure title about vampires and he game wants the player to be able to steal blood from victims. Also the player has to avoid light in the day, and it would be a story about love and romance.
Than this designer presents this idea to a friend of his who is in the industry. His enthusiasm is apparent in his voice and his excitement about the idea, with the main part of the game revolving around the vampire stealing blood. But then his friend asks him…
“How does the player actually steal blood?”
The designer reminds his friend that the vampire will be able to go up to anyone and suck their blood, and that’s how it occurs. But his friend reformulates, “But what actual buttons will the player be pressing? How are you going to convey stealing someone’s blood as a vampire through pressing a button?”
The designer looks down at his shoes, realizing that although his idea may be exciting at first, but maybe he didn’t though about all aspects.
You Can’t Build a House without Bricks
His idea may be a good one, but will it come to fruition? It depends; all of his thoughts are fine ideas, but there’s no structure to them. He hasn’t taken the time to build the foundation of his game; he’s just started with random things. Odds are that if this designer just goes ahead and starts coding in his idea without connecting the dots first, he’s going to end up with a mediocre game that feels kind of like…well, every other game. Which is to say it won’t really feel like anything.
To begin his journey of constructing a vampire experience, he will, at some point in the early stages of production, need to think about the Basic Mechanics.
Through the Game Design Process, designers, developers, and players could describe and break down of the major components of any game. Last time we discussed the importance of the Base Experience, the feeling that the developer wants the player to have while playing their game. In this post I am going to talk about the second aspect of game design, the Basic Mechanics.
Let’s start with an analogy. Houses are made up of bricks. People don’t think of the actual bricks, wood, or pipes when walking into a house. New homeowners don’t brag to their friends about the kind of mortar their home uses; no, they want to focus on the finer things. They want to show off the stylish hardwood floor, the marble counter tops, or the multi-story heating. The bricks are a must. If the bricks aren’t put together correctly, then nothing else matters.
In the same way, games are built of Basic Mechanics. These Mechanics are the actual actions that the player performs. When the player presses a button, then there is a response on the screen. When the player moves their mouse, then there is a change in the game. When the player moves their Wii remote or whatever input device they’re using, there is an effect to pair with the cause. These interactions are what make up the game, and they are vitally important. Yet paradoxically, players tend to not think about the mechanics very much.
On the other hand, to deliver a high quality title, it’s the developer’s job to be obsessed with these “bricks”.
Basic Mechanic, meet Developer!
A Basic Mechanic could be introduced as any pairing of player action and reaction in a game. While the player may be thinking about the game’s story, the goals of the level, or other high level components within the Game Design Process, what they are actually doing from second to second, moment to moment, can be described in the Basic Mechanics. Without the Basic Mechanics, the player does nothing.
To be a game, players must be interacting with it. If they aren’t interacting with it, then they aren’t playing a game, they’re just observing or not participating at all. Player interaction can be any number of things. For modern games it’s most commonly the press of a button or for motion controlled games it’s the gesture of a remote. Outside of video games you have movement in sports and placing pieces in board games. All of these are examples of the player performing an action that will affect the game.
Games are symbolic. They give meaning to actions that would not normally be there. If I pick up a little wooden man and move him across the table, that action has no meaning (other than the fact that maybe be wooden man was in the way of my tea). However in the context of a game like chess, that action has the meaning that I am attacking my opponent with a horse.
There are several categories of these Basic Mechanics. To be able to apply them to our games, we’ll want to understand and use all types of them.
Atomic Basic Mechanics
Some Basic Mechanics are atomic, that is, they are the absolute smallest action and effect that can be found in the game. This is usually a single button press or gesture, but it could also be more complex depending on the game. The point is that, within the rules of that game, that action cannot be broken down any further into smaller parts.
In Bejeweled, arguably one of the most successful online casual game of all time, the player must click different jewels to swap their locations and make rows of three. For this, the Atomic Basic Mechanic at work here is the player clicking on a jewel. The reaction to the player’s click is the movement of the jewels. While this game has been played for hundreds of millions of hours by players all around the world, when you map Bejeweled out on the Game Design Process, all those players are doing are clicking a jewel, and moving it. Over and over.
In Wii Sports Tennis, the Atomic Basic Mechanic is when the player swings their Wii remote, resulting in their character swinging their racquet. It is through this action that every match is played by every player.
Most games are made up of surprisingly with few Atomic Basic Mechanics. The two examples above have only one. Even complex modern games usually only have about 3 or 4 Atomic Basic Mechanics at most. For fighting games there’s attack, defend, move. For first person shooters there’s shoot, move, using cover, and special items. In RPG’s the actions are traditionally attack, defend, use magic, and use items. These games may dress these up and build them into complex chains (more on that in a moment), but the atomic actions the player is taking are relatively simple.
Atomic Basic Mechanics are interesting because they describe the game in such a scientific way that often sounds dull. While the goal of making a game is to attain a Base Experience, how they player will feel, the actual bricks of putting that together appear less enticing than the full package promises to be. Think about how fun the following games sound:
- All you do is move a ball and try to get it into a certain area.
- You click on something and then select how you want to interact with it. That’s the game.
- The only thing that happens is you read text and select from different choices.
Not very fun, right? And yet they are the Atomic Mechanics of some of the most beloved games in history.
- The sport of soccer/football
- The Sims
- Final Fantasy, or classic RPG’s in general
This example serves to show that you can’t judge a game by a description of its Atomic Basic Mechanics. That’s like trying to say you know someone after reading a bunch of facts about them. ”This person has brown hair, is kind of tall, and enjoys baking. Do you like them?” Computers can think like that, but humans need to be taken a little further. The Base Experience of a game doesn’t begin to shine through until we get at least to the next level of Basic Mechanics.
Complex Basic Mechanics
Atomic Basic Mechanics are important, but of course games are more than running and jumping. They are running through a crowded city and jumping up on top of a building without hitting their head. They are running over a gap and then jumping on top of three enemies. They are running, then pausing to wait for the guard to pass, and then running again.
Complex Basic Mechanics are when multiple Atomic Mechanics are tied together to create something new. These new actions are usually only taught to the player after they have mastered the previous Atomic Mechanics. The game may teach them, or given enough time, they may find them themselves.
For out Bejeweled example, we said that the Atomic Basic Mechanic is the player being able to click on two jewels and swap their locations. This allows the player to connect three jewels of the same color. But what happens when the player connects more than three? The jewels click down into place perfectly and…bam! They’ve created a chain; extra high points! By performing their Atomic Basic Mechanics in a specific way, they complete the Complex Basic Mechanic of making a chain.
In Chess, a gambit is where a player intentionally sacrifices a piece in order to gain a long term advantage. For example, they may put a pawn into a vulnerable position, because when the opponent takes that pawn, the opponent will be in an even more vulnerable position. There isn’t anything in the Atomic Mechanics of chess that discuss this concept, yet all experienced chess players can tell you what a gambit is. It is a Complex Basic Mechanic, a result of combining several Atomic Mechanics into something more interesting.
How much support the developer gives Complex Mechanics (or any mechanic for that matter) is up to them. For example, in an action game, the player might be able to run and jump, and so of course the player might be able to run and jump simultaneously to reach new heights. The developer may simply allow the player to do this using the already existing Atomic Mechanics, or they may add a little extra “umph” to it, allowing the run+jump combination to cause the player to jump unrealistically higher, with new special effects and sounds associated with it. How the developer crafts this and other Complex Basic Mechanics is up to them.
The Big Picture
Basic Mechanics are the building blocks of a game, but they are also heavily dependent on the other aspects of the Game Design Process. While they do make up the actions that the player is taking and constitute nearly 100% of the player’s playtime, a game made up of only Basic Mechanics would be a boring game indeed.
A game’s Punishment and Reward give meaning to the player’s actions; how does the player know what to do and when? In what way are these Mechanics supposed to be used and optimized? The Long Term Motivation provide the drive for the player to continue using these Basic Mechanics over and over with continuing excitement and anticipation. And the Creative Layout gives that pop to the player’s actions: a nice big “Combo!” when the player performs a correct sequence of actions. All of these aspects work together with the Basic Mechanics, the player’s actions, to give them meaning and help deliver the Base Experience.
The Journey of a Thousand Miles…
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” says the ancient proverb. In the same way, games are built step by step, Basic Mechanic by Basic Mechanic. Always supporting the Base Experience, Basic Mechanics provide the building blocks of every game, guiding the player’s each moment. And if those bricks are well put together, it can be an incredible collection of moments indeed.
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