Game Mechanics
As designers, how can we give players interesting choices?
The answer is game mechanics!
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Game mechanics are your tools to create different types of experiences for players.
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Knowing game mechanics is essential to becoming literate in the medium of game design.
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Mechanics
are the specific actions (physical or mental) players can take to play a game.
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Mechanics:
What Players Do
Do you want players to move around the board? Trade resources? Move items from place to place?
Game mechanics give you the ability to make these things happen for your players.
Mechanics:
What Players Do
Using the right mechanics will allow players to make the choices that make sense for your game.
The good news is--you already know a lot of game mechanics!
Mechanics: How Your Game Works
Think of mechanics as the gears that run your game machine. A theme can have many different mechanics applied to that theme and each would result in a very different game.
How would a game about selling diamonds play differently if players collect sets of them versus delivering them across the board?
Remember this scene from The Princess Bride?
They were discussing actual sword fighting strategies.
Inigo Montoya: You are using Bonetti’s Defense against me, ah?
Man in Black: I thought it fitting considering the rocky terrain.
Inigo: Naturally, you must suspect me to attack with Capo Ferro?
Man in Black: Naturally, but I find that Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro. Don’t you?
Inigo: Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa… which I have.
Game mechanics are much easier to learn.
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Game Mechanics You’ve Experienced
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Modern Game Mechanics
Examples include Pick Up and Deliver, Area Control, Simultaneous Action Selection, Push Your Luck, Route/Network Building, Area Movement, and more.
Just from the names, you can get a sense of the different types of actions players can take.
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50ish Game Mechanics
Acting
Action Queue
Action Selection
Area Control/Influence
Area Enclosure
Area Movement
Auction/Bidding
Betting/Wagering
Campaign Battle Card
Card Drafting
Chit Pull
Commodity Speculation
Cooperative Play
Crayon Rail System
Deck Building
Dexterity
Dice Rolling
Grid Movement
Hand Management
Hex and Counter
Hidden Traitor
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50ish Game Mechanics
Line Drawing
Memory
Modular Board
Paper and Pencil
Partnerships
Pattern Building
Pattern Recognition
Pickup and Deliver
Player Elimination
Point to Point Movement
Press Your Luck
Rock Paper Scissors
Roll and Move
Roundel Wheel
Route/Network Building
Secret Unit Deployment
Set Collection
Simulation
Simultaneous Action Selection
Singing
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50ish Game Mechanics
Stock Holding
Storytelling
Take That
Tile Placement
Time Track
Trading
Trick Taking
Variable Phase Order
Variable Player Powers
Voting
Worker Placement
To learn more about individual mechanics, go to www.boardgamegeek.com/ browse/boardgamemechanic
The original 50ish mechanics have been expanded into many, many more.
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Mechanics
I sort mechanics by function in games, which helps to understand and use them.
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Mechanics
Sorted By Function
Control Player Choices
These mechanics allow a game designer to specifically control the number of actions as well as how and when a player takes their actions.
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Control Player Choices
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Action Queue
Players plan several actions at once by playing several tiles, cards, etc., in a series, and take their actions in that order.
(Walk the Plank, RoboRally)
Action Selection
Players choose actions they want to take, limited by the specific number of actions that can be taken on a turn.
(Forbidden Desert)
Push Your Luck
Players take actions as desired, but as possible gain increases, so does the possibility of loss of progress if an adverse condition presents itself.
(King of Tokyo, Can’t Stop)
Simultaneous Action Selection
Players choose and reveal a card simultaneously, which are then resolved in some way.
(Spin Monkeys, Get Bit!)
Worker Placement
Each player has a pool of meeples and places them on shared spaces to claim actions resources, or benefits.
(Star Wars Carcassonne, Mint Works)
Gaming Space Interaction
These are mechanics that players can use to build, connect, and control areas on the game board or gaming space. Some of this may take place during setup, others might occur during the game.
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Gaming Space Interaction
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Area Majority/
Influence
Players occupy spaces to gain benefits based on their proportional presence in the space.
(Marrakech, Bunny Kingdom)
Area Enclosure
Players place or move pieces to block or surround sections of the board.
(Through the Desert, Go)
Modular Board
The board is comprised of individual units that can be combined in different ways for strategy and exploration.
(Escape: Curse of the Temple)
Route/Network Building
Players create a network between different locations.
(Catan, Ticket to Ride)
Tile Placement
Players place tiles to score VPs or trigger abilities, often based on adjacent pieces or pieces in the same group/cluster for various scoring methods.
(Lanterns, Castles of Mad King Ludwig)
Player Movement
These mechanics provide different ways to have players move their pawns around the game board or space.
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Player Movement
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Area Movement
Players move pawns across irregularly shaped spaces on the board.
(Broom Service, Terror in Meeple City )
Grid Movement
Players move pawns on the grid (square or hexagonal) in many directions.
Forbidden Desert, Hey That’s My Fish)
Point to Point Movement
Players move their pawns across the board only along specific pathways.
(River Dragons, Scotland Yard)
Player Interaction Mechanics
These mechanics provide out of turn interaction between players, so impact on the other players is greatest.
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Player Interaction Mechanics
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Auction/Bidding
Players compete head to head for elements of value in the game, and players determine the value of those elements.
(Modern Art, Downforce)
Take That
Maneuvers that directly attack an opposing player or do something else to impede their progress.
(Coup, Raptor)
Trading
Players exchange resources or other game elements amongst each other (or the bank).
(Catan, Pit)
Classic Mechanics
These mechanics are common and can be readily adapted to almost any theme.
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Classic Mechanics
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Card Drafting
Players choose cards from available choices.
(Alhambra, Sushi Go)
Campaign/
Battle Card
Cards have specific abilities, and players’ choices are restricted to those held in hand.
(Castle Panic, Powerpuff Girls Saving the World Before Bedtime)
Chit Pull
Tokens are introduced during the game by pulling from a bag or pile.
(Castle Panic, Quacks of Quedlinburg)
Dice Rolling
Rolling dice determines the outcome of specific actions or choices available to players.
(Age of War, That’s So Clever)
Hand Management
Players choose from cards or tiles in hand to play.
(Jaipur, Bohnanza)
Abstract-ish Mechanics
These mechanics define the game, which often have no theme or the theme is entirely “pasted on.”
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Abstract-ish Mechanics
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Pattern Building
Players use game resources to construct patterns on the board.
(Qwirkle, Kingdomino)
Set Collection
Players collect sets of game elements which are then used for scoring or some other purpose.
(Kodama, Sushi Go)
Specialized Purpose Mechanics
These mechanics provide their own unique ways to play games, based on their function.
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Specialized Purpose Mechanics
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Pickup & Deliver
Players gather resources from specific places on the board and transport them across the board to deliver them to other areas.
(Niagara, Horrified)
Secret Unit Deployment
Only the player controlling certain playing pieces has perfect information about the nature (or even the whereabouts) of those pieces.
(Survive, Jaws)
Variable Player Powers
Each player has special actions that only they can perform, or that modify standard actions.
(Avalon, Cosmic Encounter)
Mechanics
Which mechanics make sense for your game?
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