What the Core Elements of Game Design Teach Us - José Zagal | grokludo 18

What can we learn from breaking down game design to its core elements?

It's a process every science eventually tackles – be it physics, chemistry, various fields of mathematics, philosophy, and language... Eventually you learn more by breaking it down and studying it piece by piece.

But would a "periodic table of game design" be feasible? Would it be ever-changing, as newer forms of interaction are discovered?

Jose Zagal is a professor at the University of Utah, teaching game design and ethics in videogames. In 2005 he put forward the Game Ontology Project, which attempts to break down games to its core elements, categorise them, and study them.

Rather than some of the "hard" sciences listed above, Jose more readily compares this project to the psych ontology found in computer science. The amount of formal reasoning you can do with it doesn't match that of, say, prime numbers – but Zagal says it has helped designers think about games in a new way, as well as building a common vocabulary in teams that otherwise might be talking past each other.

Some of the biggest benefits have been found in external fields that can learn from game design – architecture for example, or motivation in business (without using tacky gamification).

That, too, resembles some of the hard sciences. The benefits aren't always known. The study of non-Euclidean geometry would unexpectedly support Einstein much later, just as breaking down symmetries would support future particle physics. Sometimes it's impossible to predict the practical applications.

Today, Zagal joins us to talk about the Game Ontology Project, and the more recent research it has led to around goals in games, and ludonarrative dissonance, which occurs when there is a conflict between gameplay and its narrative.

He has some interesting points about situations when the game's supported goals don't line up with the player's interpretation of the goals, which can be a fun game design space to play in.

Sometimes this is intentional (as in Undertale), and sometimes not. When intentional, it can be a great moment when the player discovers there's actually a different, perhaps hidden, way to play the game.

"I think that's a really interesting area of game design, which is players discovering goals which are supported by the game," says Zagal.

Though I wonder, especially in the era of social media, if this might require restraint. Running a marketing campaign without spoiling entire ways of playing a game is its own challenge. Excluding those gameplay styles from marketing material is one thing, but how does one prevent previewers from spoiling that "Aha" moment, in the same way they would avoid a story or puzzle spoiler?

As usual, I hope you enjoy the episode, and thanks for supporting grokludo!