Mechanics
What are game mechanics? Game mechanics are the rules that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play. For example the L-shaped movement of the knight piece in chess. A game's mechanics specify how the game will work for the people who play it. All games use mechanics. An important part of game design is to come up with game mechanics that allow for people playing the game to have an engaging experience. The interaction between game mechanics determines the complexity and level of player interaction in the game. Some forms of game mechanics have been used in games for centuries, while others are relatively new.
There are many types of game mechanics and many ways to categorize them. Categorizing mechanics into categories can be a helpful exercise when trying to brainstorm how your game is going to work. Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev in their book, Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design classify game mechanics into categories that relate to tabletop games. Their categories were:
Game Structure (game modes such as multiplayer or singleplayer)
Turn Order
Actions
Resolution
Victory Conditions
Uncertainty (dice or random cards)
Economics
Auctions
Worker Placement
Movement
Area Control
Set Collection (tile laying)
Card Mechanisms
Not every category is relevant to every kind of game.
There are many ways to categorize video game mechanics and some mechanics may span many categories. Juego Studios simplifies the categorizing of mechanics to these 5 categories:
Action Mechanics
Action Mechanics are a common feature in video games, and involve the player controlling characters or objects to interact with the environment rapidly. Examples of action mechanics include jumping, dodging obstacles, and shooting projectiles.
Strategy Mechanics
Strategy mechanics require players to use their problem-solving skills in order to progress through levels. These types of game mechanics involve making decisions that move the game forward in a certain direction. Examples of strategy mechanics include resource management, puzzle solving, and planning combat strategies.
Exploration Mechanics
Exploration mechanics are all about discovering new areas within the game world and uncovering secrets that may be hidden away from plain sight. This type of mechanic encourages players to explore both physical and virtual worlds for clues, hidden objects, or new areas.
Resource Management Mechanics
This type of mechanic challenges players to manage resources efficiently to succeed. Players must often manage resources like health, money, or limited ammunition to progress through the game.
Role-Playing Mechanics
Role-playing mechanics allow players to customize their characters and progress through the game world. This type of gameplay often involves developing skills and gathering items throughout the gaming experience, usually with an aim of completing various objectives or missions.
There is also a community that started around the company Design Oriented (DO) whose purpose was to use game design to redesign human interaction in non-gaming industries. Their categories are:
Rules / Systems
Mechanics (player actions or "verbs")
Level elements
Enemy elements
Power-up / Upgrade / Economy
Level Design
Difficulty Design
Design Space (variation, balance, depth)
Feedback
Modes / Features
Story
More information on these categories can be found here.
Remember, this is not an exhaustive list of categories and that you could create your own. They exist to help us understand games that already exist and to help us brainstorm mechanics for our games. While we are on the topic of game mechanics we should also discuss gameplay loops and systems.
A gameplay loop is the repetitive set of actions players engage in. These actions may be gathering resources, building, fighting, etc. This gameplay loop is made up of the mechanics of your game.
The gameplay loop of Tic-Tac-Toe is:
Mark Box
Pass Turn
Most games will have much more complicated gameplay loops. An important thing to keep in mind when creating your gameplay loop is keeping the players engagement. Why do players want to keep repeating the loop? Good examples of player engagement can be seen in mobile games. Many mobile games offer in game rewards after each completed level or puzzle.
Systems are how different game mechanics interact or influence each other. Some mechanics do not change or deepen gameplay by themselves. For instance, a mechanic may be that the boss enemy has weaknesses and resistances. If the player has no way to exploit the bosses weakness then this mechanic isn't very engaging, but if there is also a mechanic to add various elements to a player's weapon then an element of strategic thinking is added to the game. This is a game system as multiple mechanics are interacting with each other.