Practical Game Design

Mechanic 6 – chance

Chance is the sixth fundamental category of game mechanics. Chance adds unpredictability to a game experience, increasing replay value and diversifying gameplay. Games that include an element of chance leverage one of the basic human emotions: surprise. People like to be surprised, to experience unpredictable events and to challenge themselves predicting outcomes. In fact, Schell notes that the ability to predict outcomes is a skill in and of itself.