What in my game is truly random? What parts just feel random? • Does the randomness give the players

the core of playing and winning games is mastering abstract formal systems,

Are the theme and story going to be appealing to consumers? Is the game so easily explainable

many games are built on top of toys.

for hidden power. Ask yourself these questions: • What is it about my game that feels powerful and special? • When I describe my game to people, what ideas get them really excited? • If I had no constraints of any kind, what would this game be like? • I have certain instincts about how this game should be. What is driving those instincts?

attributes and their states are the adjectives.

A game is something you play.

A puzzle is a game with a dominant strategy.

It is not enough to merely understand the various game elements and how they interrelate with one another — you must always consider how they relate to the experience. This is one of the great challenges of game design: to simultaneously feel the experience of your game while understanding which elements and elemental interactions are causing that