The 5 Elements of A Great Game

Have you ever gotten a high score? This was the ultimate achievement when some of us were growing up. If we managed to beat someone’s “record” in a game that we all were enjoying, it proved we were the best. It was this badge of honor. It was like winning the jackpot at an online casino.

At first, games weren’t intended to be as competitive as they are designed today. Think about Pac-Man; even though it was only you against the machine, it was also you against that leaderboard, and you were always gunning for the top.

Ever since the days of Pac-man, games have advanced, and it’s gone from simple 8-bit circles catching ghosts, to full online war zones, with scriptwriting, sound design, visual effects, and more! Yet, despite these advancements, our classic arcade games have still stood the test of time.

Is this a coincidence? Or do all great games, even these classic games, have the five elements of a great game? Let’s go through the five key elements of a great game as if we were creating our own game.

Game Characters

Your characters have a major impact on the feel of your game. They embody you within the game and help to tell your story. You don’t need your game character to be a human; they can be whoever or whatever you want them to be.

If you are looking for some inspiration, take a walk outside. You see that little ant crawling, collecting food? He needs to take that food back to his queen, dodging the rain, maneuvering around the puddles, all to feed her majesty.

Here an ant is your main character and takes the player through your game and story.

Goals

The next vital element of your game is your goal or reason for playing the game. What are your players trying to accomplish? Do they need to defeat a boss? Collect all the objects? Do they simply need to level up their character to be able to handle anything the game can throw their way?

If the goal isn’t answered early on in the game, the game’s edge can be lost, and it can quickly become boring. Think of it like this; if you are told to go to the gym, lift heavy and work hard, without knowing that this “pain” has a future benefit, or exists for a reason, you are unlikely to stick to this hardship for very long. In the same way, you need to motivate your players. Why are they playing? What is the point?

Decisions

Once goals are established, you need to guide the player into making decisions. If there are no decisions, it is simply watching a movie with extra steps. In games, decisions should have consequences, but not all decisions are going to be game-changing.

Some types of game decisions are:

• The Hollow Choice: This can be compared to picking the color of your character’s outfit. While it might not change the gameplay, it does add a personalized touch.
• An Informed Choice: This is when the player is given some but not enough information to make a choice. Such as a backstory of some sort before the player must make a call on their path forward.
• An Immediate Choice: During a fight, for example, a player is constantly making choices, deciding how to approach and fight the opposition. Almost every decision will affect the health of your player. Whether he jumps, fights, swings his sword, or similar. These are all immediate choices.

• A long-term choice: Say your game is about helping different clans as you increase the level of your player, similar to Skyrim. If a clan asks for your help, and you choose not to help them. Later in the game, you may need their help, but because of your earlier decision, they will not help you. This is a great example of a long-term choice.

Rewards

This is an integral part of the process, as it keeps the player playing. It gives them a sense of progression. It makes them feel accomplished. Rewards could be the key difference between fun and boring tasks. It all comes down to how you reward your player. There are a few ways to approach this, such as:

• Extra health or life points
• Coins/Money
• Weapons
• Tools
• Visual effects or sound effects (think skins or leveling up in Pac-man.)

Rewards go further than games, it’s ingrained into our society, if this interests you, check out concepts such as Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation.

Immersion

If you have followed the previous steps, you have great Characters, Goals, Decisions, and Rewards. Now you need to take the final step and make the player feel like they are inside the game. This isn’t necessarily done with good graphics; sound can take you quite far. However, this step is the most challenging one due to its complexity. If you can get your player to be immersed in your game, their decisions will carry more weight and they will be in a state of presence. An immersive game can be played and enjoyed for longer as you truly feel part of things.

That’s how you create a good game. At first don’t worry about the graphics; work on the game mechanics. Once you have achieved these 5 elements, you are well on your way to creating the next history-defining game. Good luck!