game Mechanics
The heart of every strategy game is the ability to allow players to make meaningful decisions. Sometimes bad decisions, yes, but giving players the ability to control their game destiny as much as a designer wishes is the goal.
I used to have students play a lot of games, then brainstorm themes, then learn the mechanics specifically. I did that for several years because I thought that kids needed to play games before they needed to learn the mechanics. It worked pretty well, but some of my very bright students pointed out that knowing the mechanics ahead of time would make it easier for players to think more critically about how the game was designed as they played it. Meaning, knowing the mechanics meant being able to see past the simple player's perspective into a closer examination of why the designer created the game as he or she did. In addition, as they brainstormed themes, they would have been able to think more holistically about the game's design and make more reasonable choices. For example, a student might think of a theme and have some idea of what they wanted to do with it, but if that student had been more informed about mechanics, then he or she could focus their theme development towards mechanics that complemented their ideas and that they had seen adopted in other games.
Sometimes we don't see too far past the end of our noses, yes? Made total sense. And when I started teaching it differently last year, by focusing on mechanics before themes, they were better game designers. The designs didn't take as long either. They got really good at applying mechanics to game ideas and brainstorming a multitude of possibilities. They even got better at conceiving new mechanics and ways to play that I hadn't seen before in published games! That last bit--that's saying something, because game publishers want innovation.
In the future, I want to create short little movies for each mechanic to explain each one and to have several different games that I can use to immediately demonstrate specific mechanics, QVC style. Oh well. That's a project for another time. :)
I used to have students play a lot of games, then brainstorm themes, then learn the mechanics specifically. I did that for several years because I thought that kids needed to play games before they needed to learn the mechanics. It worked pretty well, but some of my very bright students pointed out that knowing the mechanics ahead of time would make it easier for players to think more critically about how the game was designed as they played it. Meaning, knowing the mechanics meant being able to see past the simple player's perspective into a closer examination of why the designer created the game as he or she did. In addition, as they brainstormed themes, they would have been able to think more holistically about the game's design and make more reasonable choices. For example, a student might think of a theme and have some idea of what they wanted to do with it, but if that student had been more informed about mechanics, then he or she could focus their theme development towards mechanics that complemented their ideas and that they had seen adopted in other games.
Sometimes we don't see too far past the end of our noses, yes? Made total sense. And when I started teaching it differently last year, by focusing on mechanics before themes, they were better game designers. The designs didn't take as long either. They got really good at applying mechanics to game ideas and brainstorming a multitude of possibilities. They even got better at conceiving new mechanics and ways to play that I hadn't seen before in published games! That last bit--that's saying something, because game publishers want innovation.
In the future, I want to create short little movies for each mechanic to explain each one and to have several different games that I can use to immediately demonstrate specific mechanics, QVC style. Oh well. That's a project for another time. :)
