Abstract

It may be useful to start with what game design is not. Game design does not mean the programming of the game, though the programming powers the game design. Game design does not mean the story or the writing, though they can make the gameplay meaningful. Game design is not the visuals, though the graphics may be critical in defining the readability of the play spaces, or the animations may be tightly coupled with the design of the melee combat. Nor is it the audio, which is often a primary source of player feedback. Game design often needs all of the above other disciplines to function, yet we can think of it as separate from them.