We stated before that a game contains a system. From here on out, we will mainly be talking about properties of the system that is the basis of the game, which is to say the objective component of the game. While the psychological result of a game is essential, describing a framework for a game’s objective features is difficult enough. We will keep the subjective experience of a player to a minimum, as this depends greatly on the taste of the player.
We have always loved video games, although they are quite complex beasts. Many writers have taken a go at describing the essence of video games, the likes of Jesper Juul, Daniel Primed, and Richard Terrell (and many more to come). Each writer has a fascinating and valuable perspective, so it is our desire that the general framework for our system can explain each perspective. As such, the ultimate goal is to embed views of different authors into the game analysis schema.
Our framework consists of two tiers. The first tier is game design, the actual designation of elements and rules in defining the “gamespace”. The second tier is level design, the allocation of elements to encourage exploration of the system.
The language we will use to express a game’s system will be modal logic. Mathematical models will be useful as well.