The act of analysis is more important than terminology.Well, I certainly agree with that!
Games have four elements: technology, aesthetics (best left to artists), game mechanics and story. A theme unifies the elements, and the subconscious mind does most of the design work.This echoes what I learned last week, regarding Ludology vs. Narrative and the view that game mechanics drive the instric story. It's interesting to see Schell suggest that this forms part of the design process (rather than just the player's experience).
This suggests to me that a good designer will deliberately manipulate this effect to ensure that the player does less conscious thinking about the game, and acts more at the subconscious level.
Iteration makes for better games. Good experiences go up & down.Hmm ... I'm not convinced that it's as simple as that. Years of work in education (and also a few too many viewings of Teletubbies) have persuaded me that iteration is important in learning processes, but there's a risk that it can become boring. Like driving a car, once the skills have been learned they become automatic, and a higher level of challenge is needed. Certainly warrants further investigation.
I believe that the experience is a separate issue to this. The higher level can still be worked on, even when the experience drops. (For example, in a new wave of slower Bejeweled icons, the player may start formulating a strategy in advance for dealing with the faster stage.)
You need to know who the player isI presume this means a psychographic profile (rather than demographic) focusing on their personality, interests and lifestyle. That's certainly a very major factor in directing games for a market of people who play in a casual manner.
There are only 6 kinds of game mechanics: space, Objects, Actions, Rules, Skill and Chance.Woah! This sounds like something very BIG AND IMPORTANT. I'll look into it properly in a later post. Until then, on with the book.