Game Mechanics

Kathleen Mmmmmmmmmmmmmercury!

7th Grade Apogee

What is a mechanic?

Mechanics determine the function of the game, i.e. what players actually do to play the physical game.

Learning the Mechanics

• We are going to choose a practice theme.
• As we discuss each mechanic, brainstorm how to apply that mechanic to our practice theme.
• Write that in the space provided.
• Then, draw a symbol or write a keyword in the space provided to help you remember the mechanic.

Action Point Allowance

• The number of actions a player may take during a turn (or possibly a game) is limited by a pool of points.

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• How many points do players get? Can they gain or lose points? What do actions costs in relation to each other?

Games With Action Points

• Babel
• Cogno
• Hey That’s My Fish!
• Survive!

Area Control/Influence

• Players score points or gain abilities by having more of their units in an area than another player.

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• How do you define the area? How many areas? What captures/blocks an area? Can an area be shared?

Games with Area Control/Influence

• Enemy Chocolatier
• Finca
• Fjords
• Kahuna
• Rattus
• Risk
• Tower of Babel

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Area Enclosure

• Players attempt to enclose the largest playing region.

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• How do they mark the boundaries of their region? How do they expand/how are they limited?

Games With Area Enclosure

• Blokus
• Carcassonne
• Go
• Oasis
• Othello

Area Movement

• Players move pieces (whether they be cavalry, infantry or dinosaurs) across discrete, divided regions across the board.

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• How do you determine how players will move? Can they move on only their territory, open common space, or enemy territory?

Games with Area Movement

• Panic Station
• Red November
• Risk
• Stratego Legends

Auction or Bidding

• Players use resources of one kind to obtain different resources in direct rivalry with other players.

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• What is the base price? How much can items increase, by what increments ? How do players bid—in order, openly, secretly? Is it mandatory or optional to bid?

Games With Auction/Bidding

• Billionaire
• Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix
• Hollywood Blockbuster
• Modern Art
• Monopoly
• Oasis
• Shazamm!
• Tower of Babel

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Betting or Wagering

• Players speculate or gamble on the outcome of something over which they may or may not have direct control.

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• Are bids public or secret? Do players keep or lose money/tokens in lost bids?

Games with Betting/Wagering

• Cloud 9
• Crunch
• Igloo Pop
• Liar’s Dice
• Power Puff Girls: Saving the World Before Bedtime
• Renfield
• Shogun

Campaign/Battle Card Driven

• The outcome or occurrence of some events is driven by a card deck.

Games with Campaign/Battle Card

• Castle Panic
• Great Brain Robbery
• Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo Attacks Townsville

Card Drafting

• A selection of options (cards, tiles, etc.) are chosen by the player.

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• How many cards may be taken? Is there a maximum or a minimum? How do you get new cards? How many at a time? Can the hand size ever increase or decrease?

Games with Card Drafting

• Alhambra
• King of Tokyo
• Ticket to Ride
• Ticket to Ride: Europe

Chit-Pull System

• Random elements are introduced into a game by drawing from a bag or other device.

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• How many chits are pulled? Can you pull chits and put them back? What are on the chits?

Games with Chit Pull

• Castle Panic
• Neuroshima Hex!

Cooperative Play

• Players are usually fighting against the game system itself as a team, rather than each other.

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• How do players win? Lose? How do you balance the strength of the players on the board?

Games with Cooperative Play

• Castle Panic
• Forbidden Island
• Lomby Zombie
• Pandemic
• Scotland Yard

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Commodity Speculation

• The value of resources changes during the game and players typically buy and sell in order to take advantage of these changes.

Games with Commodity Speculation

• Acquire
• Huzzah!
• Modern Art

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Deduction

• Players form conclusions based on available premises and if these conclusions are valid, that will lead players faster towards their aims.

Games with Deduction

• Chrononauts
• Clue
• Coda
• Da Vinci Code
• Loch Ness
• Mr. Jack
• Pow Wow
• Scotland Yard
• The Resistance
• Werewolf

Dexterity

• Players' physical reflexes and coordination determine overall success.

Games with Dexterity

• Hula Hippos
• Igloo Pop
• Inner Circle
• Leverage
• Nacht Der Magier
• Rattlesnake
• Stack Market
• Vampires of the Night

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Dice Rolling

• Outcomes are determined solely or mainly by rolling dice.

Games with Dice Rolling

• Battleship Express
• Carcassonne (Dice game)
• Catch the Mice
• HP: Sorcerer’s Stone
• Jamaica
• King of Tokyo
• Lucky Loop
• Masons
• Ninja vs. Ninja

• Risk
• Risk Express
• Roll Through the Ages
• Stack Market
• Survive

Hand Management

• Resources (usually cards) are held in a player's hand, and generally determine the particular tactics or strategies a player takes.

Games with Hand Management

• Alhambra
• Apples to Apples
• Cartagena
• Castle Panic
• Clue
• Cosmic Encounter
• Detroit Cleveland Grand Prix
• Dracula
• Hare and Tortoise

• Kahuna
• Kill Dr. Lucky
• LOTR: The Duel
• Modern Art
• Neuroshima Hex!
• Oasis
• Pandemic
• Surf’s Up Dude
• Ticket to Ride
• Tsuro
• Wasabi

Memory

• Players are required to recall information without being able to refer to external sources.

Games with Memory

• Codebreaker
• Cogno
• Dracula
• Enemy Chocolatier
• Magic Labyrinth
• Mastermind
• Snorta
• Stratego Legends

Modular Board

• The game board is not fixed but comprises discrete units that are either laid out in a pattern from the start or develops over time.

Games with Modular Board

• aMAZEing Labyrinth
• Cartagena
• Dragonriders
• Forbidden Island
• Hey That’s My Fish
• LOTR: The Search
• Ricochet Robots
• Stratego Legends
• Survive
• Tongiaki
• Zombie in My Pocket

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Paper and Pencil

• Players record information about the game state on paper rather than on a board.

Games With Paper and Pencil

• Roll Through the Ages
• Lomby Zombie

Partnerships

• Two or more players work as a team.

Games with Partnerships

• Knights of Charlemagne
• The Resistance

Pattern Building

• Players use game components to form required shapes.

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Games with Pattern Building

• Ingenious
• Fits
• Othello
• Pentago
• Pente
• Shear Panic

Pattern Recognition

• Players are competing to identify matching types.

Games with Pattern Recognition

• Monkey Madness
• Othello
• Pente
• Pentago
• Set
• Tip the Scale

Pick-up and Deliver

• Something needs to be transported in some fashion to a different location on the board, often to earn other resources.

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Games with Pickup and Deliver

• Empire Builder
• Niagara

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Point to Point Movement

• Pieces are moved from a specific location to another specific location in a defined fashion.

Games with Point to Point Mov’t

• Hey That’s My Fish
• Ice Flow
• Kill Dr. Lucky
• Pandemic
• PPG: Mojo Jojo Attacks Townsville
• Royal Masquerade
• Tongiaki

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Press Your Luck

• Players may repeat an action (or part of an action) until he/she decides to stop due to increased (or not) risk of losing points or a turn.

Games with Press Your Luck

• Aquadukt
• Can’t Stop
• Cloud 9
• Roll Through the Ages

Programmed Actions

• Every player must secretly choose a series of actions, and then each player plays their turns out according to the choices made.
• This can be similar to Simultaneous Action Selection except usually multiple choices must be programmed at once.
• Duck Duck Go, RoboRally, Jamaica (possibly)

Programmed Actions

Rock Paper Scissors

• There is a circular hierarchy for which pieces win/capture others. That is, while A might beat B, and B beat C, C beats A.
• Rock-Paper-Scissors is a subcategory of Simultaneous Action Selection or Trick Taking.

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Games with Rock Paper Scissors

• Hoity Toity
• Stratego Legends
• Rock Paper Scissors

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Roll and Move

• Players move tokens of some kind according to the roll of a die or dice.

Games with Roll and Move

• Clue
• Da Vinci Code
• Easy Money
• Great Brain Robbery
• Kitty Chaos
• Marrakech
• Ninja vs. Ninja

Route/Network Building

• Players connect points or areas on the board by playing their pieces on intervening areas or spaces.

Games with Route/Network Building

• Empire Builder
• Expedition
• Kahuna
• Ticket to Ride
• Trans Europa
• Tsuro

Secret Unit Deployment

• Players place their pieces secretly and they are only revealed when encountered by other pieces.

Games with Secret Unit Deployment

• Scotland Yard
• Stratego
• Survive

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Set Collection

• Players attempt to assemble collections of resources.

Games with Set Collection

• Alhambra
• Babel
• California
• Finca
• Forbidden Island
• Fossil
• Hare and Tortoise
• Hoity Toity
• Hollywood Blockbuster
• Niagara

• Pandemic
• Save Dr. Lucky
• Spy Alley
• Ticket to Ride
• Tip the Scale
• Tower of Babel
• Zooloretto

Simulation

• The thematic element overrides all other concerns in an attempt to simulate a particular environment as accurately as possible with the constraints of a board game.

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• Jamaica, Techno Witches

Simultaneous Action Selection

• Players select or play their action or choice at the same time.

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Games with Simultaneous Action Selection

• Apples to Apples
• Hoity Toity
• Labyrinth Treasure Hunt
• Niagara
• PPG: Saving the Day Before Bedtime
• The Target
• Shazamm!

Specialty Mechanic

• A unique, innovative mechanic not widely seen in other games

Games with Specialty Mechanic

• Niagara
• Ice Flow

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Stock Holding

• Companies operate and are controlled or influenced by the actions of the players, with the majority stock holder determining the action.

Games with Stock Holding

• Acquire
• Bull Market
• Imperial*
• Stock Exchange

Storytelling

• A large amount of text via printed resource or with the players themselves is used during the game to shape the action.
• Mostly used in Role Playing Games (RPGs)
• Dixit

Tile Placement

• The game board is created, rather than existing in a fixed form.

Games with Tile Placement

• Acquire
• Alhambra
• aMAZEing Labyrinth
• Aquadukt
• Blokus
• California
• Carcassonne
• Dante’s Inferno
• Fjords
• Ice Flow
• Ingenious

• Maori
• Marrakech
• Neuroshima Hex!
• Oasis
• Tsuro
• Wasabi!
• Zooloretto

Trading

• A game mechanic in which players exchange resources between one another or with the game system to advance their position.

Games with Trading

• Bull Market
• Castle Panic
• Monopoly
• Pandemic

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Trick-taking

• All players play a card (or cards) and one of the cards then wins according to the game rules.

Games with Trick Taking

• 24 Countdown Game
• PPG: Saving the World Before Bedtime
• Renfield
• Tip the Scale

Variable Phase Order

• A turn comprises a number of phases but these phases do not necessarily occur in the same order each turn (or sometimes not every turn.)

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• Ice Flow

Variable Player Powers

• Players have access to different abilities to each other.

Games with Variable Player Powers

• Bacchus’ Banquest
• Cosmic Encounter
• Forbidden Island
• Mr. Jack
• Neuroshima Hex!
• Pandemic
• Rattus
• Stratego Legends

Voting

• The outcome of certain game events is determined by the joint decision of all players.

Games with Voting

• Lifeboats
• The Resistance
• Werewolf

Worker Placement

• Players draft individual actions from a set that is available to all players.
• Drafting is done one-at-a-time and in turn order.
• Once drafted, an action can no longer be taken until a subsequent turn or until the action space is no longer occupied by a worker.
• Usually, each player has a limited number of pieces with which to participate in the process.
• In other words, they "place workers" to show which actions have been drafted by which players.

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Games with Worker Placement

• Stone Age

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• Questions: How many workers do you get? Can you gain or lose workers? How many choices are available? How often do you place workers?

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Mechanics & Your Game

• After you have chosen your game’s theme, think about...
• How each mechanic can help players achieve the goals of your theme
• The benefits and limitations of a particular mechanic

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• You will choose 2 or so mechanics, so think about the important elements of your theme and how the mechanics can fit them.

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The End!