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CHAPTER 2
GAME PLAY AND
GAME MECHANICS
In the last chapter there was frequent mention of “game play” and
“game mechanics,” but there was no denition of what those terms
mean. In this chapter, the focus is on the elements that make up game
play and how the designer needs to dene those elements in detail in
the game documentation.
Too oen, a novice designer spends more time in design docu-
ments on story development rather than on how things will actu-
ally work in the game world. How the elements of game play hang
together is assumed instead of discussed. So, the novice designer
might simply mention in passing that there is a combat ...