Week 11 – The Elements Of Game Design – Gameplay

Gameplay…where do I start, I mean this has some many different meanings so I am just going to tell you my perception of Gameplay. I would say gameplay is the game ultimately. You play the game because you want to interact in a particular way. Designers have a variety of bringing gameplay into games; I guess you just call it genre. In each genre gameplay is completely different to another game i.e. action/adventure and football simulator, these two completely games but you judge them on gameplay.

I guess it is a environment set with rules as you given something which make you think about your next move because you know in this game you cant jump over the mountain or destroy the wall with rocket launcher because this then would compromise the progression of the story or laws, so you are always given a environment were you always have to think about how got to achieve the next goal.

Games such as Grand Theft Auto, your given a massive map and maybe even two and you can go anywhere you want and whatever you but effectively your still in this same map going around in circle, but to achieve the goal you complete objectives.

Devil May Cry, the character is a sword-wielding, gun slinging hot shot that basically do everything, that’s what they show you in the cut scenes. But in the game apart from swords and guns demolition, everything else is restricted like his ability to smash through walls, and destroy a demon with a single swipe 100 ft in the air are not available, why you ask, because its not necessary, although it would be cool if you could but the main objective is to achieve the goal and have a blast doing it.

Gameplay is extremely important, as I said before it is effectively the game itself. Without it you would basically have an empty shell.