FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION

Toys, Puzzles, and Games

In English, we use the word play to describe how we entertain ourselves with toys, puzzles, and games—although with puzzles, we more frequently say that we solve them. However, even though we use the same word, we do not engage in play with all types of entertainment in the same way. What differentiates these types of play is the presence, or absence, of rules and goals.

Rules are instructions that dictate how to play. A toy does not come with any rules about the right way to play with it, nor does it come with a particular goal that you as a player should try to achieve. You may play with a ball or a stick any way you like. In fact, you may pretend that it is something else entirely. Toys that model other objects (such as a baby doll that resembles a real baby) might suggest an

appropriate way to play, but the suggestion is not a rule. In fact, young children get special enjoyment by playing with toys in a way that subverts their intended purpose, such as treating a doll as a car.

If you add a distinct goal to playing—a particular objective that you are trying to achieve—then the article being played with is not a toy but a puzzle. Puzzles have one rule that defines the goal, but they seldom have rules that dictate how you must get to the goal. Some approaches might be fruitless, but none are actually prohibited.

A game includes both rules and a goal. Playing a game requires pretending and it is a more structured activity than playing with toys or puzzles. As such, it requires more maturity. As children develop longer attention spans, they start to play with puzzles and then to play games. Multiplayer games also require social cooperation, another thing that children learn to do as they mature.