Greg Costikyan's theories on game design

After having recently read through Greg Costikyan's theories on game design, here are my personal thoughts on each of his key game design elements.


Interaction:

Within interaction, i feel that Costikyan talks about giving players various choices and interactions which allow them to shape the game state. He also mentions that puzzles are an integral part to any game and those puzzles need a purpose or end goal for a player to successfully interact with the game. 

Goals:

When Costikyan spoke about goals, I thought the underlying message was that a player needs a goal to achieve which creates purposeful and progressive interaction. Without a goal or an endgame, user defined or otherwise, there is no point in playing the game.

Struggle:


A game needs the correct level of struggle to make it enjoyable. If the challenges and struggle are too difficult, players will find the game frustrating. Similarly, if the game has little struggle it becomes too easy and the player will become bored. Creating the correct balance of difficulty is key to creating an enjoyable and rewarding game.

Structure:


Structure filters the player through the game to achieve their goal. Game structure adds to the overall struggle. For example, rule structure adds to the challenge and struggle while also influencing player behaviour.

Endogenous Meaning:


I thoroughly enjoyed reading this section of the paper. Here, Costikyan describes that something which has great in-game value actually has next to no value in the real world. There are exceptions of course, with game memorabilia being sold on internet auction sites for, at times, large sums of money. The point he makes though, is that without the game, that piece of merchandise or memorabilia would have no value in the real world. I feel this topic could be debated for a very long time, although i generally agree with what he is saying.

Evaluation:


All the elements Costikyan mentions are key to creating a game. They also all link together which make them so important. Arguments can be made about whether or not these elements actually make a 'fun' game, but i personally feel that they all play an integral part in actually creating a game.


After discussing this in class we then applied Costikyan's theories to a very simple KS1 game. My views on this will be published soon. After all, it is getting late and we do have an early lecture tomorrow....