"I've been waiting for a book like this for ten years: packed with game design
goodness that tackles the science without undermining the art."  — Richard Bartle

This is a book about games at their deepest level. No matter how good a game looks, it won't be fun if its mechanics are boring or unbalanced. Game Mechanics will show you how to design, test, and tune the core mechanics of a game—any game. Along the way, we'll use many examples from real games that you may know: Pac-Man, Monopoly, Civilization, StarCraft II, and others.

We also provide you with two unique features that you won't find in any other textbook on game design. One is a new free tool called Machinations that you can use to visualize and simulate game mechanics on your own computer, without writing any code or using a spreadsheet.

The other unique feature of Game Mechanics is our design pattern library. We have assembled a collection of classic patterns in various categories: engines of growth, friction, and escalation, plus additional mechanisms that create stability cycles, arms races, trading systems, and many more. You can load them in the Machinations Tool and see how they work.

If you are a bona fide instructor in higher education based in the US,
please follow this link to order a free evaluation copy (registration and verification of status required). If you teach elsewhere, please contact me.

A few unsolicited testimonials:

Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Joris Dormans & Ernest Adams formalizes game grammar quite well. Not sure I need to write a next book now!

- Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design

Wonderful book...I've been recommending it to everyone I chat with. You really have shown a bright light on internal economies in a way I think will stand the test of time.  The patterns in particular have been useful since I use many of these on a regular basis but I've never had the ability to verbalize the underlying components.

- Daniel Cook, Chief Creative Officer at Spry Fox

Once I read Game Mechanics by Joris Dormans and Ernest Adams, it became much easier for me to think about game design in terms of interacting feedback loops. Being able to actually visualise these interactions with a diagram made the whole process much more efficient. I have a non -trivial design on my plate right now, and I've made as much progress in a day as I would normally make in a week.

- Jacek Wesołowski, Game Designer at QLOC

First-Level Table of Contents

This table of contents shows the chapter titles and level 1 headings. Most sections have several subheadings as well.

Introduction

Who Is This Book For?
How Is This Book Organized?
Companion Website

1 Designing Game Mechanics

Rules Define Games
Discrete Mechanics vs. Continuous Mechanics
Mechanics and the Game Design Process
Prototyping Techniques
Exercises

2 Emergence and Progression

The History of Emergence and Progression
Comparing Emergence and Progression
Games of Emergence
Games of Progression
Structural Differences
Emergence and Progression Integration
Exercise

3 Complex Systems and the Structure of Emergence

Gameplay as an Emergent Property of Games
Structural Qualities of Complex Systems
Harnessing Emergence in Games
Exercises

4 Internal Economy

Elements of Internal Economies
Economic Structure
Uses for Internal Economies in Games
Exercises

5 Machinations

The Machinations Framework
Machinations Diagram Basic Elements
Advanced Node Types
Modeling Pac-Man
Exercises

6 Common Mechanisms

More Machinations Concepts
Feedback Structures in Games
Randomness vs. Emergence
Example Mechanics
Exercises

7 Design Patterns

Introducing Design Patterns
Machinations Design Pattern Language
Leveraging Patterns for Design
Exercises

8 Simulating and Balancing Games

Simulated Play Tests
Playing with Monopoly
Balancing SimWar
From Model to Game
Exercises

9 Building Economies

Economy-Building Games
Analyzing Caesar III
Designing Lunar Colony
Exercises

10 Integrating Level Design and Mechanics

From Toys to Playgrounds
Missions and Game Spaces
Learning to Play
Exercises

11 Progression Mechanisms

Lock-and-Key Mechanisms
Emergent Progression
Exercises

12 Meaningful Mechanics

Serious Games
Communication Theory
The Semiotics of Games and Simulations
Multiple Layers of Meaning
Exercises

Appendix A: Machinations Quick Reference

Appendix B: Design Pattern Library

Static Engine
Dynamic Engine
Converter Engine
Engine Building
Static Friction
Dynamic Friction
Stopping Mechanism
Attrition
Escalating Challenge
Escalating Complexity
Arms Race
Playing Style Reinforcement
Multiple Feedback
Trade
Worker Placement
Slow Cycle

Appendix C: Getting Started with Machinations

References

Index