Katie salen eric zimmerman rules of play game design fundamentals tủ tài liệu training

Table of Contents



Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals.....................................................................................................1
Foreword..............................................................................................................................................................1
Preface..................................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: What Is This Book About?............................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Establishing a Critical Discourse............................................................................................................2
Ways of Looking.....................................................................................................................................3
Game Design Schemas...........................................................................................................................4
Game Design Fundamentals...................................................................................................................5
Further Readings.....................................................................................................................................6
Further Reading......................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 2: The Design Process.........................................................................................................................1
Iterative Design.......................................................................................................................................1
Commissions...........................................................................................................................................2
Game Design Exercises..........................................................................................................................3
Creation............................................................................................................................................4
Modification.....................................................................................................................................5
Analysis............................................................................................................................................7
Further Reading......................................................................................................................................8
The Design and Testing of the Board Game- Lord of the Rings............................................................9
Design Process........................................................................................................................................9
Scripted Game System..........................................................................................................................10
Playtesting.............................................................................................................................................11
More Changes.......................................................................................................................................12

The Road Goes Ever On.......................................................................................................................13
Unit 1: Core Concepts.......................................................................................................................................1
Chapter List..............................................................................................................................................1
How does play happen?...........................................................................................................................1
Chapter 3: Meaningful Play..............................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Meaningful Play..................................................................................................................1
Meaning and Play...................................................................................................................................2
Two Kinds of Meaningful Play...............................................................................................................3
Discernable.......................................................................................................................................4
Integrated..........................................................................................................................................5
Summary.................................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 4: Design..............................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Design..................................................................................................................................1
Some Definitions of Design....................................................................................................................2
Design and Meaning...............................................................................................................................4
Semiotics: A Brief Overview..................................................................................................................4
Four Semiotic Concepts..........................................................................................................................5
A Sign Represents Something Other Than Itself....................................................................................6
Signs Are Interpreted..............................................................................................................................7
Meaning Results When a Sign Is Interpreted.........................................................................................7
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Chapter 4: Design
Context Shapes Interpretation.................................................................................................................8
Summary...............................................................................................................................................10

Chapter 5: Systems............................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Systems...............................................................................................................................1
The Elements of a System.......................................................................................................................2
Framing Systems.....................................................................................................................................4
Open and Closed Systems.......................................................................................................................5
Summary.................................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 6: Interactivity.....................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Interactivity.........................................................................................................................1
Defining Interactivity..............................................................................................................................1
A Multivalent Model of Interactivity......................................................................................................3
But Is it "Designed" Interaction?............................................................................................................4
Interaction and Choice............................................................................................................................5
Choice Molecules....................................................................................................................................7
Anatomy of a Choice..............................................................................................................................8
Space of Possibility...............................................................................................................................10
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................12
Summary...............................................................................................................................................13
Chapter 7: Defining Games...............................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Play and Game........................................................................................................................................2
Comparing Definitions...........................................................................................................................3
Definition 1: David Parlett...............................................................................................................4
Definition 2: Clark C. Abt................................................................................................................4
Definition 3: Johann Huizinga.........................................................................................................5
Definition 4: Roger Caillois.............................................................................................................6
Definition 5: Bernard Suits...............................................................................................................6
Definition 6: Chris Crawford...........................................................................................................7
Definition 7: Greg Costikyan...........................................................................................................8
Definition 8: Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith.......................................................................8
A Comparison.......................................................................................................................................10

Our Definition.......................................................................................................................................11
The Puzzle of Puzzles...........................................................................................................................11
Role-Playing Games.............................................................................................................................12
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................14
Summary...............................................................................................................................................14
Chapter 8: Defining Digital Games..................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
The Computer Is Not a Computer...........................................................................................................1
What Can It Do?.....................................................................................................................................2
Integration...............................................................................................................................................6
Summary.................................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 9: The Magic Circle............................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Boundaries..............................................................................................................................................2
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Chapter 9: The Magic Circle
Enter In....................................................................................................................................................3
Temporary Worlds..................................................................................................................................4
The Lusory Attitude................................................................................................................................5
Further Reading......................................................................................................................................7
Summary.................................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 10: The Primary Schemas..................................................................................................................1
A Conceptual Framework.......................................................................................................................1
What Is a Schema?..................................................................................................................................2
RULES: Formal Schemas.......................................................................................................................3

PLAY: Experiential Schemas.................................................................................................................4
CULTURE: Contextual Schemas...........................................................................................................5
Summary.................................................................................................................................................5
Commissioned Game 1 — Richard Garfield....................................................................................................1
Rules.......................................................................................................................................................1
Scoring....................................................................................................................................................2
Design Notes...........................................................................................................................................3
Sibling Rivalry.................................................................................................................................4
Unit 2: Rules.......................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter List..............................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 11: Defining Rules...............................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
A Deck of Cards......................................................................................................................................2
Other Kinds of Rules..............................................................................................................................3
Qualities of Rules....................................................................................................................................3
Rules in Context......................................................................................................................................5
Summary.................................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 12: Rules on Three Levels..................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Tic-Tac-What?........................................................................................................................................1
Under the Hood.......................................................................................................................................2
Being a Good Sport.................................................................................................................................3
Three Kinds of Rules..............................................................................................................................4
Operational Rules.............................................................................................................................4
Constituative Rules...........................................................................................................................4
Implicit Rules...................................................................................................................................4
The Rules of Chutes and Ladders...........................................................................................................4
Chutes and Ladders: Operational Rules...........................................................................................6
Chutes and Ladders: Constituative Rules.........................................................................................6
Chutes and Ladders: Implicit Rules.................................................................................................7

The Identity of a Game...........................................................................................................................8
Specificity of Rules.................................................................................................................................9
Designing Elegant Rules.......................................................................................................................10
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................12
Summary...............................................................................................................................................12

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Chapter 13: The Rules of Digital Games.........................................................................................................1
Rules as a Whole.....................................................................................................................................1
So What Are the Rules?..........................................................................................................................2
The Rules of Tetris..................................................................................................................................3
Rules and Not Rules...............................................................................................................................4
Wheels Within Wheels...........................................................................................................................5
Constituative.....................................................................................................................................6
Operational.......................................................................................................................................7
Implicit.............................................................................................................................................7
Why Rules?.............................................................................................................................................8
Summary.................................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 14: Games as Emergent Systems.......................................................................................................1
Introducing Emergent Systems...............................................................................................................1
Complexity..............................................................................................................................................2
Messengers and Buildings......................................................................................................................3
Simple Complexity.................................................................................................................................4
What Complexity Is Not.........................................................................................................................5
Four Kinds of Systems............................................................................................................................6

Two Horrible Games...............................................................................................................................7
Emergence...............................................................................................................................................9
Parts and the Whole..............................................................................................................................10
Object Interactions................................................................................................................................11
Life, the Game......................................................................................................................................12
Bottom-Up Behaviors...........................................................................................................................14
Emergence in Games............................................................................................................................15
Designing Surprise................................................................................................................................16
Engine Tuning.......................................................................................................................................17
Second-Order Design............................................................................................................................19
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................20
Summary...............................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 15: Games as Systems of Uncertainty...............................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Uncertainty..........................................................................................................................1
Certainty, Uncertainty, and Risk.............................................................................................................2
The Feeling of Randomness....................................................................................................................3
Probability in Games..............................................................................................................................5
Dice Probability......................................................................................................................................5
Chance and Game Play...........................................................................................................................7
Case Study One: Thunderstorm..............................................................................................................9
Thunderstorm...................................................................................................................................9
Case Study Two: Pig.............................................................................................................................10
Pig...................................................................................................................................................10
Breakdowns in Uncertainty...................................................................................................................12
Breakdown 1: Computer Randomness...........................................................................................12
Breakdown 2: Strategizing Chance................................................................................................13
Breakdown 3: Probability Fallacies...............................................................................................14
Meaningful Chance...............................................................................................................................15
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................16

Summary...............................................................................................................................................17

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Chapter 16: Games as Information Theory Systems......................................................................................1
Introducing "Information"......................................................................................................................1
Information Theory.................................................................................................................................2
Probability and Guesswork.....................................................................................................................4
Noise in the Channel...............................................................................................................................5
Redundancy in the System......................................................................................................................7
Balancing Act..........................................................................................................................................9
Further Reading......................................................................................................................................9
Summary...............................................................................................................................................10
Chapter 17: Games as Systems of Information...............................................................................................1
Introducing a Different Kind of Information..........................................................................................1
Perfect and Imperfect Information..........................................................................................................2
Enchanted Information............................................................................................................................4
Each turn, Enchanted..............................................................................................................................6
Hiding and Revealing Systems...............................................................................................................7
Summary.................................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 18: Games as Cybernetic Systems.....................................................................................................1
Introducing Cybernetic Systems.............................................................................................................1
Elements of a Cybernetic System...........................................................................................................2
Feedback Systems in Games...................................................................................................................5
Positive and Negative Basketball............................................................................................................6
Racing Loops..........................................................................................................................................7

Positive Feedback in a Game..................................................................................................................9
Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment...........................................................................................................10
A Simple Die Roll.................................................................................................................................11
Putting Feedback to Use.......................................................................................................................12
Afterword: Don't Forget the Participant...............................................................................................13
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................14
Summary...............................................................................................................................................15
Chapter 19: Games as Game Theory Systems................................................................................................1
Introducing Game Theory?.....................................................................................................................1
Decision Trees........................................................................................................................................2
Strategies in Game Theory......................................................................................................................5
Game Theory Games..............................................................................................................................6
Cake Division.........................................................................................................................................9
Playing for Pennies...............................................................................................................................11
The Prisoner's Dilemma........................................................................................................................12
Game Theory and Game Design...........................................................................................................13
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................14
Summary...............................................................................................................................................15
Chapter 20: Games as Systems of Conflict......................................................................................................1
Introducing Conflict................................................................................................................................1
Conflict Case Studies..............................................................................................................................2
Centipede..........................................................................................................................................2
Joust..................................................................................................................................................3
Gauntlet............................................................................................................................................4
Competition and Cooperation.................................................................................................................6
New Games.............................................................................................................................................8
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Chapter 20: Games as Systems of Conflict
The Goal of a Game................................................................................................................................9
The Level Playing Field of Conflict.....................................................................................................11
Pig Redux..............................................................................................................................................13
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................14
Summary...............................................................................................................................................15
Chapter 21: Breaking the Rules.......................................................................................................................1
Introducing Rule-Breaking.....................................................................................................................1
Kinds of Rule-Breaking..........................................................................................................................2
Player Types.....................................................................................................................................2
Standard Players......................................................................................................................................3
Dedicated Players....................................................................................................................................3
Unsportsmanlike Players..................................................................................................................5
Degenerate Strategies..............................................................................................................................5
Degenerate Strategy Ecosystems............................................................................................................7
Cheats and Spoil-Sports..........................................................................................................................8
Five Player Types Compared..................................................................................................................9
Sanctioned Violations: Professional Sports..........................................................................................10
Sanctioned Cheating: Illuminati...........................................................................................................11
Hacks, Cheats, and Mods: Digital Rule-Breaking................................................................................13
Easter Eggs.....................................................................................................................................13
Cheat Codes....................................................................................................................................13
Game Guides and Walkthroughs....................................................................................................13
Workarounds..................................................................................................................................14
True Cheating.................................................................................................................................14
Hacks..............................................................................................................................................14
Spoil-Sport Hacking.......................................................................................................................14
Rule-Breaking as a Game Design Practice...........................................................................................15

Further Reading....................................................................................................................................17
Summary...............................................................................................................................................17
Commissioned Game 2 — Ironclad...................................................................................................................1
A game for 2 players...............................................................................................................................1
Rules.......................................................................................................................................................1
Playing Ironclad: The Spectacle of Mechanical Destruction..................................................................2
Playing Ironclad: The Technique of Scholarly Discourse......................................................................4
Design Notes...........................................................................................................................................6
Ironclad.............................................................................................................................................6
Unit 3: Play.........................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter List..............................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 22: Defining Play.................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Play......................................................................................................................................1
What Is Play?..........................................................................................................................................2
A General Definition of Play..................................................................................................................4
Play is free movement within a more rigid structure.......................................................................4
Transformative Play................................................................................................................................5
Being Playful..........................................................................................................................................6
Ludic Activities.......................................................................................................................................7
Game Play...............................................................................................................................................9
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Chapter 22: Defining Play
Summary...............................................................................................................................................11
Chapter 23: Games as the Play of Experience................................................................................................1
Introducing Experience...........................................................................................................................1

Qualities of Experience...........................................................................................................................2
Designing Interactive Experiences.........................................................................................................4
The Core Mechanic.................................................................................................................................4
Core Mechanics in Context.....................................................................................................................5
Tag....................................................................................................................................................5
Verbal Tennis...................................................................................................................................5
LOOP................................................................................................................................................6
Breaking Out of Breakout.......................................................................................................................7
Variations on a Core Mechanic...............................................................................................................8
Timed Play.......................................................................................................................................8
Breakthru..........................................................................................................................................9
Steering, Catching, and Invisible Bricks..........................................................................................9
Breaking Out..................................................................................................................................10
Repetitive Play...............................................................................................................................10
Putting It All Together..........................................................................................................................12
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................14
Summary...............................................................................................................................................15
Chapter 24: Games as the Play of Pleasure.....................................................................................................1
Introducing the Play of Pleasure.............................................................................................................1
Rule-Bound.............................................................................................................................................2
Autotelic Play.........................................................................................................................................3
Enter. Play. Stay......................................................................................................................................5
Typologies of Pleasure............................................................................................................................6
Game Flow..............................................................................................................................................8
Sculpting Desire....................................................................................................................................11
Patterns of Pleasure...............................................................................................................................13
The Role of the Goal.............................................................................................................................14
Goals Within Goals...............................................................................................................................15
Conditioned Pleasure............................................................................................................................17
Rewards and Schedules.........................................................................................................................18

Boredom and Anxiety: Flow Redux.....................................................................................................22
Anxiety and Boredom on the High Seas...............................................................................................24
Meaningful Pleasure.............................................................................................................................26
Against "Addiction"..............................................................................................................................29
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................31
Summary...............................................................................................................................................32
Chapter 25: Games as the Play of Meaning....................................................................................................1
Introducing the Play of Meaning............................................................................................................1
Two Kinds of Representation.................................................................................................................2
Systems of Meaning................................................................................................................................2
System and Context................................................................................................................................3
Emergent Representations......................................................................................................................4
The Context of Meaning.........................................................................................................................5
Down the Rabbit Hole............................................................................................................................6
In the Queen's Court...............................................................................................................................7
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Chapter 25: Games as the Play of Meaning
Framing Play...........................................................................................................................................8
Metacommunication and Play.................................................................................................................9
Captured by the Game..........................................................................................................................10
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................11
Summary...............................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play.............................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Narrative Play......................................................................................................................1

Narrative Tensions..................................................................................................................................2
A Framework for "Narrative".................................................................................................................4
Thunderstorm..........................................................................................................................................5
Two Structures for Narrative Play..........................................................................................................7
Narrative Goals.......................................................................................................................................9
Confict..................................................................................................................................................11
Uncertainty............................................................................................................................................12
Core Mechanics....................................................................................................................................13
Narrative Space.....................................................................................................................................14
Digital Game Spaces.............................................................................................................................16
Spaces of Adventure.............................................................................................................................20
Narrative Descriptors............................................................................................................................22
Worlds and Stories................................................................................................................................25
Crafting Game Narratives.....................................................................................................................27
Games as Narrative Systems.................................................................................................................28
Cutscenes..............................................................................................................................................30
Retelling Game Stories.........................................................................................................................35
The Replay............................................................................................................................................36
Recams..................................................................................................................................................37
Games Within Games...........................................................................................................................38
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................39
Summary...............................................................................................................................................40
Chapter 27: Games as the Play of Simulation.................................................................................................1
Introducing Simulation...........................................................................................................................1
Defining "Simulation"............................................................................................................................2
Game and Non-Game Simulations.........................................................................................................3
Meaningful Play and Simulation............................................................................................................5
Procedural Representation......................................................................................................................7
Represented Conflict.............................................................................................................................11
Procedural Characters...........................................................................................................................15

Designing Simulations..........................................................................................................................19
Learning from Wargames.....................................................................................................................22
The Field of Battle................................................................................................................................23
Simulation in Context...........................................................................................................................25
A Balanced Approach...........................................................................................................................26
The Value of Reality.............................................................................................................................28
Framing the Simulation........................................................................................................................29
The Immersive Fallacy.........................................................................................................................31
Metacommunicative..............................................................................................................................32
Remediating Games..............................................................................................................................33
The Character of Character...................................................................................................................34
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Chapter 27: Games as the Play of Simulation
Hacking the Holodeck...........................................................................................................................36
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................37
Summary...............................................................................................................................................38
Chapter 28: Games as Social Play....................................................................................................................1
Introducing Social Play...........................................................................................................................1
Social Relations......................................................................................................................................2
Player Roles............................................................................................................................................2
Three Emergent Social Games................................................................................................................6
Little Max.........................................................................................................................................6
Mafia................................................................................................................................................8
Stand Up...........................................................................................................................................9
Bounded Communities.........................................................................................................................10

Contract for Artifice..............................................................................................................................11
Knowing the Rules................................................................................................................................13
Transformative Social Play...................................................................................................................15
Ideal and Real Foursquare....................................................................................................................16
When Players Won't Be "Nice"............................................................................................................18
Forbidden Play......................................................................................................................................19
Metagame: the Larger Social Context..................................................................................................22
A Metagame Model..............................................................................................................................23
Designing the Metagame......................................................................................................................25
The Limits of Social Play.....................................................................................................................27
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................27
Summary...............................................................................................................................................28
Commissioned Game 3 — Sneak.......................................................................................................................1
A game for 3 or more players..................................................................................................................1
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................1
Rules.......................................................................................................................................................1
Materials...........................................................................................................................................1
Setting up..........................................................................................................................................1
Assigning Camps..............................................................................................................................1
Turns.................................................................................................................................................2
Drawing Challenges.........................................................................................................................2
Purchasing Information....................................................................................................................2
Next matches....................................................................................................................................3
During the Game..............................................................................................................................3
Winning............................................................................................................................................4
Design Diary...........................................................................................................................................4
Sneak................................................................................................................................................4
Initial Notes......................................................................................................................................4
Cloak and Dagger :Rules for Playtest 1...........................................................................................5
Notes from Playtest 1.......................................................................................................................6

Sneak :Rules for Playtest 2...............................................................................................................7
Notes from Playtest 2.......................................................................................................................9
Notes from Playtest 3........................................................................................................................9
Notes from Eric and Katie's playtesting.........................................................................................10

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Unit 4: Culture...................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter List..............................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 29: Defining Culture...........................................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Culture.................................................................................................................................2
Culture: A Framework............................................................................................................................2
Cultural Structures: A List......................................................................................................................3
Cultural Meanings: A Few Examples.....................................................................................................5
Cultural Texts: Trafficking in Signs.......................................................................................................6
Redefinition: Locating Design................................................................................................................7
Summary.................................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 30: Games as Cultural Rhetoric........................................................................................................1
Introducing Cultural Rhetoric.................................................................................................................1
What is Rhetoric?....................................................................................................................................2
Seven Rhetorics of Play..........................................................................................................................3
Two Examples........................................................................................................................................5
The Landlord's Game.......................................................................................................................5
Vampire: The Masquerade...............................................................................................................7
Rhetorics of Gender................................................................................................................................8

Boy Games..............................................................................................................................................9
Flipping the Gender Bit........................................................................................................................10
Transforming Spaces............................................................................................................................13
Battling Toys.........................................................................................................................................17
Toys: A social game for two players..............................................................................................18
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................20
Summary...............................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 31: Games as Open Culture...............................................................................................................1
Introducing Open Culture.......................................................................................................................1
Inventing Jenny.......................................................................................................................................2
Player-as-Producer..................................................................................................................................3
Meaningful Production...........................................................................................................................4
Open Source Games................................................................................................................................8
Game Systems.........................................................................................................................................9
Escape from the Dungeon.....................................................................................................................11
Telefragging Monster Movies...............................................................................................................13
Circle Back............................................................................................................................................15
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................16
Summary...............................................................................................................................................17
Chapter 32: Games as Cultural Resistance.....................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Cultural Resistance..............................................................................................................1
DIY Gaming............................................................................................................................................2
Resistant Strategies.................................................................................................................................3
Strategies of Alteration.....................................................................................................................4
SOD..................................................................................................................................................4
Sailor Moon Wad.............................................................................................................................4
SimCopter Hack...............................................................................................................................5
Strategies of Juxtaposition................................................................................................................5
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Chapter 32: Games as Cultural Resistance
Frag Queens......................................................................................................................................5
Blacklash..........................................................................................................................................5
Los Disneys......................................................................................................................................6
Strategies of Reinvention.................................................................................................................6
Universal Square..............................................................................................................................7
Counter-Strike..................................................................................................................................7
Additional Lines of Resistance...............................................................................................................8
Friction on the Playground.....................................................................................................................9
Resist!...................................................................................................................................................10
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................11
Summary...............................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 33: Games as Cultural Environment................................................................................................1
Raise the Red Flag..................................................................................................................................1
Introducing Cultural Environment..........................................................................................................2
Back to Basics.........................................................................................................................................2
Shall We Play a Game?...........................................................................................................................4
Web-based........................................................................................................................................5
Fictional game content disguised as reality......................................................................................5
Decentralized content.......................................................................................................................5
Game events occurred outside the web............................................................................................5
Episodic content...............................................................................................................................6
Distributed problem-solving.............................................................................................................6
Interaction between authors and players..........................................................................................6
Line blurred between players and game designers...........................................................................6

The Invisible Playground........................................................................................................................7
Public Spaces....................................................................................................................................8
Real-World Interaction.....................................................................................................................8
Emergent Storytelling.......................................................................................................................9
Meta-Narratives................................................................................................................................9
Current Events................................................................................................................................10
Ideological Environment.......................................................................................................................11
Lived Conflict.................................................................................................................................12
Interventions Shaking It Up...........................................................................................................12
Game Design Fundamentals.................................................................................................................13
The Artificial Question.........................................................................................................................14
Final Framings......................................................................................................................................15
Further Reading....................................................................................................................................16
Summary...............................................................................................................................................16
Commissioned Game 4 — Caribbean Star.......................................................................................................1
Overview.................................................................................................................................................1
Rules.......................................................................................................................................................1
Design Notes...........................................................................................................................................4
Caribbean Star..................................................................................................................................4
Racing Games vs.Fighting Games...................................................................................................5
First Rules Draft...............................................................................................................................6
Playtest Notes...................................................................................................................................9
Final Revisions: Friday June 22, 2001...........................................................................................10
ADDITIONAL READING AND RESOURCES..........................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
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Bibliography........................................................................................................................................................1
List of Games Cited............................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
A..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
B..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
C..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
D..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
E..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
F..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
G..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
H..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
I...............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
J...............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
K..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
L..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
M.............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1

N..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
O..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
P..............................................................................................................................................................1

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Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
Q..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
R..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
S..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
T..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
U..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
V..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
W.............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
Y..............................................................................................................................................................1
Index.....................................................................................................................................................................1
Z..............................................................................................................................................................1

List of Figures......................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 6: Interactivity...........................................................................................................................1
Chapter 8: Defining Digital Games........................................................................................................1
Chapter 10: The Primary Schemas.........................................................................................................1
Chapter 12: Rules on Three Levels.........................................................................................................1
Chapter 13: The Rules of Digital Games................................................................................................1
Chapter 14: Games as Emergent Systems..............................................................................................1
Chapter 15: Games as Systems of Uncertainty.......................................................................................1
Chapter 17: Games as Systems of Information.......................................................................................1
Chapter 18: Games as Cybernetic Systems............................................................................................1
Chapter 19: Games as Game Theory Systems........................................................................................2
Chapter 20: Games as Systems of Conflict.............................................................................................2
Commissioned Game 2 — Ironclad........................................................................................................2
Chapter 22: Defining Play......................................................................................................................2
Chapter 23: Games as the Play of Experience........................................................................................2
Chapter 24: Games as the Play of Pleasure............................................................................................2
Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play.....................................................................................................2
Chapter 27: Games as the Play of Simulation........................................................................................3
Chapter 28: Games as Social Play..........................................................................................................3
Chapter 30: Games as Cultural Rhetoric................................................................................................3
Chapter 31: Games as Open Culture.......................................................................................................3
Chapter 32: Games as Cultural Resistance.............................................................................................4

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List of Tables.......................................................................................................................................................1

Chapter 15: Games as Systems of Uncertainty.......................................................................................1
Chapter 30: Games as Cultural Rhetoric................................................................................................1
List of Sidebars....................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 2: The Design Process...............................................................................................................1
Chapter 5: Systems.................................................................................................................................1
Commissioned Game 1 — Richard Garfield..........................................................................................1
Chapter 11: Defining Rules....................................................................................................................1
Chapter 12: Rules on Three Levels.........................................................................................................1
Chapter 20: Games as Systems of Conflict.............................................................................................1
Commissioned Game 2 — Ironclad........................................................................................................1
Chapter 22: Defining Play......................................................................................................................1
Chapter 24: Games as the Play of Pleasure............................................................................................1
Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play.....................................................................................................2
Chapter 27: Games as the Play of Simulation........................................................................................2
Chapter 28: Games as Social Play..........................................................................................................2
Commissioned Game 3 — Sneak...........................................................................................................2
Chapter 32: Games as Cultural Resistance.............................................................................................2
Commissioned Game 4 — Caribbean Star.............................................................................................2

xiv


Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals
Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
book design and photography | Katie Salen
© 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical
means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing
from the publisher.

This book was set in 8.8-point Myriad by Katie Salen and was printed and bound in the United States of
America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Salen, Katie. Rules of play : game design fundamentals / Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. p.cm. Includes
bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-24045-9 (hc : alk. paper)
1. Computer games-Design. 2. Computer games-Programming. I. Zimmerman, Eric. II. Title.
QA76.76.C672S25 2003 794.8'1526-dc21 2003045923
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To those for whom the game is made.
Mr. Triggs, Tom Ockerse, H.F., and Dad; Enid, Gil, Laura, and Zach
In gratefulness and love.
Thank you to the many individuals who gave their time, expertise, support, friendship, and ideas; tothe game
designers and developers who created the incredible body of work we examined in thecourse of our study,
including Reiner Knizia, James Ernest, Kira Synder, Frank Lantz, and RichardGarfield, who all contributed
original work to this volume; to our fearless readers John Sharp, FrankLantz, Henk van Assen, Ranjit
Bhatnagar, Nancy Nowacek, Mark Owens, Peter Lee, and Julian Kücklich;to our own teachers and students
who helped inspired clarity and invention; to Doug Sery and therest of MIT Press; and most of all to our
families and friends, who waited patiently for us to join themback in the real world. We could not have done it
without you.

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Foreword
For hundreds of years, the field of game design has drifted along under the radar of culture, producing
timeless masterpieces and masterful time-wasters without drawing much attention to itself-without, in fact,
behaving like a "field" at all. Suddenly, powered by the big bang of computer technology, game design has
become a very big deal and the source of some provocative questions about the future of art and
entertainment.
In addressing these questions, the book you are holding raises quite a few of its own. On its surface Rules of
Play appears to be calm and reasonable, carefully laying out a broad theoretical framework for understanding
the field of game design. But beneath this calm surface, the book actually stakes out a controversial position in
a dramatic, ongoing discussion about what games are and what they could become.
In fact, from certain angles this book appears to have the burning impatience of a manifesto. What is the
nature of this impatience? To some extent it is the frustration of workers who are asked to build a cathedral
using only a toothbrush and a staplegun. Games are remarkably complex, both in their internal structure and
in the various kinds of player experiences they create. But there exists no integrated set of conceptual tools for
thinking about games. Until recently, if you were a game designer interested in the theoretical underpinnings
of your field, you would be forced to stitch together a set of perspectives from sociology, anthropology,
psychology, and mathematics, each of which brought its blindman's view of the elephant, and none of which
considered games as a creative domain.
More recently, within the field itself there has emerged a Babel of competing methodologies. Most of these
have a practical focus on the nuts-and-bolts questions of the creative process of game design; few of them
have attempted to ground their insights in a general theoretical system. But the impatience that gives this book
its undercurrent of urgency is more than a response to the field's underdeveloped level of discourse. Why,
after all, does game design need a theoretical framework? There is something more than insight, knowledge,

and understanding at stake here.
Remember that the authors of this book are not just academics looking at games from the outside; they are
themselves active practitioners. Like many people working in this field, they are driven by the feeling that
despite the breathtaking pace of recent technical and commercial advancement, games have remained
creatively stunted. On the one hand, there is a sense of boundless potential, the much-dis-cussed possibility
that games could succeed film as the defining form of popular culture for the new century. On the other hand,
there is the reality of the game store-endless racks of adolescent power fantasies, witless cartoon characters,
and literal-minded sports simulations.
To get a feeling for the sense of potential that fuels this impatience, consider the vast kinds of experiences
games can produce-complex networks of desire and pleasure, anxiety and release, wonder and knowledge.
Games can inspire the loftiest form of cerebral cognition and engage the most primal physical response, often
simultaneously. Games can be pure formal abstractions or wield the richest possible representational
techniques. Games are capable of addressing the most profound themes of human existence in a manner
unlike any other form of com-munication-open-ended, procedural, collaborative; they can be infinitely
detailed, richly rendered, and yet always responsive to the choices and actions of the player.
But where are the games that explore these diverse possibilities? Instead of the rich spectrum of pleasures
games are capable of providing, we seem cursed to suffer an embarrassment of variations on the all-too
familiar pleasures of running and jumping, of Hide and Go Seek and Tag, of Easter egg hunts and Cops and
Robbers. And what happened to the explosion of formal experimentation during the early days of computer
games? For a while it seemed that every other title was a fresh attempt to answer the question "What can you
do with a computer?" Compare that with the current crop of computer games, the majority of which seem to
be addressing the question "What can you do while controlling an avatar that is moving through a simulated
three-dimensional space?"

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Foreword

This, then, is what is at stake: a vast discrepancy between the radical possibilities contained in the medium
and the conservative reality of mainstream game development. And this is the way in which Rules of Play is
more than a conceptual analysis of what games do; it is also an examination of what they can do, and by
extension what they should do.
One of the implications of Rules of Play's approach to its subject is that the proper way to understand games is
from an aesthetic perspective, in the same way that we address fields such as architecture, literature, or film.
This should not be confused with the domain of visual aesthetics, which is simply one facet of a game's
creative content. Like film, which uses dramatic storytelling, visual composition, sound design, and the
complex dynamic organizational process of editing in the construction of a single work, the field of game
design has its own unique aesthetic.
As laid out in the following pages, the real domain of game design is the aesthetics of interactive systems.
Even before computers existed, creating games meant designing dynamic systems for players to inhabit.
Every game, from Rock-Paper-Scissors to The Sims and beyond is a space of possibility that the players
explore. Defining this space is the collaborative work of the game design process.
Rules of Play is perhaps the first serious attempt to lay out an aesthetic approach to the design of interactive
systems. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, interactive systems surround us not just as the material
reality of our lives but also as a key conceptual model for understanding the world and our place in it, just as
mechanical systems did for the Victorians. This is one reason that the importance of this book's project should
not be underestimated.
There is a reasonable oppositional perspective to the one I have imputed to the authors of Rules of Play. It
goes something like this: all of this talk about aesthetics smacks of pretension and self-aggrandizement.
Games are recreation, their purpose is to amuse us, and we shouldn't expected them to achieve profound levels
of creative expression or relentlessly push creative boundaries. They are simply entertainment.
There isn't much that you can say to this argument except to point out that pop culture has a surprising way of
moving back and forth between the trivial and the profound. One person's harmless waste of time might be
another's bid for tran-scendence-and games are certainly one of the best examples of how entertainment can
be far from simple. In any event, the argument itself molds the subject of this debate. If enough people believe

that games are meant to be mindless fun, then this is what they will become. If enough people believe that
games are capable of greater things, then they will inevitably evolve and advance.
We know that games are getting very big, very fast. But it is too early to tell exactly what direction their
evolution will take. At this stage the entire field has the unpredictable energy of something enormous,
balanced on one thin edge, still vulnerable to the effects of even a slight pressure. Under the guise of
examining this curious object, the authors of Rules of Play are giving it an energetic shove.
Of course, if you are holding this book then you also have a hand in it yourself.

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Foreword


Preface
People love pong.
They do. But why?
Really. What's to love? There isn't much to the game: a pair of paddles move two blunt white lines on either
side of a black screen, a blocky excuse for a ball bounces between them, and if you miss the ball, your
opponent scores a point. The first player to score fifteen points wins. Big deal. Yet despite its almost primitive
simplicity, Pong creates meaningful play.
In video game years, Pong is ancient. Originally designed by Ralph Baer for the Magnavox Odyssey home
video game system, in 1972 Pong was engineered into an arcade machine and a home console by Nolan
Bushnell and Atari. It is no exaggeration to say that Pong was an overnight sensation. The first prototype was
released to the public in a bar called Andy Capp's, in Sunnyvale, California, near the Atari headquarters.
According to computer game historians, the first night that the glowing TV monitor and cabinet were installed
in a corner of the bar, patrons were intrigued but confused. The instructions read only, Avoid missing ball for
high score. Someone familiar with quarter-operated pinball machines eventually plunked in a coin and

watched the ball shoot from side to side as the scores racked up. One of the players finally nudged a paddle,
and the ball bounced off with a satisfying "pong" sound. That was enough to tell them what to do, and they
began to play. By the end of the first game, both players had learned to volley. By the end of the first night,
everyone in the bar had tried a game or two. The next morning, a line had formed outside Andy Capp's:
people couldn't wait to play more Pong.[1]
Pong is still alive and well today. You can play Pong via emulators and in Internet banner ads. Clever
homages to Pong such as Battle Pong and Text Pong thrive on the web. Pong features prominently in classic
gaming flea markets and fan con-ventions.The game publisher Infogrames released a souped-up, 3D version
of Pong a few years ago. Most importantly, the original is still fun to play. When the Super Pong Games IV at
gameLab is hooked up to the TV, it never fails to gather a crowd.
All of which brings us back to the question: Why? Why do people love Pong?
Although this is not a book about Pong, or about computer and video games, it is a book about game design. It
is crucial for game designers to understand why people play games and why some games are so well-loved.
Why do people play
It is simple to play. The one-line instructions and intuitive knob interface makes Pong
approachable and easy to understand. There are no hidden features to unlock or special moves
to learn.
Every game is unique. Because the ball can travel anywhere on the screen, Pong is an
open-ended game with endless possibilities. Pong rewards dedicated play: it is easy to learn,
but difficult to master.
It is an elegant representation. Pong is, after all, a depiction of another game: Table Tennis.
The abstracted nature of Pong, where your avatar is reduced to a single white line, creates an
immediately satisfying physical and perceptual relationship to the game.
It is social. It takes two to play Pong. Through playing the game, you interact with another
human being. Pong's social circle also extends beyond two players: it makes a great spectator
sport.
It is fun. Simple though it may seem, it is genuinely fun to interact with Pong. Players derive
pleasure from the game for many different reasons, from the pleasure of competition and
Preface

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Preface
winning to the satisfyingly tactile manipulation of the knob.
It is cool. As a cultural artifact, Pong is a poster child for the hip, low-fi graphics of classic
arcade gaming. It evokes nostalgia for afternoons spent in the living-room with friends,
huddled around the TV playing video games, eating Cheetos and swigging Mountain Dew.
People love Pong for all of these reasons and more. The interactive, representational, social,
and cultural aspects of Pong simultaneously contribute to the experience of play. Games are
as complex as any other form of designed culture; fully to appreciate them means
understanding them from multiple perspectives.

Pong and the games of its time did something revolutionary. They turned the one-way interactivity of the
television on its head, transforming viewers into players, permitting them not just to watch a media image, but
to play with it. This two-way electronic communication engaged players in hours of meaningful interaction,
achieved through the design of a white ball bouncing back and forth on a simple black screen. Although Pong
was the product of technical innovation and a unique economic vision, it was also an act of game design.
As game designers, have we fully taken into account the implications of this revolutionary act? Do we really
understand the medium in which we work or the field of design to which we belong? Can we articulate what it
is that generates meaningful play in any game, whether a video game, a board game, a crossword puzzle, or an
athletic contest?
The truth? Not yet. Compare game design to other forms of design, such as architecture or graphic design.
Because of its status as an emerging discipline, game design hasn't yet crystallized as a field of inquiry. It
doesn't have its own section in the library or bookstore. You can't (with a few exceptions) get a degree in it.
The culture at large does not yet see games as a noble, or even particularly useful, endeavor. Games are one of
the most ancient forms of designed human interactivity, yet from a design perspective, we still don't really
know what games are.

Our hope is that this book will inform and inspire those interested in designing games. Its purpose is to help
game designers create their own games, their own concepts, their own design strategies and methodologies.
The ideas and examples we offer represent one way of looking closely at games, with room for more to come.
Pong is just the beginning.
This is why we were compelled to write this book: not to define, once and for all, what game design is, but to
provide critical tools for understanding games. Not to claim and colonize the unexplored terrain of game
design, but to scout out some of its features so that other game designers can embark on their own
expeditions. We hope that this book will be a catalyst, a facilitator, a kick in the ass. Take these concepts and
run with them, quickly, meaningfully, with the same kind of joy that the very first players of Pong must have
felt.
We're all in this together. Are you ready to play?
Katie Salen and Eric
Zimmerman New York City, May 2003
[1]Scott

Cohen, Zap: The Rise and Fall of Atari (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984), p. 17.

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Preface


Chapter 1: What Is This Book About?
Overview
This book is about games, all kinds of games: paper-based strategy games and first person shooters, classical
board games and glitzy gambling games; math puzzles and professional sports; austere text adventures and
giggly teenage party games. This book links these diverse play activities within a common framework-a

framework based in game design.
In The Study of Games, Brian Sutton-Smith writes, "Each person defines games in his own way-the
anthropologists and folklorists in terms of historical origins; the military men, businessmen, and educators in
terms of usages; the social scientists in terms of psychological and social functions. There is overwhelming
evidence in all this that the meaning of games is, in part, a function of the ideas of those who think about
them."[1] What, meaning, then, does the game designer bring to the study of games? What does it mean to
look at games from a game design perspective?
To answer this question, we first need to clarify what we mean by "game designer." A game designer is a
particular kind of designer, much like a graphic designer, industrial designer, or architect. A game designer is
not necessarily a programmer, visual designer, or project manager, although sometimes he or she can also
play these roles in the creation of a game. A game designer might work alone or as part of a larger team. A
game designer might create card games, social games, video games, or any other kind of game. The focus of a
game designer is designing game play, conceiving and designing rules and structures that result in an
experience for players.
Thus game design, as a discipline, requires a focus on games in and of themselves. Rather than placing games
in the service of another field such as sociology, literary criticism, or computer science, our aim is to study
games within their own disciplinary space. Because game design is an emerging discipline, we often borrow
from other areas of knowledge- from mathematics and cognitive science; from semiotics and cultural studies.
We may not borrow in the most orthodox manner, but we do so in the service of helping to establish a field of
game design proper.
This book is about game design, not game development. It is not a "how to" book, offering tips and tricks for
making successful digital games. It is not a book about digital game programming or choosing development
tools; it is not about writing design documents or generating game ideas. And it is definitely not about
development team dynamics or about funding, marketing, and distributing games. As a book on game design
it is not a general introduction to games, a history of games, or a journalistic account of the people and
circumstances that create games. There are plenty of books that cover all of these topics very well.
Instead, Rules of Play provides something altogether different. Bridging the theoretical and practical aspects
of making games, we look closely at games as designed systems, discovering patterns within their complexity
that bring the challenges of game design into full view. As we explore game design as a design practice, we
outline not only the concepts behind the creation of meaningful play (a core idea of this book), but also

concrete methods for putting these concepts to use in your games. Written with the interests and needs of
practicing designers, students, and educators in mind, our approach comes from our own experience of
designing games, playing games, and teaching game design.
But the book is not just for game designers. In writing Rules of Play, we quickly realized that it has direct
application to fields outside game design. The concepts and models, case studies, exercises, and
bibliographies can be useful to interactive designers, architects, product designers, and other creators of
interactive systems. Similarly, our focus on understanding games in and of themselves can benefit the
emerging academic study of games in fields as diverse as sociology, media studies, and cultural policy.
Engagement with ideas, like engagement with a game, is all about the play the ideas make possible. Even if
you are not a game designer, we think you will find something here that lets you play with your own line of
Chapter 1: What Is This Book About?

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Chapter 1: What Is This Book About?

work in a new way.
[1]E.M.

Avedon, "The Structural Elements of Games," In The Study of Games, edited by E.M. Avedon and
Brian Sutton-Smith (New York: Wiley, 1971), p. 438.

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Establishing a Critical Discourse
One way to describe the project of this book is to say that we are working to establish a critical discourse for

game design. We agree with veteran game designer Warren Spector that "It is absolutely vital that we start to
build a vocabulary that allows us to examine, with some degree of precision, how games evoke
emotional-intellectual responses in players".[2] As a nascent field of inquiry, there are not yet well-developed
ways of talking about games and how they function.
What is the point of establishing a critical discourse? Simply put, a critical vocabulary lets us talk to each
other. It lets us share ideas and knowledge, and in doing so, expands the borders of our emerging field. Media
theorist and game scholar Henry Jenkins identifies four ways that building a critical discourse around games
can assist not just game designers, but the field as a whole:
• Training: A common language facilitates the education of game designers, letting them explore their
medium in more variety and depth.
• Generational Transfer: Within the field, a disciplinary vocabulary lets game designers and developers
pass on skills and knowledge, rather than solving the same problems over and over in isolation.
• Audience-building: In finding a way to speak about them, games can be reviewed, critiqued, and
advertised to the public in more sophisticated ways.
• Buffer Against Criticism: There are many factions that would seek to censor and regu late the content
and contexts for gaming, particularly computer and video games. A critical discourse gives us the
vocabulary and understanding to defend against these attacks.[3]
Creating a critical discourse requires that we look at games and the game design process from the ground up,
proposing methods for the analysis of games, assessing what makes a great game great, and asking questions
about what games are and how they function. The result is a deeper understanding of game design that can
lead to genuine innovation in the practice of making games.
Part of creating a critical discourse is defining concepts, but arriving at such a vocabulary is no simple task,
for it involves creating definitions for words that often thread their way through multiple and contradictory
contexts. One challenge of our project has been formulating a set of definitions for terms such as "game,"
"design," "interactivity," "system," "play," and "culture," terms that form the foundation of our critical
vocabulary. As we explore the largely uncharted terrain of game design, definitions stake out boundaries, the
way a set of points define a plane in space.
Practically speaking, defining terms is useful. But an overemphasis on definitions can be dangerous. Held in
too orthodox a manner, definitions become a way of shutting down communication and insight. For us, a
definition is not a closed or scientific representation of "reality." For a designer, the value of a definition is its

ability to serve as a critical tool for understanding and solving design problems. In other words, by including
definitions, our intention is not to exclude other definitions that might complement or contradict our own. We
wholeheartedly acknowledge that our definitions, concepts, and models leave some things out and work better
in some circumstances than others. But this doesn't lessen their overall utility.

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Chapter 1: What Is This Book About?

3

It is often along the seams and cracks formed when competing definitions bump up against one another that
new ideas are born. Our hope for game design is that it becomes a field as rich as any other, filled with vibrant
discussion and dialogue as well as virulent debate and disagreement.
[2]RE:PLAY:

Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference, 2000. <www.eyebeam.org.replay>

[3]"Computer

and Video Games Come of Age. A National Conference to Explore the Current State of an
Entertainment Medium." February 10-11, 2000. Comparative Media Studies Department, MIT. Transcripts.
Henry Jenkins.

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Ways of Looking
A game is a particular way of looking at something, anything. -Clark C. Abt, Serious Games
Social theorist Clark C. Abt makes a powerful suggestion. In his claim that a game is a particular way of
looking at something, at anything, we find inspiration for our own approach to game design. How can we use
games as a way to understand aesthetics, communication, culture, and other areas of our world that seem so
intertwined with games? Conversely, how can we use our understanding of these areas to enrich our practice
of designing games? Too often, analyses and readings of games simply do not do justice to their complexity.
Game designer and theorist Jesper Juul has made the comment that theories about games tend to fall into two
camps: Everything is a game ("War is a game; politics are a game; life is a game; everything is a game!") or
Games are X ("Games are an interactive storytelling medium.";"Games are how a child learns about
rules.").[4]
If games are not everything, nor just one thing, what are they? Perhaps they are many things. It would be
strange for us to say, for example, that poetry is storytelling. Although storytelling is one way of
understanding poetry, it is just one of many possible perspectives. We could also explore poetry formally,
within the context of rhyme and meter, or historically, with an emphasis on printing technologies. Each of
these perspectives offers a valid way of looking at poetry-yet utilizing just one of them gives access to only
part of the total picture. On the other hand, these frames, and many others, considered together begin to sketch
out the heterogeneous and multifaceted cultural phenomena called poetry. In Rules of Play, this is exactly
what we do with games. Our general strategy is to provide multiple points of view for understanding. In doing
so, we hope to avoid the common pitfalls Juul mentions while being true to the complex and polymorphous
nature of games.
Is this approach appropriate for design? Absolutely. In his book Notes on the Synthesis of Form, architect
Christopher Alexander wrestles with the challenges of design, describing a methodology that centers on the
inherent complexity of design problems. His argument is based in part on the assumption that clarity in form
cannot be achieved until there is first clarity in the designer's mind and actions. Alexander asks us to consider
the range of factors affecting the design of a kettle.
Let us look again at just what kind of difficulty the designer faces. Take, for example, the
design of a simple kettle. He has to invent a kettle, which fits the context of its use. It must
not be too small. It must not be hard to pick up when it is hot. It must not be easy to let go of
by mistake. It must not be hard to store in the kitchen. It must not be hard to get the water out

of. It must pour cleanly. It must not let the water in it cool too quickly. The material it is made
out of must not cost too much. It must be able to withstand the temperature of boiling water.
It must not be too hard to clean on the outside. It must not be a shape which is too hard to
Chapter 1: What Is This Book About?

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