Game Mechanics “ I’ve been waiting for a book like this for ten years: packed with game design Ernest Adams is a game goodness that tackles the science without undermining the art.” design consultant, teacher, and the author of the classic chris c — Richard Bartle, University of Essex, co-author of the first MMORPG Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition, the companion volume to this title. He has worked in the game industry for 23 years, eight of them at Electronic Arts. He is also the founder and first Game Mechanics chairman of the International Game Developers’ Association. His professional website is at Advanced Game Design www.designersnotebook.com. rawford Game Mechanics Joris Dormans is a game design lecturer and researcher based Game mechanics are the rules, processes, and data at the heart of a game. in Amsterdam with eight years They define how play progresses, what happens when, and what conditions of experience in higher educa- Advanced Game Design determine victory or defeat. Now two leading authorities in game design— tion. For the past four years he Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans—are here to teach game designers and has been researching formal tools and methods students alike the essentials of game mechanics. to design game mechanics. As an independent, This in-depth resource teaches you to craft mechanics that generate freelance game designer he published and Advanced Game Design challenging, enjoyable, and well-balanced gameplay. You’ll discover at worked on several video games and board what stages to prototype, test, and implement mechanics in games and games, including story-driven adventure games, learn how to visualize and simulate game mechanics to design better physical platform games, and a satirical games. Along the way, you’ll practice what you’ve learned with hands-on political card game. His professional website storytelling on interactive lessons. A free downloadable simulation tool developed by Joris Dormans is at www.jorisdormans.nl. is also available to help you follow along with exercises in the book in an easy-to-use graphical environment. In Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, you’ll learn how to: — Design and balance game mechanics to create emergent gameplay before you write a single line of code. — Visualize the internal economy so that you can immediately see what goes on in a complex game. — Use novel prototyping techniques that let you simulate games and collect vast quantities of gameplay data on the first day of development. — Apply design patterns for game mechanics—from a library in this book—to improve your game designs. — Explore the delicate balance between game mechanics and level Adams, Dormans design to create compelling, long-lasting game experiences. — Replace fixed, scripted events in your game with dynamic progression systems to give your players a new experience every time they play. Ernest Adams BOOK LEVEL: Intermediate / Advanced COMPUTER BOOK SHELF CATEGORY: Game Design COVER DESIGN: Peachpit Press / Charlene Will Joris Dormans Crawford US $74.99 / Can $78.99 ISBN-13: 978-0-321-82027-3 ISBN-10: 0-321-82027-4 57499 www.newriders.com 9 780321 820273 0321820274_GameMechanics_Cvr.indd 1 5/29/12 1:02 PM Game Mechanics Advanced Game Design Ernest Adams Joris Dormans Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans New Riders Games 1249 Eighth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 (510) 524-2178 Fax: (510) 524-2221 Find us on the Web at www.newriders.com To report errors, please send a note to [email protected] New Riders Games is an imprint of Peachpit, a division of Pearson Education Copyright © 2012 Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans Senior Editor: Karyn Johnson Developmental Editor: Robyn Thomas Technical Editor: Tobi Saulnier Copy Editor: Kim Wimpsett Production Editor: Cory Borman Composition: WolfsonDesign Proofreader: Bethany Stough Indexer: Valerie Perry Interior Design: Charlene Will, WolfsonDesign Cover Design: Peachpit Press/Charlene Will Notice of Rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected]. See the next page for image credits. Notice of Liability The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the authors nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it. Trademarks Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trade- mark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. ISBN-13: 978-0-321-82027-3 ISBN-10: 978-0-321-82027-4 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound in the United States of America Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Mabel Addis Mergardt, principal designer of The Sumerian Game (later made famous as HAMURABI), the first game with an internal economy that I ever played. — Ernest W. Adams To Marije van Dodeweerd for love. — Joris Dormans iv GAME MECHANICS: ADVANCED GAME DESIGN Acknowledgments The genesis of this book was a late-night meeting between the two of us during the G-Ameland student game jam festival on a small island off the north coast of the Netherlands. Joris Dormans showed the Machinations framework to Ernest Adams, and Ernest Adams promptly said, “We should write a book about game mechanics.” But it took nearly two years and the advice and assistance of many other people before we were done. Now it is time to thank them. Our deepest appreciation goes to Mary Ellen Foley and Marije van Dodeweerd, our beloved mates, who patiently tolerated very late nights, missed holidays and week- ends, and the occasional rant about the vagaries of the writing process. We’ll make it up to you if we can! Stéphane Bura suggested that Joris should create an interactive tool when he saw the original, static version of the Machinations diagrams. Jesper Juul made the invaluable distinction between games of emergence and games of progression that informs the entire book. Remko Scha had a big impact on the formal scrutiny of the Machinations frame- work in his capacity as Joris Dormans’s PhD supervisor. Mary Ellen Foley kindly checked and corrected all our references. The colleagues and students at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences always have been willing test subjects for much of the material that ended up in this book. We must also thank a number of people for permission to reproduce images: Alexandre Duret-Lutz, for his photo of The Settlers of Catan; Andrew Holmes, for his photo of Kriegsspiel; Jason Lander, for his photo of Power Grid; Johan Bichel Lindegaard, for his photo of Johan Sebastian Joust; Wikimedia Commons contributor popperipopp, for his or her photo of the game Connect Four. We are also grateful to the Giant Bomb website (www.giantbomb.com), for permission to reproduce screen shots from their collection. Thanks to Mika Palmu, Philippe Elsass, and all other contributors to FlashDevelop, for creating the open source development tool that was used to program the Machinations Tool. We are extremely grateful to the many anonymous people who have helped to build Inkscape, the open source Scalable Vector Graphics editor, without which it would have been much more difficult to produce our illustrations. v As Elrond said, the last place is the place of honor. We thank Margot Hutchison, Ernest Adams’s agent, for assistance with the contract. Tobi Saulnier was our wise and sharp-eyed technical editor. Her suggestions are present but invisible through- out the book, and we’re deeply grateful that the CEO of a game company would be willing to take the time to help us. Robyn G. Thomas, our tireless (and seemingly sleepless) development editor, pleaded, cajoled, threatened, and oversaw the whole process with her usual flair and attention to detail. And finally, special thanks to Karyn Johnson, senior editor at Peachpit Press, for having the faith in us to let us write the book in the first place. We hasten to add that the blame for any errors or omissions belongs entirely to us and not to any of the foregoing. We welcome all comments, questions, and criticism; please write to Joris Dormans at [email protected] and to Ernest W. Adams at [email protected]. About the Authors Ernest W. Adams is an American game design consultant and teacher residing in England. In addition to his consulting work, he gives game design workshops and is a popular speaker at conferences and on college campuses. Mr. Adams has worked in the interactive entertainment industry since 1989 and founded the International Game Developers’ Association in 1994. He was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions, and for several years before that, he was the audio/ video producer on the Madden NFL line of football games at Electronic Arts. In his early career, he was a software engineer, and he has developed online, computer, and console games for machines from the IBM 360 mainframe to the present day.