What are the steps to analyze game mechanics in game design?

Market trends are one of the drivers of a successfull game. Games market is rapidly changing, keep up with trends. Read literature, news and watch streams! Know the player base and finding a new game will be much easier. Read reviews but weight every input on a scale and be objective!

Define your purpose before delving into game mechanics analysis. Whether it's troubleshooting and refining your own game, learning from others for inspiration, or analyzing games for academic or professional reasons, your goals shape the level of detail and criteria for evaluation. Clear objectives guide your analysis, ensuring it aligns with your intended outcomes and provides valuable insights tailored to your specific needs.

A good place to start with goals is to think about what you want to showcase in your game - what do you want to show off to the player, and what do you want to make the player show off? That will help you find the right balance. Some games thrive when they ask the player to perform some highly skilled task. Others thrive in just showing off interesting mechanisms of interaction, or unique environments. Knowing how much of each can help you decide which mechanics to keep or change. Maybe something is flashy but doesn't require skill? Maybe a mechanic requires skill but not conducive for showcasing an interesting environment. These metrics can help you decide what to keep

Often times a game mechanic analysis starts with a question of why did the player feel a certain way. Why did the player feel powerful when fighting this boss? Why does the player feel bored when traversing this platforming section? Starting with a why question ensures that design puts the player first and provides a goal for the analysis, to improve or replicate the player experience that arose from a specific mechanic.

Once, we faced the challenge of enhancing an existing game. Our goals were clear: to boost engagement and improve the experience. We set specific targets such as adding dynamic elements and refining the user interface. We analyzed the game by playing it, collecting feedback, and reviewing analytics to identify player issues and areas of disinterest. Benchmarking against similar games helped us gauge industry norms. Our analysis highlighted key issues, such as overly difficult levels causing player drop-offs. We addressed this by moderating the difficulty and adding checkpoints, thus retaining players for longer. Every step taken, big or small, was directed towards our main objectives of increasing player engagement and satisfaction.

Choosing a framework for game design is really important. One can start by thoroughly understanding the overall concept and goals of the game. What is the core experience you want players to have? What are the main objectives and challenges? Based on the thorough understanding you can choose the proper framework

The MDA Framework analyzes game design, LUDO is a traditional board game, and ATOM is a theory focusing on the fun and learning aspects of games. They are all important and complement each other.

It's important to approach these framework applications with a strong understanding of your players, as depending on a player's background or experience with games, analyses may differ. In the MDA framework, for example, the dynamics (how players behave in response to a mechanic) and the aesthetics (how players feel when behaving in this way), can differ from player to player. While it may be impossible to account for every type of player, we should at least be aware of the target audience we are describing when applying these frameworks.

Visualizing game mechanics using the MDA framework is key for understanding, as the brain processes visuals faster than text. Visuals like diagrams convey complex relationships quickly, a necessity in understanding how game elements like mechanics influence aesthetics. Breaking down a game into mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics simplifies its complexity, aiding in understanding and analysis. Visual tools enable easier problem-solving by highlighting a game's strengths, weaknesses, and potential innovation areas. They're also invaluable in communication, providing a shared language for team members and stakeholders, regardless of their game knowledge level.

Never stop playing. It is one of the most effective ways to understand the market and what was done right and wrong, and what can be improved. And if you don't have time to play, make the time.

This is a subject I've given a talk on before, the idea that game mechanics can be Memed for other games. I think one important aspect of this is to look out for innovation in other genres. For example, over the years the FPS genre landed on the"Item Selection Wheel" mechanic. Animal Crossing New Horizons later adopted this method of item selection. Despite being from quite a different genre, that method of interaction has proven to be very useful

In game design, balancing awareness of industry trends with originality is crucial. Observing competitors' games helps understand current standards and player expectations. However, it's equally vital to foster uniqueness. This involves isolating oneself from external influences occasionally, allowing internal creativity to flourish. Applying these original ideas to game development ensures a distinctive product in a crowded market. It's about merging external insights with inner innovation to create games that resonate with players while offering something new and exciting.

???? Comparing Game Mechanics: Use metrics and statistics ?? to compare game mechanics across genres, platforms, and audiences ??. Focus on complexity, balance ??, feedback ???, challenge ??, and fun ??. Identify similarities ??, differences ??, strengths ??, and weaknesses ??. ???? Adaptation to Context: Contextualize your analysis ??. Different genres and audiences require tailored approaches. Metrics and statistics ensure objective assessments ??, highlighting effectiveness and impact of mechanics in their unique environment ????

Deepen your game mechanics analysis by comparing and contrasting them with other games. This approach unveils similarities, differences, strengths, weaknesses, patterns, and trends. Explore comparisons within the same genre or across diverse genres, platforms, audiences, or contexts. Utilize criteria like complexity, balance, feedback, challenge, variety, or fun to assess and compare game mechanics. This method enriches your understanding, providing valuable insights for refining and innovating your own game mechanics.

Sometimes a mechanic works very well, but only if the player knows how to use it. In my debut title, Reed the Robotanist, a core play style we wanted to encourage was taking risky shortcuts across stages. To communicate this to the player, early on I would place collectibles in hard to reach locations that would encourage taking said shortcuts

In game design, effective communication is crucial for team success. Even the most brilliant idea fails if it needs to be conveyed and understood by team members. This requires not just sharing ideas but ensuring they are comprehensively understood. The team should function as a cohesive unit, akin to a single person, where each member is seamlessly connected to others. This synergy allows for the efficient execution of concepts, solving problems collaboratively, and fostering a shared vision. In essence, a game design team's strength lies in individual creativity and their ability to communicate, understand, and work as one.

Conclude your game mechanics analysis by reflecting on your findings and sharing them with others. This not only enhances your game design skills but also contributes to the game design community. Communicate your insights through diverse mediums like reports, reviews, blog posts, articles, presentations, videos, podcasts, or even games. Engage in discussions, debates, or feedback sessions with fellow designers or players. Sharing your analysis fosters a collaborative exchange of ideas, enriching the gaming community with diverse perspectives and valuable knowledge.

Sometimes you just need to cut a game mechanic if it's not working out. It's better to focus on where the game thrives rather than force something into a situation that just doesn't work. It can feel disappointing, but it's better than shipping the game with a mechanic that you are still actively disappointed in

In our studio, we do not usually deconstruct the whole game & do not analyze all mechanics at once. During the ideation/brainstorm process we define our goals & discuss the successful games that have already hit that goal. Then we analyze those games and create a list of successful (based on users' feedbacks) mechanics that serve the goal. After that, we try to isolate those mechanics. During the isolation stage we break down chosen mechanics into basic parts, record all ins and outs (resourse flow) and create various charts of relationship with game's other systems. At this stage we, usually, understand how the mechanics work & decide the way we are planning to implement it ourselves.

One crucial aspect to consider is conducting early playtesting to gather feedback on the game mechanics. Observe player reactions, identify pain points, and note moments of enjoyment. Make adjustments based on player feedback, iteratively refining mechanics to address issues and enhance the overall player experience. When analyzing game mechanics in game design, it is imperative to acknowledge that players serve as the ultimate decision-makers.

Evaluate balance and game pace through out the development process. Testers and community are a great way to analyze these points. Make sure to have player skill progression and take in account different player types of the same genre e.g. In an open world game some people like to explore while others may feel contented with combat.

Sometimes you just have to do it yourself! I learn best by doing. So if you can’t intuit why a mechanic feels good/bad, remake it! Mod it. Break it. Start from the ground up and do it differently! Sometimes the best way to innovate is to reverse engineer and iterate. You’ll learn an incredible amount from the process and practice alone.