Everything a Game Does

Here's something a little different. At GDC (online) this year, I watched a presentation on research surrounding app assisted games by Dr. Melissa Rogerson of the University of Melbourne. The research focused on categorizing how apps are/can be used in tabletop games. The unintended consequence (in my opinion) is that the list also doubles for many of the ways a game can require upkeep outside of player-driven actions. This makes sense because the main reason to have an app is to automate those elements of a game. 

The researchers identified eight functions used in apps: timing, randomizing, housekeeping, remembering, calculating, storytelling, teaching, and informing. Timing refers to actually tracking time. Randomizing is what it sounds like. Housekeeping includes game AI/automa upkeep. Remembering involves tracking progress, high scores, and unlocking new content. Calculating does all the mathy stuff like scoring. Storytelling is where all the lore/dialogue/flavor text is found. Teaching provides answers to rules questions or presents examples. Informing includes stuff not in the other categories like providing gates to hidden information. 

When using an app, all of these functions are (ideally) presented in a streamlined, optimized way. The existence of apps makes players less forgiving of analog upkeep. After all, apps remove the necessity for components like sand timers. So, is the solution to always go with an app? I would argue that apps and their functions are pointing us toward areas of analog design where we need more innovation, elegant solutions, and general creativity. 

This list also points us to the pain points of many games: the parts that feel like work. That's why these elements get moved to an app. For those of us designing app-less games, it's up to us to keep the work load low and the fun quotient high. I plan to use this list as a diagnostic for my games: How clunky is the calculation? How fiddly is the housekeeping? How effective are the informing elements? 

Short post today, especially given the title. And I probably misrepresented one or more of the functions to a degree, my apologies. However, I thought this was a useful list, and maybe you will too.