Game mechanics form an integral part of the entire game development process. A game development consists of multiple parts such as game designing, character designing, game mechanics development, gamification, and more. The gameplay is what describes the rules of the game whether it is among players or players interacting with a gaming environment. What makes a game stand out is the gameplay – rules, strategies, goals that describe the fundamentals of a game. The gameplay is a core concept that often unrelines the broader concept of game mechanics. Game mechanics, on the other hand, provides a bunch of tools and constructs which could be imagined as a set of rules to enable gameplay.
Often game dynamics are confused with game mechanics and an important distinction between the two is critical for one’s understanding in order to dig deeper into why game mechanics is so crucial. While game dynamics involve how the game evolves over a period of time, game mechanics is more to do with rules that define game dynamics. For example, some players might be more willing to collaborate while others compete. At Juego Studios, game mechanics are emphasized to a great extent which makes the game developers better equipped to create wonderful games that have earned strong positive reviews over the years.
Often while playing a game, you must have noticed that a specific level remains locked until a player attains success in a previous attempt or stage. Reinforced learning also is a key concept in adaptive learning games where feedback is passed on to the player based on his moves. A positive feedback implies that the player has taken a step in the right direction while negative feedback implies the contrary. This feature of a game is what makes it a learning and interactive environment. What makes a hyper-casual game successful is what is often captured by the KISS metric – keep it simple and short.
Timing is one of the most important aspects in a game. It is the precision of a move through the tap of a screen at the exact right moment that determines the success of your game. Whether it is hitting a ball, shooting a balloon or avoiding a crash while driving. These games are great sources of fun to play; however, they throw a lot of challenges for the creator.
Unlike the timing mechanics, puzzle mechanics de-prioritize the time component and emphasize more on the logical thinking agility of the players. Such games often consist of steps that require moving pieces of blocks and arranging them in a particular fashion in order to complete an incomplete task. For example, if you want to create a design out of boulders, you would need to arrange them in a specific fashion, the timing is not that critical.
Generally the difficulty level evolves gradually and often involves increasing the complexity with the same components instead of changing the overall composition that makes up a trick.
In such game mechanics, the key distinguishing feature is that objects generally fall from the sky. Success is achieved by stacking such dynamically moving objects in a pre-assigned fashion. Often the objects can be rotated and stacked vertically or horizontally. It is often left to the player whether he has control over the timing of the object falling or whether the fall is completely automatic.
Such games involve moving objects through the sliding and swiping actions of your fingers on the screen. Most games that involve driving or a roller coaster would require swerving mechanics where the player needs to master a certain level of precision to swipe from left to right and uniquely position their fingers such that the car or vehicle does not crash against a wall, a fence or have a head-on collision with another object.
Games that are characterized by resizing mechanics are often the ones that involve growing or shrinking of objects to overcome a certain obstacle on the path. Obstacle races are a perfect example of such games. The way soldiers are trained in camps often involves such moves in a reality where they need to flex their muscles in order to squeeze their bodies through narrowly slit gaps or stretch their flexes to combat an imminent obstacle.
The key difference between swerving mechanics and turning mechanics in a game is that swerving in a game does not allow you much room to lift your finger from the screen whereas the former game mechanics allow you to lift your hands from the screen. Both of these two mechanics use left to right movements with fingers on the screen.
This type of game mechanics is best suited for games that involve the last man standing type of concept. In such mechanics, a player is often involved with pushing other players or objects that come along their path. The survival of the fittest in the game is critical for winning such games.
Such game mechanics are often closest to the timing mechanics where the precision of swiping or movement of your fingers on the screenplays a critical role in determining the success of the game. What differentiates a dexterity mechanic from a timing mechanic is that the former involves much more complicated and repetitive motions than what is involved in games with pure time mechanics. These types of games are often more complex to succeed with.
These games often involve directing a single or a bunch of objects in one particular direction in order to let them pass. Examples of such games could include controlling the direction of a flowing set of balls through a narrow passage that leads into one after the other.
Such games are often involved with matching and identifying the right colors and being able to pair them together. A popular game following such game mechanics is the snake approaching food.
Game mechanics is oriented towards two key principles – learning through gaming environments and mechanics and making game mechanics in a way that it is fun. At Juego Studios, there are highly proficient game developers with deep domain knowledge about game mechanics. It is important to hire a proficient game developer to build the right game mechanics if you would certainly want your game to be a hit in the market.
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