{"id":14050,"date":"2025-08-31T16:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T20:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/?p=14050"},"modified":"2025-09-03T22:17:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:17:57","slug":"game-design-question-set-1-bryce-mathews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/?p=14050","title":{"rendered":"Game Design: Question Set 1 &#8211; Bryce Mathews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Using Kobold&#8217;s guide as inspiration, every game should have an identity. James Ernest&#8217;s segment on the distinction between rules, mechanics, and the key to &#8220;good&#8221; games explains that games are not the sum of their parts. Each game has an identity that justifies its mechanics. If a game&#8217;s mechanics are not in tune with the game&#8217;s identity, then players may not find it interesting. To support this, James claims that mechanics are identifiable, yet are not entirely transferable. All games have mechanics, but great mechanics work in tandem with the game&#8217;s identity. You cannot create a great game from analyzing the exact mechanics of another. I like my favorite games because every aspect of the game is made with identity in mind, mechanics are thoughtfully implemented to create a specific experience. <br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Here is a small list of games from my steam library<\/strong><br>Furi &#8211; Onnamusha<br>Ready Or Not<br>Rooftops &amp; Alleys: The Parkour Game<br>Dungeons of Hinterberg<br>PC Building Simulator<br>Balatro<br>Resident Evil 4<br>Valheim<br>Noita<br>ULTRAKILL<br>GRIS<br>RESIDENT EVIL 3<br>RESIDENT EVIL 2 \/ BIOHAZARD RE:2 Standard Edition<br>Resident Evil 0 \/ biohazard 0 HD Remaster (ROW Launch)<br>OneShot<br>Furi<br>Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition<br>Resident Evil \/ biohazard HD REMASTER<br>Resident Evil 6 Complete<br>Kerbal Space Program<br>Star Birds Demo<br>3DMark Demo<br>9 Kings Demo<br>The Last Stand: Aftermath<br>Nitro Express<br>Risk of Rain 2<br>R.E.P.O.<br>Haste<br>Demon Tides Demo<br>Solarpunk Demo<br>Am I Nima Demo<br>Warfare Legacy Collection Demo<br>Machine Mind Demo Demo<br>Icaria Demo<br>Mech Havoc Demo<br>Heroes of Hammerwatch II Demo<br>Sky: Children of the Light<br>Awaria<br>Stacklands<br>Inscryption<br>Slay the Spire<br>Hades<br>Rebel Inc: Escalation<br>Darkest Dungeon<br>Risk of Rain<br>Factorio: Space Age<br>Mullet Mad Jack Demo<br>Retrowave<br>Realm of the Mad God<br>Frostrain<br>Lethal Company<br>Hearts of Iron IV<br>Bitburner<br>SIGNALIS<br>Farlanders<br>Against the Storm<br>Unsighted<br>Into the Breach<br>Frostpunk<br>OpenTTD<br>Quasimorph: End of Dream<br>Steam Engine Simulator<br>Sonic Generations Collection<br>Factorio<br>Stoneshard: Prologue<br>Hyper Light Drifter<br>Enter the Gungeon<br>The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth<br>The Complex: Found Footage<br>Tomb Raider<br>Space Engineers<br>Destiny 2<br>Destiny 2: Legendary Edition<br>STAR WARS&#x2122;: The Old Republic&#x2122;<br>Apex Legends<br>Splitgate<br>Arid<br>Muck<br>Dead by Daylight<br>Tom Clancy&#8217;s Rainbow Six Siege &#8211; Deluxe Edition<br>Oxygen Not Included &#8211; Spaced Out!<br>tModLoader<br>Craftopia<br>Among Us<br>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Free Edition<br>Uno<br>The Forest<br>The Colonists<br>Absolver<br>Scrap Mechanic<br>Fallout Shelter<br>Rust<br>The Long Dark<br>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (NA)<br>Sheltered<br>Warframe<br>ASTRONEER<br>Oxygen Not Included<br>Don&#8217;t Starve Together<br>Plague Inc: Evolved<br>Garry&#8217;s Mod<br>Geometry Dash<br>Terraria<br>Unturned<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While my favorite games often blur the distinction between &#8220;acts&#8221; or definite moments in the player&#8217;s story or progression, my favorite games do one of two things. They either leave the story solely in the players&#8217; hands, or they craft enough of a structure to entice the player to play the game and experience the story. A game like Minecraft has no definite strory, it encourages players to make their own. Progression in the form of better tools, weapons and armor encourages the player to seek better materials all while they shape the world as they see fit, creating a story of surviving and thriving. A more story-driven game like Pokemon entices the players with interesting premises and innovative gamplay to encourage the player to stick around. <br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Both approaches are effective ways to create a game, as long as they service each other. I personally like to create ideas starting from it&#8217;s purpose. The metaphor can help guide the subsequent mechanics, story, and theme. With this approach you can ask whether an implementation sucessfully highlights the metahpor you are trying to show. But, the opposite approach is valid. Large games evolve from simple mechanics all of the time. <br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I think it&#8217;d be interesting to collaborate with other classes or campus organization to create official art or garner support for the games we make. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,147],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-14050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-design","category-reading-questions","tag-marked"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14051,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050\/revisions\/14051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}