Play Forms

If you want to learn how to play like a game designer and you don’t know how to start, the Play Forms framework is a good starting point. It is based on a classic book about play, called “Man, Play and Games“. I have never read it, but there is a lot of material out there if you know how to search.

The framework is based on the conception that play has 4 basic forms:

• Agon means competition, it can be against the game itself, against virtual enemies or against other Players
• Alea means chance, the random factor that the Player is not able to control
• Mimicry means the imitation of something belonging to other contexts, such as real life or fantasy worlds or abstract concepts
• Ilinx means the vertigo, the senses brought to their limits

Ask yourself these questions while you are playing:

• Am I competing against someone or something?
• Does my outcome depend on randomness at some level?
• Am I interpreting some role or adapting to metaphors that I have already seen in other mediums?
• Do I feel some of the moments are extremely exaggerated and exciting?