Game Goals for Players |
Teach Goals Using a Game |
“So how do I win?”
One of the first things a player will want to know is what their goal is—what do they need to do in order to win?
Winning a game can be simple--you win at the exact moment you accomplish the goal. In many common childhood games, the winner is the first to cross a threshold of some type. In Chutes and Ladders, the winner is the first to the top. In Sorry!, it is the first person to get all four pawns in the Home space. These games provide a clear cut winner for children just learning how to play, win, and lose fairly.
In strategy games, how you win is more complex-- how a player wins and how the game ends are two different conditions that must be met. For example, in Deep Sea Adventure, the game ends after three rounds, and the winner is the player who collected the most valuable treasures from the sea floor. These games provide players with more choices about how to play the game, as fast play doesn’t necessarily mean successful play.
Good goals provide pacing to the game, ending the game at a point of high tension, and provide meaningful interaction between the players and the game itself.
Bad goals are meaningless, frustrating, lack meaningful decisions, and/or have too many conditions.
Your goal should make sense with your theme and central conflict.
Therefore, as a designer, crafting the right type of goal for your player helps to make your game the most fun it can be!
One of the first things a player will want to know is what their goal is—what do they need to do in order to win?
Winning a game can be simple--you win at the exact moment you accomplish the goal. In many common childhood games, the winner is the first to cross a threshold of some type. In Chutes and Ladders, the winner is the first to the top. In Sorry!, it is the first person to get all four pawns in the Home space. These games provide a clear cut winner for children just learning how to play, win, and lose fairly.
In strategy games, how you win is more complex-- how a player wins and how the game ends are two different conditions that must be met. For example, in Deep Sea Adventure, the game ends after three rounds, and the winner is the player who collected the most valuable treasures from the sea floor. These games provide players with more choices about how to play the game, as fast play doesn’t necessarily mean successful play.
Good goals provide pacing to the game, ending the game at a point of high tension, and provide meaningful interaction between the players and the game itself.
Bad goals are meaningless, frustrating, lack meaningful decisions, and/or have too many conditions.
Your goal should make sense with your theme and central conflict.
Therefore, as a designer, crafting the right type of goal for your player helps to make your game the most fun it can be!
Types of GAme Goals for Players
How do I win?
In most games, you win when you…
Have the most of something
When do I win?
Game endings can be fixed, meaning the game lasts the same amount of something every time, or variable, meaning that the ending of the game can happen after different amounts of something each time.
Fixed Game Length
Other Considerations for Goals
In most games, you win when you…
Have the most of something
- Capture
- Build
- Destroy
- Control
- Collect
- Money
- Points
- Deduction (solve puzzle)
- Win Race/Escape
- Cross a Threshold
- Eliminate Another Player
- Get to X First
- Complete Multiple Sub-Goals
- Fail at Something (negative goal)
- Last Player Eliminated
When do I win?
Game endings can be fixed, meaning the game lasts the same amount of something every time, or variable, meaning that the ending of the game can happen after different amounts of something each time.
Fixed Game Length
- Number of rounds, turns, actual time
- A goal is met
- Random event/card
- Resource driven (required amount of something is used, claimed, exhausted)
- A goal is met
Other Considerations for Goals
- Goals can be hidden (secret for one or more players), or public.
- All players can have the same goal, or players could each have their own personal goal.
- Goals can change during a game, or a game could have multiple goals, or alternative goals, or so many other configurations!
