Journal Response - 10/11/22

Lenses Chapter 10 goes in-depth on the fundamentals of Game Design. The author breaks down mechanics into six major categories: Space, Objects,  Actions, Rules, Skill, and Chance.  Space refers to the area of play in the game.  What are the confines in which the game is played and how restricted or free is it? Objects are things inside the space such as characters, props, items, and enemies.  Actions are the actions that players can take like moving.  Rules are the most fundamental mechanic. They govern all other mechanics and give the player a goal.  Skill is a mechanic that relies on the player to be able to meet to complete the goal or goals. These can be physical, mental, or social skills.  Chance is the opposite of Skill.  It is a wild card mechanic that the player has little to no control over. This mechanic is generally usually used to spice up gameplay and make it fresh despite not changing the core mechanics.

Theory of Fun Chapter 2 analyzes how the brain sees patterns.  It talks about how our brain is wired to solve puzzles and that most of the information we take in is "chunked" by the brain into pieces that make it easy for us to understand. For example, if you have a morning routine, when asked to explain the morning routine, chances are you would have trouble remembering every step perfectly even though you do it everyday. This is because your body goes into auto pilot so you don't have to think and just do thanks to the chunking of information that your brain has done.

Theory of Fun Chapter 3 defines what a game is. The author's definition of a game is that games are puzzles. Their explanation is that just like all other things in life, games are puzzles that our brains have to solve.  As you play more and soak in more information, your brain starts to chunk together the information until you finally master it. When you do master a game, this can lead to boredom since there is no longer any impactful information for you to take in.