Below I’ve assembled some terms with definitions. I’ve written them based on how I presently use or perceive them as it relates to game design. They are subject to change and you are free to disagree with any or all of them. As with everything else, they will evolve over time.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 3Cs | Stands for Character, Camera, Controls (in any order) and centres around the gameplay experience of those core aspects of gameplay. |
| Abstraction | The practice of translating or representing a specific example or occurence into a generalised idea or system. |
| Agile | A project management methodology intended to place focus on interactions between contributors and product owners in a way that allows for rapid, early results and iteration. |
| AI (Artificial Intelligence) | The decision making entity or process used by entites during gameplay to carry out actions. Does not refer to Large Language Models (LLMs) or Machine Learning (ML). |
| Backlog | A project management tool used to organise work that is expected to be done, but without a firm delivery date. |
| Backtrack | A gameplay mechanic that requires the player to retraverse a previously expored area in order to gain a benefit or progress further in the game. |
| Balance | The resulting experience and perception of systems during gameplay |
| Balancing | See tuning |
| Behaviour Tree | A hierarchical set of actions and conditions that govern how an AI entity acts during gameplay |
| Blocker | A task that prevents the progress or completion of another task. |
| Bug | An unintended result of code or data, experienced during gameplay |
| Chording (Input) | Input that is activated by pressing more than button simultaneously |
| Code | The instructions written by a programmer for the hardware to follow |
| Cognitive Load | The amount of effort required by the player to continually preceive, understand, store and recall information related to the gameplay experience. |
| Collision | The intersection of two objects during gameplay. Often refers to preventing objects from overlapping or intersecting. |
| Conception | One of the earliest project phases in which the core idea for the game is defined and documented. |
| Content | Aspects of the game that used by systems and features as players experience gameplay. Includes, but not limited to, art, levels, missions and narrative. |
| Context | The specific conditions or situation that form the bounds of the possibility space under consideration. |
| Combinatorial Explosion | A term used to describe an exponentially growing set of possibilities |
| Cut | The process of removing tasks, systems or features from a game |
| Data | Any information that is an input acted upon by a system |
| Deliverable | A defined unit of work with a deadline or due date |
| Emergence | An unplanned result of interacting systems during gameplay. |
| Emergent Gameplay | Situations and outcomes created by the unplanned intersection of overlapping systems during Gameplay. |
| Entity | An object within gameplay that has a defined set of attributes, beyond a prop. Typically used to refer to objects of consquence within the gameplay experience, such as the player or mobs. |
| Experiential Game Design | A game design methodology where a desired player experience drives feature and system design |
| Fantasy | The imagined experience, world and/or identity the player will engage with in the course of gameplay. |
| First Principle | The most basic, foundational core of an idea or assumption, used to define the problem space of a feature or goal |
| Feature | A portion of the game, usually an atomic collection of systems, that is unique in it’s function within the game. |
| Finaling | The act of polishing the game before release. Sometimes synonymous with Shipping. |
| Game Design | The discipline or process of defining the rules of how a system, feature or game functions. AKA Design |
| Game Design Analysis | The practice or process of examining a game’s features or systems, either in isolation or as a whole, to understand how they interact to produce a result. AKA Design Analysis, Analysis |
| Game Design Critique | The practice or process of producing an argument about aspects of a game’s design and their effects on the game or player experience. AKA Design Critique |
| Game Feel | A term used to describe the responsiveness and polish experienced during gameplay. |
| Gameplay | The active component of playing the game by interacting with the systems and mechanics. Can be used to decribe the player experience as a whole, or in part. |
| Goal | A defined, measurable outcome or result of a design, feature, system or task. |
| Hard Failure | A gameplay state that results in a player failing a gameplay challenge in an unrecoverable way, usually resulting in losing a life or reloading from a check point or save. |
| Hard Gate | A gameplay challenge or condition the player is required to overcome in order to a dvance. |
| Ideation | The process of generating and refining ideas. AKA Brainstorming |
| Input | Any data that enters a system. |
| Input Buffering | Preserving a button press for an amount of time, to be consumed after a gameplay action or duration has occurred. |
| Implementation | The act of translating a design from a written form to a feature or system within the game |
| Implementation Detail | A specific piece of information relevant to the implementation of a feature or system |
| Level Design | The discipline or process of defining, architecting and producing the playable spaces and geometry that gameplay occurs within. |
| MDA | A game design framework standing for Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics, intended as a holistic approach to game design. Reference: https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/pubs/MDA.pdf |
| Mechanic | A gameplay interaction between the player and one or more systems. |
| Metrics | Defines the specific distances and tolerances for gameplay and props |
| Milestone | A project management goal used to define and organise units of work, usually within an allotted amount of time. |
| Mob | Short for Mobile. A now largely outdated term used to describe any in-game entity capable of self-locomotion. |
| One Pager | A breif, one page synopsis of a feature and it’s core elements. Typically produced in advance of a complete feature design |
| Output | Any data that exits a system. |
| Overload (Input) | Any player-facing input that has multiple contextual actions associated with it. |
| Parameter | A value, usually tunable, that is used by a system. |
| Pillar | A statement that defines a central thematic or gameplay experience within the game |
| Pitch | A presentation of a proposed feature, system or mechanic - either new or to refine an existing - intended to acquire approval to proceed with tasks to accomplish the propsed work. |
| Player | The individual presently controlling the interactions with the game. |
| Player Experience | An intellectual, emotional or physical state or outcome, induced in a player by the game, either intentional or unintentional, as a result of playing. |
| Polish | A term used to describe the amount of additional work, including tuning, any aspect of a game has received during development, beyond it’s functional implementation. |
| Possibility Space | A conceptual construct representing the spectrum of potential options, within the current context, in both design and gameplay |
| Problem Space | A conceptual framing of the bounds a challenge or identified problem exists within. |
| Prop | An object within the game world |
| Pre-Production | An early phase of development where features are prototyped to validate decisions and assumptions made in the Conception phase |
| Production (Discipline) | The discipline of project management |
| Production (Phase) | The phase of development where the bulk of the content and features are implemented. |
| Prototype | The initial rough implementation of a feature or system intended to prove it’s validity within the gameplay experience. |
| Razor | A philosophical princple that is used to further hone in on specific expectations, experiences or approaches while developing the game |
| Rational Game Design | A game design methodology to create observable, internally consistent systems with clear, predictable outcomes for players. Based on the phrase “Form follows function”. |
| Review | The process, formal or informal, of examining a feature at various points of implementation or polish. Typically done in a group meeting to approve the feature or generate a list of tasks. |
| Risk vs Reward | A razor used to evaluate the balance of potential for loss against a positive outcome for the player in a gameplay challenge. |
| Scope | The defined or available amount of work to be done to complete the task, system or feature in question. Can be used more broadly as a high level concept for the entire game to define what is and is not expected or possible within the given timeframe or product. |
| Scrum | A project management framework used with Agile, intended to provide an environment of open communication where change and iteration is expected and responded to in a timely manner. |
| Ship | The act of releasing the game publicly. AKA Shipping |
| Shipping (Phase) | The final phase of a project before release. |
| Soft Failure | A gameplay state that results in a player failing a gameplay challenge in a recoverable way, usually being able to reset the mechanic after a short delay. |
| Soft Gate | A gameplay challenge or condition that the player can fail or partially succeed and still advance. |
| Sprint | A realtive short period of time, typically measured in weeks, defined within a milestone which tasks are assigned to. |
| Stand-up (Meeting) | A short, informal meeting where participants state their currents tasks, progress and any dependancies (also called blockers) to their immediate team members. Used as component of Scrum. |
| Stand-up (Feature) | The process of producing an early implementation of a feature or system. |
| State Machine | An atomic unit that consists of a collection of States, which perform actiosn, connected by conditional Transitions, to provide a consistent, situational outcome. |
| System | A collection of rules that produces an output. |
| Task | A defined unit of work with a stated outcome. |
| Trigger | An action that occurs when specific criteia are met within gameplay. Often used with a volume to detect an entity entering or exiting the volume to produce an effect. |
| Tuning | The process of adjusting values defined in data to produce a desired result or outcome within a feature or system. |
| Waterfall | A project management methodology that defines tasks that must be completed in a set sequence based on dependancies. |
| Vision | The core idea behind the game. This defines the fantasy the player engages with in broad terms for the team to reference. |
| Volume | An invisible piece of in-game geometry |