Introduction to Game Systems Design

Chapter 1

Games and Players: Defined

To begin learning any topic, it’s important to agree on terminology. This chapter defines a number of terms in order to establish a common vocabulary to use throughout this book. This chapter begins by providing working definitions of game and game player and then looks at a functional definition in detail that we can use to differentiate what is a game from what is similar to a game. Furthermore, we break down the various attributes that define game players in a practical way that you can use to guide your game development.

Defining Game

We need to define what a game is before we can define game systems designers or game data designers. While you could philosophically argue that “Life is a game” or “The ...