Rules
The Big Bang caused quite a fuzz back then... Atoms, particles, physics, chemistry... and finally: rules.
The whole Universe is "ruled" by them, I mean, really. After some billions of years The Sun now rises and falls (can't change that) the moon has its phases (don't change) and gravity... well, we don't even fully understand it properly to begin with.
So why in the world is a blog about Game Design talking about Science? What's to take from it if we're studying Games?
Maybe more than you know...
Patterns
As sentient beings, we humans have a huge sensitivity for patterns. Unlike other animals, we perceive nature from a completely different perspective. Since the dawn of human conscience (whatever that may be) some things started to make sense, and others, not so much.
Math, time, music, all we can define in cycles, loops and rhythm was very helpful to start understanding the world around us. From tribes management to rituals, everything seemed to be following these "rules". So finding those patterns (when to hunt, where to spend the night, when to crop) was vital for our well being and for everyone else.
But perhaps, the most important lesson that patterns taught us was the ability to learn from the past, and be able not only to foresee the future, but to create it.
Systems
If you observe a single ant, it ain't anything near remarkable. Now go visit its nest and contemplate the structure, complexity and all the connections built by those little things. That's something, my friend.
As soon as we discovered the power of influence of an individual part in the whole picture of things, everything changed. Fire, the wheel, communication, tribes, agriculture... all of that was only possible because of our ability to recognize and organize patterns within functional structures called systems.
Noticing this tiny detail, that many pieces working together can cooperate following logical rules in order to generate a specific outcome, was a breakthrough. Now, society was ready to create some of the most iconic pieces of entertainment of our culture: Games.
Trinity
So: Rules, Patterns and Systems. Why games originate from those three basic mechanisms? Are this the only components of games? Why is this relevant for society?
Our species has always been busy. Hunting, running away, hiding, surviving... As soon as we started controlling our environment, eating cooked food and using more sophisticated tools, we had more time and energy to create. It's at this point that our routines shifted from a primitive survival priority way of thinking to a more loose, free and inspiring manner of looking at things.
We started having ideas.
Tools, behaviors, communication, everything that nature offered and that we created began to relate to each other, like a very elegant system. Of course, we couldn't see all the possibilities but the chance of an idea crossing each other was inevitable. Since free time and safety were at our disposal now, we could think of other things to do besides propagating the species.
As kids, we love to play. We experiment with everything we see and touch, and as the years go by, we learn to interact with other kids. We run, we jump, tackle, poke, step on, hide and seek and we smile more frequently. The world and it's patterns are unknown to us, that's why we explore as kids, we have to learn about things and about people. Learning is fun.
The probability that the first game designer was a kid is very high. Kids create games all the time. Take a rock, give to somebody, expect to get it back. That can be a game...
- It has rules: take, and give an object.
- It has patterns: a different person holds the rock each time
- It has a system: the rock is moved within it
As kids get older, they start learning in a much slower rate. Almost everything is already familiar, and the challenges of being bigger are kind of boring if you ask me. That's why artificial challenges can be a revolution in the way we perceive reality.
Dimensions
Our brain is hardwired much like our digestive system. It needs a fuel. Once we become addicted to cognitive pleasure and amusement of our own intelligence, we wanna know what to do with it and most importantly, what are the limits.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." Albert Einstein
This caused such a huge shift about the perception of what can be real or not, that it's even hard to think about it today. When we started playing with rules and patterns of interactions between people, objects and the world around us, a thing called Games was born.
Just like a communication system, games created their own set of possibilities, with agreements and actions thought to provoke our logical assumption of things, to challenge specific set of individual skills and make any grown up human feeling like a child again.
Fast forward 200.000 years.
We learned a lot. And all those basic principles continue to be explored in many ways and forms analogically and digitally.
Paper-based strategy games, first person shooters, classical board games, gambling games, math puzzles, professional sports, text adventures, party games, you name it. They're everywhere and we love'em. We love them because it's Fun to Play them. We play games to do things we wouldn't, to feel powerful and to accomplish something we would rather not actually do or be able to in the real world.
And this is just at the tip of the iceberg.
The Future
Games are unpredictable. That's the beauty about them. If we all knew the outcome of a soccer game why bother watching the World Cup?
Game possibilities then, are infinite! We could live in all possible Universes and still not be able to play all the games that were, are being and will be created. And here is where it gets tricky: what to do? Is there a magic formula to create the perfect game experience? Well, even if there were one, I honestly wouldn't care. Because games are so much more than rules, patterns and systems, there is a whole dimension to explore, so many ideas and ways to create experiences we can't even think of today.
We live in exciting times for games and technology. Tomorrow is as unknown as a dark night 200.000 years ago, and I love that. It means that we have uncharted oceans to explore, far away lands to conquer and new horizons to sail through.
This is our Mission.
Here, at Game Design Wizard we will not only imagine new game mechanics, but rather, create revolutionary experiences with the full potential of Games.
So... Are you ready?
Because we will do it. Together.
Thank You
for reading!
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