Add definitions to glossary #170
Conversation
Co-authored-by: TimJentzsch <[email protected]>
alice-i-cecile
added
documentation
|
|
||
| ### Cycle (mechanics design) | ||
|
|
||
| A set of elements of the same type that share strong mechanical (and often thematic) similarities. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I am super surprised by this definition.
I don't see why it's called a cycle.
In other words, it's a great addition to the glossary.
There was a problem hiding this comment.
This is a term from Magic the Gathering design!
| ### Depth and complexity | ||
|
|
||
| **Depth** is a fuzzy term that gets at the notion of game **richness**: how many interesting choices are there, how much replay value exists? |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Not sure if this is useful, but related to this: is the underlying simulation intricate ("rich") enough to meaningfully be affected by the player's choices, or are the player's choices cosmetic with respect to the game world? The answer to this is typically not black and white, but some shade of grey.
Egregious example: "open world games" where the world is large, beautiful, but extremely shallow (i.e. non-interactive) diorama.
While the simulation richness is related to complexity, it is not quite the same, because a richer simulation need not (linearly) increase complexity. For example, simulation richness can be filtered out by UI/UX choices, so that game complexity is impacted minimally?
Of course, what suffers is performance. There is only so much you can meaningfully simulate depending on hardware, therefore an Elegant game must still only simulate only what is necessary to meaningfully interact with major player choices.
| Dependending on their player base, games have a varying **complexity budget.** | ||
| This fuzzy term represents each player's ability to keep track of rules, learn new mechanics and reason effectively about their [choices](glossary.md#interesting-choices). | ||
| If this budget is exceeded, players will be frustrated and confused by your game. | ||
|
|
||
| ### Diagetic |
design/src/glossary.md
Outdated
|
|
||
| ### Game feel | ||
|
|
||
| How satisfying and natural a game feels to play. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I am confused by the inclusion of natural here. Can this be clarified?
There was a problem hiding this comment.
| How satisfying and natural a game feels to play. | |
| How satisfying, intuitive and natural a game feels to play. | |
| Games with great game feel start to feel like extensions of the player's body as they master the game. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
@alice-i-cecile Can this become learnable too?
There was a problem hiding this comment.
No, that's definitely not the sense that people mean.
Co-authored-by: Brian Merchant <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Brian Merchant <[email protected]>
Fixes #159, #151.
Currently incomplete: I'd like to see if I can finish this in one fel swoop. Please complain about things that are unclear or seem unintuitive!