FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION

Core Mechanics

The core mechanics of a game determine how that game actually operates: what its rules are and how the player interacts with them. This chapter begins by defining the core mechanics and explaining their role in creating the entertainment experi­ence. You'll learn how the core mechanics differ between real-time and turn-based games and how the core mechanics are related to level design. Next we'll look at some key elements of core mechanics: resources, entities, and mechanics. You'll learn the definitions of these terms and how you may use these concepts to specify rules precisely.

From the general features of core mechanics, we'll then turn to their specific imple­mentation in the internal economy of games, a set of mechanics that governs the flow of quantities. We'll also look at how designers use mechanics to create gameplay by implementing both challenges and actions. Having introduced all these aspects of core mechanics, you'll learn an approach for designing them, which involves reex­amining early design work and rendering it specific and concrete. The chapter concludes by briefly discussing random numbers and how to use them in games.

What Are the Core Mechanics?

Isn't the greatest rule of all the rules simply to please?

-- MoLltRE

You first read about core mechanics in Chapter 2, "Design Components and Processes." There you learned that the core mechanics are the heart of the game, generating the gameplay and implementing the rules. This chapter examines the core mechanics in further detail and offers a formal definition:

CORE MECHANICS The core mechanics consist of the data and the algorithms that precisely define the game's rules and internal operations.