Elements of Game Design

The main elements of a game are as follows; Back story, setting, theme, characters, game play, dialogue, text, story, Level design and Narrative. It’s important for all these elements to be present in a game otherwise there will be major problems.

Game play is the interactivity between the player and the game itself, without game play it would no longer be a game, it would either be a film or an image therefore this is one of the key elements that need to be executed well to ensure a successful game however so do all the other elements.

Looking at recent games awards red dead redemption seems to be getting a high amount of praise, in 2011 it received Game of the Year, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Game Design and Best Technology at the Game Developers Choice Awards. The game was created by Rockstar games who were also the creators of the hit franchise grand theft auto and they seem to be one of the top game developers of the current time.

At present games design can take place in several different places not just the offices of a well known developer as there has been a rise in indie games and the possibility to have them put on the Xbox live market place and be purchased. Indie games would be produced by around 1 or 2 people I would imagine however a fully fledged console game like gears of war would be made by a team of around 50 to 100 people.

Although there are multiple elements to a games design and functionality I don’t think they require a different approach whether the game is a horror or a sports game, as long as the core principles are there to hold the game together. One of the elements I mentioned at the beginning was theme and I would say the genre I pretty much the theme of the game therefore changing this would have an effect all the other elements but the way in which you approach the design would not differ significantly to any other genre of game, to a certain extent at least.

For me the most important thing when playing a game is a good balance between game play and graphics however I am willing to see a slip in graphics if the game plays makes up for it. After playing crisis 2 I felt like it lacked something in the game play although I’m not sure what exactly, however I thought the graphics were great and the best I had seen on the 360 at the time and maybe even at present however in my opinion it cannot work the other way round in terms of good graphics making up for mediocre game play. The story also plays a part in game play as well because the story and narrative of the game can also make it interesting and a great story can make some games very repayable. One game which I love for its game play and story is and old game called exhumed on the Sega Saturn, if I played it right now I know my flat mates would say it looks shit and that would be because they see the graphics and think straight away it must be shocking although as I have played it before I know it’s a great game. Some people judge games in different ways but to be honest some of my favorite games don’t have the best of graphics but other good elements cancel out this factor and still make it a great game to play therefore I suppose it’s hard to say that a game needs an equal balance in quality between all its elements as different people look at different aspects when experiencing a game.