with Clay Ewing and Lien Tran

Designing non-digital games is a great way

to learn about systems

Designing digital games isn’t much

different, there is just a lot more pieces to

worry about

Objects

Attributes

Relationships

Environment

Objects

Attributes

Relationships

Environment

Objects

Attributes

Relationships

Environment

Objects

Attributes

Relationships

Environment

Objects

Attributes

Relationships

Environment

What’s up with golf?

We abide by artificial rules

Subject ourselves to constraints

Suspend our disbelief

Usually, because it’s fun

Let’s play a game, it’s called “HIGHEST

NUMBER”

Choices are ambiguous

Immediate rewards vs. delayed

gratification

Actions have consequences

Mechanics• What you do in the game: shooting, building,

running, jumping, bidding, etc.

Dynamics• Sets of mechanics that build the core gameplay:

territorial acquisition, survival, collection, trading, etc.

Agency• The ability for a player to make a choice

Intrinsic Reward• Intangible. A sense of achievement. For the love

of the game.

Extrinsic Reward• Tangible. If you play my game I’ll give you candy

Positive Feedback Loop• Hooray! Have a power up!

• Destablizing

Negative Feedback Loop• Die! Lose a turn!

• Stabilizing

Split into groups

Take a dataset/infographic

Figure out a game mechanic that could be

used to explain this data

You have 10 minutes

Using your selected mechanic, create a

game

You can use all of our fun prototyping

objects

You have 30 minutes

Split your group in half

One half should migrate to another split

group

Playtest your games within these groups