THE INSCRIBED LAYER
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The Inscribed Layer
Inscribed Mechanics
Inscribed Aesthetics
Inscribed Narrative
– Traditional Dramatics
Inscribed Technology
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The Inscribed Layer
All elements that are directly designed and
encoded by game developers
Agency and Control
– Completely within the hands of the developers
The game at rest
– However, a game isn't a game unless someone is
playing it
• Which leads to the Dynamic Layer
Inscribed elements are encoded experiences
– The designers think of an experience
– They encode this experience into the Inscribed Layer
– Players decode the experience into the Dynamic
Layer
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The Inscribed Layer
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The Inscribed Layer
Mechanics
– Systems that define how the player and game will
interact
– Includes: Player interaction pattern, Objective, Rules,
Resources, Boundaries
Aesthetics
– How the game looks, sounds, smells, tastes, and
feels
Technology
– Paper and digital technology that enable gameplay
Narrative
– Authored premise, characters, and plot
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Inscribed Mechanics
The job of a "game designer"
– Board Games
• Board layout
• Rules
• Cards / Dice / Other Randomizers
Seven Inscribed Mechanics
– Objectives
– Player Relationships
– Rules
– Boundaries
– Resources
– Spaces
– Tables
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Inscribed Mechanics
The job
job of
of aa "game
"gamedesigner"
designer"
– Board
Board Games
Games
•• Board
Board layout
layout
•• Rules
Rules
•• Cards
Cards // Dice
Dice/ /Other
OtherRandomizers
Randomizers
Seven
Seven Inscribed
InscribedMechanics
Mechanics
– Objectives – What are the player's goals?
– Player Relationships – How do players compete &
collaborate?
– Rules – What can and can't players do to achieve
their goals?
– Boundaries – Where are the edges of the game?
– Resources – What holds value in the game?
– Spaces – Where does the game take place?
– Tables – What is the statistical shape of the game?
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Inscribed Mechanics: Objectives
More than just the final objective of the game
Players are constantly weighing several
possible objectives
Objectives are categorized by:
– Immediacy
• Short-, Mid-, and Long-term Goals
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Inscribed Mechanics: Objectives
More than just the final objective of the game
Players are constantly weighing several
possible objectives
Objectives are categorized by:
– Immediacy
• Short-, Mid-, and Long-term Goals
– Importance to the player
• The player will not always care about the same things
as the player character
• According to Steam, Skyrim has been one of their most
played games for over two years, but only 32.2% of
players have finished the main storyline. 1 2
Objectives often conflict with each other
– An element of "interesting decisions"
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Inscribed Mechanics: Player
Relationships
In Game Design Workshop, Fullerton lists
seven player interaction patterns
– Single Player vs. Game
– Multiple Individual Players vs. Game
– Cooperative Play
– Player vs. Player
– Multilateral Competition
– Unilateral Competition
– Team Competition
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Inscribed Mechanics: Player
Relationships
Player relationships and roles are defined by
objectives
– Each player has several conflicting, layered
objectives
Player roles in the game include
– Protagonist: Player attempting to conquer the game
– Competitor: Player trying to conquer other players
– Collaborator: Player working with other players
– Citizen: Player in the same game as other players but
not working with or against them
Each player in a multilateral game can play all
of these roles at different times relative to
other players.
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Inscribed Mechanics: Rules
Rules limit players' actions
In paper games, rules are the designer's most
direct inscription of her vision of the game
In digital games, the programming code can be
seen as the inscription of the rules of the
game
Rules can be explicit or implicit
– Explicit: Roll the die and advance the number of
spaces shown
– Implicit: Don't lie about the number shown on the die
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Inscribed Mechanics: Boundaries
Define the edges of the space and time in
which the game takes place
Within the boundaries, game resources have
value, and the rules must be followed
Boundaries are the edge of the "Magic Circle"
Alternative Reality Games (ARGs) work by
perforating the boundary of the magic circle.
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Inscribed Mechanics: Resources
Things that have value in the game
Two types:
– Assets: Actual objects in the game
• Link's equipment in The Legend of Zelda
• Houses, hotels, and property in Monopoly
– Attributes: Numbers representing value in the game
• Health
• Amount of air left when swimming under water
• Experience
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Inscribed Mechanics: Spaces
Navigable spaces in the game
– Both the board in board games and levels in digital
games
Things to consider when designing spaces:
– The purpose of the space
• Why does it exist?
• Why is it important to the player?
– Flow of movement
• Can the player move through the space easily?
– Landmarks
• Does the player have landmarks to help her orient herself?
– Experiences
• Does the space offer the player interesting experiences?
– Objectives
• Does the space contain short-, medium-, and long-term
objectives?
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Inscribed Mechanics: Tables
Tables are grids of game information
– Used extensively for game balance
Tables have several purposes, including:
– Probability
• Tables can determine probability in very specific
circumstances
– A table could show the relative offensive and defensive
strength of two armies based on the terrain that they
inhabit (e.g., Advanced Wars)
– Progression
• Tables often hold information about how players
abilities increase and change as their player level
increases (e.g., Dungeons and Dragons)
– Playtest Data
• Tables are used extensively in game testing to record
information about the game test and the player's
reaction to the game
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Inscribed Aesthetics
Aesthetics are the elements perceived by the
player's five senses
Inscribed Aesthetics are those created and
inscribed by the developers of the game
These include
– Visual Art
– Sound and Music
– Tactile Elements
– Scented Elements
– Taste(?)
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Inscribed Aesthetics: Vision
Game developers put a tremendous amount of
effort into their visual aesthetic
Game graphics have improved tremendously
over the last 25 years
Not just character models and texturing
Also includes
– Box art
– Advertising
– Font choice
– Game website
All of these must have a consistent visual
aesthetic
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Inscribed Aesthetics: Hearing
Audio quality has also improved tremendously
over the last 25 years
Various platforms have different audio
capabilities
– Console and PC audio is very, very high quality
– Mobile game audio is often never heard
• Background noise vs. Small speaker size
• Owners often mute mobile devices
Various types ofImmediacy
Audio Type audio are good
Bestfor
For different things:
Sound Effects Immediate Alerting the player
Conveying simple information
Music Medium Setting the mood
Dialogue Medium / long Conveying complex information
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Inscribed Aesthetics: Touch
Paper Games
– The tactile sensation of holding game pieces
• Do they feel high-quality or cheap?
• Will they last over time or fall apart?
– 3D printing offers new, exciting possibilities for
paper game pieces
Digital Games
– The tactile sensation of using the game controller
• Many adults have difficulty playing a Nintendo DS for
extended periods of time
• The motions required to play games can also cause
player stress (e.g., "controller thumb")
• Controller rumble feedback is a designed, inscribed
touch sensation
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Inscribed Narrative
The dramatic elements of a game that have been
designed and inscribed by the game developers
Four Components
– Premise: The world in which the story takes place
• The story's narrative basis
• Example: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"
– Setting: The details of the space in which the story takes
place
• Example: A moisture farm on the desert planet, Tatooine.
– Character: The people featured in the story
• All stories are about people, and the best are about people
whom we care about and who are affected and changed by
the story
– Plot: The sequence of events that take place in the story
• Character + Objective + Obstacles = Drama
Based in traditional dramatics
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Traditional Dramatics
Dramatics have been studied for thousands of
years
Gustav Freytag's Five-Act Structure
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Traditional Dramatics
Syd Field's Three-Act Structure
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Inscribed Narrative
Differences between interactive and linear
narratives
– Plot vs. Free Will
• Linear narrative relies on a prescribed plot
• Interactive narrative can allow the player free will
– But free will can be expensive and difficult to accommodate
• Methods of allowing limited free will in games
– Limited possibilities - The player is presented with only a few
possibilities to choose from, granting some choice
– Optional linear side quests - This gives the player the option to
choose which of the side quests she wants to experience while
still giving her a single, linear main quest. Some side quests can
be mutually-exclusive, giving weight to the choice of side quest.
– Foreshadow multiple possibilities - Foreshadowing works in linear
narrative because the author knows what will happen. In
interactive narrative, many things can be foreshadowed subtly,
and hopefully only those that actually happen will be noticed by
the player.
– Develop minor NPCs into major ones - If the player fights a number
of minor NPCs, let the last one get away and turn into a nemesis
for the player. This is most often used in pen and paper roleplaying
games.
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Inscribed Narrative
Differences between interactive and linear
narratives
– Empathetic Character vs. Avatar
• In linear narratives, the viewer/reader is expected to
empathize with the main character
• In interactive narrative, the player is the main
character, to some extent
• In a game like Tomb Raider or Halo, the main character
has her own personality that the player takes on like a
role.
• In a game like World of Warcraft or Skyrim, the player
can choose the kind of character that she wants to be,
and the game will respect her decision
– The in-game character is an avatar of the player
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Inscribed Narrative
Purposes for Inscribed Dramatics
– Evoking Emotion
• Writers have learned over centuries how to evoke emotion
through narrative
– Motivation and Justification
• Game narrative can give the player a goal and justify her
actions in the game
– Progression and Reward
• Game narrative can act as a measure of progress in the
game
– The progress of the linear game narrative can help a player
understand her amount of progress through the game
• Players are often rewarded by a cutscene at the end of a
level
– Mechanics Reinforcement
• In board games in particular, narrative can help players
remember the rules and understand them (e.g., Up the
River )
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Inscribed Technology
The technology designed and inscribed by
developers to enable play of the game
Paper inscribed technology includes:
– Randomization
• Dice, spinners, and cards
– State Tracking
• Score tracking, tables, and character sheets
– Progression
• The technological design of elements like leveling
tables
• The technology tree in Civilization was a technological
advancement
– Later used for character leveling choices in Diablo II
Digital inscribed technology is mostly
programming code.
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The four elements of the Inscribed Layer
encompass everything that the player receives
when she purchases the game
The Inscribed Layer is the only layer which the
developers have complete control over
When players begin to play a game, it moves
into the Dynamic Layer
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