The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses

Game designers tend to believe that mechanics are primary; artists tend to believe the same about aesthetics; engineers, technology; and writers, story.

Side effects that change constraints.

pleasure of entering the magic circle — of leaving the real world behind, and entering into a new, more enjoyable, set of rules and meaning.

Interest curve patterns can be fractal.

sometimes you need the innate complexity to simulate a real-world situation,

Key Question: “Do the playtesters enjoy the game enough?”

Females tend to be more interested in mastery when it has a meaningful purpose.

Mechanics: These are the procedures and rules of your game. Mechanics describe the goal of your game, how players can and cannot try to achieve it, and what happens when they try.

Does my game have clear goals? If not, how can I fix that? • Are the goals of the player the same goals I intended? • Are there parts of the game that distract players to the point they forget their goal? If so, can these distractions be reduced, or tied into the game goals?