Why is this a Game?

How do you want to tell your story?

There’s been a lot of unhelpful discourse about the definition of “game.” I won’t spill more pixels on that here. Maybe in another post.

But any discussion of the title question here does require a definition. We will assume as a working definition that the game to be made in some way involves player agency and simulation (both to be interpreted broadly.)

In this post, instead of asking “Is this a game?” Add one word and ask, “Why is this a game?”

Tower in Moonlight

This is an interesting exercise for analyzing both released games and projects I want to make, and it invites other probing questions about the reason different design decisions were made.This is bound up with the narrative you want. All games (maybe even all art) have two narratives (broadly):

• Internal: the whole internal story, symbol, and “in-universe” world of the work--what it is or communicates in itself,

• External: the consumer’s experience of the work,

On some level, you may have to choose an art-form before you can really answer the question. But thinking about what sort of narrative you want early-on can be helpful, and can help answer a lot of related questions to “Why is this a game?”, such as:

• “What does simulation add to the intended narrative?”

• ‘What does agency add to the intended narrative?”

But let’s say we’re past that basic question of why it’s a game and we believe the medium has something valuable to offer us.

Another closely related question goes to genre:

• Why is this a [genre of game]?

This is where the narrative question comes into play more heavily. Certain genres of game seem to fit certain narratives more organically than others, and the narrative and world of the work will fit some genres better than others.

The Messenger (Press Kit)

Among platformers alone, for example: Maybe I want to make a Metroidvania—a large interconnected world with exploration and secrets, but a stage-based game with a series of wild and reeling run-and-gun set-pieces that test a player’s reflexes is the better fit for the project. Maybe I thought I wanted to make a precision platformer, but an easier-on-the-reflexes puzzle platformer is actually the way to go. This isn’t an abstract piece of advice that I’m totally disconnected from, either. My current “dream” project is a Metroidvania. I think.

This isn’t really a comprehensive judgment so much as a set of guidelines. I am by and large a “never say never” person on questions like these. I’ll close with some further extended questions that might be helpful:

• Do the mechanics in this genre map well with your themes?

• Which in-universe locations will the player visit in this story, and how many times will they be used?

• Is the story linear or not, and branching or not? Does this mesh with mechanical and world design choices?

Note : Thanks to Nathan Nestor for pointing out a typo in one of the ending questions.