In the previous article, we've learned about the main pillars or key mechanisms of
videogames in detail. And in this one, we’ll explore all the
different layers in them and how they work and interact with one
another within a game. So this article would be about how those 4
key mechanisms ‘work’ from the inside.
Videogames are about interactive entertainment—they remove the line between the play and the player, so when you are playing a game, what’s also happening is that the game is also playing itself ‘through you’, and no it’s not as creepy as it sounds like.
This is the main reason why different players, according to their preferences and perspectives, can experience the same videogame in different ways. Of course the game itself also provides the scope and the foundations for that kind of multi-faceted experience to take place.
So what does that mean that the game is playing itself through You? It means, the necessary tools for the game to be ‘played out’, are not what you may think like the input devices (mouse or controllers for example), but those 3 key mechanisms themselves (Gameplay, Level Design, and Storytelling, cause the 4th one does not take place from this level, they happen from the developers’ end), as they are the actual ‘means’ through which the game moves and flows.
But then what is the role of the player? What part is he/she required for? The answer is, they provide the interfacing part—the player acts as the interface between the game (which is the 3 elements) and the Real input device of all videogames, which is called the human imaginations and preferences that are possible within a videogame.
To put these in a nutshell—the player’s own intentions and preferences are carried out by the 3 mechanisms whenever a videogame is being played. And what are the player’s preferences? Simply the possibilities and imaginations that come from the human mind itself. The main reason a player can choose to play the same game in many different ways, is cause of the entire spectrum of possibilities that can arise from the human mind. So the player is acting as an interface whose commands are the filters through which the 3 mechanisms are playing themselves out. And it's our minds, which actually play a videogame, and we the players, act as the interface between the possibilities of our minds and the key mechanisms that videogames run on.
Of course, this only applies to the comparatively ‘modern’ batch of videogames which makes a non-linear approach (with gameplay, level design and storytelling) possible in the first place. But in case of videogames of yesteryear like Super Mario, Contra and the likes, the inner workings are a bit different.
They use a much simplistic (but very much enjoyable nonetheless) inner framework to drive the experience. As they don’t feature multiple approaches towards the game, the player acts as the ‘driver’ of the experience and the 3 mechanisms just play themselves out after receiving the input from the players. Their comparatively ‘linear’ design framework have no effect on their potential of greatness however (this is heavily dependent on the 4th element, which is inspiration and is independent on ALL the technical aspects of the game) and often provides a more enjoyable and satisfying experience than the relatively modern framework of videogames. As mentioned in the previous article of the Anatomy of Videogames series, it’s all about that 4th element which makes the difference between an ‘ok’ videogame and a legendary one.
So as we’ve learned from the earlier article, every videogame has 3 technical pillars and each of them plays some fundamental roles towards ‘building’ the overall experience. The Gameplay Mechanics provides the ‘Doing’ part or the main activity in a game, the Level Design creates the ‘Looking’ part by creating the game world and the pathways in it and finally, the Storytelling element is responsible for the plot and it’s progression in a videogame—giving the players an incentive or forming an emotional connection with the game, it’s the ‘Why’ part.
Alright, now we’ll be breaking down those 3 fundamental elements in as many parts as we can and see how those parts interact and play out (pun very much intended) with one another. This is the meat of this article, and if you’re reading this (I hope), I know this is what you’ve been waiting for.
The Gameplay in any videogame is the combination of two elements—Navigation and Interaction. The first part is about how you ‘navigate’ or move around in the game (that’s also part of the gameplay simply cause it’s part of the overall ‘doing’ within the game) and the second is how you ‘inter-act’ with everything in the game—from the levels, the A.I (or your foes) to pretty much everything else (like in-game objects and items).
Imagine yourself playing ANY game and visualize what kind of activities you get to do in it—running around the level, finding different ways and exploring them (the navigation part) and the action part where you gun enemies down (interacting with the A.I), drive a vehicle (interacting with in-game objects), or take out a target (again, interacting with the A.I)--it all comes down to these two functions. Now some games give you lots of different options to do these in vastly different ways but in the end, you’re just navigating in the game world and inter-acting with the game’s AI and objects.
Now, when you are interacting with the levels, it’s actually a bit different from the navigation part. Imagine playing an Assassin’s Creed game where you need to climb and parkour your way through a section. This example will make it easier for us to understand which element is responsible for what when it comes to gameplay:
Imagine there are some objects and bridges where you need to climb and walk on and make your way through. So the Navigation part of the Gameplay is the traversing part of the entire section (basically how the level is laid out which means the positioning of the objects which you need to climb or jump upon, in order to get through the level) and the ‘interaction with levels’ part is ‘how’ you traverse it (which means climbing, crouching and everything else that’s required). Both are parts of Gameplay and are deeply interconnected.
So in order to keep this article as less convoluted as possible, below is a flow-chart which presents all of the different elements and their respective parts and shows how they inter-act with each other within a videogame. This is how videogames achieve their interactive-ness in the first place.
As you can see, most of the elements work together and is actually part of each other, which makes them flow so well and give the illusion that a videogame is a singular experience whereas there are so many elements working and interacting under-the-hood.
In the next (and the last) part of the Anatomy of Videogames series, we'll take a good look at all the 'hidden' elements in a game, which are the design philosophies that are present behind the elements. Which will also lead us to the uderstanding of what we really want from a videogame and the fundamentals of a great game.
Videogames are about interactive entertainment—they remove the line between the play and the player, so when you are playing a game, what’s also happening is that the game is also playing itself ‘through you’, and no it’s not as creepy as it sounds like.
This is the main reason why different players, according to their preferences and perspectives, can experience the same videogame in different ways. Of course the game itself also provides the scope and the foundations for that kind of multi-faceted experience to take place.
So what does that mean that the game is playing itself through You? It means, the necessary tools for the game to be ‘played out’, are not what you may think like the input devices (mouse or controllers for example), but those 3 key mechanisms themselves (Gameplay, Level Design, and Storytelling, cause the 4th one does not take place from this level, they happen from the developers’ end), as they are the actual ‘means’ through which the game moves and flows.
But then what is the role of the player? What part is he/she required for? The answer is, they provide the interfacing part—the player acts as the interface between the game (which is the 3 elements) and the Real input device of all videogames, which is called the human imaginations and preferences that are possible within a videogame.
To put these in a nutshell—the player’s own intentions and preferences are carried out by the 3 mechanisms whenever a videogame is being played. And what are the player’s preferences? Simply the possibilities and imaginations that come from the human mind itself. The main reason a player can choose to play the same game in many different ways, is cause of the entire spectrum of possibilities that can arise from the human mind. So the player is acting as an interface whose commands are the filters through which the 3 mechanisms are playing themselves out. And it's our minds, which actually play a videogame, and we the players, act as the interface between the possibilities of our minds and the key mechanisms that videogames run on.
Of course, this only applies to the comparatively ‘modern’ batch of videogames which makes a non-linear approach (with gameplay, level design and storytelling) possible in the first place. But in case of videogames of yesteryear like Super Mario, Contra and the likes, the inner workings are a bit different.
They use a much simplistic (but very much enjoyable nonetheless) inner framework to drive the experience. As they don’t feature multiple approaches towards the game, the player acts as the ‘driver’ of the experience and the 3 mechanisms just play themselves out after receiving the input from the players. Their comparatively ‘linear’ design framework have no effect on their potential of greatness however (this is heavily dependent on the 4th element, which is inspiration and is independent on ALL the technical aspects of the game) and often provides a more enjoyable and satisfying experience than the relatively modern framework of videogames. As mentioned in the previous article of the Anatomy of Videogames series, it’s all about that 4th element which makes the difference between an ‘ok’ videogame and a legendary one.
So as we’ve learned from the earlier article, every videogame has 3 technical pillars and each of them plays some fundamental roles towards ‘building’ the overall experience. The Gameplay Mechanics provides the ‘Doing’ part or the main activity in a game, the Level Design creates the ‘Looking’ part by creating the game world and the pathways in it and finally, the Storytelling element is responsible for the plot and it’s progression in a videogame—giving the players an incentive or forming an emotional connection with the game, it’s the ‘Why’ part.
Alright, now we’ll be breaking down those 3 fundamental elements in as many parts as we can and see how those parts interact and play out (pun very much intended) with one another. This is the meat of this article, and if you’re reading this (I hope), I know this is what you’ve been waiting for.
The Gameplay in any videogame is the combination of two elements—Navigation and Interaction. The first part is about how you ‘navigate’ or move around in the game (that’s also part of the gameplay simply cause it’s part of the overall ‘doing’ within the game) and the second is how you ‘inter-act’ with everything in the game—from the levels, the A.I (or your foes) to pretty much everything else (like in-game objects and items).
Imagine yourself playing ANY game and visualize what kind of activities you get to do in it—running around the level, finding different ways and exploring them (the navigation part) and the action part where you gun enemies down (interacting with the A.I), drive a vehicle (interacting with in-game objects), or take out a target (again, interacting with the A.I)--it all comes down to these two functions. Now some games give you lots of different options to do these in vastly different ways but in the end, you’re just navigating in the game world and inter-acting with the game’s AI and objects.
Now, when you are interacting with the levels, it’s actually a bit different from the navigation part. Imagine playing an Assassin’s Creed game where you need to climb and parkour your way through a section. This example will make it easier for us to understand which element is responsible for what when it comes to gameplay:
Imagine there are some objects and bridges where you need to climb and walk on and make your way through. So the Navigation part of the Gameplay is the traversing part of the entire section (basically how the level is laid out which means the positioning of the objects which you need to climb or jump upon, in order to get through the level) and the ‘interaction with levels’ part is ‘how’ you traverse it (which means climbing, crouching and everything else that’s required). Both are parts of Gameplay and are deeply interconnected.
So in order to keep this article as less convoluted as possible, below is a flow-chart which presents all of the different elements and their respective parts and shows how they inter-act with each other within a videogame. This is how videogames achieve their interactive-ness in the first place.
As you can see, most of the elements work together and is actually part of each other, which makes them flow so well and give the illusion that a videogame is a singular experience whereas there are so many elements working and interacting under-the-hood.
In the next (and the last) part of the Anatomy of Videogames series, we'll take a good look at all the 'hidden' elements in a game, which are the design philosophies that are present behind the elements. Which will also lead us to the uderstanding of what we really want from a videogame and the fundamentals of a great game.
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