Okay, so mechanics of a game is what the game designer has ultimate control over, these mechanics influence the game dynamics and how it runs as a whole, which then these dynamics influence the player to receive an emotional response. therefore in order to create an emotional response from our player we must focus on creating a set of mechanics that when constructed would give out a dramatic feel. From this reading i discovered a powerful quote from LeBlanc himself: "We cannot create drama; we can only create the circumstances from which the drama will emerge" This is an absolute truth when it come to game designing and to help us construct these circumstances we can use a tool called a Dramatic Arc. Here is the diagram of this arcs structure:
Uncertainty and inevitability can be controlled separately by individual game mechanics, these game mechanics much be balanced in order to acquire the dramatic feel inside the game. During a game of lets say Chess, the inevitability is designed into the game in the form of a ticking clock. The ticking clock is that of the amount of player pieces the game has, this element creates a feeling of counting down to the dramatic finish to the game e.g the rise of tension and drama can easily be seen here. This game mechanics cannot create drama unless uncertainty is in the equation. Uncertainty in a game is the tool for the lack of foresight in a game so that players cannot immediately see the outcome of the game. The best way to do this is to stretch the games uncertainty for as long as possible. An example of this would be StarCraft II's fog of war, by limiting the amount of information a player has of the game, this increases the uncertainty of the game. However i must stress that these both don't work alone. If you use one without the other, the dramatic effect is not sustained.
Another set of tools that create dramatic tension is using force and illusion. I have mentioned one of these already (fog of war) but here are them explained. Being a game designer you can force the player to change the game state in a game in order to change their perception of the games situation. Using this force technique we can 'force' the games dynamics and making the player feel dramatic tension. Illusion also creates dramatic tension by changing the players perception of the game state. By keeping something hidden such as previously mentioned, the fog of war, the player can believe that the game is ending sooner than it is, or ever later.
LeBlanc also mentions positive and negative feedback systems. These mechanics are used to manipulate the game by changing the way a player reacts to the game.
- Positive feedback is when the leader of a game gains a larger advantage than the other players which then creates tension. An example of this would be Liars Dice. A game in which rewards the winning players with the ability to see more dice in their hands than their opponents thus gives them a larger advantage over the opponents,
- Negative feedback is when the losing player gets a hidden boost or handicap towards the game which then decreases the gap between the players which then leads to increasing the uncertainty of the game outcome, resulting in dramatic tension.
This is were I will end my contribution and opinions on some tools you can use to create dramatic tension in games. Toodle pip!
LeBlanc,
Marc (2006), Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics, 438-459, in: The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play
Anthology. MIT Press.
these are very good notes which accurately reflect the reading. It would be good to finish off with a paragraph which is just your thoughts on the reading perhaps in relation to the games you are designing.
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