Game Mechanics Quotes

“Entities that store one value are called simple entities. Compound entities are groups of related simple entities, so a compound entity can contain more than one value. For example, a unit in a strategy game normally includes many simple entities that describe its health, damage capability, maximum speed, and so on. Collectively, these make up a compound entity, and the simple entities that make it up are known as its attributes. Thus, a unit’s health is an attribute of the unit.”
― Ernest Adams, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design

“Economies about money are called market economies. But we use the term in a more abstract way to refer to any kind of system in which resources—of any type—can be produced, exchanged, and consumed.”
― Ernest Adams, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design

“In contrast, games of progression offer many predesigned challenges that the designer has ordered sequentially, usually through sophisticated level design.”
― Ernest Adams, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design

“Don’t confuse the term games of progression with other ideas about progression in games, such as leveling up, difficulty curves, skill trees, and so on. We use Juul’s definition of the term: A game of progression is one that offers predesigned challenges, each of which often has exactly one solution, in a fixed (or only slightly variable) sequence.”
― Ernest Adams, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design