Practical Game Design

Emergent gameplay

Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics. It might be part of the initial vision the designer imagined, the result of an attentive design focused on how emergent gameplay could happen. Or it can be something even the designer did not expect. Usually, good games designed with a clear vision of how emergent gameplay could flourish from the core mechanics end up having both those types of emergent gameplay.

Designing mechanics that are disconnected from each other, without any vision as to how they could kickstart emergence, usually results in a chaotic maelstrom of useless mechanics, with no actual ways to interact.

A great example of emergent ...