My Definitions

To avoid confusion, here are some words I use throughout the book and what I mean by them. Some of them mean something wider or narrower here than in everyday use, so it's worth reading this once even if the words look familiar.

The basics#

Design

An all-encompassing term for a plan that defines what something is, how it functions, looks, feels and works. It also covers everything that surrounds the subject: marketing, publishing, maintenance, support, updates and expansions. All of this, and everything else that relates to a project, is part of its design.

Another way to define design: a roadmap or strategic approach for achieving a specific expectation. It defines the specifications, plans, parameters, costs, activities and processes, what to do and how, within the legal, political, social, environmental, safety and economic constraints of reaching that objective.

Game

An activity where play happens. It is not intended to have consequences in real life.

Play

Any human action done to have fun, with no serious intent to have real-life impact.

Fun

The fulfillment of fundamental human needs. This one definition is the foundation of the whole book, and Fun Is the Fulfillment of Needs explains it in full.

Designer (game designer)

The person who creates the design: the overall blueprint of the game and the complete experience it gives, from before the player ever sees it to long after it's released. Within the game, the designer defines the rules, structures, frameworks, systems, features and mechanics. Around the game, the designer shapes how it's built, marketed, monetized, published, maintained and updated.

A designer decides what needs to happen and trusts the experts to know how. Sort of like an architect, a director, a recipe maker.

Developer

A person who uses art, code, sound, writing and other technology to build the playable game. A developer works with the pieces. The designer's blueprint tells how those pieces fit together into a whole that's worth playing.

These are two different jobs, and the difference matters. In a team, a designer doesn't code, draw, compose or market. They learn enough of each of those to understand what the people doing them need, and they give those people clear blueprints. When a studio skips the designer and dumps the design work on a programmer or an artist, that person ends up doing two demanding jobs at once, and one or both of them suffer. If you're making a game alone you do wear both hats, which makes it even more important to know which one you have on at any moment. What a Game Designer Really Does goes deeper into this.

Technical terms#

Game mechanic

A chunk of interactive functionality that focuses on a single thing and can be named with a short label: walking, running, jumping, shooting, flying, driving, crafting, building, trading, hiding/sneaking, repairing, communicating, equipping/gearing up, resource gathering, painting, destroying, cleaning, transforming, customizing, organizing, planning, fighting, managing and countless others.

Most mechanics are actions a player can do, but some are things the game itself does that affect how the player interacts with it. A single mechanic focuses on one thing only, but it can interact with other mechanics. Running and jumping together, for example, become part of a system called "character movement".

Game system

A coherent collection of mechanics and other elements that interact with, supplement or depend on each other and share a common goal. Combat system, movement system, physics, weather, inventory, menus, progression, map, trading, crafting, building, chat, online multiplayer, and infinitely more. None of these are fixed or the same in every game; they just show what the term covers.

Game structure

How the game is organized in its architecture: how it's put together, both in its technical implementation and in the thinking behind that implementation.

Game feature

A collection of mechanics, systems and/or structures that all contribute to a single notable idea, a remarkable, defining part of the game. A big abstract chunk that defines the game, partially or completely.

Game content

I use this word very loosely. Content can be practically anything: a mechanic, system, structure or feature, artwork, graphics, sound, music, characters, items, story, maps, worlds, levels, blueprints, information, challenges, puzzles, ideas and more. What they all have in common is that they can be consumed. They can be experienced, used, witnessed or enjoyed.

Usually "content" only means complete objects in a game, like characters, levels, items, vehicles and story. I see it far beyond that. Content is anything I can consume as a player, anything remarkable to experience in the game, no matter how abstract. So whenever you see me use the word, assume the broadest possible meaning.

Additive and multiplicative content

Additive content is single-use: it sits alongside everything else, gets experienced once and its novelty is gone. Multiplicative content is modular and combines with everything already in the game, so each new piece gives all the old content new life. Content That Multiplies explains why the second kind is far better.

Metagame

The way a game is structured: how it is organized, how it begins, how it flows and how it ends (or doesn't). The moment-to-moment game happens inside the metagame, which wraps it, gives it context and ties it all together into a complete experience.

Infinite playability

Not the same as replayability. A replayable game ends and resets, and you play it again from the start. A game with an infinite metagame never has to end or reset: you just keep playing it, with all your progress still valid. Infinite Metagames covers how.

Games and real life#

Real life

Anything that happens outside a video game world. It's not meant as a put-down or an insult of any kind, especially since games do affect real life, are inspired by real life and are an activity that exists within real life. I simply use it for situations that don't happen strictly in the game.

To be clear, this does not mean games can't affect real life. It means their intention is to be a fantasy/noncommittal/fun activity, and they are designed from that starting point on purpose. If a game's intention is to affect real life, like an "educational game" or a "motivation facilitator", I wouldn't call it a game anymore. At that point it's an interactive tool. I want to be clear about this from the very start, because it's extremely important for understanding how to approach game design.

Interactive tool

An activity, piece of software or system that works very much like a game, but whose primary focus is a real-life purpose: teaching, being a practical tool, spreading awareness of some information or any other serious real-life goal. An interactive tool is honest about that purpose.

Gamification

Masking/pretending/faking an interactive tool as a game. This becomes very important if you were hoping to use games to motivate people toward something in real life. Game or Interactive Tool explains what gamification does to people and offers better alternatives.

Environment

Another word I use very loosely. I use it for any, and I mean ANY, force/energy/presence/element that surrounds a person. Other words for it would be circumstances, a situation or an encouragement. It can be a physical thing, like a crowd, air or heat, or an abstract thing, like a society, an emotional atmosphere, a culture or a psychological pressure. Anything pervasive around someone or something.