.FUNDAMENTALSof Game DesignSECOND EDITIONErnest Adams.FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND doc

ptg7947181
ptg7947181
SECOND EDITION
Ernest Adams
FUNDAMENTALS
of Game Design
ptg7947181
FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
Ernest Adams
New Riders
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Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
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Copyright © 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Senior Editor: Karyn Johnson
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Technical Editor: Christopher Weaver
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NOTICE OF RIGHTS
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, elec-

tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
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NOTICE OF LIABILITY
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis without warranty. While every precaution has
been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any
person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by
the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.
TRADEMARKS
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trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim,
the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services
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ISBN-13: 978-0-321-64337-7
ISBN-10: 0-321-64337-2
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Printed and bound in the United States of America
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“In this updated edition of Fundamentals of Game Design, Adams adds
much to what was already a thorough look at game design in all its
varieties. The result is a veritable feast of design lessons sure not only
to satisfy the budding designer’s appetite, but also to refine her palate.”
—Ian Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology
“In Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition, Ernest Adams provides
encyclopedic coverage of process and design issues for every aspect of
game design, expressed as practical lessons that can be immediately
applied to a design in-progress. He offers the best framework I’ve seen
for thinking about the relationships between core mechanics, gameplay,
and player—one that I’ve found useful for both teaching and research.”

—Michael Mateas, University of California
at Santa Cruz, co-creator of Façade
“Ernest writes in a way that is very down to earth and approachable to
students. It is obvious that he has ‘been there and done that’ and his
real-world, unpretentious approach to the material is what makes this
text so accessible.”
—Andrew Phelps, Rochester Institute of Technology
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To Mar y Elle n Foley, for love and wisdom.
Omnia vincit amor.
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Acknowledgments
It would be a rare developer indeed who had worked on every genre and style of
game addressed in this book, and certainly I cannot make that claim. When it
came time to speak about subjects of which I had little direct experience, I relied
heavily on the advice and wisdom of my professional colleagues. I owe a special
debt of gratitude to:
Monty Clark
Jesyca Durchin
Joseph Ganetakos
Scott Kim
Rick Knowles
Raph Koster
Mike Lopez
Steve Meretzky
Carolyn Handler Miller
Brian Moriarty
Tess Snider

Chris Taylor
Michelle Hinn and the
IGDA Accessibility Special
Interest Group
I hasten to add that any errors in the book are mine and not theirs. I am also espe-
cially indebted to MobyGames (www.mobygames.com) whose vast database of PC
and console games I consulted daily, and sometimes hourly, in my research.
My technical reviewer, Chris Weaver, provided advice and feedback throughout the
book. I cannot express the value to me of his experience as a game designer, game
industry entrepreneur, and professor at MIT. A number of my colleagues offered
valuable suggestions about different parts of the manuscript; I am particularly
grateful to Chris Bateman, Ben Cousins, Melissa Federoff, Ola Holmdahl, and Lucy
Joyner for their advice.
Several people and institutions generously gave me permission to reproduce images:
MobyGames (www.mobygames.com)
Giant Bomb (www.giantbomb.com)
Björn Hurri (www.bjornhurri.com)
Cecropia, Inc. (www.cecropia.com)
Pseudo Interactive (www.pseudointerac-
tive.com)
Chronic Logic (www.chroniclogic.com)
and Auran (www.auran.com)
Finally, no list of acknowledgments would be complete without recognizing the
help of my editors. Robyn Thomas worked hard with me to get the book done
under severe deadline pressure, and Mary Ellen Foley, The Word Boffin (www.word-
boffin.com), offered valuable insights and editing assistance. I’m also grateful for
the assistance of Margot Hutchison, my agent at Waterside Productions, in helping
to finalize the contract.
Suggestions, corrections, and even complaints are always welcome; please send
them to

ptg7947181
About the Author
Ernest Adams is an American game design consultant and trainer currently work-
ing in England with the International Hobo game design group. In addition to his
consulting work, he gives game design workshops and is a popular speaker at con-
ferences and on college campuses. He has worked in the interactive entertainment
industry since 1989, and he founded the International Game Developers’ Association
in 1994. He was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions,
and for several years before that he was the audio/video producer on the Madden
NFL line of football games at Electronic Arts. In his early career, he was a software
engineer, and he has developed online, computer, and console games for machines
from the IBM 360 mainframe to the present day. He is the author of three other
books and the “Designer’s Notebook” series of columns on the Gamasutra developers’
webzine. His professional web site is at www.designersnotebook.com.
About the Technical Editor
Christopher Weaver founded Bethesda Softworks, the software entertainment com-
pany credited with the development of physics-based sports sims, including the
original John Madden Football for Electronic Arts, as well as the Elder Scrolls role-
playing series. A former member of the Architecture Machine Group and Fellow of
the MIT Communications and Policy Program, he is currently a Board Member of
the Communications Technology Roadmap and Visiting Scientist in MIT’s
Microphotonics Center. Weaver is CEO of Media Technology, Ltd. and teaches part
time in the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT. In 2005, he was inducted
into the Cosmos Club for Excellence in Engineering.
ptg7947181
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
PART ONE
THE ELEMENTS OF GAME DESIGN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xx
1 Games and Video Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
What Is a Game? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Conventional Games Versus Video Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
How Video Games Entertain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 Design Components and Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
An Approach to the Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The Key Components of Video Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Structure of a Video Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Stages of the Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Game Design Team Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The Game Design Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
The Anatomy of a Game Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3 Game Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Getting an Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
From Idea to Game Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Player’s Role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Choosing a Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Defining Your Target Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Progression Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Types of Game Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 Game Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
What Is a Game World? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
The Purposes of a Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
The Dimensions of a Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
CONTENTS
viii
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CONTENTS ix
5 Creative and Expressive Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Self-Defining Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Creative Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Storytelling Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Game Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6 Character Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
The Goals of Character Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
The Relationship Between Player and Avatar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Visual Appearances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Character Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Audio Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7 Storytelling and Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Why Put Stories in Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
The Storytelling Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Linear Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Nonlinear Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Granularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Mechanisms for Advancing the Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Emotional Limits of Interactive Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Scripted Conversations and Dialog Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
When to Write the Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Other Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
8 User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
What Is the User Interface? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Player-Centric Interface Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

The Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Managing Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Interaction Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Camera Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Visual Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Audio Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Input Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
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x FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN
Navigation Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Allowing for Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
9 Gameplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Making Games Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
The Hierarchy of Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Skill, Stress, and Absolute Difficulty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Commonly Used Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Saving the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
10 Core Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
What Are the Core Mechanics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
The Internal Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Core Mechanics and Gameplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Core Mechanics Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Random Numbers and the Gaussian Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
11 Game Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
What Is a Balanced Game? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Avoiding Dominant Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Incorporating the Element of Chance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Making PvP Games Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Making PvE Games Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Managing Difficulty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Understanding Positive Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Other Balance Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Design to Make Tuning Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
12 General Principles of Level Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
What Is Level Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Key Design Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
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CONTENTS xi
The Level Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Pitfalls of Level Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
PART TWO
THE GENRES OF GAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
13 Action Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
What Are Action Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Action Game Subgenres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
14 Strategy Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .419
What Are Strategy Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Core Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
The Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

The Presentation Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Artificial Opponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
15 Role-Playing Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
What Are Role-Playing Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Core Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
The Game World and Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
The Presentation Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
16 Sports Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
What Are Sports Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Core Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
The Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
The Presentation Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
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xii FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN
17 Vehicle Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
What Are Vehicle Simulations? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Core Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Other Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Intellectual Property Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
The Presentation Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
18 Construction and Management Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
What Are Construction and Management Simulations? . . . . . . 527
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Core Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
The Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
The Presentation Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
19 Adventure Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
What Are Adventure Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Game Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
The Presentation Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
20 Artificial Life and Puzzle Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Artificial Life Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Puzzle Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
21 Online Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .591
What Are Online Games? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Advantages of Online Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Disadvantages of Online Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Design Issues for Online Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Persistent Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
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CONTENTS xiii
A Designing to Appeal to Particular Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .619
Reaching Adult Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
Designing for Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Games for Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Accessibility Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
1 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .633
1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
1 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658

ptg7947181
Welcome to Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition—an
updated version of the original Fundamentals of Game Design,
which was itself based upon an earlier book called Andrew Rollings
and Ernest Adams on Game Design. I hope you enjoy this book and
find it both informative and helpful.
In the past three years, the field of interactive entertainment has
changed in a number of ways, and I felt it was time to update the
book to reflect them. Most significant among these changes has
been the arrival of the Nintendo Wii with its motion-sensitive con-
troller; the Apple iPhone with its multitouch screen; the huge
success of Guitar Hero and other music-based games; and Spore with
its unique concept of “massively single-player online gaming.” I
have addressed these advances where appropriate in this new edi-
tion. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Project Natal—a camera-based
motion-sensitive control system—is still too new and experimental
at the moment to get more than a brief mention.
INTRODUCTION
xiv
ptg7947181
INTRODUCTION xv
INTRODUCTION
If you already own the previous edition, you’ll notice that Fundamentals, Second
Edition is still organized the same way. I have retained, and tried to enhance, the
practical approach of the previous work. The book remains unashamedly commer-
cial, generally avoiding academic theory and debate. I assume that you want to
make video games for sale, and a certain amount of the discussion relates to ques-
tions of markets and target audiences.
Another change has been the departure of my co-author on the previous edition,
Andrew Rollings. It was Andrew who first gave me the opportunity to work on a

book about game design, and I’m forever grateful to him for that. Andrew was too
busy to contribute to this edition, and not much of his original prose remains. Any
errors or omissions you find should be laid at my door and not his.
Fundamentals of Game Design Second Edition is entirely about game design. It does
not cover programming, art, animation, music, audio engineering, or writing. Nor
is it about project management, budgeting, scheduling, or producing. A budding
game designer should learn something about all of these subjects, and I encourage
you to consult other books to broaden your education as much as you can. All the
greatest game designers are Renaissance men and women, interested in everything.
Each chapter ends with a section called “Design Practice,” consisting of two subsec-
tions. In Part One, “The Elements of Game Design,” the “Design Practice” sections
include exercises that your instructor may assign to you (or that you may do on
your own, if you’re not a student). In Part Two, “The Genres of Games,” each chap-
ter (except the last one) includes instructions for doing a case study of a famous
game from the genre that the chapter addresses. Finally, all the chapters include a
series of discussion or design questions that you should ask yourself about the game
that you’re designing.
Why So Many Tabletop Games and Old Video Games?
As you read, you will notice that I frequently refer to tabletop games—card games
such as poker, board games such as Monopoly, and so on. I do this for three reasons.
First, those games are likely to be familiar to the largest number of people. Not all
of my readers will have played computer games such as Max Payne, and some will
be too young to remember Adventure, but everyone has heard of chess. Second, sim-
pler, noncomputerized games tend to be designed around a single principle, so they
serve to illustrate that principle well. Finally, I feel that the essence of game design
has little to do with the game’s delivery medium. The principles common to all
good games are independent of the means by which they are presented.
I also refer again and again to certain video games even though they may not be
recent releases. The book is filled with references to Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider,
Half-Life, StarCraft, Planescape: Torment, Civilization, SimCity, The Secret of Monkey

ptg7947181
xvi FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN
Island, Tet ris, and even Space Invaders. Old or not, these are outstanding examples of
their genres—among the greatest games of all time. And many are actually series
rather than individual games; you can buy the latest edition and play it for your-
self. They all reward study.
Who Is This Book For?
This book is aimed at anyone who is interested in designing video and computer
games but doesn’t know how to begin. More specifically, it is intended for univer-
sity students and junior professionals in the game industry. Although it is a general,
introductory text, more experienced professionals may find it a useful reference
as well.
My only explicit prerequisite for reading the book is some knowledge of video
games, especially the more famous ones. It would be impossible to write a book on
game design for someone who has never played a game; I have to assume basic
familiarity with video games and game hardware. For a thorough and deeply
insightful history of video games, read Steven Poole’s Trigge r Happy: Videogames and
the Entertainment Revolution (Poole, 2004).
I do expect that you are able to write succinctly and unambiguously; this skill is an
absolute requirement for a game designer, and many of the exercises are writing
assignments. I also expect you to be familiar with basic high school algebra and
probability; you’ll find this especially important when you study the chapters on
core mechanics, game balancing, and strategy games.
The book assumes that you are designing an entire game by yourself. I have two
reasons for taking this approach. First, to become a skilled game designer, you
should be familiar with all aspects of design, so I cover the subject as if you will do
it all. Second, even if you do have a team of designers, I cannot tell you how to
structure or manage your team beyond a few generalities. The way you divide up
their responsibilities will depend a great deal on the kind of game you are design-
ing and the skills of the individuals on the team. From the standpoint of teaching

the material, it is simplest to write it as if one person will do all the work.
How Is This Book Organized?
Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition is divided into two parts. The first
twelve chapters are about designing games in general: what a game is, how it works,
and what kinds of decisions you have to make to create one. The next eight chap-
ters are about different genres of games and the design considerations peculiar to
each genre. The final chapter addresses some of the special design considerations of
online gaming.
TIP To get the most
out of the book while
you’re actually working
on a game design, be
sure to ask yourself the
questions at the end of
each chapter.
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INTRODUCTION xvii
INTRODUCTION
Part One: The Elements of Game Design
Chapter 1 introduces games in general and video games in particular, including
formal definitions of the terms game and gameplay. It also discusses what computers
bring to games and lists the important ways that video games entertain.
Chapter 2 introduces the key components of a video game: the core mechanics,
user interface, and storytelling engine. It also presents the concept of a gameplay
mode and the structure of a video game. The last half of the chapter is devoted to
the practice of game design, including my recommended approach, player-centric
design.
Chapter 3 is about game concepts: where the idea for a game comes from and how
to refine the idea. The audience and the target hardware (the machine the game
will run on) both have a strong influence on the direction the game will take.

Chapter 4 speaks to the game’s setting and world: the place where the gameplay
happens and the way things work there. As the designer, you’re the god of your
world, and it’s up to you to define its concepts of time and space, mechanics, and
natural laws, as well as many other things: its logic, emotions, culture, and values.
Chapter 5 addresses creative and expressive play, listing different ways your game
can support the players’ creativity and self-expression.
Chapter 6 addresses character design, inventing the people or beings who populate
your game world—especially the character who will represent the player there (his
avatar), if there is one. Every successful entertainer from Homer onward has under-
stood the importance of having an appealing protagonist.
Chapter 7 delves into the problems of storytelling and narrative, introducing the
issues of linear, branching, and foldback story structures. It also discusses a number
of related issues such as scripted conversations and episodic story structures.
Chapter 8 is about user interface design: the way the player experiences and interacts
with the game world. A bad user interface can kill an otherwise brilliant game, so
you must get this right.
Chapter 9 discusses gameplay, the heart of the player’s mental experience of a
game. The gameplay consists of the challenges the player faces and the actions he
takes to overcome them. It also analyzes the nature of difficulty in gameplay.
Chapter 10 looks at the core mechanics of a game, especially its internal economy,
and the flow of resources (money, points, ammunition, or whatever) throughout
the game.
Chapter 11 considers the issue of game balancing, the process of making multi-
player games fair to all players and controlling the difficulty of single-player games.
ptg7947181
xviii FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN
Chapter 12 introduces the general principles of level design, both universal princi-
ples and genre-specific ones. It also considers a variety of level layouts and proposes
a process for level design.
Part Two: The Genres of Games

Chapter 13 is about the earliest, and still most popular, genre of interactive enter-
tainment: action games. This genre may be divided into numerous subgenres such
as shooter games, fighting games, platformers, and others, which the chapter
addresses in as much detail as there is room for.
Chapter 14 discusses another genre that has been part of gaming since the begin-
ning: strategy games, both real-time and turn-based.
Chapter 15 is about role-playing games, a natural outgrowth of pencil and paper
games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Chapter 16 looks at sports games, which have a number of peculiar design chal-
lenges. The actual contest itself is designed by others; the trick is to map human
athletic activities onto a screen and control devices.
Chapter 17 addresses vehicle simulations: cars, planes, boats, and other, more
exotic modes of transportation such as tanks.
Chapter 18 is about construction and management simulations in which the player
tries to build and maintain something—a city, a theme park, a planet—within the
limitations of an economic system.
Chapter 19 explores adventure games, an old and unique genre of gaming given
new life by the creation of a hybrid type, the action-adventure.
Chapter 20 examines two other genres of games: artificial life and puzzle games.
Chapter 21 looks at online gaming, which is not a genre but a technology. Online
games enable people to play with, or against, each other in numbers from two up
to hundreds of thousands. Playing against real people that you cannot see has
enormous consequences for the game’s design. The second half of the chapter
addresses the particular problems of persistent worlds like World of Warcraft.
The Glossary defines many of the game design terms that appear in italics through-
out the book.
Appendix A discusses designing to appeal to particular target audiences: hardcore
players and casual players; men and women; children in general and girls in partic-
ular. It also includes a section on accessibility issues for players with impairments
of various kinds.

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INTRODUCTION xix
INTRODUCTION
Companion Web Site
At www.peachpit.com/fgd2 you’ll find design document templates, a list of sugges-
tions for further reading, and materials for instructors. This material may be
updated periodically, so make sure you have the latest versions.
ptg7947181
The Elements of
Game Design
Part One of Fundamentals of Game Design examines the essential
principles of designing video games. The first chapter proposes a
philosophy of what video games are and how they entertain.
Chapter 2 explains several important design concepts and introduces
the player-centric approach to the process of game design itself.
It also describes several aspects of design in the commercial environ-
ment, including documents used and job roles. Chapter 3 describes
how to get from the initial “great idea” stage to a formal game con-
cept that is detailed enough to elaborate into a complete design.
The remaining chapters of Part One are devoted to specific aspects
of video games that you will encounter when you’re designing
them. They are organized by subject matter: game worlds, creative
play, character design, storytelling, user interface design, gameplay,
core mechanics, game balancing, and level design. These chapters
are presented in an order that runs approximately from the most
aesthetically creative activities to the most practical and functional.
ptg7947181
■
Chapter 1: Games and Video Games
■

Chapter 2: Design Components and Processes
■
Chapter 3: Game Concepts
■
Chapter 4: Game Worlds
■
Chapter 5: Creative and Expressive Play
■
Chapter 6: Character Development
■
Chapter 7: Storytelling and Narrative
■
Chapter 8: User Interfaces
■
Chapter 9: Gameplay
■
Chapter 10: Core Mechanics
■
Chapter 11: Game Balancing
■
Chapter 12: General Principles of Level Design
PART ONE
1
ptg7947181
Games and Video Games
Before discussing game design, we have to establish what games are and how they
work. You might think that everybody knows what a game is, but there are so
many kinds of games in the world that it’s best not to make assumptions based on
personal experience alone. We’ll start by identifying the essential elements that a
game must have, and then define what a game is based on those elements. Then

we’ll go on to discuss what computers bring to gaming and how video games are
different from conventional games. Finally, we’ll look at the specific ways in which
video games entertain people and note some other enjoyable features of video
games that you must learn how to design.
What Is a Game?
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and . . . Play consists of whatever a
body is not obliged to do.
—MARK TWAIN, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAW YER
Games arise from the human desire for play and from our capacity to pretend. Play
is a wide category of nonessential, and usually recreational, human activities that
are often socially significant as well. Pretending is the mental ability to establish a
notional reality that the pretender knows is different from the real world and that
the pretender can create, abandon, or change at will. Playing and pretending are
essential elements of playing games. Both have been studied extensively as cultural
and psychological phenomena.
Toys, Puzzles, and Games
In English, we use the word play to describe how we entertain ourselves with toys,
puzzles, and games—although with puzzles, we more frequently say that we solve
them. However, even though we use the same word, we do not engage in play with
all types of entertainment in the same way. What differentiates these types of play
is the presence, or absence, of rules and goals.
Rules are instructions that dictate how to play. A toy does not come with any rules
about the right way to play with it, nor does it come with a particular goal that you
as a player should try to achieve. You may play with a ball or a stick any way you
like. In fact, you may pretend that it is something else entirely. Toys that model
other objects (such as a baby doll that resembles a real baby) might suggest an
CHAPTER 1
2
ptg7947181
GAMES AND VIDEO GAMES 3

CHAPTER 1
appropriate way to play, but the suggestion is not a rule. In fact, young children
get special enjoyment by playing with toys in a way that subverts their intended
purpose, such as treating a doll as a car.
If you add a distinct goal to playing—a particular objective that you are trying to
achieve—then the article being played with is not a toy but a puzzle. Puzzles have
one rule that defines the goal, but they seldom have rules that dictate how you
must get to the goal. Some approaches might be fruitless, but none are actually
prohibited.
A game includes both rules and a goal. Playing a game requires pretending and it is
a more structured activity than playing with toys or puzzles. As such, it requires
more maturity. As children develop longer attention spans, they start to play with
puzzles and then to play games. Multiplayer games also require social cooperation,
another thing that children learn to do as they mature.
The Definition of a Game
Defining any term that refers to a broad class of human behaviors is a tricky business,
because if anyone can find a single counterexample, the definition is inaccurate.
Efforts to find unassailable definitions of such terms usually produce results so gen-
eral as to be useless for practical purposes. The alternative is to acknowledge that a
definition is not rigorous but serves as a convenient description to cover the major-
ity of cases. In this book, we’ll use the following nonrigorous definition of a game:
GAME A game is a type of play activity, conducted in the context of a pretended reality,
in which the participant(s) try to achieve at least one arbitrary, nontrivial goal by
acting in accordance with rules.
There may be exceptions—activities that someone would instantly recognize as a
game but that don’t conform to this definition. So be it. The definition is intended
to be practical rather than complete.
OTHER VIEWS
Many people in fields as diverse as anthropology, philosophy, history, and of course,
game design have attempted to define the word game over the years. In Rules of Play,

Salen and Zimmerman examine several of these definitions (Salen and Zimmerman, 2003,
pp. 73–80). Most, but not all, make some reference to rules, goals, play, and pretending.
Some include other elements such as decision-making or the quality of being a system.
This book doesn’t try to refute or rebut any of these; it just presents a new definition to stand
beside the others. Note that some commentators, such as Raph Koster in A Theory of Fun for
Game Design, disparage the distinctions between toys, puzzles, and games as irrelevant
(Koster, 2004, p. 36). However, it is important to address them in an introductory text.
NOTE The essential
elements of a game are
rules, goals, play, and
pretending.
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4 FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN
The Essential Elements of a Game

The essential elements of a game are play, pretending, a goal, and rules. The defini-
tion refers to each of these elements and includes some additional conditions as
well. In the next few sections, we’ll look at each of these elements and their signifi-
cance in the definition more closely.
PLAY
Play is a participatory form of entertainment, whereas books, films, and theater are
presentational forms. When you read a book, the author entertains you; when you
play, you entertain yourself. A book doesn’t change, no matter how often you read
it, but when you play, you make choices that affect the course of events.
Theoreticians of literature and drama often argue that reading or watching is a con-
scious, active process and that the audience is an active participant in those forms
of entertainment. The theoreticians have a point, but the issue here is with the actual
content and not the interpretation of the content. With the rare exception of some
experimental works, the audience does not actually create or change the content of
a book or a play, even if their comprehension or interpretation does change over

time. Reading a book or watching a play is not passive, but it is not interactive in the
sense of modifying the text.
In contrast, each time you play a game, you can make different choices and have a
different experience. Play ultimately includes the freedom to act and the freedom
to choose how you act. This freedom is not unlimited, however. Your choices are
constrained by the rules, and this requires you to be clever, imaginative, or skillful
in your play.
This book will continue to use the term play despite the fact that you can play
games for a serious purpose such as learning or research.
PRETENDING
David: Is this a game, or is it real?
Joshua: What’s the difference?
—EXCHANGE BETWEEN A BOY AND HIS COMPUTER FROM THE MOVIE WARGAMES
Pretending is the act of creating a notional reality in the mind, which is one
element of our definition of a game. Another name for the reality created by
pretending is the magic circle. This is an idea that Dutch historian Johan Huizinga
originally identified in his book Homo Ludens (Huizinga, 1971) and expanded
upon at some length in later theories of play. The magic circle is related to the
concept of imaginary worlds in fiction and drama, and Huizinga also felt that it
was connected to ceremonial, spiritual, legal, and other activities. For our purposes,
NOTE Games are in-
teractive. They require
active players whose
participation changes
the course of events.