Game Elements
"What is a modern computer game made of? It fuses a technical base with a vision for the player's experience."
Today, I have read the Formal Abstract Design Tools article by Dough Church. It talks about "modern games"(article from 1999, so its definition of "modern" is a little bit outdated.), but anyway, while the games had evolved a lot since then, the basic tools or ideas haven't really changed. This article believes that all disciplines - like audio, art, design, levels, code, etc - are involved and used to create a game. It is true for all of 2018 games too. The article tries to develop a common, shared language that could be used to describe whether a game is good or bad, and what is it that makes people think this way.
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The game example used for the article is Mario 64. A game where players know, based on their decisions and actions, what will happen next. They have limited controls and abilities, so they can plan ahead using their knowledge. New elements appear rarely, so players more often than not know exactly what to do in any given situation. But, of course, that approach does not work with all the games like RPGs, where players simply can't be in control all the time, as this way, the story will barely move forward.
Overall, the article was interesting, but a little bit outdated - 19 years is a long duration, and in that time, the gaming industry moved forward so much that games from 1996-1999 have little connection to what people play nowdays.
Other interesting articles:
Why are we still so bad at talking about video games?
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