Game Design

Game Design

What is a game?

Firstly, I would like to talk about the question of what a game actually is. It is very easy to jump to conclusions when we think about games. Personally, when I think about what is and isn't a game, I think of first-person-shooters on my PlayStation or Apps on my smartphone. In reality, the word game defines a much wider spectrum of activities. It is very easy to only think about the electronic video games that saturate the "market" of games. 

In order to distinguish what is a game and what is not, we must consider a few factors in order to make that decision. These factors include:
-Rules
-Goals
-Conflict
-Artificial
-Decision-making
-Activity
-No material game
-Voluntary
-Uncertain outcome
-Artistic
-Simulation
-Systems
In reality, there are an enormous amount of properties that need to be considered when trying to define a game. At least these are a few factors that we can try to use in order to define what is and isn't a game. It is obvious that some "games" do not adhere to these factors but this does not mean that it is not entirely a game. 

What is game design?

Game design is a huge area media development. Game design is such a flexible phrase in the way that also all of the specific fields of work that contribute to "designing" a game can be described by using this phrase. 

One specific area of game design is system design. This contributes to the actual system of the game such as the rules, what can the players interact with in the game and the resolution of the game. Again, just like the definition of what a game actually is, game design is a very broad phase for the work that goes into creating a game and it can be specified into different areas of work. 

Image Information:
Screenshot of FPS game: http://technicalgamedesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/aim-systems-in-first-person-shooters.html
Items of interest: 
https://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game
http://hippasus.com/resources/gameandlearn/slides/1_WhatIsAGame.pdf