Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design

Defining Gameplay

Although we briefly discussed (and loosely defined) gameplay in Chapter 2, “Game Concepts,” we did so in terms of the player experience. To continue, we examine gameplay independent of the player experience. We examine the core concepts of gameplay, which are invariant with the player. To do this, we need to state a player-independent definition of gameplay. Sid Meier once defined gameplay as “a series of interesting choices.” This is an excellent starting point and forms the basis of our definition of gameplay. We take this statement one step further with our formal definition of gameplay:

One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment.

On the surface, this does not seem that far removed from Sid ...