The core gameplay of everything you have played can be deconstructed into a few reoccurring mechanics and patterns. What are they, what do they challenge the player on and how can they be layered combine to create deep and varied second-to-second gameplay?

Takeaway: More varied core gameplay

This session dives into how gameplay depth is achieved by using gameplay challenges, and how these can be composed throughout the course of a game to provide a sense of mastery, make the player feel smart and offer varied gameplay.

Outline: 

To start off, we dive down into defining what core challenges are the ‘bread and butter’ of a game, focused on layering and mastering a few mechanical and/or tactical challenges, depending on the game’s genre. 

Marie then shows how to plot a graph that illustrates game’s progression and indicates how & where the core challenges deepen to increase stimulation and provide mastery. She shows examples on how to unlock and ‘upgrade’ said core challenges to provide a sense of progression and refreshment whilst staying in a similar style to what the players have practiced.

Marie then illustrates how, for a couple of chosen game genres, temporary challenges can be added at times, both to provide gameplay variation but also to offer sequences where the player can draw on any unlockable abilities the player has gained.

For the temporary challenges, Marie discusses the addition of tactical challenges – especially those that draw on the knowledge the player accrues and the awareness it develops, to instill a secondary dimension of mastery. 

Finally, Marie makes a pass over the gameplay graph and shows how to add compounded challenges and gates throughout the game, to require a minimum skill bar from the player, to ensure it’s always set up for what awaits next and worthy “graduation tests” when the gameplay is about to evolve.

Note: This workshop works best for simulation games, survival games, RPG’s, platformers, action-adventure and strategy games.

2-3-hour exercise where Marie helps different teams plot out the gameplay challenges their game offers over time, and add or change challenges to improve their game’s challenge variation, sense of mastery and difficulty.

Teams are permitted to add placeholder challenges in areas of the game that are not yet fully designed, that optional requirements that narrows down what the final challenge would be.

The team walks through their newly created visual graph that shows how the challenges in their game increases and shifts over time, and what skill gates the players might need to pass as they progress.